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I would like to express a person's height in German. For example, if I wanted to say, I am six feet tall, I think I could say:

Ich bin sechs Fuß Höhe.

Or if I wanted to say that my girlfriend is 5 and a half feet tall I would say:

Meine Freundin ist fünf und hälfte Fuß Höhe.

Is that correct?

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    The imperial sizes also need to be translated to metric ones (centimeter probably), same applies for weight (kilogramm). Otherwise the typical German addressee will have to resort to his/her unit converter.
    – guidot ♦
    Oct 2, 2017 at 15:24
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    "Fuß" is a part of body that we use to walk. It is not a unit anybody uses who speaks German. We have "Meter", "Zentimeter" and so on.
    – Hubert Schölnast
    Nov 28, 2017 at 20:40
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    @HubertSchölnast It used to be. duden.de/rechtschreibung/Fusz#Bedeutung4
    – Eller
    Nov 29, 2017 at 10:41

3 Answers 3

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No, it is not.

When talking about a person's height you have to use "Größe".

"Ich bin 185 cm groß."

"Meine Freundin ist 170 cm groß."

"Höhe" is used for things, but not for people. For example:

Welche Höhe hat dieser Baum?

would translate to

What's the height of this tree?

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    It would be more natural to say: "Wie hoch ist dieser Baum?", although the other phrase is not wrong.
    – Martin Peters
    Dec 5, 2014 at 10:07
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    Could you add that the "groß" is often skipped,as is the "cm" or "meter"... "Ich bin eins achtzig" That's idiomatic too.
    – Emanuel
    Dec 5, 2014 at 11:45
  • @MartinPeters That's true. However I feel like using the noun in both languages simplifies comparing the sentences.
    – J_LV
    Dec 5, 2014 at 14:43
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    You would probably not ask "Welche Höhe hat dieser Baum?", but "Wie hoch ist dieser Baum?".
    – Paul Frost
    Jul 3, 2020 at 23:56
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If you use feet, most people in Germany will have no clue how much that is. Always use the metric system.

Ich bin eins achtzig groß. (1 Meter und 80 Zentimeter.)
Meine Freundin ist einen Meter fünfundsechzig groß.

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Meine Freundin ist fünf und hälfte Fuß Höhe.

When talking about half of a value, use "~einhalb" like e.g.

  • diese Melone wiegt dreieinhalb Kilo (3.5 kg)

  • dieses Kind ist eineinhalb Meter groß (1.5 m)

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    This is correct, but just a small part of the answer. See also the other answers regarding feet vs cm --- you probably don't need to use "hundertsechzigeinhalb Zentimeter". stackexchange is not a discussion forum. Please take the tour, and only post new and complete answers, not answers to other answers.
    – Robert
    Nov 28, 2017 at 20:05
  • maybe make a mention that your second example would be phrased "anderthalb" meaning eineinhalb in a good portion of cases.
    – abbabab
    Dec 1, 2017 at 15:33

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