How do you say Company or Business in German?

Whether you’re working at one, founding one, or complaining about one’s customer service - Germans call it a Firma. It’s the everyday word for a business or company, and it shows up in everything from corporate contracts to casual conversation.

The noun Firma means company or business, and it’s one of the 1000 most frequently used nouns in German. It refers to both small and large businesses, especially as recognizable legal or commercial entities.

It’s a feminine noun, so we say die Firma.

Pronunciation

Firma is pronounced [ˈfɪʁma], roughly "FIR-mah," with a short i.

• The “Fir” has a short i, like in “fit"; the r varies by region.
• The “ma” is a short “mah.”
• The stress is on the first syllable: FIR-ma.

It’s clipped, clean, and businesslike - just like the companies it describes.

Example sentences:

• Sie arbeitet in einer großen Firma in Berlin.She works at a large company in Berlin.
• Meine eigene Firma wurde letztes Jahr gegründet.My own company was founded last year.

Nuance and usage tips

Firma is used in everyday speech to refer to a business organization - from local bakeries to international corporations. It’s often interchangeable with:

• Unternehmen - more formal or neutral term for “enterprise”
• Betrieb - a business operation (especially production-based)
• Gesellschaft - legal/business entity (like GmbH = Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung)

But Firma usually refers to the name and identity of a company, especially in legal terms. In German commercial law, Firma is the name under which a merchant conducts business and signs. In everyday speech, Firma often means a company or workplace: Ich bin noch in der Firma. (I'm still at work.) The plural is die Firmen.