Planning your big trip to Germany is so exciting—but you’re not done until you’ve brushed up on common German phrases for travel.
In this post, you’ll find a handy phrasebook of German travel phrases and vocabulary, conveniently organized by group. You’ll also learn about some great resources, such as travel language guides and handy apps for your smartphone.
Please note that most of these German sentences are in the formal Sie conjugation. For your travel purposes, this form should be just fine, although native speakers may opt to use different pronoun forms with you depending on the context.
A trusty guide fits in your backpack or purse, and it serves as a way to look up unfamiliar words and phrases or brush up on vocab while traveling from one place to another. Here are some recommendations:
You can’t go wrong with Rick Steves, since the man has traveled all over Europe (numerous times), hosted his own travel show and written dozens of bestselling guides for European travel.
From meeting new people to ordering a bratwurst, this guide outlines the most common everyday phrases to further improve your travel lingo. It also comes with phonetic spellings, currency information, rail transportation guides and a cheat sheet that you can tear out and slide in your pocket.
This guide can give you the confidence to speak with people while traveling through Germany and Austria. It touches on cultural points and shows you how to interact with German speakers a various spots such as the Autobahn, grocery stores, ice cream parlors and more.
It includes vocabulary and basic German instruction, with travel and study tips scattered throughout the entire guide. It’s a rather helpful book for your travels if staying in Germany or Austria for quite some time.
This German phrasebook has a huge section for decoding restaurant menus and ordering food properly, plus a 3,500-word two-way German-English dictionary.
The cultural manners section can prevent you from embarrassing yourself or making others feel uncomfortable and help you feel at ease while traveling.
Lonely Planet at large has tons of German phrasebook and travel guide options available on their site. Read these ahead of time to know what to expect wherever you go, then bring them on your trip to whip out at a moment’s notice.
Context and manners are extremely important when going to Germany, just like they are in every country. If you insult a person’s language, why would they talk to you in return?
The “Perfect Phrases” book details the proper words and phrases to use while traveling, while also discussing faux pas and how they can hurt your conversation.
This guide may not help you much with your pronunciation, but it’s an essential tool to bring with you while traveling in German-speaking countries.
The “Point It” book has 1,300 images and words, so you can point at the images when your speaking abilities fail. For example, point to the picture of a chicken when ordering at a restaurant.
German Apps for Travelers
A good app can serve as a viable replacement for a travel and language guide that doesn’t add any weight to your pack. Plus, the apps generally offer audio to hear how to pronounce certain words and phrases. Here are some great options:
The Learn German Phrases & Words app is designed to boost your speaking capabilities while traveling. It can be used without an internet connection, so you can always depend on it.
The visual guide has carefully categorized sections like greetings, eating, romance and health. The app has over 800 common German phrases, and the German-speaking parrot pronounces everything for you.
This phrasebook is free, but you can upgrade to receive all of the phrases and words for your travels. The app works as a quick reference perfect for tourists visiting Germany.
The main page shows categories like numbers, general conversation and transportation. Once you select a category and phrase, it gives you the option to hear a spoken version and slow down the audio for better understanding.
The Wie Geht‘s app provides a few lessons with audio tracks that are useful while moving around the world. It has a travel section filled with options like directions, meeting people, weather, shopping, money and more.
Membership is required to get most of the content. The app is formatted like a class, but feel free to skip around and use the examples when you come across a moment when they are needed.
The German Travel Guide app is not going to help you much with your German learning, but it may prevent you from getting lost.
The app works online and offline, with detailed maps for navigating cities like Berlin, Munich and Hamburg. Check out weather, time and fun suggestions while moving around the cities.
Even if you can’t have a fluent conversation, native German speakers always appreciate when foreigners put the effort into learning a bit of their language. It shows respect and demonstrates that you truly want to reach out and connect with people while abroad.
You won’t be totally reliant on your German phrasebook. Yes, your German phrasebook has glossy pages and you love getting the chance to use it—but you want to be able to respond quickly when people speak to you, at a moment’s notice.
If you can express yourself with some basic German phrases, you are less likely to be taken advantage of by taxi drivers, souvenir shops and waiters!
The perception that all German speakers speak English is simply not true. Even in big German cities you’ll find loads of people that know very little English. You don’t want to have to track down other English speakers every time you have a question or want to make a friend.
Try practicing some of these phrases out loud to get your pronunciation right before leaving on your travels.
Before we part ways, there’s one final German travel phrase you need to know: Gute Reise! (Have a good trip!)
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