German for Developers: What People Say in Dailies and Calls

Your course taught you full sentences. Your team does not speak in full sentences. The daily starts, someone says "Ist durch", someone else says "Genau", and the meeting has moved on before you finished parsing the first word.

This is the German that fills that gap. Every underlined phrase opens a translation and plays the audio.

Textbook vs. what people say

Same meaning, two registers. The minus lines are what the book gave you. The plus lines are what you will hear.

- Ich habe gestern an der Aufgabe gearbeitet.
+ Gestern hab ich noch am Ticket gesessen.
- Ich habe ein Problem.
+ Da häng ich grad ein bisschen.
- Ich bin fertig.
+ Ist durch.
- Können Sie mir bitte helfen?
+ Kannst du mal kurz drüberschauen?
- Ich werde es später überprüfen.
+ Ich schau's mir nachher nochmal an.

Nothing on the minus lines is wrong. It just sounds like a letter. Spoken German drops endings: habe becomes hab, gerade becomes grad, schaue es becomes schau's. And tech teams say du, so use it unless your team clearly does not. When someone asks you to drüberschauendrüberschauento take a quick look over somethingShort for "darüberschauen". It means a light check, not a full review., they want a quick look, not an audit.

The five little words

These five carry almost no information and most of the tone. Courses skip them because they do not translate cleanly. Dailies are full of them.

• halt means "that's just how it is". The speaker is not asking for a fix. Das ist halt so.Das ist halt so.That's just how it is."halt" marks a fact that nobody is going to change. "eben" does the same job.
• quasi means "basically, sort of". The name is close enough. Das ist quasi unser Seeder.Das ist quasi unser Seeder.That's basically our seeder."quasi" says the label is close enough, not exact.
• genau is agreement, and very often "okay, moving on". Genau. Dann zum nächsten Punkt.Genau. Dann zum nächsten Punkt.Right. On to the next point, then."Genau" is agreement. Alone at the start of a sentence, it often just closes the topic.
• mal softens a request. Without it, the same sentence is an order. Schau mal kurz drauf.Schau mal kurz drauf.Have a quick look at it."mal" turns an order into a casual request. "kurz" promises it will not take long.
• ..., ja. at the end of a sentence keeps the listener with you. It is not a real question. Das ist wichtig, ja.Das ist wichtig, ja.That's important, right.A check that you are still following. Often said with a slight rise, like "right?". Nobody expects an answer.

Giving your update in a daily

An update in das Dailydas Dailythe daily standupNeuter: "das Daily", "im Daily", "nach dem Daily". The long form "tägliches Stand-up-Meeting" is for job ads. has three parts: yesterday, today, blockers. Thirty seconds is a good update. Two minutes is a presentation.

• Open with Kurzes Update von mir.Kurzes Update von mir.Quick update from me. It tells everyone it is your turn and that you will be short.
• Still working on something: Bin da noch dran.Bin da noch dran.I'm still working on it."an etwas dran sein" means to be working on something. Dropping "Ich" at the start is normal in speech.
• Nearly finished: Ist fast durch, muss nur noch getestet werden.Ist fast durch, muss nur noch getestet werden.It's almost done, it just needs testing.
• Stuck: Da häng ich grad ein bisschen.Da häng ich grad ein bisschen.I'm a bit stuck there."ein bisschen" is politeness. It can mean very stuck. Say it early. It is a normal sentence, not a confession.
• Nothing in your way: Keine Blocker von meiner Seite.Keine Blocker von meiner Seite.No blockers from my side.
• Close with Das war's von mir.Das war's von mir.That's it from me. Then stop talking.

Two words do most of the work here. The first is der Blockerder Blockersomething that stops you from making progressThe plural has no ending: "keine Blocker"., the English word with a German article. The second is durchdurch seinto be done, to be through"Das Ticket ist durch" means finished and off your plate. "Fertig" is correct too. "Durch" is what you hear.: when a ticket is finished, say it is durch, not fertig. Both are correct. Only one sounds like you work there.

Many teams skip the call and post the update in the team chat. Same three parts, even fewer words:

**Gestern:** Login-Ticket, PR ist offen
**Heute:** Bug im Checkout
**Blocker:** keine

No verbs, no full sentences. That is the expected style, not laziness.

One sentence, taken apart

This sentence ends a lot of blocker discussions. Select a word group to see its English partner.

Anschauen is a separable verb: in a main clause the prefix an moves to the very end, so you only know which verb you heard when the sentence is over.

Phrases for calls

Remote calls have their own small vocabulary. Most of it is about the call itself.

