Nick Schäferhoff Last updated: September 22, 2023

How to Master German Vocabulary at Any Skill Level: Our 5-Step System

In German, the 100 most common words make up about 50% of the language.

However, since a lot of these are prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns, limiting yourself to them won’t get you very far.

You’ll be functional in conversation, but you won’t be reading major newspapers just yet—making the next leap in your German skills will require a lot more study.

To understand 85% of German texts, you need to know about 1,300 words. Don’t worry, it’s totally doable.

In this guide, I’ll explain in detail some smart tips, tricks and resources for mastering German vocabulary with confidence.

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How Much German Vocabulary Do You Really Need?

Let’s face it, you’re learning German not merely because it’s fun (you know it is) but also because you have a goal: fluency.

You want to be able to converse in your new language in a natural and unhindered way, and have real conversations.

To get to that point, how much German do you actually have to know?

Do you need to learn an entire dictionary by heart and be able to recite it back and forth? Or is it enough if you only know how to say soccer, beer and sauerkraut to shine in any German conversation?

The answer of course lies somewhere in the middle. You don’t need the vocabulary of a young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but you should still be able to say more than Schwarzenegger does in his Hollywood flicks.

Overall it’s quite surprising how few words you can get by with in everyday life.

It turns out that in German, as in every other language, there’s a core of words that get used a lot by its speakers.

As I mentioned earlier, studying the 100 most frequently used words first automatically opens up exponential parts of the entire language. (You can learn a lot of these here, by the way.) And getting 1,300 German words in your brain unlocks most modern German texts.

Once you get to that point, you should know enough about how to learn German vocabulary to continue learning German practically through osmosis.

But how do you best go about and get these 1,300 German vocabulary words into your head in the first place? Let’s get into that now.

Essential Tools to Learn German Vocab the Stress-free Way

At first, you’ll need a number of tools that a) help you capture new German vocab words and b) learn them systematically. You’re free to choose your own of course, but here are a few ideas.

Notebook

Keep a small notebook on you at all times.

Whether you’re meeting a language partner, watching a movie or reading a book, make sure you have some sort of vessel to capture anything noteworthy. If your cell phone works for you, fine. I personally am faster with pen and paper.

Dictionary

Next in your tool arsenal is a good German dictionary.

Favored options include the Oxford German Dictionary and the Langenscheidt Standard Dictionary German.

If you aren’t into carrying around a thick paper version, here are some great options for German dictionary apps.

Study tools

Lastly, you need some way of actually practicing your new German vocab through quizzing and repetition. This is how you’ll memorize German vocabulary so that it actually sticks.

Paper flashcards are a tried-and-true method, but I personally prefer memorization apps with spaced repetition such as Anki and Memrise. The more engaging the better!

Another option is FluentU, which is an app and website that turns authentic videos into learning tools. You can use FluentU to learn new words in context with interactive captions that give you instant definitions, example sentences, audio pronunciation and more. Plus, any word can be turned into a flashcard that you can study with personalized quizzes.

How to Build a 5-step System to Learn German Vocabulary

Now that you’ve gathered your tools, it’s time to put them to use. The goal is to create a framework that allows you to consistently add German words to your vocabulary and that—if you stick with it—will inevitably lead to success.

As you’ve probably already guessed from the list of tools, the process comes down to the following five steps:

Collection
Translation
Processing
Practice
Repetition

Let’s go over them one by one.

1. Collect unknown vocabulary.

The first step in widening your Wortschatz (German for “vocabulary,” literally word treasure) is to find German words that make sense to add to your knowledge.

In the beginning, this will, of course, be most of them. You can either find relevant vocabulary by using existing German vocabulary lists or by exposing yourself to content and opportunities where new stuff is likely to come up (more on that below).

What’s important is that you write down any word you’re unfamiliar with or anything in your own language that comes to mind that you’d like to or need to say in German.

That’s what the notebook is for. Make it your one-stop tool for German vocab study.

Don’t make the mistake of collecting new words in random places or on different scraps of paper. That makes it much harder to be disciplined. Collect everything in one place so you can process it all together.

2. Look up the meanings of unknown words.

If you’re a diligent student (which I’m sure you are), you should be able to put together a long German vocabulary list in no time.

Now you need to find translations for the words (both German and your own language) to memorize their meanings.

Here’s my favorite method for how to memorize German vocabulary.

What I like to do is create a large list of words in a word processor and batch input them into Google Translate.

This allows me to have a huge amount of words translated instantly, and I can copy and paste both versions into an Excel file to easily import them into my study software.

However, the problem with Google Translate is that its translations aren’t very reliable. It spits out bogus meanings as often as it serves up the right one.

The solution here is to fine-tune your list before importing and committing it to your memory.

You can do so by clicking on Google’s translation in order to see its alternatives. Seeing other possibilities will give you a better impression of the actual meaning.

If that doesn’t make it clear, consult another dictionary such as dict.cc. However, I find that checking the alternate translations usually lets me choose the correct word (and some synonyms).

Should you prefer a different method of looking up German vocab (such as by hand), you can go with what works best for you. I simply found the above method to be the most economical for my purposes.

3. Input them into your study tools.

Now that you have your language pairs, they need to become part of your study system. Depending on what you’re using, this can mean writing flashcards or importing a file into your memorization app.

