Learn German travel phrases
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| Everybody, what’s up? I’m Henrik. Welcome to the new episode of GermanPod101.com. You see, it’s still not the best weather ever here in Germany, but soon, we’re getting there and then I can totally recommend you to come here, chill here. And what do you need for traveling exactly? You need 20 phrases you must know for traveling. Here we go! |
| 1. First phrase, when you don’t know where to go, you ask Könnte ich eine Karte bekommen? “Could I get a map?” |
| Actually, you could also ask this to your friends who is going to travel because Karte also works for postcard so if you have to stay home and not be traveling, you can ask for Karte “postcard” or you can ask for a map which we also call Karte and then you can find your way. |
| 2. Number two, very important sentence, Sprechen Sie Englisch? “Do you speak English?” |
| Here in Germany, it’s quite common. People do speak English even though the older ones, not so much. But whenever you meet like a young couple or young people on the street and you really cannot find your way or you’re really struggling, you can always try to even talk to them in English, but if you want to be polite, you can ask in German, ‘Sprechen Sie Englisch?’, and then the person will know, “Oh okay sure, I’m going to try to help you out.”. |
| 3. Gibt es einen Bus vom Flughafen in die Stadt? “Is there a bus from the airport to the city?” |
| Often, airports are kind of outside of the city right? In Germany or actually in Europe, we have Ryanair. Probably you’ve heard about it. It’s like cheap airline, but I mean, we all want to save money so it’s good. But often, the airports of Ryanair are actually not in the city. So if you fly Ryanair to Barcelona, you end up, I don’t know, a hundred kilometers out of Barcelona and then you always have to take a bus. This also happens in Germany. For example, the Frankfurt Airport of Ryanair is about a hundred kilometers out of Frankfurt so you will have to ask for a bus to the city. How do you do this? Gibt es einen Bus vom Flughafen in die Stadt? |
| 4. Ist das WLAN kostenlos? “Is the Wi-Fi free?” |
| It’s getting more and more that here in Germany. I remember when i was traveling in the US, you could get free Wi-Fi everywhere, even in the streets. Yeah, I’m sorry, we’re not that far here now, but more and more places, train stations, airports have free Wi-Fi so you must be pretty unlucky to not find free Wi-Fi when you’re flying in or coming by train. So yeah, bring your devices. In any case, you can ask, ‘Sprechen Sie Englisch?’ “Do you speak English?”, to find your way. |
| 5. Haben Sie freie Zimmer für heute Nacht? “Do you have any vacancies for tonight?” |
| Yeah, if you’re going to a hotel or hospital or, I don’t know, an apartment and you haven’t booked previously, then first of all you need to know if there is any space left for you or if you should have go and search for another place if you don’t want to crash on somebody’s couch. So then, go to the hotel, go to the reception, ask if there are free rooms and usually, they should be able to help you out. Unless I mean you could also just walk to the streets and ring a doorbell and ask, ‘Haben Sie freie Zimmer?’ “Do you have vacancies?”, but this might get you in trouble with police, I don’t know. |
| 6. Number six, Könnte ich in ein anderes Zimmer wechseln? “Could I move to a different room?” |
| If you’re really unhappy with your room and you’re like, “Oh gosh, no. I don’t want to stay here.” then you ask your receptionist, “Hey, could I move to another room?” It didn’t happen to me so far. I was quite lucky. Whenever I was traveling, I had pretty nice rooms, but I have heard it happens like if it’s dirty or, I don’t know, the neighbours of the other room are super loud doing whatever, then it’s legit to ask for a different room. If you want to change room and you ask a German, they’re probably even more willing to help you out. |
| 7. Ich habe eine Reservierung. “I have a reservation.” |
| Yeah, this is what usually is the case, not like previously when you had to ask if there is any room left. Usually, you have a reservation and then everything works kind of itself. You just go to the desk, ask, “Hey,Ich habe eine Reservierung.” and then they’ll be like, “Oh, okay, what’s your name?” And if you watched my other videos, you will know how to say your name in German and then you can check in your hotel all in German, all good and you have a perfect start for your trip. |
