Rebecca Thering Last updated: January 2, 2023

Learn German in a Flash: How to Take Advantage of 4 Handy German Flashcard Apps

There’s a reason why young students are encouraged to make flashcards: because this method actually works to help memorize something.

That’s why, if you are learning German, we strongly recommend that you make a set of flashcards to ensure that you master new German vocabulary.

Making these by hand can be cumbersome and time consuming, which is why we’ll be introducing some amazing flashcard apps that’ll make vocab practice slick as ever.

Tips for Making the Most out of Your Flashcard Studying
Flashcard Apps to Learn German Vocab in a Flash
A Note on Making Your Own Paper Flashcards

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Tips for Making the Most out of Your Flashcard Studying

How can you ensure that you learn the vocabulary from your flashcards, and integrate it into your daily life?

Learn 10 new flashcards every day. One new word per day is not enough. More than 10 is too much and could become overwhelming. Ten is the perfect number: just enough so you can keep moving forward with the language, but not so much that you give up on your flashcards on day three. You should also review the flashcards you learned the last few days to make sure the words stick in your head.

Don’t put your mother language on the flashcards. If you are above the beginner levels of German, try to make German-to-German flashcards. That is, don’t put the definition in your mother tongue on one side of the flashcard. Instead, try to describe the word using German words you already know. This will increase your German fluency and decrease your dependence on your native language.

Say the words out loud. Chances are you won’t just be using German to read and write; you’ll also be using it to speak and understand. That’s why it’s crucial to say your flashcard words out loud. Not only will speaking help you memorize the words, but it will also help you with pronunciation and with integrating the words into your spoken vocabulary.

Use pictures as helpful memorization devices. Maybe you can’t think of a way to describe your German word using other German words. Maybe you want a funny image to help you remember whatever word you are trying to learn. For both of these reasons, drawing pictures can be a great way to help you memorize your German words. Some of these apps offer tools where you can draw digitally; if you decide to make your own paper flashcards (see below) this method can also work.

Flashcard Apps to Learn German Vocab in a Flash

Memrise

Cost: $ – limited, free version available
Available on: Web | iTunes | Google Play

Memrise is a website and app that uses image-based flashcards to help you learn languages and vocab. You can take courses in any given level of German (the site also offers other languages and topics) or to create your own courses.

With Memrise’s premade courses, you can easily work your way through the most important German vocabulary at any level. Flashcards come with audio, plus you can choose which meme/image appears for each—so you can pick whatever’s easiest for you to remember for the visual aspect.

The site and app present users with these vocab sets using the “spacing method,” which presents the same information repeatedly at intervals, a technique proven to hammer the information home. New words on Memrise begin as “seeds,” and the site will tell you as soon as words “need watering.”

Memrise also encourages users to make their own courses and share them with the community, though note that you can only make courses on the website version, not the app—but any course made on the website can then be used on the app.

FluentU

Cost: $$ – free trial available
Available on: Web | iTunes | Google Play

FluentU isn’t just a flashcard app, but its video-enhanced flashcards are a central part of its learning method. The program is an immersive one, letting learners watch authentic German videos like movie trailers, music videos, vlogs, commercials and other native German media.

These videos are accompanied by tools to make them accessible to anyone along the journey to language mastery. These include a key words bank, downloadable transcripts and a post-video comprehension quiz.

But the most crucial part of FluentU is its subtitles and flashcard system. Each video has dual-language subtitles. You can turn both the English and the German captions on or off at will, but having the German subtitles on gives you an additional tool to use.

That’s because subtitles are interactive: If you come across a word you’re not sure about, hover your mouse over it for a quick definition or click on it to see its flashcard. These definition cards are contextual—you’re shown the correct meaning for that specific use of the word—and you can add these flashcards to decks of your making directly from the video.

In addition to flashcard sets from videos, there are other pre-made flashcards, like common nouns, basic conjugation, question words and more.

FluentU’s flashcards have example sentences with audio pronunciations. They also have clips from other videos where the word appears with that meaning, for plenty of context. You’ll also get full grammar info for that form of the word, including part of speech, tense, mood, case, etc.

Flashcard decks can be studied with personalized exercises that adapt to your learning. You’ll get many chances to practice choosing, typing and even speaking each word.

MosaLingua

Cost: $$ – limited, free version available
Available on: Web | iTunes | Google Play

MosaLingua is a handy little flashcard app that comes with pre-made cards for useful words and phrases. It includes audio pronunciations, native dialogues, and categories and subcategories you can explore on various subjects like eating, transportation, flirting and more.

The philosophy behind the app is centered around a) learning the most useful parts of the language first and b) not wasting time studying things you already know (this last one being achieved through SRS technology).

What really makes MosaLingua stand out, though, is that in addition to the mobile version of the app, you can use the web version to conveniently translate words and phrases you find in reading material, then add these words and phrases to your flashcards across all devices. This gives you the advantage of being able to customize your learning while still making the process of learning easier.

German Flashcards

Cost: $ – limited, free version available
Available on: Google Play

German Flashcards by BH Inc. is an app that provides users with a set of flashcards containing image, sound and text, which help you memorize information using different senses. And in addition to flashcards, there are a variety of learning modes: study, slide show, matching, memorize, quiz, spelling and re-arrange.

You can make your own flashcards or use the 4,000+ pre-made flashcards that cover nine main categories. Users can also access cards from Super Flashcard and import flashcard sets from Course Hero, Quizlet, and Flashcard Exchange.

Games on this German Flashcards app can be played on your own, with friends or with random users. There’s a handy stats section too, which lets you view your learning progress. Premium features include text-to-speech, the ability to download unlimited flashcards for offline study, and customizing text and background colors on cards.

Cons: Users have to pay more for the full version, and not all words are matched with their article (der, die, das).

A Note on Making Your Own Paper Flashcards

Of course, if you’re in an analog or creative mood, you can always take the time to make your own paper flashcards. The disadvantages of making paper flashcards are that you can lose them or misplace them, and you can’t share them with anyone (while keeping a copy for yourself, that is).

However, the advantages are that you can use them anywhere, not only places where you have data or Wi-Fi for your phone (making them particularly useful when you are traveling in a foreign country). Plus, handwriting words as opposed to typing them or using a pre-made list is often a great way to remember them.

And finally, if you make your own flashcards, you can draw your own funny pictures to accompany them, which I personally find to be a great way to help a word stick in your head.

No matter which method you choose, if you get started on your flashcard collection today, you’ll soon have a built-in way to memorize the German words that you encounter in your reading, lessons or everyday life. So what are you waiting for?