What language is spoken in Germany?

German dialects fall into three large groups. In the north is Low German, called Plattdeutsch or simply Platt. Across the middle, from Cologne and Frankfurt to Leipzig and Dresden, people speak Central German dialects such as Rhenish, Hessian or Saxon. In the south are the Upper German dialects: Swabian and Alemannic in Baden-Württemberg, Bavarian and Franconian in Bavaria.

The map groups Germany's federal states into five broad areas. Real dialect borders do not follow state lines, and in cities you will mostly hear standard German with a regional accent. Tap a region to hear typical words.

German is the only official language at the federal level. Standard German, often called High German, is what you hear on the news, read in newspapers and learn at school.

Germany also protects several smaller languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Low German is recognised as a regional language. Danish, Frisian, Sorbian and Romani are recognised minority languages. Danish is spoken near the Danish border, North Frisian on the North Sea coast and on Heligoland, and Sorbian, a Slavic language, in Lusatia in the east, where many place-name signs are bilingual.

Low German is more than a dialect. In the Middle Ages it was the trade language of the Hanseatic League around the North Sea and the Baltic. It never went through the sound shift that created High German, which is why it often looks closer to English and Dutch: “Water” instead of Wasser, “Appel” instead of Apfel, “maken” instead of machen.

Today Low German is mostly spoken by older people and in the countryside. But many of its words are used all over northern Germany, like “schnacken” (to chat) and the greeting “Moin”, which works at any time of day.

Around Cologne and Düsseldorf, people speak Rhenish. Anyone who celebrates carnival there is a “Jeck”. The Ruhr area, Germany's old coal and steel region, has its own colloquial speech: if you work hard, you “malochen”, a word that comes from Yiddish.

In Hesse people greet each other with “Gude”, and in Frankfurt the local drink is “Ebbelwoi”, apple wine. Further southwest, near the French border, you will hear Palatinate German and the dialect of Saarland.

Berlin German is easy to spot: “icke” means I, “wat” means what, and a bread roll is a “Schrippe”. Saxon, spoken around Leipzig and Dresden, is one of the best-known German dialects. Its consonants are soft, so P often sounds like B and T like D, and people often say “nu” instead of ja (yes). Thuringian is closely related and sounds similar to outsiders.

In Baden-Württemberg people speak Swabian and, in the southwest around Freiburg, Alemannic, which is related to Swiss German. Swabians love the diminutive “-le”, as in “Weckle” (bread roll). Work is “schaffe”, and goodbye is “Ade”.

In Bavaria the dialect is Bavarian, which is also spoken in Austria. People say “Grüß Gott” or “Servus”, and Servus works for both hello and goodbye. In the north of Bavaria, in Franconia around Nuremberg, the dialect is Franconian and sounds quite different from Munich.

Usually, yes. Most younger Germans learned English at school, and in big cities like Berlin, Munich, Hamburg or Frankfurt you can get through daily life in English. In the countryside and with older people it can be harder. In cities you will also hear many other languages, such as Turkish, Russian, Polish and Arabic. Learning a few German phrases is always appreciated, and people will happily switch to standard German for you.

For Germany, learn standard German. It is understood everywhere, from the North Sea to the Alps, and it is also spoken in Austria and Switzerland. You can learn German for free on Langula, with audio for every word and every sentence. If you are curious about the north, you can also try Low German.