German mistakes English speakers keep making

The German that gets you into trouble is rarely the German you got wrong. It is the sentence a teacher would tick that still lands in the room as blunt, or childish, or an hour out of date. When we wrote the German half of the Vocabcord 500 we kept a note column beside the phrases for exactly this, and 128 of the 500 rows ended up with something in it: a register call, a regional split, a false friend, a moment when the right words are the wrong move. In 5 of them the note opens with the word Trap. This page reads the column as one argument. Every phrase below is quoted from the list, with what a learner reaches for instead and what the mistake costs.

Sie or du is a decision somebody says out loud

English keeps its register in tone. German keeps it in the pronoun, so you choose before the sentence starts and everyone hears which one you chose. Most learners file Sie under formal and du under friendly, then wait for a signal to switch. The signal is a sentence, and somebody has to say it: Sollen wir uns duzen? is the offer, and in a formal workplace the safe move is to follow the senior person's lead. The reply, Gerne, ich bin Anna, puts you both on first names for good. Nobody switches back, so the offer travels one way only.

Two rows break the pattern an English speaker expects. Hallo works with anyone in a shop or an office and you still say Sie afterwards, so a relaxed greeting commits you to nothing. Tschüss does the same job at the other end of the exchange, even with people you call Sie. The row to hold back is Wie geht es Ihnen? In English that is a noise on the way to the real question. Ask it in German and you get an answer.

Sorry splits in two and Bitte covers three

English has one sorry for two different jobs, so the choice never comes up until you are the one squeezing down a full tram. German made it two words and expects you to have picked. Entschuldigung covers getting past someone, getting their attention and a small apology, which is most of what an English speaker means by sorry in a day. Es tut mir leid is for a real apology, the kind that follows something you actually did. Use it for a nudge in a doorway and the apology comes out far bigger than the event.

Bitte runs the same trap backwards. One word carries please, you're welcome and here you go, and our note hands the job of separating them to the tone; Bitte schön is the warmer you're welcome. An English speaker goes looking for three words and finds one. What comes back at you on that tram is Alles gut, the answer to Entschuldigung and the thing you say when somebody says it to you.

The false friends sit in the words you need at a counter

A German false friend rarely turns up in the vocabulary you studied. It turns up in the word a receptionist says while you are holding a form. Ask for Die Karte, bitte and you get the menu; ask for the Menü and you get the set meal of the day, chosen by somebody else. At the station the board shows the Gleis, the track number, while the Bahnsteig is the platform you stand on, which is why the list asks Von welchem Gleis? rather than for the Bahnsteig.

The medical pair costs the most time. Überweisung is a bank transfer in every other context and the referral letter at the doctor's, so Ich habe eine Überweisung means one thing at a bank counter and another at reception. Apotheke sells medicine, a Drogerie sells shampoo and vitamins, and ibuprofen is Apotheke only. One more is worth knowing before you need it: Kaltmiete is the rent with nothing on it, and heating and water sit in the Warmmiete.

The dative that keeps you from insulting yourself

German has a second way of saying how you feel, and picking the wrong one moves the sentence off your body and onto your character. Mir ist kalt is I am cold. Ich bin kalt says you are a cold person. Mir ist schlecht means you feel sick, while ich bin schlecht says you are a bad person.

The rule underneath is mechanical once you have seen it. States that happen to you take mir. Things you carry take haben, which is why Ich habe Hunger and Ich habe Durst sit in the list with no note beside them. They are the safe half of the pattern. This one bites at a doctor's reception and at a dinner table, the two places where you least want to be describing your own moral standing.

Correct German that arrives rude

Much of German politeness sits in the verb form rather than in the words piled around it. Ich hätte gern ein ruhigeres Zimmer is the shape for asking for anything at all, and ich will, the word-for-word translation of I want, is what a child says at a counter. The same gap opens when you miss something. Was is the first question word every course teaches, and a bare Was? sounds curt; Wie bitte? is the adult version.

Two rows in the German list carry a warning about the person listening, and both are sentences an English speaker would consider mild. Ich habe keine Lust translates as I don't feel like it and is blunt: fine with friends, rude to a colleague, and heute nicht is the version that survives an office. Das ist mir egal is easygoing between friends and lands on a manager as I don't care. Mir ist beides recht does the same work without the shrug.

Where German sounds harsh and means nothing by it

The traffic runs both ways. Several rows exist to stop an English speaker hearing an insult where a German colleague heard a plain fact. Da bin ich anderer Meinung is I see that differently, said flat across a meeting table, and our note records that direct disagreement is normal there and nobody takes it personally. The note adds that putting Ich glaube in front is optional, which tells you how little softening the sentence is expected to carry.

Dafür bin ich nicht zuständig sounds like a door closing and works as a signpost. You will hear it daily, and the useful response is the next row rather than offence: Wer ist dafür zuständig? Zuständig is the word every German office runs on, and asking who is zuständig moves you to the right desk faster than any amount of charm. When you are the one pushing back, Ich habe eine Rückfrage is the polite word for your instructions were unclear, which is how a German colleague says it without saying it.

