W-Wörter (W-words)
Who is celebrating?
Julia is organizing a birthday party for her dog Lulu and she wants to invite her German friends and their dogs. She has decided to write a simple birthday invitation using some German w-words:
What (was) is the reason for celebration?
Who (wer) is celebrating?
How (wie) old is the birthday girl?
Where (wo) will the celebration take place?
As you can see above, w-words are very useful for getting the most important information about something! In this journal post you will learn the most important German w-words and in the end, you can see if the birthday party was a success!
Let’s explore useful German w-words together:
1) Wer? Who?
Wer ist das? Who is that?
Wer kommt zur Party? Who is coming to the party?
Wer hat heute Geburtstag? Who has a birthday today?
Wer is used to ask other people about someone: Who is this person? Who is the person celebrating their birthday today?
2) Wie? How?
Wie heißt du? What is your name? (Literally: How are you called)
Wie geht’s? How’s it going?
Wie geht es dir? How are you doing?
Wie komme ich von hier zum Museum? How do I come from here to the museum?
In these first two examples we can see wie being used to describe the way something is being done or happening. In the first sentence we are actually asking the person: How are you being called? How are other people calling you?
In the other sentence we see wie being used to ask how are things going for that person, while in the third sentence we ask the person how are they, how have they been doing. In the fourth sentence wie is used to describe the way of coming from our current position (from here) to a certain museum (how does one come from here to the museum).
Wie viel kostet das? How much does this cost?
Wie alt ist sie? How old is she?
In these examples we use wie to describe the amount or number of something. We can ask how much money something costs or how old someone is.
3) Woher? Where from?
Woher kommst du? Where do you come from?
Woher weißt du das? How do you know that?
Woher is usually used to describe where someone comes from, but it can also be used, like in the second example, to ask someone about the source of their information (it could mean: Where did your information come from? Where did you get your information from?).
4) Was? What?
Was ist das? What is that?
Was machst du? What are you doing?
Was is used to refer to something – exactly the way we would use the word what. While wer is used to refer to living beings, was is used to refer to things.
Good to know!
If during a conversation you don’t hear or understand something and you want to ask “What was that?”, you shouldn’t say “Was?” but “Bitte?” or “Wie bitte?”, as this is the polite way to ask the speaker to repeat or explain something.
5) Wo? Where?
Wo bist du? Where are you?
Wo liegt Berlin? Where is Berlin?
The word wo is used to ask about the position of something – where is it?
What we’ve learned today?
When speaking German, one can find out a lot of information using some of the German w-words. In the today’s lesson we learned about wer (who- used to ask about someone’s identity), wie (how- used to ask about the way something is done or amount of something), woher (where from – used to ask where something is coming from), was (what- used to ask about a thing) and wo (where- used to ask about location of something).
wie → how
wer → who
was → what
wie → how
woher → where from
wo → where
Party, die → party
Geburtstag, der → birthday
hier → here
Museum, das → museum
Test your knowledge
W-words are very useful in everyday conversations – solve the next few exercises and see how much you’ve learned in this lesson!
1.) Fill in the missing words!
- a) ____________ heißt du?
- b) ____________ hat heute Geburtstag?
- c) ____________ komme ich von hier zum Museum?
- d) Ich komme aus Deutschland. Und du, ____________ kommst du?
- e) ____________ alt ist sie?
2.) Choose the correct answer: ____________ liegt Berlin?
- a) wer
- b) woher
- c) wo
3.) Choose the correct answer: ____________ viel kostet das?
- a) was
- b) wie
- c) wer
4.) Which sentence is incorrect?
- a) Woher kommt zur Party?
- b) Wie geht’s?
- c) Woher weißt du das?
Here are the correct answers, check if you got them right!
1.) Wie, Wer, Wie, Woher, Wie; 2.) c; 3.) b; 4) a
Where’s Lulu?
Now, you’re probably wondering how Lulu’s birthday party went!
Well, it was a lot of fun! Several Julia’s friends came with their dogs and the little Lulu had the best birthday ever!
You may also be interested in taking one of our courses
