Secrets Of Swiss German language, restaurant words, raclette, and cooking spaezli

Can you recognize the words for bread and butter and breakfast in German?

Learning German

I have been learning German on Duolingo. I can recognize bread, butter and breakfast. But now I am planning to go to German speaking Switzerland.

Swiss German

What's different about Swiss German? In some ways, from an English speaker's point of view, Swiss German is German made easy. Let's start with the easy bits. 

Firstly, Swiss German is easier for English speakers to read because it uses the double s instead of the vertical squiggly s which most English speakers don't have on their laptop keyboard.

Swiss German speakers are likely to understand standard German, so learning German will help you to be understood when speaking, as well as helping you to read signs and menus. In fact there's a hybrid language, Swiss standard German, which is used for writing and formal situations, which is closer to standard German spoken in Germany. 

Swiss German is also spoken in Liechtenstein, which is sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria.

French in German Speaking Switzerland

You will probably recognize 

fondue (literally melted, usually melted cheese in a large pot for dipping meat and/or vegetables)

and chocolate for dipping fruit

raclette - melted cheese (often raclette cheese) served on boiled potatoes, or on bread as a snack, with black tea or white wine

They use the French word merci for thank you. 

The word for little is li added on the end of a word, notably for bun (little bread), kitten (little cat), hundli for puppy (little dog), like the English doggy and dolly.

Swiss-German - English

Brot - bread / loaf  

Brötli -  little bread (bun?) or roll

Hend Si  ... ? - Do you have ...?

merci - thank you

merci vilmal - thank you very much (literally thanks many times)

rösti - (Same as standard German) grated, fried potato, like American hash bowns

Hash browns, also spelled hashed browns and hashbrowns, are a popular American breakfast food consisting of finely julienned potatoes that have been fried until golden brown. Hash browns are a staple breakfast item at diners in North America, where they are often fried on a large, common cooktop or grill. Wikipedia. Julienned means cutting into long thin strips.

Spätzli  In Switzerland they are called Spätzli or Chnöpfli, in Germany Spätzle - is an egg noodle dish, with pieces of a lumpy shape.

According to wiki, it is the Swabian and Alsacian diminutive of Spatz, thus literally 'little sparrow'.^[3] Some linguists derive it from the word “clump”, meaning dough which tends to form clots.^[4]

Swiss egg noodles. From Wikipedia. Photo taken by Kobako.

Znüni - elevenses (snack in a mid-morning break)

English - Swiss-German

Do you have ...? - Hend Si ...?

bread - Brot )

bun / roll -  brötli (Swiss-German)

croissant (French and English and German) - gipfil (Swiss-German)

chocolate - schoggi (German Schokolade)

I am - ich bi (Standard German is ich bin)

thank you - merci (French and Swiss-German) - (German danke)

German uses capital initial letters for nouns. English and French use capital initials only for proper names (Places and people, personal names).

Useful Websites on Swiss German and German

https://www.swiss-german-online.com/at-the-restaurant.html

Simple and comprehensive

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Swiss-German_phrasebook

Detailed and technical

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_German

Clear, amusing, but fewer words

https://studyinginswitzerland.com/swiss-german-vs-german-differences/

For Standard German

Duolingo.com

Translate Google

https://translate.google.co.uk/

Food Terms in German

https://www.switzerlandisyours.com/E/guide/basics/food-terms-german.html

You can find Swiss delis in the Finchley Road in Dublin, Eire; London 0 though that might just take its name from Swiss Cottage; and  New Zealand.

Food articles

https://www.mashed.com/289205/what-is-spaetzle-and-what-does-it-taste-like/

Entertaining article with recipe and picture of a device for making spaezli:

https://www.helvetickitchen.com/recipes/2015/10/15/spaztli

Spazli maker on Amazon £7.99 plus £4.99 postage to a UK address.

Websites updated Wed July 1st 2026.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to get more readers - top ten tips

Look at the best selling, most readers blogs and copy their content and webpage style.

Yes, I know, this involves having a sexy girl and an exotic location. Or a cute kitten. The top bloggers spend all day preening themselves and before covid-19 they travelled in packs to top spots such as waterfalls and posed separately and together. Now you can add music and backdrops and cartoons.

What if sex, stripping and selling are not your thing?

The selling techniques are well known.

1 Famous Names. & Famous Photos
Add famous names.




For example: "Fake News. Faudster tries to sell painting of pregnant Marilyn Monroe to Trump." (Attracts more readers than, 'I just drank coffee'.)

