Photo: Kirill Razumov (Unsplash License)
About 95 million people speak German as their first language, mostly in central Europe — in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. · 1 writing systems
Language of Germany
Germany is a country with a rich linguistic heritage. The primary language spoken is German, which is part of the Germanic language family. German is famous for its long compound words, where several words join to make one big word. It uses three special vowels with umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and a unique letter called the Eszett (ß), and it is closely related to English and Dutch.
Test Your Knowledge
About the Script
When reading or hearing German, pay attention to letters like ä, ö, ü, and ß. They make special sounds that are important in German!
Script Explorer
Latin Script
The script used for writing German, including unique letters like ä, ö, ü, and ß.
Phrase Cards
Fun Fact
German has many long words! One of the longest is 'Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän', meaning the captain of a Danube steamboat company.
Fun Fact
In German, every noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter: der Hund (the dog) is masculine, die Katze (the cat) is feminine, and das Buch (the book) is neuter.
Cultural Note
German is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and some parts of Italy and Belgium.
Vocabulary
If you think English grammar is tricky, give German a try! They share similarities because they are from the same language family.
