German slang and idiom vocabulary: 448 words
Sound like a local — common colloquial words and idioms with their natural equivalents in each language (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese). This page lists 40 of them with their German translations, then lets you practise the full set in either direction with spaced repetition.
English to German: the first 40 words
| English | German | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| cool | cool | |
| awesome | super | |
| guy, dude | Typ | Informal for a person; friendly, not insulting in casual speech. |
| to hang out | abhängen | |
| to chill, relax | chillen | |
| No way! | Auf keinen Fall! | |
| Awesome, right? | Cool, oder? | |
| It's a piece of cake | das ist ein Kinderspiel | Idiom: very easy to do, not about actual cake. |
| It's raining cats and dogs | es regnet in Strömen | Idiom: heavy rain, not animals falling. |
| to cost an arm and a leg | ein Vermögen kosten | Idiom: extremely expensive, not literal body parts. |
| to pull someone's leg | jemanden auf den Arm nehmen | Idiom: to tease or joke with someone, not physical. |
| to be broke | pleite sein | Having no money, not damaged or injured. |
| Speak of the devil | wenn man vom Teufel spricht | Idiom: person arrives just as you mention them. |
| not my cup of tea | nicht mein Ding | Idiom: not something you like or enjoy. |
| to hit the nail on the head | den Nagel auf den Kopf treffen | Idiom: to say or do exactly the right thing. |
| Good luck! | Viel Glück | Said before a performance or challenge. |
| little by little | nach und nach | |
| more or less | mehr oder weniger | |
| What a mess! | Was für ein Chaos! | |
| Are you kidding? | Machst du Witze? | |
| no worries | kein Ding | |
| awesome time | eine super Zeit | |
| to be fed up | die Nase voll haben | Very annoyed or tired of something; impatient. |
| on the dot | auf die Minute | Exactly on time. |
| big deal, a lot | eine Menge | |
| to mess up | Mist bauen | |
| step by step | Schritt für Schritt | |
| It's worth it | es lohnt sich | |
| so-so | so lala | |
| to keep an eye on | ein Auge behalten | Idiom: to watch or monitor, not literal eye. |
| Get it?, Understood? | Alles klar? | |
| Okay, alright | okay | |
| to be worth nothing | nichts taugen | |
| hurry up! | beeil dich! | |
| to be in a hurry | es eilig haben | |
| for real, seriously | im Ernst | |
| That's life | so ist das Leben | |
| Better late than never | besser spät als nie | |
| little by little the bird builds its nest | steter Tropfen höhlt den Stein | Proverb: steady progress achieves goals over time. |
| to be on cloud nine | im siebten Himmel sein | Idiom: extremely happy, not literally in sky. |
408 more words in the full “Slang & Idioms” library, each aligned across seven languages and scheduled for you by spaced repetition. Add it to your account and start drilling English to German in one click.
What to watch out for in German
- Accents count. Answers are graded accent-sensitively, so you need
äöüßÄÖÜ— LinguaSwap shows a one-tap keypad for them while you type. - Capitalisation counts. German nouns are capitalised, and answers in German are graded that way —
hausis notHaus. - 339 words carry a usage note in the full library, for the cases where a direct translation would mislead you.
Practise German slang and idiom vocabulary
Words come back just before you would forget them, and every language direction is tracked separately.