Essential German phrases

The standard Austrian hello to anyone you don't know — shops, offices, lifts, stairwells. 'Guten Tag' marks you as German; 'Hallo' as very casual.

Informal hello and goodbye at once, for people you're on first-name terms with. 'Baba' is the affectionate goodbye you'll hear on the phone.

The residence registration form. You must file it within three days of moving in, and your landlord has to sign it. Nothing else — bank, e-card, permit — moves without it.

Building running costs charged on top of the base rent. An advertised 'Bruttomiete' includes them; a 'Nettomiete' or 'Hauptmietzins' does not, and the gap is often €2–3 per square metre.

A fixed-term lease. In regulated old buildings it must run at least three years and the landlord has to knock 25% off the rent for the privilege of the time limit.

A payment to the outgoing tenant for fittings left behind. Legitimate for real, valued items — and unlawful when it's really a fee for handing over the flat.

Council housing built by the City of Vienna. About a quarter of the city lives in one, and you need two years of registered Vienna residence before you can even apply.

January. Austrians say Jänner, not Januar — one of a long list including Paradeiser for tomato, Erdäpfel for potatoes and Sackerl for a bag.

A small, old, unfussy pub-restaurant — the everyday counterpart to the coffee house. A Heuriger is the wine-tavern version, out at the edge of the vineyards.

A small coffee with a dash of milk. Ordering 'einen Kaffee' in a Kaffeehaus gets you asked which one — Melange, Verlängerter, Einspänner, Brauner all mean different things.

133 police, 144 ambulance, 122 fire. 112 reaches all three from any phone, and 141 is the out-of-hours doctor who will come to the flat.