Translate German to English
Germany is the largest economy in Europe, and German-language content shows up everywhere: product manuals, supplier emails, academic papers, travel bookings, and news articles. If you have German text that needs to be in English, paste it above. The translator processes sentences and paragraphs and returns readable English within seconds.
Common German to English translations
| German | English | Pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hallo | Hello | heh-LOH | ||
| Guten Morgen | Good morning | good MOR-ning | ||
| Danke | Thank you | thank yoo | ||
| Bitte | Please / You are welcome | pleez | ||
| Was kostet das? | How much does this cost? | how much duz it kost | ||
| Wo ist der Bahnhof? | Where is the train station? | wehr iz thuh trayn STAY-shun | ||
| Ich verstehe nicht | I do not understand | ay doo not un-der-STAND | ||
| Können Sie mir helfen? | Can you help me? | kan yoo help mee | ||
| Ich hätte gern ein Bier | I would like a beer | ay wood lyk uh beer | ||
| Die Rechnung, bitte | The bill, please | thuh bil pleez | ||
| Freut mich | Nice to meet you | nys too meet yoo | ||
| Auf Wiedersehen | Goodbye | good-BY | ||
| Ich brauche einen Arzt | I need a doctor | ay need uh DOK-ter | ||
| Entschuldigung | Excuse me | eks-KYOOZ mee |
Tips for German to English translation
German compound nouns can look intimidating but they break apart logically. Handschuh (glove) is literally hand-shoe. Flugzeug (airplane) is fly-thing. Staubsauger (vacuum cleaner) is dust-sucker. When you see an unfamiliar long word, try splitting it at natural syllable boundaries and translating each piece. The meaning often becomes obvious.
German sentence structure places the verb in unexpected positions. In subordinate clauses, the verb jumps to the very end: Ich weiß, dass er morgen kommt (I know that he tomorrow comes). When translating to English, you need to rearrange the word order so the verb sits in its normal English position. If a translation reads with the action word at the end of a sentence, the word order was not adjusted.
The German formal register (Sie) and informal register (du) both translate to “you” in English, but the tone difference matters. A letter that uses Sie throughout should be translated into polite, professional English. A message full of du calls for casual, friendly English. Ignoring this distinction produces translations that feel off even when every word is technically correct.
False friends between German and English trip up translators regularly. Gift means poison, not a present. Bekommen means to receive, not to become. Chef means boss, not a cook. Handy means mobile phone. Keep a list of these common traps handy and scan your translation for them before finalizing.
About the German language
German is a West Germanic language closely related to English, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages. It has roughly 100 million native speakers and is the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy all have German-speaking populations.
One of the most distinctive features of written German is that all nouns are capitalized, not just proper nouns. This makes nouns easy to spot in a sentence but also means that capitalization rules differ fundamentally from English. German also uses four grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), which change the endings of articles, adjectives, and sometimes nouns depending on their role in the sentence.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. No registration or payment required. Use it as often as you need.
The tool processes standard written German (Hochdeutsch). Austrian terms like Paradeiser (tomato) or Swiss terms like Velo (bicycle) are recognized and translated correctly in most cases.
Yes. Click the speaker icon next to any English phrase to hear it spoken aloud.
German uses different word order rules, especially in subordinate clauses where the verb moves to the end. It also has grammatical cases that change word endings, and all nouns are capitalized.
For general understanding it works well. For engineering specs, legal contracts, or medical texts, have a professional translator review the output.
Those are Umlauts: ä, ö, ü. They change the vowel sound and sometimes the meaning. They are standard German letters, not decorations.
This page is for German to English. Visit our English to German translation page for the reverse.
The tool processes plain text. Formatting like bold, italic, and paragraph spacing is not carried over. You will need to reformat after translating.
Yes. Nothing is saved or shared. Translations are processed in real time and deleted when you leave.
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