Basic German for English-speaking Travelers: a short guide and tips
When U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, and stood on the Town Hall balcony, he sought to express solidarity with Berliners (the residents of Berlin). So he said "Ich bin ein Berliner". His intention was to say "ich bin Berliner." (I am a Berliner). When you add the German word "ein" the sentence means I am a donut filled with jam. However, contrary to the common legend, Berliners did not ridicule it, and received Kennedy's words to the meaning intended. The lesson should be that if the U.S. president does not speak German fluently all the more so commoners like us.
Still, knowing several useful German words and phrases could have been quite handy. Much better is taking German language course. Learning basic German takes a relatively short time using a great on-line course. Have a look at it by clicking here. Anyway, you should get acquainted with some words and phrases dealing with walking in Berlin and in other places in Germany.
How to pronounce German letters First learn some basics. There are four German letters that do not exist in English. (the dots above the letter are called in German "Umlaut" (Pronounced oom-lout. Oom rhymes with the English word boom). Umlauts change the way the letter is pronounced. In our case, the U is pronounced as something between oo and ee). You can also write umlauted U as follows: UE.
ײ (here the Umlaut makes the u pronounced as a mixture of O and OO. You can also write this letter as follows: OE.
ִ (here the umlauted A is pronounced like the A in the English word mad. You may also write this letter as follows: AE is identical to ss. So when you write Strae, it is the same as Strasse, which, by the way, means a street.
How do you say a street in German?
And now it is time to discuss some of the German words related to a walk in Berlin or anywhere in Germany. There are several basic words you must know if you wish to avoid stopping locals on the street. As mentioned above, Strasse means a street or a road (note: all German nouns start with a capital letter, even if their place is in the middle of a sentence). Strasse is pronounced sh-t-raa-se. .
When you look at the street signs in a German city you may notice that the name of the street may come before the word Strasse, without space between them, but not always. Karlmarxstrasse in Berlin is written without space. Oranienburger strasse, on the other hand, has a space.
There are some synonyms to the word Strasse, such as Allee (pronounced: aa-le) or Gasse or Weg (pronounced: vek).
Speaking of Strasse as a road, you should know that a highway is called in German Autobahn (pronounced: aw-taw-baan; taw rhyme with the English word law).
More travel phrases in German
Another important word is Platz (pronounced Plaats), meaning a square. Potsdamerplatz in Berlin is actually Potsdam plaza. Bruecke (pronounced somewhere between Bree-ke and Broo-ke) is a bridge. Kanal in German is a canal in English, Flugfafen (pronounced flook-haafen) is an airport, Zug (pronounced tsook) is a train; U-Bahn (pronounced oo-baan) is a subway; S-Bahn is an urban train.
If you wish to take a bus you wait at the Stelle (pronounced sh-te-le), which is a bus stop; a train or subway station is called Station toobut is pronounced sh-taats-yon.
There are some German combinations of letters that are hard for a beginner to pronounce, for example, the letters CH or KH. Germans use their palate and other inner parts of their mouth to pronounce them. Don't worry! People will understand you, even if you say it simply as K or H. Recht is the right side in English (and link is left side). Say rek-t. They will understand.
A list of German words and phrases for English-speaking tourists
It's unworkable to summarize all the significant German words and phrases used by tourists, but I picked for you some of the popular ones (their pronunciation is in brackets).
Ja (Yaa) means yes, Nein (naain) is no; Wie (Vee) is how; In ordnung (in-ordnoong) is OK; Bitte (bee-te) is Please; Guten Morgen (goo-ten-more-gen) is good morning; Guten Abend is Good evening; Was (vaas is what; wer (ver) is who; Danke (daan-ke) is thanks; Wie viel? (vee-feel) is how much?
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