| 8. Könnten wir das Menü haben, bitte? “Could we have the menu, please?” |
| Oh yeah, going to restaurant, you of course want to know what the food offering is before you just order anything. The waiter comes with the menu and you can open it, search for your, entrée and for your drink, beer I recommend, and then, “Oh, I’m going to eat Schnitzel.”. Eat Schnitzel. Schnitzel is awesome, good German food. I love it. |
| 9. Haben Sie Empfehlungen? “Do you have any recommendations?” |
| Yeah, if you don’t want to listen to my recommendation, eating Schnitzel and having a beer, you can also ask the waiter for recommendations of the house. Often, they even have like special offers and menu of the day, something like that. Yeah, just go ahead and ask for recommendations. Often, you even like will be surprised of some cool food you wouldn’t have thought of if you have chosen by yourself. Now, we’re going to sad part of all the restaurant evening. |
| 10. Die Rechnung, bitte? “Could I have the check?” |
| Yeah of course, if you eat in restaurant, in the end, there’s always the payment and if you want to ask for the check or for the bill in Germany that’s Die Rechnung. So you can just point out your finger to the waiter, ‘Die Rechnung, bitte?’ and he will be happy to bring you the bill. You can leave a little tip. We usually tip about like ten percent and then everything is fine. |
| 11. Ich bin allergisch gegen Erdnüsse. “I'm allergic to peanuts.” |
| Oh yeah, this happens. If you are, don’t eat peanuts and if you’re not sure whether there are peanuts in your food or not, it’s a good idea to ask or just to raise your attention to the waiter. Hey, Ich bin allergisch gegen Erdnüsse, so please don’t bring me any peanuts. |
| 12. Wasser, bitte. “Water, please.” |
| Other than in the US, in Germany it’s not common that you get free water at the table during your evening in the restaurant. You always have to order it unfortunately so whatever you want to drink, if it’s beer, coke or just like water from the sink, you always have to order it and pay it so don’t expect the waiter to bring the water for free. If you order water then it also will appear on the bill. But before, we used to have sparkling water which in my opinion is way better than just sink water, kind of just boring. |
| 13. Wie viel kostet das? “How much is this?” |
| Yeah, if you’re really thirsty, you want the water, but are kind of out of money then you should ask maybe how much it is and then you can use this phrase, ‘Wie viel kostet das?’ “How much is this?”, or yeah, anything in the souvenir store, just like this stupid little thing you want to bring home, but you don’t want to spend a fortune on it then better ask before how much is this ‘Wie viel kostet das?’. |
| Oh, see, the sun is coming out. Now is the right time to travel here, first line in the sentence, by then travel here. Yeah you see when the sun is shining like this, you should pack your stuff. |
| 14. Ich möchte 10 von diesen. “I'd like ten of these.” |
| When I went to Brazil, there is always this so-called feira. It’s like a fair where they sell food and toys and everything. But then of course, the most exciting for me were the fruits because they had so many exotic fruits. And then I went there and I’m like, oh, I’d like ten of this and five of this and three of that, and there were fruits I’ve never seen so I wanted to try it. So this might happen to you if you come here that you see fruits or vegetables that are not so common in your country then you can really use this sentence. Yeah, you should always try the new stuff. |
| 15. Ich möchte das hier. “I'd like this.” |
| Coming back, if you’re at the fair and you really don’t know or like there’s something you have never seen, but then you want to point at it and say you want this and you want to impress the one who is selling you, the seller, speak in German, then you can just say, ‘Ich möchte das hier.’ and he would be like, “Cool! Here you got it.” |
| 16. Number sixteen, Könnten Sie mir einen Rabatt geben? “Could you give me a discount? |