Add Alliteration.
Tourists flock to Trump Taj Mahal In Atlantic City
Look At  Tump's star in LA



Best French Food

Romantic Restaurants

Zebra Escapes Zoo

2 Series.
(First free lesson of 12 to teach you to speak Chinese fluently.)
I sometimes go back to a earlier post and put a link to a later post. Then in the later post I put a link to the earlier post.

PART 1

Now read

PART 2
If you liked this you will love part 1.

A post on learning Chinese might pick up a few readers in Singapore, China and Asia.
Keep looking at which posts attract readers, and add more on the same subject.




Small print. You must marry the teacher and live with her for ten years. Only available this week to the first two who apply. Only available in Beijing.)

3 Numbers
ADD numbers. Top ten tips for travelling free. If you are writing a series of suggestions, as I am in this article, you can add bullet points o numbers and change the title to include a number.

The more the merrier.
5 people wh recovered from Coronavirus tell (Business Insider)

2 SUSPECTS ARE SISTERS

3 WAYS TO EARN MONEY

4 CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPES

TOP 10 TOURIST DESTINATIONS

100 USES FOR LEMONS

1000 PEOPLE WILL LIVE IF ...

4 Pretty pictures
Not just one at the top of your blog posts. Have one at the start, another at the end, and one every other paragraph.

Amusing Author Angela

5 Look your best.
Best - or worst. Unbelievable but mermerizing.
Giant bust and lips.
Cute kitten with different colour eyes on top of zebra.
Python eating your cat and regurgitating it, in church, on your wedding day.
Quintuplet pregnant nuns in pineapple pattern dresses. Get tattoed with your country's flag and visit every country of the world.
Too difficult? You have not washed or cut your hair? Add a cowgirl hat.
Find a fetching outfit and write an article to match it.

6 Move
 Animation, videos, cartoons.
Couple in hammock swinging over the edge on the top of the world's tallest building.

7 Be topical.
Will Covid-19 end in time for your holiday flights?

8 Ask a question.
(Why did the world not end last Saturday?)

9 Humour.
(See number 8.)
BEWARE OF THE SPIDER FRIGHTENS MORE THAN BEWARE OF THE DOG

10 Drama.
Twins fight each other in coffin -why?

WIFM
Remember WIFM - what's in it for me.
How I made a million pounds is interesting. But how you can make a million pounds is more interesting.

Readers From Where?
Decide which kind of readers you and your advertisers want. I began my blog on travel. I wrote about England.




When I could not find another suitable picture, I used a flag.
I wrote about British English and American English.
I was surprised to see that I had many more readers in the USA than in the UK.

My husband, who is a statistician, pointed out that the USA has a larger population and many more English speaking readers will be on the internet in the USA.



I add contstant references to the USA to interest my American readers. When I wrote an article about the Amy Winehouse trail in London, I included a photo of Amy in the USA.

However, if I wanted to promote Italian restaurants, I would look for Italian subjects, such as Italian foods, wines and film stars.

To attract a worldwide audience, you would want to feature a place or person from each continent.

I then got some surprising results. Russians. Why? I looked back and found I had included a reference to learning Russian, or rather Cyrillic in Bulgaria. And I had included a mention of a Russian keyboard conversion.

This is changing it as you go. The more focused bloggers would plan out their year, their audience. My son who is in marketing websites, (SEO - search engine optimization), told me to focus on the title and audience, then plan my year's blog posts and see if I could link them.

Scheduling Blog Posts
What if you are away on holiday, or want a day of rest? You can schedule a blog post to appear on the day you are away. One popular blogger wrote all his seven posts on Sunday and scheduled them so each one appeared at 7 am local time (he was in London, England, UK) each day of the week.

Finally, how about adding a quiz.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website
https://www.wix.com/
https://wordpress.com/read
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-recovered-spain-patients-advice-2020-5?IR=T

Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)
Author of twenty books including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.
See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts. Also watch videos on YouTube.
See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

Online Toastmasters International Meetings
If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club,
Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England.

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=braddell%20heights%20advanced%20toastmasters
I am also a member of
Singapore Online.9-12 pm, Singapore time, Fridays. I am also a member of
Tampines Changkat Advanced.
Harrovians, Toastmasters Club, London.
Tiarel.toastmasters club, Singapore.

Toastmasters International Find a Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=upSEBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=quick+quotations
lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product