German or ‘Deutsch’ is a West Germanic language and derives the majority of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Widely spoken languages that are in some ways similar to German include Luxembourgish, Yiddish, Dutch, the Frisian languages, the Scandinavian languages and English. German is written in the Latin alphabet but has some additions including three vowels with umlauts; Ä/ä, Ö/ö, and Ü/ü, and the letter ‘ß’ a special kind of ‘s, called “Eszett” or “scharfes Es”. German is the most widely spoken native language in Europe with about 90 million people native speakers.

German is the only only language of Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein; one of the official languages of Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium; and a recognised minor language in many other countries including Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Namibia and Poland.

This weekend, learn how to say hello, which is wonderfully close to our English speaking version, and how to greet people in German. Bring your knowledge to your next multi-cultural event. Or, next time you’re hiring a translation agency to attend a meeting with some German clients, practice your new skills with the professional translators before the meeting and make a great first impression with your potential new clients.

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