German Words and Phrases that you may want to be familiar with...

Don't waste your time or money on books like,  "Learning German For Dummies" . Trust me.

German Greetings and Courtesies

(Deutsch / English)

Guten Tag! - Tag! Hello! - Hi!

Grüß Gott! Hello! (Southern Germany & Austria)

Grüß dich! Hello! (familiar, informal)

Guten Morgen! - Morgen! Good morning! - Morning!

Guten Abend! Good evening!

Gute Nacht! Good night!

Wie geht es Ihnen? How are you?

Wie geht's? How are you? (familiar, informal) Danke, gut. Fine, thanks.

Sehr gut. Great. Es geht. Okay. So-so.

Nicht so gut. Not so well.

Auf Wiedersehen. Good-bye.

Tschüs! Bye! See you later. (casual)

Requests - Bitten

Was möchten Sie? What would you like?

Ich möchte... I would like...

Darf ich? May I?

Können Sie mir helfen? Can you help me?

Yes/No - Thanks - You're Welcome

Bitte! - Ja, bitte! Please! - Yes, please!

Danke! Thanks! - No thanks!
Note: "Danke!" in response to an offer usually means "No thanks!" If you want to indicate a positive response to an offer, say "Bitte!" Danke schön! Thank you! Vielen Dank! Thanks a lot! - Many thanks! Bitte schön! You're welcome! (in response to "Danke schön!") Nein, danke! No thanks!

Sprechen Sie Deutsch/Englisch?   Do you speak German/English?

Noch einmal, bittte.   (Repeat) Once again, please.

Wie bitte?   What did you say? / What was that?

Langsamer, bitte.   More slowly, please.

Bitte Wiederholen Sie!   Please repeat that.

Ich verstehe nicht.   I don't understand.

Ich habe eine Frage.   I have a question.

Wie sagt man...?   How do you say...?

Ich weiß nicht.   I don't know.

Wo ist/sind...?   Where is/are...?

wann? - wer? - wie?   when? - who? - how?

warum? - was?   why? - what?

Schon gut!   Okay!

Ich habe kein(e)...   I have no... / I don't have any...

Ich habe kein Geld.   I don't have any money.

Entschuldigen     Excuse me!

Wo ist die Toilette?    Where's the restroom/toilet?

links / rechts     left / right

unten / oben     downstairs / upstairs

Ich heisse..    My name is...

Haben Sie..?     Do you have..?

ein Zimmer   A Room

ein Mietwagen    A Rental Car

der Bahnhof       the train station

der Flughafen     the airport

die Polizei       the police / pigs/ the man/ five-o / cherry tops/  coppers/ the fuzz  LOL 

(I don't actually have a problem with law enforcement. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm a big joker. My big sister is a NYPD Narcotics Detective & although we rarely speak anymore & she probably has no idea, I'm really proud of her and I miss her so much :(
 

There are so many choices of books you can buy and cd's you can listen to, but don't try to learn the language just to come here on vacation. Just learn the basics. There are a ton of free sites on the web to learn the basics as well! USE YOUR SEARCH ENGINES and have at it! If you are really interested in learning the language, take a class. You'll be much better off. If you don't want to participate in a class, scratch the book idea and go for a cd. A book SHOWS you how to pronounce the words but you can't hear them so it's useless. Unless you have a very good memory of your language arts from grade school, that book I mentioned above, as I suspect many others like it, are useless as well. Hell, I forgot all the parts of speech and the rules of grammar. I just speak now! That was so many moons ago. So.... just take a class if you really want to learn it. The absolute best way to learn is to join an American/German club or meet with a German- American person and practice with one another. There are more of you out there than you think!