German for Beginners: Asking for Directions

THE TIPS YOU NEED TO ASK FOR DIRECTIONS IN GERMAN

Asking for directions is easy. Understanding the torrent of German you may get back is another story.

Most German textbooks and courses teach you how to ask the questions, but fail to deal adequately with the understanding aspect. That's why we will also teach you some coping skills to help in such situations. 

For example, you can ask your question in such a way that it will elicit a simple ja(yes) or nein (no), or a simple "left," "straight ahead," or "right" answer. And don't forget 

that hand signals always work, no matter the language.

ASKING WHERE: WO VS. WOHIN

German has two question words for asking "where." One is wo? and is used when asking the location of someone or something. The other is wohin? and this is used when asking about motion or direction, as in "where to."

For instance, in English, you would use "where" to ask both "Where are the keys?" (location) and "Where are you going?" (motion/direction). In German these two questions require two different forms of "where."

Wo sind die Schlüssel? (Where are the keys?)​

Wohin gehen Sie? (Where are you going?)

In English, this can be compared to the difference between the location question "where's it at?" (poor English, but it gets the idea across) and the direction question "where to?" But in German you can only use wo? for "where's it at?" (location) and wohin? for "where to?" (direction). This is a rule that cannot be broken.

There are times when wohin gets split in two, as in: "Wo gehen Sie hin?" But you can't use wo without hin to ask about motion or direction in German, they must both be included in the sentence.

DIRECTIONS (RICHTUNGEN) IN GERMAN

Now let's look at some common words and expressions related to directions and the places we might go. This is essential vocabulary that you will want to memorize.

Notice that in some of the phrases below, the gender (der/die/das) may affect the article, as in "in die Kirche" (in the church) or "an den See" (to the lake). Simply pay attention to those times when gender changes der to den and you should be okay.

Englisch	Deutsch
along/down Go along/down this street.	entlang Gehen Sie diese Straße entlang!
back Go back.	zurück Gehen Sie zurück!
in the direction of/towards...    the train station    the church    the hotel	in Richtung auf...    den Bahnhof    die Kirche    das Hotel
left - to the left	links - nach links
right - to the right	rechts - nach rechts
straight ahead Keep going straight ahead.	geradeaus (guh-RAH-duh-ouse) Gehen Sieimmer geradeaus!
up to, until up to the traffic light up to the cinema	bis zum (masc./neut.) biszur (fem.) bis zur Ampel biszum Kino

COMPASS DIRECTIONS (HIMMEL SRICHTUNGEN)

The directions on the compass are relatively easy because the German words are similar to their English counterparts.

After you learn the four basic directions, you can form more compass directions by combining words, just as you would in English. For example, northwest is nordwesten, ​northeast is nordosten, southwest is südwesten, etc.

Englisch	Deutsch
north - to the north north of (Leipzig)	der Nord(en) - nach Norden nördlich von (Leipzig)
south - to the south south of (Munich)	der Süd(en) - nach Süden südlich von (München)
east - to the east east of (Frankfurt)	der Ost(en) - nach Osten östlich von (Frankfurt)
west - to the west west of (Cologne)	der West(en) - nach Westen westlich von (Köln)