Introducing yourself in German is built on a handful of core sentences. "Ich heiße..." and "Ich bin..." both mean "My name is..." and can be followed by your name, as in "Ich heiße Anna." To say where you come from, you use "Ich komme aus..." plus a country or city, and to give your age, the structure "Ich bin ... Jahre alt" places the number before "Jahre alt." These patterns let you quickly cover the basics about yourself in any first conversation.
Asking others about themselves follows the same logic with question words like "wie" (how) and "wo" (where). The question form for names is "Wie heißt du?" informally or "Wie heißen Sie?" formally, with "du" marking informal "you" and "Sie" marking formal "you." Likewise, "Wo wohnst du?" asks where someone lives informally, while "Wo wohnen Sie?" does so formally. A classic icebreaker is "Wie geht es dir?" or its shortened form "Wie geht's?" for "How are you?", which is answered with "Mir geht es gut" or the shorter "Gut, danke" for "I am fine."
When communication breaks down, certain phrases help you ask for help politely. "Ich verstehe nicht" means "I don't understand," and "Können Sie bitte langsamer sprechen?" politely asks someone to speak more slowly. To find out whether the other person shares your language, you can ask "Sprechen Sie Englisch?", and if you are unsure about an answer, "Ich weiß nicht" covers "I don't know." You can also let others know you are a learner by saying "Ich lerne Deutsch" ("I am learning German"), which often invites patient listeners. To ask the time, the standard question is "Wie spät ist es?"