The 500 German phrases you actually need

Five hundred is the right number of German phrases because it is where the language starts paying for itself: enough to get you through a bakery counter, a platform and a Monday meeting without dropping into English, and few enough to reach your ears in a season. These are the 500 we would hand a friend moving to Berlin or Vienna, split into three lanes (survive, travel, work) and grouped by the situations of a day, from Guten Morgen at the counter to Schönen Feierabend at the door. Each row carries a note wherever the translation would mislead you: register, region, trap. What the page won't do is teach grammar; you can say Ich hätte gern das Schnitzel before you know why the verb is hätte.

How to read the tables, and how to get through them

Each table has three columns: German, English, note. Read the note first; it carries what the translation can't, and a blank note means say it as written.

Every phrase addressed to another person is in Sie, the register for a stranger, a landlord or a new boss. Where colleagues would use du, the note says so, and the work tables carry the moment the switch is offered. Austrian and Swiss forms appear only where they change what you say at a counter: greetings and food. The email openers and sign-offs keep their trailing comma because that is how they sit on the line; after an opener, the next line starts in lower case.

The app plays one phrase every time the phone goes on the charger; at four or five plug-ins a day the whole list has played once in three to four months, and one word per charge explains why we think that beats a lesson. Print the page and the 18 tables come out in order.

First contact: greeting, thanking, apologising

Learn Guten Tag and Tschüss as a pair and you own both ends of the day. Guten Tag is safe from late morning to evening; the south and Austria say Grüß Gott, Switzerland says Grüezi. Tschüss is the surprise: it sounds casual and is the everyday goodbye to people you still call Sie. The one people get wrong is Wie geht es Ihnen? In German it is a real question and gets a real answer. We would rather you learn Schönen Tag noch and its reply Danke, gleichfalls before Auf Wiedersehen; that exchange happens at every till.

The repair kit: keeping an exchange alive

Twenty-six phrases that decide whether a conversation survives your German. Wie bitte? is the polite what; a bare Was? sounds curt. Mein Deutsch ist noch nicht so gut replaces Ich spreche kein Deutsch because of the noch: it says you are learning, and people slow down rather than switch to English. The three short replies, Genau, Alles klar and Ach so, are the sounds of someone who is following. Können Sie das buchstabieren? comes with a catch: Germans spell with names, A wie Anton, so ask for the letters slowly.

Getting around: trains, buses, taxis, directions

Two phrases save money. Muss ich das Ticket entwerten? is the first: a paper ticket often counts only once stamped in the box on the platform or the bus, and unstamped means a fine. Von welchem Gleis? is the second, because Gleis is the track number on the board and Bahnsteig the platform you stand on; ask for the Gleis. Ist hier noch frei? inverts: it asks whether the seat is still free, so Ja means sit down. Ich habe mich verlaufen is lost on foot; in a car it's verfahren. And a full tram needs to hear Entschuldigung, ich muss hier raus before it lets you off.

Hotel and the first nights

Steal the pattern in Ich hätte gern ein ruhigeres Zimmer. Ich hätte gern is how a German adult asks for anything; Ich will is what a child says. Wie ist das WLAN-Passwort? is here because the word is said vee-lahn and older staff hear nothing in wifi. Accounts will want the company's name on the invoice, which is what Ich brauche eine Rechnung für die Firma gets you. The last rows cover the first nights in a rented flat as much as a hotel, from Ich habe mich ausgesperrt to Wo kann ich Wäsche waschen?

Eating out: restaurant, cafe, bakery

The longest table on the page, because the bakery counter is where most newcomers speak their first German each day. Start with Die Karte, bitte: Menü is a set meal, and asking for it gets you the dish of the day. Nobody brings the bill unasked, so Zahlen, bitte is a phrase you say rather than wait for. Tipping is where people get it wrong. You don't leave coins; you name the total as you hand over the card or the cash, so Machen Sie zwanzig on a bill just under twenty is the tip, and Stimmt so means keep the change.

Shopping and paying

Ask Geht kontaktlos? before you queue. Most tills take it, but some take only the German Girocard and a foreign credit card can fail; carry twenty euros. Haben Sie sonntags geöffnet? is in the list so you learn the answer once: almost nothing is, so Saturday is shopping day. The bottle deposit is real money, which is why Wo ist der Pfandautomat? earns its row; the machine by the entrance prints a voucher for the till. Das macht zwölf fünfzig shows how a price is said: euros, then cents, written with a comma.