| Also, this happens. We have flea markets where people sell their used stuff or even on the market on the Sunday, the farmer’s market, whatever, sometimes you can try to negotiate. You can always ask so it’s not impolite if you feel like, oh cool, this is a place where it’s just common to negotiate. You can ask for discounts even, though, don’t expect too much. I know in other countries, it’s common that okay the price is 20, but he’s already happy if he gets 10. Yeah, no. Here, it’s more like if the price is 20, you can maybe negotiate it down to 18. It always depends also. I mean if you ask in German, probably you will raise your chances that you really get a discount because they will appreciate your effort to speak German. Don’t be pushy on it, but try and negotiate it a little and you might get your discount. |
| 17. Nehmen Sie Kreditkarte? “Do you take credit card?” |
| You should definitely bring your credit card in most supermarkets and stores, whatever, you can use the credit card. But still there is a lot of like smaller shops, the flea market, apparently they usually don’t take credit cards so it’s not as widespread as in the US but we’re getting there. We still like our cash in our hands, you see what we’re paying with. It’s also dangerous to always pay by credit card. You don’t really see how much money you spent especially on holiday. You’re more like, oh cool, I want to enjoy my time, spend some money here, spend some money there, the credit card in, beep, beep. And then just returning home, you get the letter with all the money you spent and you’re like, oh holy, that was a lot of money. |
| 18. Wo ist der Bahnhof? “Where is the train station?” |
| In case you need to go back to the airport, you want to take the train and you don’t know where the train stations are then you’re probably in trouble so you should check beforehand on your map or, yeah, I don’t know, take a cab or something. But maybe you’re not late, maybe you have plenty of time and then just want to find the way yourself, you can go and ask, “Hey, where is the train station? I need to catch a flight.” |
| 19. Entschuldigen Sie, wie hoch ist der Fahrpreis? “Excuse me, what's the fare?” |
| In buses or trains, if you haven’t bought your ticket previously ahead and you might want to ask the driver what’s the price before really taking it to not be surprised later. Yeah, a bus ticket in the city usually are like, I’d say 250. Train tickets apparently depend on how far you want to go. I think a train ticket from Berlin to Munich for example, 50 euro I guess. It depends also if you booked ahead or not. But yeah, if you wish, you ask the driver or anybody at the train station, you probably haven’t booked ahead. It’s always smarter to book ahead then you can get way cheaper tickets especially for trains. And buses usually, you don’t really - you’re not really able to book a ticket ahead. You just buy it right there. Yeah, the driver in the bus is always happy to help you out when you’re uncertain about the price so just ask him. |
| 20. Number twenty, selfie time, Könnten Sie bitte ein Foto von mir machen? “Could you take a picture of me please?” |
| Yeah, nowadays, this question is not ask often anymore because you always do your selfies right? You do that like I could actually film all this in selfie, but I would be too shaky I guess. But if you want a proper picture maybe of your group with everybody in it and not just this long selfie arm, then you should ask a stranger on the street. I told you previously that most Germans know at least a little English so they would understand if you have a camera and say, “Could you take a picture please?”. You all want them to take a picture of you. Good sentence to know if you’re traveling alone or with your partner or in a group and you want to have a picture then just ask, Könnten Sie bitte ein Foto von mir machen?. |
| Going back home after your travel, you see clouds are coming back like I’m not in this bright sun anymore, yeah, time to go home, yeah. Travel is over, let’s go back home and then bus to the airport, have a good flight. I hope you enjoyed the lesson. It was fun so if you come to Germany, if you’re traveling here now, you already know like some sentences here and there. If your German is not that fluent yet, but you can spread in for you to enjoy your trip more, also for the people you meet, the Germans, to make them have a good time, seeing your effort, speaking German. I believe whenever I travel to some country, I should know at least some sentences so this is your entry card for the first trip to Germany. Yeah, if you want to learn more, subscribe to the channel at GermanPod101.com. I hope to see you next time, leave some comments. Tschau tschau! |
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