Today's words · 💍 Weddings
Invited to a German wedding? Learn these 10 words
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The invitation says Standesamt — so where exactly are they getting married?
A lovely card arrives from a German friend: "Wir heiraten!" You want to write back, but the card is full of words like Standesamt and Trauzeugin. And it would be a shame to just smile and nod all through the reception.
Today's ten words take you from the proposal to the honeymoon. With them you can congratulate the couple, share your own news and join in the wedding gossip. 💍
📋 The ten words at a glance
- die Hochzeit — wedding
- heiraten — to marry, get married
- verheiratet — married
- sich verloben — to get engaged
- der Heiratsantrag — marriage proposal
- der Ehering — wedding ring
- der Bräutigam — bridegroom
- das Standesamt — registry office (births, marriages, deaths)
- der Trauzeuge — best man; witness (at a wedding)
- die Hochzeitsreise — honeymoon
🧠 Words, examples and memory tricks
die Hochzeit
[HOKH-tsite]wedding(Pl. die Hochzeiten)
📌 Meine Cousine feiert im Sommer ihre Hochzeit.
→ My cousin is having her wedding in the summer.
💡 hoch (high) + Zeit (time) = the highest day of your life 🎉 It originally meant a big festival.
⚠ Hochzeit is the wedding day. The marriage itself is die Ehe — and ‘high time’ is höchste Zeit.
heiraten
[HY-rah-ten]to marry, get married(heiratet – hat geheiratet)
📌 Wir heiraten im Mai.
→ We're getting married in May.
💡 Wave ‘Hi!’ on your way to the altar 👰 It once meant ‘to set up a household’.
⚠ No mit: Er heiratet sie. = He's marrying her.
verheiratet
[fair-HY-rah-tet]married📌 Sind Sie verheiratet?
→ Are you married?
💡 The past participle of heiraten = in a married state 💑 ver- replaces ge- here.
Bonus single = ledig · divorced = geschieden
sich verloben
[zikh fair-LOH-ben]to get engaged(verlobt sich – hat sich verlobt)
📌 Meine Schwester hat sich letzte Woche verlobt.
→ My sister got engaged last week.
💡 ver- + loben (to promise) = to promise marriage 💌 loben also means ‘to praise’.
Bonus engaged = verlobt · engagement = die Verlobung
der Heiratsantrag
[HY-rahts-an-trahk]marriage proposal(Pl. die Heiratsanträge)
📌 Er hat ihr im Urlaub einen Heiratsantrag gemacht.
→ He proposed to her on holiday.
💡 Heirat (marriage) + Antrag (application form) = a marriage application 📝 It sounds like paperwork, which makes it funny.
Bonus to propose = jemandem einen Heiratsantrag machen
der Ehering
[AY-uh-ring]wedding ring(Pl. die Eheringe)
📌 Er trägt seinen Ehering an der rechten Hand.
→ He wears his wedding ring on his right hand.
💡 Ehe (marriage) + Ring 💍 The second half is pure English.
Bonus engagement ring = der Verlobungsring
der Bräutigam
[BROY-tee-gahm]bridegroom(Pl. die Bräutigame)
📌 Der Bräutigam wartet nervös vor dem Altar.
→ The groom waits nervously at the altar.
💡 Braut (bride) + old gomo (man) = the bride's man 🤵 English bridegroom is built the same way.
Bonus bride = die Braut · the bridal couple = das Brautpaar
das Standesamt
[SHTAN-des-amt]registry office (births, marriages, deaths)(Pl. die Standesämter)
📌 Sie haben im kleinen Kreis auf dem Standesamt geheiratet.
→ They got married at the registry office in a small circle.
💡 Stand (civil status) + Amt (office) = the office where your status changes 🏛️ Births, marriages and deaths are all registered here.
Bonus the civil ceremony = die standesamtliche Trauung
der Trauzeuge
[TROW-tsoy-guh]best man; witness (at a wedding)(Pl. die Trauzeugen)
📌 Mein bester Freund war mein Trauzeuge.
→ My best friend was my best man.
💡 Trauung (ceremony) + Zeuge (witness) = wedding witness 👀 A woman is die Trauzeugin.
⚠ Weak noun: den/dem/des Trauzeugen
die Hochzeitsreise
[HOKH-tsites-rye-zuh]honeymoon(Pl. die Hochzeitsreisen)
📌 Unsere Hochzeitsreise geht nach Italien.
→ We're going to Italy on our honeymoon.
💡 Hochzeit + Reise (journey) = wedding trip ✈️ The -s- in the middle is just glue.
Bonus You'll also hear die Flitterwochen (the honeymoon weeks).
🇩🇪 A spoonful of German culture
In Germany, the marriage that counts legally is the one at the Standesamt, the registry office. A church wedding is optional, and many couples do both, sometimes on different days.
The night before, some couples hold a Polterabend. Friends smash old plates and china, and the couple sweep it all up together. "Scherben bringen Glück!" — broken pieces bring luck.
And Germans usually wear their wedding ring on the right hand, not the left. Newcomers from left-hand countries are often confused at first. 💍
✅ Quick quiz
Q. You want to say: "My sister got engaged last week." Which sentence is right?
- ① Meine Schwester hat geheiratet.
- ② Meine Schwester ist geschieden.
- ③ Meine Schwester hat sich verlobt.
Show the answer
③ Meine Schwester hat sich verlobt.
sich verloben = to get engaged; geheiratet means married and geschieden means divorced.
Write one line of a German wedding card today. Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Hochzeit! 💐
🔜 Tomorrow's topic: 👶 Pregnancy & babies