Which countries speak German?

Quick answer: German is an official language in 6 countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Belgium. Around 130 million people speak it, making it the most widely spoken native language in the European Union.

German-speaking countries

Where German is official:

• Germany
• Austria
• Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansh)
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish)
• Belgium (a small eastern region)

Regional variety

Swiss German and Austrian German sound quite different from standard German, and Swiss German speakers switch to standard German in writing.

Where German is spoken

German is official in these countries:

Facts about German

German has about 95 million native speakers, the most of any language in the European Union. Swiss German dialects differ so much from standard German that many Germans find them hard to follow. German nouns all begin with a capital letter, and the language is famous for long compound words.

German dialects

Spoken German varies a lot from region to region. Bavarian, spoken in southern Germany and much of Austria, sounds very different from the Low German of the north. Swiss German is a group of Alemannic dialects used in everyday life in Switzerland, while standard German is used for writing and formal occasions. Luxembourgish developed from a German dialect and is now its own national language.

German outside Europe

German is spoken by communities far from Europe. In Namibia, a former German colony, German is a recognised national language with its own newspaper. Mennonite communities in Paraguay, Bolivia and Mexico speak a form of Low German called Plautdietsch, and there are German-speaking towns in southern Brazil.

Words English borrowed from German

English uses many German words, including kindergarten, rucksack, angst, wanderlust, delicatessen and hamburger, which comes from the city of Hamburg.

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