German Lesson One – Deutsch Lektion Eins

Most obviously you will want to know immediately how to greet somebody in German. If you have somebody to learn with you the more likely the words will stay in your head. Also practice saying these phrases in German to your partner at various points throughout the day.

We normally say “Hello” in English, in German this would be “Hallo” (Ha-low). These are both almost pronounced the same so it shouldn’t be too hard to remember.

First say out loud or in your head “Hello” and then say “Hallo”, repeat this three times.

Next you will probably want to say something like “How are you doing?” or “How are you?”. This in German is “Wie geht es Ihnen?” (vee gate ess ee-nun) but the short is “Wie geht’s?” (vee gates). Everyone tends to use the short term.

Say out loud or in your head “How are you?” and then say “Wie geht’s”, repeat this three times. This shouldn’t be too hard to learn either as it is a small phrase.

Now put these two phrases together. “Hallo, wie geht’s?” (”Hello, how are you?”).

If you feel that this is enough to learn for a day then read the rest of this article on another day. However if you are certain that you will remember both of the above phrases and more please continue.

You may want to know somebody’s name or you may want to state your name. We “What is your name?” or “Who are you?”, in German you can say “Wie heisst du?” (vee hi-st doo) or “Wer sind Sie?” (ver zind zee).

Now repeat three times just like the phrases above.

You can reply to this by saying “Mein name ist…” (mine nam-eh ist…) which means “My name is…”. Or you could say “Ich heisse..” which means the same thing.

Remember to repeat this and practice this with someone else. If learning independently you should get sticky notes and write English on one side and German on the other. When you see the sticky note try to say what the other side says without looking. Start by doing German to English then when you know that do it the other way around.

Now try to put these phrases together with your partner as if this you were acting out an ordinary conversation.

Do not strain yourself to remember these phrases, use the techniques stated above. They should become natural soon enough after repeating a few times each day.

Thank-you for reading and be sure to catch the next lesson!