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There are only a few German words you need to know about.
You WILL run across them.

The information on this page was taken from several sources. Sources included past articles in BMW MOA ON magazine, from a posting by Joe 'Cuda' on 20 January 2001 to the Airheads LIST, and some of my own input.....and from corrections supplied to me by Hans-Jürgen of Germany.

I have attempted to use ASCII code to show the way the German's might show these words in PRINT. If they look totally weird, and maybe print something not like a German letter, well, you know how computers are....

AUF You may see this on your fuel tank petcocks. It does NOT MEAN OFF, it means ON!!

BMW GmbH is often translated by Americans as BMW Company. It is not exactly so. BMW stands for Bayerische Motorenwerke. We all translate that to mean Bavarian Motor Works. GmbH means Gesellschaft mit beschränker Haftung....a company with limited liability....sort of the way LLC or Corporation is used. BMW AG stands for Aktiengesellschaft....meaning that it is a company that issued shares of stock.

Bitte, Danke Please, thank you...and bitte also means You Are Welcome. Bitte comes from bitten,' to ask for'. Joe explained about dankeshoooon (pronunciation) to mean Thank ya kindly. from schön, which means pretty.

The F dot (or, Z marking, 1981+ bikes) is seen (via spark triggered strobe light at the timing port near the oil dipstick) by raising the rpm until the timing no longer continues to advance, this point is about 2000 rpm on the early stock ignition /5 models, and 3000 on models after that.   There are a number of mechanical advance versions, so if your /5 maximum occurs at 3000, don't be alarmed.

Farben     colors.   color legends are included, with English translations, on BMW schematics.   NOTE that for paint jobs, HELL means light and DUNKEL means DARK.

Fernlicht   high beam. Fern meaning something far or being far away.

Getriebe   transmission

Gummikuh this is often seen in conjunction with a description of handling of old BMW airheads...it means rubber cow.

H as used in parts catalogs: Hinterrad meaning rear wheel.

Heiß   means HOT

Kalt    means COLD.

Kurbelwelle   crankshaft

lampe, licht   lampe is light device that shows or indicates, such as a LAMP BULB, but LICHT means the light itself.

Links, Rechts, left, right. As marked on some valve covers, as an example: L, or R

OT means Top Dead Center for the piston(s), that point, exactly, when the pistons are fully outwards. OT, in German, is Oberer Totpunkt, more correctly translated as the top dead point.

Rad is wheel, so motorrad is motorized wheel, but wheel can mean cycle, so hence motor-cycle.

Reifen used for tire

The S mark is the Static timing point, that is, no rpm or low rpm, and the S stands for Spaetzündung (minimum advance; that is, late or retarded).   There is a mark for the maximum advance point it is a dot next to an F on early models, and a Z on the last models, and is Frühzündung (spark advanced).

Scheisse    feces, but means more like we would use the word SHIT, especially in exclamatory talk.

Schraube   screw

Speichen wheel spokes

Unterbrecher (fully: unterbrecherkontakt) literally means under-breaker, or interrupter, and for us it means the mechanical ignition points in the old mechanical points systems. Impulsegeber would be used for the electronic pickup device (Hall element, etc) in the more modern ignitions.

Ventil valve, as in cylinder head types, also for the valve in the tire or wheel.

V as used in parts catalogs: Vorderrad, meaning front wheel

Vorn, often shown as V in parts catalogs means FRONT as an adjective; whilst Vorderansicht is as noun.

The Z marking, 1981+ bikes, is seen (via spark triggered strobe light) by raising the rpm until the timing no longer continues to advance, this point is about 3000 rpm. See F marking

ZU You may have seen this, guess where?... and guess what it means? see very bottom of this page

Zündung means ignition

Zündkerzen means spark plugs

Zündzeitpunkte: ignition points or timing. confusion? see Unterbrecher and Impulsegeber

For a site for German, English, French, and Spanish tranbslations, etc.: http://dict.leo.org

You may find that some spellings are slightly different, where, example ü is shown on other spellings as ue. Another way of putting this is that the Germans have different ways of putting spelling in print form. Example would be flüße which is the same word for river as fluesse.

EI sounds like EYE; IE sounds like the ee in tree.

That funny looking "B", which is not a B at all, it is printed like ß, is prounounced as if it was SS.

The double dots over a letter are called umlauts, and the effect is to soften the sound of the vowel.

01-26-2008: minor clarifications
02/04-2008: edited, updated, thanks to Hans-Jürgen of Germany
02/29/2008: edited to reflect sources for this article