Learning German

Basic Information 

Learning a new language is hard, but not impossible. Whether German will be your second or fifth language, it will take a lot of work to learn. It can also be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. Below you will find all of the free resources that I find helpful for learning the language, as well as a 7 unit crash course to learn the basics of the language. But first, let's talk about how language learning is measured. 

There are different language learning levels ranging from A1 (Beginner) to C2 (Native level) that differ based on vocabulary, grammar, and comprehension. Here is some basic information about what you can do and what you need to know at each level:

A1: The very basics. You can talk about who you are, where you are from,  and you can ask and answer very simple questions. 

A2: Still basic, but a little bit more. You can talk about routines, things you like, and can have small focused conversations. 

B1: This is the start of the intermediate levels. You can deal with everyday situations at school or work, you can talk about experiences and dreams. 

B2: You can communicate in most situations without strain. You can give a presentation and argue a point. You can read and comprehend long texts. 

C1: You can describe and present complex subjects in detail, in both professional and academic settings. 

C2: You can easily understand anything that you hear or read. You understand and can use nuanced vocabulary and expressions. 

What level you need to get to depends on what you want to do in Germany. For example, if you want to do an English taught master's program in Germany, you do not have to prove any German language knowledge (although I recommend an A1 at minimum before coming here). However, if you want to attend a vocational training program, you would need at least a B1. 

How long it will take to achieve each of these language levels can also vary. A1 can be achieved in as little as a week. However, as you go up in levels, the grammar and active vocabulary requirements basically double. With focus, a B1 level knowledge is possible within 6 months. But like all things in life, how well you do is a reflection of how much work you put in. 

There are two main concepts that can help you learn even faster: spaced repetition and comprehensive input. Spaced repetition is the idea that you practice the things that are hardest for you most often. For example, lets say you're working on a vocabulary list. If there is a vocabulary word that you are struggling with, during your study session you should look at it multiple times. However, if there is a word that you mostly have memorized you may only need to look at it once or twice throughout your session. The AnkiDroid app is great for helping with this. 

Comprehensive input means that you are exposing yourself to inputs (videos or texts) that are above the level that you are currently on. This helps you learn patterns of the language and common words that you may not know yet. It also helps you learn new vocabulary by context clues. For example, if you read a sentence that says "I am eating (unknown word) for my birthday. You can make an educated guess that the unknown word would be cake. This is an incredibly useful skill that will help you immensely living in your new country. The best option for comprehensive input is videos with the subtitles turned on. This allows you to hear and read German at the same time. As a general rule of thumb, you should be understanding around 60% of what is happening during comprehensive input. If you don't, perhaps you should choose an easier learning source. 

Free German Learning Resources

Apps

Duolingo: As an (almost) 1000 day streak holder myself, I love Duolingo. It is free and fun. However, while Duolingo can teach you new vocabulary, it does not do a very good job at teaching you a language. But, it helps keep you in the German learning mindset even on days when you don't have time for a full study session. Bonus tip: If you try to finish all of the lessons in a unit, it will take a lot of time. Try to skip units when you can to help progress faster. 

Google Translate: As you are learning German, I find it helpful to try to translate things in my head as I am going through everyday life. For example, if I am on a walk and I see a bridge, I will look up the word for bridge (die Brücke). Google translate is also a lifesaver once you move to Germany and have to do everyday tasks such as going to the grocery store. 

Quizlet: Making flashcards for the German vocabulary that you can do anytime is a great way to help you learn faster. In addition to your own flashcard sets, you can also look at ones that others have made like "100 Most Common German Verbs".

AnkiDroid: AnkiDroid is an app that is designed to help you learn a lot of information fast. It uses the spaced repetition method I described in the Basic Information section. Like Quizlet, it also has several premade German flashcard sets, some even include pronunciation. 

Websites

DW Learn German: This is a free and comprehensive learning resource that can teach you from A1 to C2 using a variety of games, shows, and texts. ​

German Very Easy: A complete guide to all of the German grammar concepts. This goes through everything from verb conjugation to Konjunktiv II, which is quite advanced and rare in everyday language. If you learn by reading, this resource is perfect for you.

Linguno: Speaking of verb conjugation, it can be difficult to wrap your head around the concept if you don't already speak a language that uses it. This website has conjugation drills in all of the different cases, and you can also change the difficulty of the sentances it gives you!

