Textbook German says Ich habe keine Lust. On the street, in the office and in every group chat, you'll hear Ich hab keinen Bock. Slang is where the German you learned and the German people speak drift furthest apart.
This page has two layers: everyday colloquial words that adults use all the time, and the youth language that teenagers use to sound nothing like their parents.
Everyday Colloquial Words
great, awesome
geil
extreme, crazy
krass
super, very
mega
to chill
chillen
to sleep
pennen
to chat
quatschen
money
die Kohle / die Knete
place, flat
die Bude
mate, buddy
der Kumpel
guy
der Typ
rubbish, nonsense
der Quatsch
annoying
nervig
Practice these words
geil
Watch out: geil means "great" in everyday speech: Das Konzert war geil! Its older meaning is sexual, so it's fine with friends and colleagues your age, but not in a job interview or with your landlord.
Krass can go either way. Krass! about a new job is admiration, krass about an accident is shock. The tone tells you which.
Phrases You'll Hear Every Day
I can't be bothered.
Ich hab keinen Bock.
I really feel like it.
Ich hab voll Bock.
What's up?
Was geht?
No problem.
Kein Ding.
You're doing well!
Läuft bei dir!
That's insane!
Das ist ja krass!
I'm completely wiped out.
Ich bin total fertig.
Seriously?
Im Ernst?
Whatever.
Egal.
That gets on my nerves.
Das nervt.
Practice these words
Ich hab keinen Bock.
Bock literally means a billy goat. Bock haben means wanting to do something, and it's used by people of all ages, more often in the negative. Null Bock is the strongest form: zero interest.
Läuft bei dir started as youth slang and is now used by parents too, which tells you how fast slang moves. It's a compliment: things are going well for you. Said after something goes wrong, it's ironic.
Youth Language
mate, bro
Digga / Bro
dude!
Alter!
clueless
lost
embarrassing
cringe
suspicious
sus
crazy, unbelievable
wild
a really decent guy
ein Ehrenmann
a really decent woman
eine Ehrenfrau
for sure
safe
me too
same
Practice these words
Digga / Bro
Good to know: a lot of German youth slang is English, pronounced the German way and used with German grammar: Das ist so cringe, Ich bin komplett lost. Digga comes from Hamburg and spread across the country through rap.
Alter! isn't about age. It's an exclamation of surprise or annoyance, like "dude!" or "mate!", and it's said among friends of any age.
The Youth Word of the Year
Most years a publisher runs a vote for the Jugendwort des Jahres, the youth word of the year, and announces the winner in the autumn. The results get wide media coverage, partly because adults love to puzzle over them.
| Year | Winner | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
2026 | Ragebait | content made to make people angry, for clicks and comments |
2025 | das crazy | a reply when you're lost for words, often ironic |
2024 | Aura | someone's presence or charisma |
2023 | goofy | silly, clumsy |
2021 | cringe | embarrassing to watch |
2020 | lost | clueless, out of it |
2018 | Ehrenmann / Ehrenfrau | someone who does something decent |
2014 | läuft bei dir | things are going well for you |
Why so much English? Teenagers get much of their slang from social media and music, where English dominates. Some of these words are gone within a year or two; cringe and Ehrenmann have stuck.
When to Leave the Slang Out
- Offices and authorities: at the Bürgeramt, the bank or the doctor's, stick to standard German. Kein Ding to a civil servant sounds odd.
- With older people: everyday words like Kumpel and quatschen are fine, youth words aren't. They'll understand Alter!, but they won't love it.
- Adults using youth slang: a forty-year-old saying sus gets laughed at, by teenagers first. That's half the fun of youth language.
Regional words like Moin in the north and Servus in the south are a different thing: dialect, not slang, and used by every age group.