German Language Guide

Official language in
Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein
Also spoken in
Italy
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

German is not the language of one country only. In Germany the administrative procedure act states that the official language is German. The Austrian Federal Constitution says that German is the official language of the Republic, without prejudice to the rights granted by federal law to linguistic minorities. In Liechtenstein the constitution makes German the national and official language. In Switzerland German is one of the four national languages and one of the three official languages of the Confederation, together with French and Italian. The Belgian Constitution divides the country into four linguistic regions, one of which is the German-speaking region.

How the language is written is settled in common. The current official set of spelling rules was agreed jointly by the state bodies of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Austria, the Swiss Confederation, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and the Principality of Liechtenstein, and is published by the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung. The word list that goes with the rules had remained largely unchanged in concept since the spelling reform of the mid-nineteen-nineties until this revision.

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Script & pronunciation

German is written in the Latin alphabet. The official rules give the letters as a to z plus the umlaut letters ä, ö, ü and the letter ß, with the capitals A to Z, Ä, Ö, Ü and ẞ. In alphabetical ordering the umlaut letters are placed together with a, o and u, and ß after ss. Letters with other marks, such as ç, é, â and œ, appear in loanwords and foreign proper names.

The letter ß stands for a sharp, voiceless s after a long vowel or a diphthong when no further consonant follows in the word stem, as in Maß, Straße and groß; this app's card for die Straße notes that ß is pronounced like ss. Two exceptions in the same rule matter to a traveller. Where ß is not available, ss is written, and in Switzerland and Liechtenstein ss may always be written: Straße becomes Strasse. When a word is set in capitals, either the capital ẞ or SS may be used: STRAẞE or STRASSE.

The rule that catches the eye first is that nouns are capitalised. The cards show it everywhere: die Straße, Wo ist die Toilette? ("Where is the toilet?"), Ich habe keine Reservierung ("I don't have a reservation"). This app's German cards carry no romanized reading beside the German spelling.

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Grammar essentials

Word order is the first thing to get used to. The reference grammar of the Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache defines Verbstellung as the position of the finite verb in the sentence, and says that verb-second position is typical of statements and of questions introduced by a question word, that verb-first position is typical of yes-or-no questions and of commands, and that verb-final position is typical of introduced subordinate clauses. It adds that the prototypical main clause is a verb-second clause working as a statement. This app's cards show the first two: Wie viel kostet das? ("How much is it?") puts the verb after the question word, while Sprechen Sie Englisch? ("Do you speak English?") begins with the verb.

Nouns have gender, and the article shows it. The same grammar states that articles differ in gender, which is masculine, neuter or feminine, in number and in case, and gives the definite articles as der, die and das and the indefinite ones as ein, eine and ein. Case is a declension category of the noun group, and German has four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Travellers meet them in ready-made phrases: the card for Guten Tag ("Good day / Hello") explains that Tag is in the accusative, which is why gut becomes guten, and the cards for die Straße and Wo ist die Toilette? note that both nouns are feminine.

Negation has two everyday shapes. The same grammar treats nicht as the negation particle and uses the k- form, that is kein, before an indefinite expression. The cards match that split: Ich verstehe nicht ("I don't understand") uses nicht, while Ich habe keine Reservierung uses kein, and its note says that negation before a noun uses kein-, not nicht.

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Politeness & etiquette

German has two words for "you", and the spelling itself marks the difference. The official rules say that the form of address Sie, the matching possessive Ihr and their inflected forms are capitalised, as in Würden Sie mir helfen? and Wie geht es Ihnen?, while the forms of address du and ihr and their possessives are written in lower case; in letters du and ihr may also be capitalised. This app's card for Sie gives it as "You (polite)" and says to use this form with strangers, and the card for Sprechen Sie Englisch? calls the Sie form the one to use with people you do not know. The card for Wie heißen Sie? ("What's your name?") adds that with friends the question is Wie heißt du?.

Duden advises that in business and with new contacts Sie is the correct form of address, and that the offer of du goes from the top downwards: a superior offers it to an employee, an older colleague to a younger one. Someone joining a department where du is customary should wait for it to be offered rather than start using it.

Some of the etiquette differs from country to country. The official rules note that in Switzerland and in Liechtenstein the salutation of a letter is usually written with no punctuation mark at the end and the next line begins with a capital letter, as in Lieber Klaus followed by Ich freue mich …, whereas a comma after the salutation, with the next line in lower case, is the usual German practice. Greetings vary too: this app's card for Servus ("Hi / Bye") describes it as the Bavarian and Austrian greeting, used both on meeting and parting, notes that with an older stranger Grüß Gott is the safer choice, and says it is not used in northern Germany.

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