German With Laura: Cases in German are also difficult. Most of the content on German With Laura is behind a paywall, but you can do her intro mini-course with exercises explaining the four main German cases that you will use on a daily basis. 

Youtube

Easy German: This channel is great for learning vocabulary for everyday situations as well as how everyday people talk. They have two main types of videos, one where they go through a common task in slow German and the other where they do street interviews. When watching videos in German, I highly recommend using my vocabulary learning template at the bottom of the page to help retain more words.

Your German Teacher: Another great grammar source that covers everywhere from A1 to B1. His videos are in playlists according to each level, so you can easily follow the course. 

Tagesschau: The Tagesschau is a very popular daily German news show. Each episode is around 15 minutes. They have the regular Tagesschau, as well as "Tagesschau in einfacher Sprache" (Daily show in easier language) which is ideal for beginners. 

Extra auf Deutsch: A one season TV show for beginner to intermediate German learners. I would recommend this for people at levels A2 to B1.  

Crash Course

This course is designed to help you learn the very basics of the German language so that you are able to communicate with others when you move to Germany. It will help you learn the building blocks of the language so that you can build on your vocabulary and grammar skills as you learn from the world around you. The only things you need for learning German are a notebook, a pencil, and an internet connection. Note: None of the charts here are mine, they are for illustrative purposes only. 

Unit 1: German Alphabet & German Survival Phrases

German Alphabet

Watched the above video and repeat the letters out loud as you hear them. Note that some letters are pronounced differently than in English: c, h, i, j, v, w, y, z. Also, there are four new special characters: Ä, Ö, Ü, β. Write the alphabet down and next to each letter write how you would pronounce it. 

Example: a: ah

German Survival Phrases

The very basic words and phrases you will need as soon as you get to Germany. Most of these are also the first words that Duolingo will teach you. Memorize the entire list. If you don’t know how to pronounce something, type it into Google Translate and it will read it aloud to you. 

• Ja: Yes

• Nein: No

• Hallo: Hello

• Tschüss: Goodbye

• Auf Weidersehen: Goodbye (formal)

• Bitte: Please

• Danke: Thank you

• Entschuldigung: Excuse me

• Hilfe: Help

• Fahrkarte: Ticket

• Sprechen Sie Englisch?: Do you speak English?

• Wie veil kostet das?: How much does that cost?

• Ich möchte: I would like

• Wie heiße: What do you call

• Wo sind die toiletten, bitte?: Where are the bathrooms please?

• Links: Left

• Rechts: Right

• Geradeaus: Straight ahead

• Eingang: Entrance

• Ausgang​: Exit

Unit 2: Pronouns

Unit 3: Articles

Articles are the words that help us understand whether the subject we are discussing is general or specific. The only articles we have in English are “a”, “an”, and “the”. Articles are broken up into the categories definite and indefinite. For example, “I want the apple”. With this sentence, it is understood that I want a specific apple, not just any apple. The is called a definite article. On the other hand, “I want an apple” implies that I want any apple, not just a specific one. A and an are considered indefinite articles. It is helpful to know the articles in German because they are used in almost every sentence. In German, there are more articles because German is a gendered language. This means that each noun (person, place, or thing) is assigned a different gender, and the articles that you use for a word changes based on it’s gender. In German, there is no reason behind the gender assignment for each noun, so if you wanted to perfect your grammar you would need to memorize the gender of each noun. If that is not your style (it is not mine), then start by memorizing the basic forms of the word “the” and “a”.

• Der: the, masculine

• Die: the, feminine

• Das: the, neutral

• Ein: a, masculine and neutral

• Eine: a, feminine

Using a different article can change the meaning of a word. For example, “der Latte” translates to “a coffee.” However “die Latte” translates to “a boner”. This means it is important to at least try to use the correct article. For this, I would recommend that every time you learn a new noun, you memorize the article that goes with it. This can save you a lot of time down the road. Quick tip: if you can't remember what article goes with a word, use "die". It is the most commonly used article in German, so you have a good chance at being correct. 

Watch the following video to learn more:

Der Die Das? 

Like pronouns, there is another level to articles. When you start to deal with different cases, the articles will also change, as you can see in the following chart. You don’t have to completely memorize this chart, you just want to be able to recognize the words as articles. 