Numbers, times and dates as they come up

This is the section we would make you learn twice. Es ist halb drei means half past two: halb counts towards the coming hour, so halb drei is halfway to three, and English speakers who hear half two turn up an hour late. Das kostet neunundneunzig Euro is the second trap, because German says the units first, nine-and-ninety. Um vierzehn Uhr dreißig is how a receptionist says the same 2:30 a friend calls halb drei. There is no counting table from one to a hundred here on purpose; numbers only appear inside things you would say.

Health: doctor, pharmacy, symptoms

Mir ist schlecht is nausea; Ich bin schlecht announces that you are a bad person. At the practice, the first thing reception asks is answered by Ich bin gesetzlich versichert. Nehmen Sie neue Patienten auf? goes first on every call, because many practices don't, and Ich brauche eine Krankschreibung is said before you leave the room. Two shops get confused: an Apotheke sells medicine, down to ibuprofen, and a Drogerie sells shampoo. Welche Apotheke hat heute Notdienst? covers the night and the Sunday, when one pharmacy per area stays open.

Emergencies and police

Twenty rows, deliberately few, because in an emergency you will say three of them and they need to arrive without thinking. Ich rufe die 112 is said eins eins zwei; 112 is ambulance and fire, 110 is the police. The row people skip is Die Adresse ist Hauptstraße zwölf: on a 112 call you give the street, the number and the town first, and the dispatcher asks the rest. Ich möchte eine Anzeige erstatten is the phrase for a stolen bag, because the insurer pays nothing without the report number.

Phone, data and deliveries

The row that saves the most parcels is Der Klingelname ist Kowalski. German flats have no numbers, so the courier finds you by the name on the doorbell, and an order without the bell name is a parcel nobody can deliver. Put the Klingelname in the address line when you order. Können Sie das beim Nachbarn abgeben? is normal. Ich brauche eine Prepaid-SIM-Karte comes with the passport rule: the SIM works only once registered. Say Meine Nummer ist null eins sieben sechs and then the pairs, slowly; the units-first order trips everyone.

Admin, bank and the landlord

Nobody's holiday needs this table and every newcomer's first month does, which is why the list has a survive lane at all. Ich möchte mich anmelden is the sentence the month hangs on: the Anmeldung at the Bürgeramt within 14 days of moving in, and until it is done the tax ID, the bank account and the work contract all wait. Every German office runs on the word zuständig, so Wer ist dafür zuständig? reaches the right desk. Wie hoch ist die Kaltmiete? is the honest rent question, because Warmmiete adds heating and water and both leave electricity out.

First day at work

Sollen wir uns duzen? is the phrase people get wrong by saying it. The offer of du comes from the senior or the older person; until it does, it's Sie with the boss and du with a colleague only after they have used it first. Your line is the answer, Gerne, ich bin Anna, and from then on it is first names, because switching back is worse than never switching. Mahlzeit is the lunchtime greeting to anyone you pass, and the reply is Mahlzeit. Say Ich muss mich noch einarbeiten in week one; it buys patience.

Meetings and calls, in the room and remote

German meetings end with a Protokoll and a list of who does what, and Wer macht das Protokoll? lands on the newest person. Da bin ich anderer Meinung is direct disagreement said to your boss's face, and nobody takes it personally. Ich melde mich ends a call politely and promises no date. The two rows we would learn first are Halten wir das so fest? and Wer übernimmt das? Say them at the right moment and you look like you have run this meeting for years. Sorry, ich war kurz raus proves that Sorry is ordinary office German.

Email and messages

The openers keep their comma because the comma is part of the phrase. Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, is for when you don't know the name, Sehr geehrter Herr Schmidt, for a first contact, and Hallo Frau Müller, once you've met. After the comma the next line starts in lower case, which looks like a typo and is correct. Anbei finden Sie die Unterlagen lives only in writing; nobody says anbei out loud. The phrase to learn for its politics is Ich habe eine Rückfrage: it is how you say the instructions were unclear without saying so.

Asking for help, deadlines and mistakes

Dafür bin ich nicht zuständig is the sentence newcomers hear as rudeness. It's a plain fact about who owns what, and the right reply is to ask who is zuständig. Ich mache das gleich is the trap: sofort is now, gleich is soon-ish, später is today if you're lucky. Also, ich soll die Liste bis morgen fertig machen? repeats the task back in your words, and a checked instruction earns more respect than a quick ja. Our view on Ich habe einen Fehler gemacht: say it early. An owned mistake is forgiven here faster than a hidden one is found.

