---
name: locale-de-de
description: Use when working with the German (Germany) locale (`de-DE`) — its endonym Deutsch (Deutschland), Latin script, left-to-right (LTR) direction, or spoken-population data. Reference data and translation guidance (register, grammar, idiom, typography) for this specific locale; see [[locale]] for general i18n/l10n concepts (BCP 47, plural rules, RTL) that apply across all locales.
---

# Locale: German (Germany) (de-DE)

Reference data for the **German (Germany)** locale — endonym **Deutsch (Deutschland)**, written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

## Identifiers

- **BCP 47 tag:** `de-DE`
- **ISO 639-1:** `de`
- **ISO 639-3:** `deu`
- **Script:** Latn (Latin)
- **Region:** DE (Germany)
- **Text direction:** ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

## Speakers (approximate)

- **L1 (native):** 74,000,000
- **L2 (additional):** 5,600,000
- **L1+L2 (total):** 80,000,000

## Base locale

This is a regional variant of [[locale-de-001]] (German), the base/macro locale for this language.

## Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: **one**, **other** (2 forms).

- **one** — `i = 1 and v = 0` (e.g. 1)
- **other** — everything else (e.g. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)

See [[unicode-messageformat]] for writing plural messages using these categories.

## Translating into this locale

Apply [[locale-de-001]] with German (Germany) conventions.

- **Orthography:** the Duden and the official rules of the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung; the ß is used (Straße) after long vowels and diphthongs.
- **Formats:** day.month.year, 24-hour clock, decimal comma, euro after the amount; "Sie" is the default in business; the consumer web has moved toward "du" in many brands.
- **Vocabulary:** "Handy" (mobile), "Brötchen", "Abitur", "Bundesland", "Krankenkasse"; official terms follow the federal terminology of the Bundesverwaltung and the German Institute for Standardization (DIN).
- **Tone:** direct, factual, and precise; marketing hype and exaggeration are viewed skeptically.

## Common pitfalls

- Using Austrian or Swiss terms ("Jänner", "Velo", "parkieren") for a German audience.
- Over-promising language that sounds like a direct translation of American marketing.
- The general pitfalls in [[locale-de-001]] also apply.

## Learn more

- [[locale]] for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
- [[unicode-messageformat]] for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
- Duden (https://www.duden.de)
- Microsoft Localization Style Guide, German (https://aka.ms/german-styleguide)