Austrian German

Austrian German (österreichisches Deutsch) is not a dialect, a corruption, or a quaint version of "real" German. It is a full national standard variety — the German of Austria — with its own officially recognised vocabulary, its own administrative terms, and at least one genuine grammatical difference from the German of Germany. When the European Union admitted Austria, it negotiated a protocol listing 23 Austrian food and agricultural terms (Erdäpfel, Marillen, Topfen, Faschiertes and others) as legally equivalent to their German counterparts. That is how seriously the variety is taken: its vocabulary is written into EU law. This page covers the features that mark Austrian Standard German — and crucially separates what is standard in Austria from what is regional Bavarian-Austrian dialect.

The mental model to start with: think of the relationship between Austrian German and German German the way you think of British English and American English. Lift and elevator, autumn and fall are both correct — each is standard in its own country. Likewise Jänner and Januar, Erdäpfel and Kartoffeln. Neither is wrong. An Austrian who writes Jänner in a newspaper is using their standard, exactly as a Briton who writes colour is using theirs.

Vocabulary: the everyday words that differ

The most visible feature is vocabulary. Many of the highest-frequency words — the months, common foods, household objects — have a distinct Austrian standard form. These are not slang; you will see them on supermarket shelves, in recipes, and in official forms.

Notice the false-friend trap inside the variety itself: a Sessel in Austria is an ordinary chair, while in Germany a Sessel is specifically an armchair. The everyday chair in Germany is Stuhl. So an Austrian saying Setz dich auf den Sessel means "sit on the chair," not "sit in the armchair."

A useful detail for the word heuer: it is a single adverb meaning "this year," with no exact one-word equivalent in English or in German German, which must say dieses Jahr. It is genuinely handy, and it is fully standard in Austria.

The real grammar difference: sein with position verbs

Vocabulary is the obvious layer, but the brief promises a grammatical difference, and here it is — the feature competitors usually skip because they treat Austrian German as "just different words."

In the Perfekt, the position verbs sitzen (to sit), stehen (to stand) and liegen (to lie/be located) form their perfect tense with sein in Austria (and across the south), but with haben in northern and standard German Germany.

Why does this happen? The logic is that German chooses sein for verbs that describe a state or a change of state in space, and haben for verbs seen as ordinary activities. Southern German — including Austrian — interprets "sitting," "standing" and "lying" as states of location (where you are), which patterns them with motion-and-position verbs that take sein. Northern German treats them as durative activities, which patterns them with haben. Both readings are internally consistent; the south simply drew the line in a different place. This is exactly the kind of split that makes English speakers blink, because English uses one auxiliary (have) for everything: "I have sat / I have stood."

There is a second, related grammatical preference: Austrian (and southern) German strongly favours the Perfekt over the Präteritum in speech. Where a north German might narrate Ich ging, ich sah, ich kaufte, an Austrian almost always says Ich bin gegangen, ich habe gesehen, ich habe gekauft. The simple past survives in writing and in the verbs sein, haben and the modals (war, hatte, konnte), but for most verbs in conversation the Perfekt rules.

Diminutives and the -erl ending

Standard German forms diminutives mostly with -chen and -lein (Häuschen, Bächlein). Austrian German loves the suffix -erl instead: a small package is a Packerl, a small bag a Sackerl, a little glass a Glaserl. The ending carries warmth and informality, and it is woven so deeply into everyday Austrian speech that some forms (Sackerl, Stamperl for a shot glass) have effectively become the normal word, not a "small" version.

Greetings and pronunciation

The Austrian greeting repertoire is distinctly southern. Grüß Gott (literally "[may] God greet [you]") is the standard polite greeting throughout the day — neutral and respectful, used by all generations. Servus is the warm, informal hello-and-goodbye among friends. Habedere (from habe die Ehre, "I have the honour") is an old-fashioned, jovial greeting. To say goodbye informally, Austrians say Baba (bye-bye) or Pfiat di (from behüte dich Gott, "[may] God protect you"), the latter shared with Bavaria.

In pronunciation, Austrian German tends toward softer, more open vowels and a melodic, sing-song intonation. The -ig ending, pronounced [-ɪç] in northern standard German (König as "Köni-ch"), is often a hard [-ɪk] in Austria (König as "Köni-k"). The letter k at the start of a word can be lightly aspirated to almost a kch. None of this changes spelling — and note that Austria, unlike Switzerland, uses the ß exactly as Germany does (Straße, groß, weiß).

Common Mistakes

The errors below are the ones English speakers and learners of "German German" actually make when they reach Austria.

Key Takeaways

• Austrian German is a co-equal national standard, comparable to British vs American English — its words are standard in Austria, not slang.
• Key vocabulary: Jänner (Januar), Erdäpfel (Kartoffeln), Paradeiser (Tomaten), Sackerl (Tüte), Sessel (Stuhl, but a plain chair), Topfen (Quark), Marille (Aprikose), heuer (dieses Jahr).
• The one true grammar difference: position verbs sitzen / stehen / liegen take sein in the Perfekt — ich bin gesessen / gestanden / gelegen. Austria also strongly prefers the Perfekt over the Präteritum in speech.
• Diminutive -erl (Sackerl, Packerl) replaces northern -chen.
• Greetings: Grüß Gott (polite, all day), Servus (informal), Baba / Pfiat di (informal goodbye).
• Orthography: Austria uses ß exactly like Germany (groß, süß, Straße) — unlike Switzerland.