Pay, leave, sick days and HR

Ich habe eine Frage zu meiner Abrechnung is the phrase for the first payslip, when the gap between brutto and netto lands on you. The timing rule for Ich bin krank und bleibe heute zu Hause: call or message before your start time on day one. Wie lange ist die Probezeit? matters because six months is standard and either side can end the contract inside it with two weeks' notice. The last row, Ich möchte kündigen, comes with the rule people learn too late: on paper, with a real signature. An email doesn't count.

Sightseeing, small talk and invitations

Prost! comes with a rule most phrasebooks skip: look each person in the eye as the glasses touch. Hast du Lust auf ein Bier nach der Arbeit? is the only row in the travel lane written in du, because by then the du has usually been offered; with Sie it's Haben Sie Lust. Invited to a home, you ask Soll ich etwas mitbringen? and the answer is yes: flowers, a bottle or a cake. Before any Thursday in May or June, ask Ist heute Feiertag? A public holiday shuts every shop, and several differ by state.

Feelings and opinions

German puts feelings in the dative, and Mir ist kalt is where you learn it: Ich bin kalt says you're a cold person, and learners who say it get corrected with a grin for years. Das ist mir egal is easygoing between friends and lands on a boss as I don't care; the row under it, Mir ist beides recht, is the work version. Alles gut is the answer to Entschuldigung, and Kein Stress is what a colleague says when you apologise for being slow. The table ends the page on those two because they are how Germans forgive.

What we cut, and what to add for yourself

Proverbs went first. Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund is charming, and nobody has said it to a colleague in this century. Textbook sentences went next: Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch teaches a preposition and gets you nothing at a counter. We cut youth slang because it dates in three years, and we cut everything a course teaches for the grammar rather than the use, so the case tables and the Konjunktiv drills stayed out.

The table we went back and forth on is eating out. A Berlin cafe needs half of its 38 rows and a Bavarian beer garden the other half, and we are still unsure whether Servus and Moin earn their places in a list this size; they stayed because you hear them before you say them. Add for yourself the ten nouns of your own trade (the way Ich arbeite in der Pflege stands in for a nurse's), the names of your city's lines, and if you have children the school words, Elternabend and Hausaufgaben first.

How 500 phrases stick without a study plan

Honest arithmetic first. The app plays one phrase each time the phone goes on the charger, so at five plug-ins a day these 500 take about a hundred days to come round once. That is slower than a course promises, and it is the reason it works: the phrases come to you without you opening anything. What plays is the German, a pause, the English, a pause, the German again. Which one plays is chosen by a sampler that weights every entry by the days since you last heard it, so the app keeps bringing back what you are about to forget.

This collection becomes a pack with text-to-speech audio in the app later, and we are not putting a date on it. Until then, the German the app already plays is the 5,956-entry German corpus, and the tables above are yours on paper. Print them. Pick the ten rows for tomorrow's situation. Say them at the counter.

Common questions

How many German phrases do you need to get by in Germany?

The 207 in the survive lane cover a first month: the counter, the pharmacy, the Bürgeramt. The 32 of first contact and the 26 of the repair kit carry most days on their own. The other 293 buy you a job and a social life.

Should I learn Sie or du first?

Sie. Every phrase here addressed to a stranger is in Sie; du arrives when someone offers it with Sollen wir uns duzen? The offer comes from the older or more senior person. Start with du and you will say it to a landlord within a week.

Is this list for Germany, Austria or Switzerland?

Germany is the base. Austrian and Swiss forms are noted only where they change what you say at a counter: Grüß Gott, Grüezi and Servus among the greetings, Semmel and Seidl among the food. Swiss German conversation would need its own list.

What is the fastest way to memorise them?

Meet them at moments you didn't schedule. In the app one phrase plays each time the phone goes on the charger, and a sampler brings back the ones you are about to forget. On paper, pick the ten rows for tomorrow's situation and say them there.

Which phrases should I learn first?

Entschuldigung, Wie bitte?, Mein Deutsch ist noch nicht so gut, Zahlen, bitte and Alles klar. The first two get attention and a repeat, the third makes people slow down, and the last two get you out of a restaurant. Learn the halb drei rule in the same week.