German Language Translation

World class German language translation from qualified professional linguists

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  • Number of German native speakers globally: 100 million
  • Number of countries where German is an official language: 7
  • Approx. percentage of world trade conducted in German: 7.2%

German is the second most spoken native language in Europe after Russian and is also the third most popular foreign language taught in the English-speaking world, after French and Spanish. In the business world, Germany is the UK’s second largest trading partner, after the USA. German is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family and is in the same ‘West Germanic’ cluster as English and Dutch. German is therefore very close to English and loanwords are common, such as: delicatessen, angst, poltergeist and wunderkind.

Nouns in the German language have one of three genders; masculine, feminine or neuter. The endings of words often reveal grammatical gender.

Since Germany did not become a uniﬁed country until 1871, it had no cultural centre and regional dialects remained dominant (you spoke “Bavarian,” “Swabian,” etc). Martin Luther’s bible translations in the 1520s and 1530s were a vital step in forging and spreading a common German language, which could be understood by all regions. Luther’s German was based largely on the legal language in use at the Saxon court in Meissen and forms the basis for today’s standard German, often referred to as “Hochdeutsch.”

Please let us know if your translation is destined for Germany, Switzerland or Austria as there are differences in style and terminology between the German spoken in each country.

We offer professional German to English and English to German translations - and other language combinations including German.

A tip to bear in mind is to allow flexibility in the layout of your documents. German to English translations typically contract by about 20-35% depending on the subject matter. English to German translation typically expands by about 20-35%.

We work to the following ‘golden rules’:

  • All translators work into their mother tongue
  • All translators are qualified and experienced professional linguists
  • We ensure that the translator has sufficient understanding of the subject matter
  • We use the latest translation technology sensibly to provide an accurate and prompt service

Please contact us for more information on German language translation.