Wie bitte?

I like German phrases that are easy to use and in particular I like the phrases that are easy to fit into ordinary sentences. If you are learning the language there will be limits to your vocabulary. You need to be able to ask. Was heißt das auf englisch? Of course English is an adjective so there is no capital letter in German, but we have a capital letter in English for English. Can all those people who complained about the capital letters on German nouns now hang their heads in shame? Grammatically English is just as complicated as German but German pronunciation is a lot simpler, so no more complaints.

You can say was heißt... auf englisch, and just add the word that you want to know. If you want to ask the meaning of a word then you say ‘was bedeutet...?’ ‘Wie bitte?’ is also very useful as it means pardon. Be careful if you use ‘können Sie das wiederholen bitte?’ because it might make just as much sense the second time that you hear it.

Bis bald