I’m in a bouldering gym. The lady over the counter tells me it’s 12.90 euros, please.

But before I’m able to say something, she apologises — she had habitually tapped on the “cash” option on her point of sale (POS) system. She apologetically tells me that the wretched software doesn’t allow edits, and pleads for me to pay in cash (I guess I look like someone who would pay by card).

Oh, and we’re speaking in German, not English. Because we’re in Germany.

I search for the words. Eventually I mutter, “Vielleicht im Auto?”

I’m trying to say that I might have cash in the car. I hope I expressed myself correctly…

I walk to the car. No cash. She is satisfied with how hard I tried to deal with her mistake and creates a new card transaction. We proceed to boulder and have fun.

A couple of hours pass. I’m going to get groceries and as I move my feet, my wandering brain poses the question, “Was that the right way to say it?”

I’ve been playing with the new voice feature of ChatGPT on my iPhone recently. The way it speaks is uncannily human, with incredibly natural pauses and words interspersed with “uh”s and “um”s.

So I think it could help answer my question here.

I whip my phone out, launch ChatGPT voice mode, and I speak:

Here’s some context, and I need your help to help me know how to say something in German as a reply to that situation. So I’m in a climbing gym, and the person asks if I have cash. And I said, I don’t have it, but maybe in the car. And so that’s what I wanted to say in German. I said, vielleicht im Auto. Is that correct?”

It replies two seconds later with affirmation and praise:

Yes, “Vielleicht im Auto” is a good way to say “Maybe in the car” in German. Nicely done!

Isn’t it amazing that this Large Language Model understands that I’m speaking in English with a sprinkling of German (”[…] I said, vielleicht im Auto […]”)?

I have no idea how this works, and I’m a software engineer.

While writing this article, I revisited this chat on my computer. I’m curious to know if it can help me even more, by teaching me the way a local would answer in the described social context. So I ask with this prompt:

What else could I have said in this scenario that a local would say?

Here is ChatGPT (4o)‘s full reply:

Here are some other phrases a local might use for “Maybe in the car,” depending on the context and tone:

1. „Vielleicht ist es im Auto.“ (More complete sentence structure: “Maybe it’s in the car.“)
2. „Könnte im Auto sein.“ (Casual: “Could be in the car.“)
3. „Wahrscheinlich im Auto.“ (Suggestive: “Probably in the car.“)
4. „Liegt bestimmt im Auto.“ (Confident: “It’s definitely in the car.“)
5. „Schau mal im Auto nach.“ (Directive: “Check in the car.“)
6. „Eventuell im Auto?“ (Questioning: “Maybe in the car?“)

These options might sound more natural depending on the context—whether you’re making a suggestion, guessing, or prompting someone to check.

Mind. Blown.

Needless to say, I’m going to be doing this a lot more going forward. This may be the key to accelerating my learning of the German language to close-to-local level.