The greeting gives away which map you learned

Six rows in the German list carry a regional note, and they cluster where a stranger hears you first: the greeting and the bakery. Guten Tag is the safe all-day greeting in Germany, Grüß Gott takes over in Austria and the south, Grüezi is Switzerland. Moin is northern and works at any hour, including the middle of the night, and gets blank looks in Munich. Servus is hello and goodbye in one informal word across Bavaria and Austria.

Bread is the other tell. Ein Brötchen und ein Stück Kuchen, bitte is understood at every counter in the country, and the roll itself is a Semmel in Bavaria and Austria, a Weckle in Swabia, a Schrippe in Berlin. Beer moves too: kleines is 0.3 l, großes is 0.5 l, a Maß in Bavaria is a litre, and Austria orders a Seidl or a Krügerl. Even a lost wallet has two names, Portemonnaie in the north and Geldbeutel in the south, and both are understood everywhere.

The right phrase at the wrong moment

A phrase can be word-perfect and still arrive an hour late, which is why a run of notes in the list is about the clock rather than the words. Guten Morgen runs until about ten or eleven, after which it is Guten Tag. Mahlzeit is the reverse case, a greeting with a window: offices and workshops use it roughly 11 to 2, to anyone they pass, and the reply is the same word back.

The one that costs an hour is Es ist halb drei. Halb drei is halfway to three, so 2:30, and the English half two points the other way. The one that costs goodwill is Ich mache das gleich: sofort is now, gleich is soon-ish, später is today if you are lucky. Promise gleich to a colleague who needed sofort and you have agreed to a different afternoon. Ich melde mich promises a reply and no date. And Zahlen, bitte exists because nobody brings the bill unasked; wait politely for it and it will not come.

German counts backwards and holds the tense still

Numbers are where a confident speaker stalls in public. Das kostet neunundneunzig Euro is nine-and-ninety, units first, and 24 is vierundzwanzig. Said at speed a price arrives back to front, so you carry the whole number in your head until the second half tells you what the first half meant. Das macht zwölf fünfzig drops the currency entirely, euros then cents, written 12,50 with a comma where English writes a point.

Two grammar rows do quieter damage over a longer stretch. Ich wohne seit zwei Wochen in Berlin stays in the present tense where English reaches for have been living, and the English habit produces a perfect tense that sends the sentence into the past. Morgen früh is the fix for tomorrow morning, and Morgen Morgen is the slip it exists to prevent. Dates run day first and take an ordinal, so Am dritten Mai is written 3.5. with the dots doing the work.

What a page of traps cannot fix

Three things here stop at the edge of the table. An accent is the first. Every row on this page is spelled, and spelling cannot tell you that Wie bitte? rises at the end, or that Genau is agreement one moment and the sound of somebody thinking the next. The second is the room. Register in German is a negotiation between two people, and a note can tell you that Ich habe keine Lust is blunt without knowing that the person hearing it manages you.

The third is coverage, and it is the one we would change first. We wrote a note where we knew a trap: 128 rows out of 500. The other 372 carry nothing, and some of them deserve a line we have not written yet. Regional cover is thinner still. The German list is built on Germany, with Austrian and Swiss forms noted for greetings and food and nowhere else, so a reader moving to Vienna or Zurich should treat the rest as correct German that a local would phrase differently. We would rather say that here than let the silence read as coverage.

How a trap stops being one

Reading a warning fixes nothing on its own. A trap is a reflex, English arriving first, and the only thing that beats a reflex is another reflex. So the fix is hearing the German often enough that it turns up before the translation does. That is the loop the app runs: plug in the phone, hear one phrase, put it down, once the setup is done. We wrote out why a scheduled lesson loses to that in One word per charge.

These collections are published as pages first and become packs with audio later, so for now the German 500 is something you can read in one sitting and print. The full list, in the order a first week throws it at you, is on the German 500 page, and the six lists sit together on The Vocabcord 500. Print the German one, mark the rows above in the margin, and you have a page of the mistakes that actually cost you something.

Common questions

What are the most common mistakes English speakers make in German?

Five kinds, in the order they bite. One English word covering two German ones, where sorry splits into Entschuldigung for getting past somebody and Es tut mir leid for a real apology. The register call between Sie and du, which is a sentence somebody says out loud rather than a feeling. False friends at counters, where Karte is the menu and Menü is the set meal. Sentences that translate cleanly and land rude, such as Ich habe keine Lust. And timing, where Es ist halb drei means 2:30 and gleich does not mean now.

Does halb drei mean half past three in German?

It means 2:30. Halb drei is halfway to three, so German counts forward to the coming hour where English counts back from the one just gone. Timetables, offices and doctors use the 24-hour clock out loud instead, as in Um vierzehn Uhr dreißig.

When do you switch from Sie to du in German?

When somebody offers, and the offer is a sentence: Sollen wir uns duzen? In a formal workplace let the senior person make it, though some teams use du from the first day. Accepting with Gerne, ich bin Anna moves you both to first names for good, because switching back is awkward.

Why is Ich bin kalt wrong in German?

It says you are a cold person. The sentence you want is Mir ist kalt, with the dative, and the same pattern gives Mir ist schlecht for feeling sick, where ich bin schlecht says you are bad. Hunger and thirst break the pattern and take haben instead.