• Ich teil mal kurz meinen Bildschirm. I'll share my screen for a moment.
• Siehst du meinen Bildschirm? Can you see my screen?
• Du bist noch gemutet. You're still on mute.
• Du hängst.hängento be stuck; in a call: to freeze"Ich häng da" is about you and a problem. "Du hängst" is about your video or audio. Your video or audio froze.
• Ich muss mal kurz gucken. Let me check for a second. It buys you time, and nobody minds.
• Ich schick euch das gleich in den Chat. I'll send it to you in the chat in a moment.
• Bei mir wirft das einen Fehler. It throws an error for me.
• Gibt's noch Fragen? Any more questions?
• Passt. Works for me.
• Alles gut. All good. Also the answer when someone apologises.
• So weit, so gut. So far, so good.

The tone is lighter than you might expect. A small joke at your own expense fits well: Ist das ein Mac-Problem oder ein Ich-Problem? Is that a Mac problem or a me problem?

Verbs you will hear about projects

Project talk is mostly verbs, and many of them are separable. Here they are next to the commands they describe:

git clone git@github.com:team/shop.git   # das Repo klonen
git pull                                 # sich den aktuellen Stand runterziehen
python -m venv .venv                     # die Umgebung aufsetzen
pip install -r requirements.txt          # die Abhängigkeiten installieren
pip install -U -r requirements.txt       # die Abhängigkeiten updaten
python manage.py migrate                 # migrieren
python manage.py loaddata seed.json      # eine Datei einlesen
python manage.py runserver               # den Server hochfahren

The verb for day one is aufsetzenaufsetzento set upSeparable: "Ich setze das Projekt neu auf.": ein Projekt aufsetzen, to set a project up. The verb for every morning is hochfahrenhochfahrento start upSeparable: "Fahr mal den Server hoch." The opposite is "runterfahren".. Sich etwas runterziehen is to pull or download something: Zieh dir mal den aktuellen Stand runter. And a script that breaks on every second run is fehleranfällig, error-prone.

Denglisch is fine

Do not search for the "proper" German word. Nobody translates deploy. The English verb gets a German ending and that is the whole rule: deployen, mergen, committen, pushen.

The past participle takes ge- at the front and -t at the end:

• Ich hab's gefixt. I fixed it.
• Ist gemergt. It's merged.

Some words stay fully English: Das Ticket ist ready.

A current example: Hab das mit Copilot generieren lassen, muss aber noch drüberschauen. I had Copilot generate that, but I still need to look over it.

A daily, start to finish

Everything above, in one short standup. Play it once without the English. Then switch the English on and check what you missed.

Count the little words: mal twice, halt once. Then look at the last exchange. The word bilateralbilateralbetween the two of usIn German offices it means "just the two of us, outside the meeting". No diplomacy involved. has nothing to do with diplomacy. It means the two of you sort it out after the meeting, and everyone else gets their time back.

Check yourself

Three questions. No score, just an explanation each.

Cheat sheet

The ten phrases that cover most dailies and calls:

1. Kurzes Update von mir.Kurzes Update von mir.Quick update from me. Quick update from me.
2. Bin da noch dran.Bin da noch dran.I'm still working on it."an etwas dran sein" means to be working on something. Dropping "Ich" at the start is normal in speech. I'm still working on it.
3. Ist durch.durch seinto be done, to be through"Das Ticket ist durch" means finished and off your plate. "Fertig" is correct too. "Durch" is what you hear. It's done.
4. Da häng ich grad ein bisschen.Da häng ich grad ein bisschen.I'm a bit stuck there."ein bisschen" is politeness. It can mean very stuck. I'm a bit stuck there.
5. Kannst du mal kurz drüberschauen?drüberschauento take a quick look over somethingShort for "darüberschauen". It means a light check, not a full review. Can you take a quick look?
6. Keine Blocker von meiner Seite.Keine Blocker von meiner Seite.No blockers from my side. No blockers from my side.
7. Das war's von mir.Das war's von mir.That's it from me. That's it from me.
8. Du bist noch gemutet. You're still on mute.
9. Ich schick euch das gleich in den Chat. I'll send it in the chat in a moment.
10. Lass uns das bilateral klären.bilateralbetween the two of usIn German offices it means "just the two of us, outside the meeting". No diplomacy involved. Let's sort it out between the two of us.

That is enough for tomorrow's daily. Dann schönen Feierabendder Feierabendthe end of the working day"Schönen Feierabend!" is the standard goodbye when someone logs off for the day.!