Unit 4: Numbers

Lets take a break from some of the more confusing topics and move back to something simple: numbers! Numbers are important to learn for many situations. For example, “Möchtest du ein bier, oder sechs?” (“Do you want one beer or six?”). For numbers, you should start by learning 1-20. Then you learn to count to 100. For now, 100 is high enough. I recommend watching the second video after you have 1-20 memorized. As the person in the video says the number, say it out loud with them to practice your pronunciation. Be able to say the numbers forwards and backwards. As you are going through your day, when you see a number try to think of it in German. Doing all of these things will help your understanding. As a disclaimer, German does numbers a little differently. For example, 22 is "zweiundzwanzig" or "two and twenty". Don't be scared of the long words in German, it is really just a bunch of smaller words squished together. 

Numbers (Part 1) | Zahlen 

Numbers (Part 2) | Zahlen 

Unit 5: Conjugation

Back to the more complicated material, German verbs (action words) are conjugated. Conjugation is when you change the ending of a verb to help specify who or what is doing the action. For example, the verb putzen (to clean) ends in the letters “en”. When conjugating the verb, you switch out the “en” for the correct verb ending based on who is completing the action. Most of the time this conjugation follows a pattern, so we will start by memorizing the pattern. Watch the following video and use the following chart to write down the regular pattern. You can use the website Linguno to help you practice conjugating as well. To know the definition of any word you can click on it. The subject that you are conjugating to can be found on the left above the English translation of the sentence. Practice this over a few days until you reach 5 stars. This website has other conjugation drills with more verbs when you want to practice those too. ​

Verb Conjugation Video Explanation

Conjugation will also change depending on which tense you are in. For example, if you are talking about the past, the conjugation will be different than if it were in present tense. So, you may see a word which you know the first part of (called the stem) but it has a different ending. For now, just focus on the present tense conjugation. Conjugation takes some practice, but I know you can do it! You'll have it down in no time. 

Unit 6: Sentence Structure

There are a couple of key differences between the sentence structure of English and German. The first two differences that you should learn are the differences in capitalization and the verb placement in a sentence. 

Starting with capitalization, in English you have to capitalize specific nouns such as the names of towns. However in German, all nouns (people, places, and things) are capitalized. For example, you would capitalize the word “das Flugzueg” (the airplane) in German because it is a thing. This is very helpful when reading German because you know all capitalized words are nouns. 

Verb placement is also very particular in German. The first verb within a sentence is placed in the second position, after the subject. If there is a second verb within a sentence, it is placed at the end of the sentence. 

For example:

Ich gehe ins Krankenhaus.

I     go   to the  hospital.

Ich gehe am Montag wandern.

I      go    on  Monday hiking.

This changes if you are asking a yes or no question. In this situation, the verb is placed as the first word in the sentence. 

For example:

Möchtest  du      ins kino         gehen?

Want       you   to the movies     go? (Do you want to go to the movies?)

Here is a video that helps explain the concept. You should memorize this rule. 

Basic Word Order in German 

Bonus: Do the one hour free noun course from German With Laura

Unit 7: Going forward

So... What's next? Now you can partake in my favorite form of learning German, learning from the world. Comprehensive input. Now you can use your German skills while doing things that you enjoy. This approach combines learning with things that you like to make you more excited to do it. It will also help you learn the vocabulary for topics you like so that you can talk about it with others. Here are a few examples:

Watch Youtube videos in German about things you like

Read short stories in German

Watch German reels

Switch your gaming controls to German

Watching shows you enjoy dubbed in German

Watching the news in German

When you do activities like these, you learn words faster than you realize. You already know the articles and pronouns. You can spot which words are verbs because they are conjugated. Nouns are always capitalized in writing so you know where those are too. You may not know that exact meaning of each word, but you can use context clues to help you figure it out. Videos and pictures are a big help here. When you see a word over and over again, you start to memorize it. It happens fast. If you want to supercharge this learning, you can use this worksheet that I made. You can print it out, or just write it down in your notebook. You write down 10 new words that you learned from your video or story, try to write down a sentence with it, then use a tool like Google Translate or AI to help you correct it. As a note, Google Translate does not always translate things directly, so an AI tool may be better here.