Welcome to „German as a Foreign Language“

We’re excited to launch a brand-new category on the blog: German as a Foreign Language (Deutsch als Fremdsprache, or DaF).

If you’ve ever wanted to learn German — for study, work, travel, or just for the joy of it — this is the place to start. We’ll publish short, practical lessons that you can pick up in a few minutes and actually use right away. No grammar overload, no endless vocabulary lists. Just clear, useful German, one small step at a time.

To kick things off, let’s begin where every real conversation begins: saying your name and asking someone for theirs.

Lesson 1: „What’s my name? / What’s your name?“

In German, talking about names uses the verb heißen, which literally means „to be called.“ So instead of saying „My name is…“, Germans usually say „I am called…“.

Here are the two key phrases:

Saying your own name

To introduce yourself, use ich heiße („I am called“):

Ich heiße Anna. — My name is Anna.
Ich heiße Marco. — My name is Marco.

Asking someone else’s name

To ask a friend, a classmate, or anyone you’d address informally, use:

Wie heißt du? — What’s your name?

And they might answer:

Ich heiße Lukas. — My name is Lukas.

A quick tip on formality

German has two ways of saying „you.“ The examples above use du, the informal form you’d use with friends, family, children, and peers.

In formal situations — speaking to a stranger, a customer, or in a professional setting — you’d use Sie instead:

Wie heißen Sie? — What’s your name? (formal)

Notice the verb changes slightly: heißt with du, heißen with Sie. We’ll explore this du/Sie distinction more in a future lesson.

A mini-dialogue

Here’s how a first meeting might sound:

Your turn

Try it out loud:

1. Say your own name: Ich heiße ____.
2. Ask a friend: Wie heißt du?
3. Practice the formal version: Wie heißen Sie?

That’s it — your very first step into German. In the next lesson, we’ll cover how to say where you’re from: „Woher kommst du?“

Bis bald! (See you soon!)