Good Luck with your work – Translation into German

The German language, Deutsch, written in Latin script, is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. One of the major languages of the world, it is estimated to have approximately 90–95 million people speaking German as a first language, 10–25 million speaking it as a second language, and 75–100 million speaking it as a foreign language. This would imply approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide.

The language is known today as German is believed to have originated from Proto-Germanic, which began to develop around 2000 B.C., as people began to settle in western areas of the Baltic Sea. The first-ever record of the German language dates back to a time when the Romans came into contact with inhabitants of the Rhine-Danube area during their occupation in the first century BC. Since then German has gone through many changes, from Old High German (from about 700 AD to the eleventh century); Middle High German (from about 1050 to 1350); Early New High German (1350 to 1600) to New High German (from about 1600 to the present). Modern-day German, often referred to as “High German”, or Hochdeutsch, used as the language of administration, higher education, literature, and the mass media, is likely to be unrecognisable from the language that the Romans first observed.

It is the most spoken native language within the European Union. German ranks the sixth most popular language in the world, after Chinese, English, Hindi-Urdu, Spanish, and Russian. German is also widely taught as a foreign language, especially in Europe, where it is the third-most taught foreign language after English and French, and the United States. The language has been influential in the fields of science and technology, where it is the second most commonly used scientific language and among the most widely used languages on websites. The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in the world being published in German.

German is an official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg, Belgium and parts of southwestern Poland, as well as a national language in Namibia. It is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. It is also recognised as a minority language in Brazil (9 municipalities), Czech Republic, Denmark (Syddanmark), Hungary, Romania, Russia (Azovo German National District),  Slovakia (regional).

1. Viel Glück mit deiner Arbeit – Good Luck with your work
2. Ich halte/drücke (dir) die Daumen – I’ll cross my fingers (for you)
3. Hals- und Beinbruch! – Good luck! Break a leg!
4. Herzlichen Glückwunsch! – Congratulations!
5. Alles Gute! – All the best! Best wishes!
6. Viel Glück! – Good luck!
7. Viel Glück heute beim Wettkampf! Good luck at today’s competition!
8. Viel Glück, mein Freund! Good luck, my friend!
9. Good Luck for your project – Viel Glück für Ihr Projekt
10. Good luck for your new job – Viel Glück für Ihren neuen Job

As with many languages, German has evolved with society and sociopolitical factors have helped shape the language as it is today. New words from other languages have been adopted by German speakers. Others have been introduced into the German language due to more interaction with foreigners either due to migration, trade, war or the development of new technology from cinema to the Internet. 

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