Parts of the Body

Learning Body Parts in German#

Did you know that your own body is a wonderful tool for learning German? When you learn the names for your body parts in German, you can point to them, touch them, and move them as you practice! This makes it much easier to remember the words.

The German word for body is der Körper (dare ker-per). And the word for body parts is die Körperteile (dee ker-per-ty-leh). That is a long word, but German often makes new words by combining shorter words together. "Körper" means body, and "Teile" means parts. Body parts = Körperteile!

The Head — Der Kopf#

Let us start at the very top! Your head in German is called der Kopf (dare kopf). It rhymes with the English word "cough"! Touch your head and say "der Kopf" out loud. This is a masculine noun, so it uses the article "der".

On your Kopf, you have:

• das Haar (dahs hahr) — the hair
• das Auge (dahs ow-geh) — the eye
• die Nase (dee nah-zeh) — the nose
• der Mund (dare moont) — the mouth
• das Ohr (dahs or) — the ear

The Arms and Hands#

Now stretch out your arms! In German:

• der Arm (dare arm) — the arm (this one sounds just like English!)
• die Hand (dee hant) — the hand
• der Finger (dare fing-er) — the finger

The Body and Legs#

Now let us go further down:

• der Bauch (dare bowkh) — the belly / stomach
• das Bein (dahs bine) — the leg
• der Fuß (dare foos) — the foot

Singular and Plural Body Parts#

Something fun about body parts: most of us have two of many of them! In German, the plural (more than one) form of many body parts changes slightly:

• die Hand / die Hände — hand / hands
• das Bein / die Beine — leg / legs
• das Auge / die Augen — eye / eyes
• das Ohr / die Ohren — ear / ears

When something is plural in German, the article always becomes "die", no matter what it was before. Cool, right?

Now stand up, touch each body part, and say its name in German! Learning with your body is the best way to learn body vocabulary.