Guten Tag! Today I’d like to take it back to basics and teach you what all of the different body parts are called in German. This topic is always useful, especially if you go to the doctor in Germany, for example. As there are so many different body parts and names for everything, I’m going to split this into two posts. This first post will give the basic, simple names for different body parts, and a follow-up post will give more specific terminology (so in this post I’ll give the word for ‘hand’ and in the next I’ll give the word for ‘palm’, for example). So hopefully there will be something for everyone! Let’s get started learning German anatomy!

Body Parts In German – Simple

Der Körper – The Body

 

der Kopf – The Head

Face – das Gesicht

Eye – das Auge

Hair – die Haare / das Haar

Nose – die Nase

Lip – die Lippe

Ear – das Ohr

Mouth – der Mund

Tooth – der Zahn

Cheek – die Wange

Chin – das Kinn

 

der Oberkörper – The upper body

Neck – der Nacken

Shoulder – die Schulter

Back – der Rücken

Arm – der Arm

Elbow – der Ellbogen

Hand – die Hand

Finger – der Finger

Chest – die Brust

Waist – die Taille

 

der Unterkörper – The lower body

Hip – die Hüfte

Leg – das Bein

Knee – das Knie

Foot – der Fuß

Toe – der Zeh

Butt – der Hintern (‘behind’), der Po (‘bum’) or der Arsch (‘arse’) – depending on how formal you want to be!

 

Now you’ve got the vocabulary, it’s time to test your knowledge. Study the body parts and then match the English words to the German in this short exercise. The answers are at the bottom of the page.

1. der Mund ——————— A. Elbow

2. das Bein ———————- B. Chest

3. der Ellbogen ——————— C. Shoulder

4. die Brust ————————— D. Toe

5. die Hand —————————- E. Eye

6. der Zeh —————————– F. Hand

7. der Hintern —————————— G. Cheek

8. das Auge ——————————- H. Leg

9. die Schulter ——————————- I. Mouth

10. die Wange ——————————– J. Bum

 

If you are finding this difficult, go back and study the words some more and try the quiz again. Eventually you will begin to associate the German word with the English one, and vice-versa. Let me know how you get on! And stay tuned for part 2, where we will look at the body in a bit more depth.

 

Bis bald!

 

Constanze

 

Answers to quiz: 1I, 2H, 3A, 4B, 5F, 6D, 7J, 8E, 9C, 10G