Anki, for example, allows you to import a .csv file with German words in one column and their counterparts in the other. From there, the software will automatically create flashcards with the language pairs on the front and back.

To do so, merely input your word pairs into a spreadsheet and when saving, choose “Text CSV” as the file format. Pick UTF-8 for the character set and make note of the field and text dividers. You’ll have to match the settings inside Anki for the software to properly process your word pairs.

Whichever method you choose, just make sure everything gets added to your study system (no word left behind!).

4. Practice regularly.

The most important part for attaining your goal of fluency is, of course, to actually learn the things you are collecting. What good are the best tools in the world if you don’t use them?

To ensure consistent study, it’s best to make it a habit. Find some time in your day where you’ll study your vocabulary and set a fixed appointment.

Early in the morning, right before lunch, whenever is good for you. 10 minutes consistently every day is better than an hour once a week on Fridays.

Also, I strongly advise you to use mnemonics to maximize your retention rate.

5. Rinse and repeat.

The rest of the process for how to memorize German vocabulary is just repetition.

If you can, add vocabulary to your notebook daily. Even just five extra words per day (easily found in a five-minute podcast) results in 150 new additions to your German vocabulary in a month.

At that rate, you’d arrive at our target number of 1,300 words in just 8.5 months! If you’re not getting faster, that is (which you will).

Plus by using some of the resources below, you’ll be able to add large chunks of German knowledge to your curriculum in one fell swoop and cut down on that time considerably!

To make the whole process less tedious, I find it best to designate one day at the end of the week for translation and word processing. Sunday night works well.

That way you can collect new words every day for a whole week and then batch input them into the system. It also leaves you free to concentrate on studying vocab during weekdays, thereby creating fewer excuses not to do it.

However, the key is to adhere to this process consistently. If you do, attaining a large German vocabulary should pose no problem at all. Expose yourself to new words, collect them, find their counterparts and study. Easy peasy.

10 Excellent Resources for Learning German Vocabulary

Many people are struggling with where to even find relevant words in the first place.

How do you know which to learn first and which later?

Do you need to know how to say Elektronenmikroskop just because you read it somewhere?

The relative importance of your vocabulary really depends on your language goal.

Using German in an academic environment requires a completely different set of words than trying to, say, partake in a German forum on playing Dungeons and Dragons.

The best idea for acquiring a new language is always to follow your own interests. If you try to integrate German into your actual life and use it to communicate things you care about, you’ll automatically acquire the relevant vocabulary.

That being said, here are some vocabulary sources to progress along nicely.

Word frequency lists: Classic 80/20

As mentioned earlier, in German a few words get used a whole lot while a whole lot of words get used very little. Therefore it makes sense to give precedence to those in the first group.

This is known as 80/20, or the “Pareto principle,” which has many applications—from a perspective of how to learn German vocabulary, the idea is that focusing on the right 20% of German vocab words will produce 80% of your results.

Word frequency lists are your friends in this and can be found online. One good place to start is here.

MosaLingua offers an app and learning system pre-loaded with useful content that functions around the 80/20 philosophy. They also offer spaced repetition to maximize the time you spend learning.

Once you’ve used their pre-selected material to get started, you can continue learning with MosaLingua Web, which allows you to easily create your own flashcards from online content and sync your content and progress across all devices.

Embrace the familiar with cognates

Even if you’re not aware of it, German has a lot of words that are very easy to recognize. These are called cognates. It’s a term that describes words that have been “borrowed” from other languages or share the same root and are therefore very similar.

Because of their common heritage, German and English have a lot of these. Check out this list. More can be found by googling for “German cognates,” “German English loan words” and finally, “German words in English.”

Talk it out with a language partner

As soon as you can communicate even a little in your new language, you should get yourself a German language partner.

Talking to people, especially about your normal life, will yield a plethora of useful words and phrases and bolster your vocabulary list immensely.

Become a Leseratte (bookworm) and read

To improve your proficiency, it’s also imperative that you learn to read German. Whether you start off with children’s books, get a German textbook or branch out to German blogs—just read, read, read (and make sure to write down words you don’t know)!

My personal preference is to read books in my target language on my Kindle, as it offers instant lookup of words I don’t understand.

Zone out to audiobooks

If you favor a more aural-based approach to learning but still want to utilize German texts, you can turn to German audiobooks instead. They’re widely accessible for most smart devices, so you can get your learning done on the go!

With audiobooks, you can still learn in-context German vocabulary. The added bonus is that you can hear the language as it’s spoken, which can thus improve your listening comprehension and pronunciation skills. In addition, you can always rewind or pause the narration as you’d like.

Watch movies and TV (you know you want to)

After print media, you can branch out to moving pictures.

Check out the resources on German dubbed movies and how to watch German TV online.

Use subtitles to catch words you don’t understand and their spelling.

Browse online videos

Online videos are also a highly accessible resource for learning all kinds of German vocabulary. There are a plethora of German-language clips available for instant viewing, and they can range wildly in content. It’ll be incredibly difficult to believe you’ve run out of things to watch and learn from.

YouTube is the world’s largest online video platform, but it can do so much more than just provide entertainment.

Keep a German dictionary handy

As mentioned earlier, a dictionary is pretty much an essential learner tool. A German dictionary can do its primary job of defining words of your choice, but you don’t only have to use it for “on the spot” reasons.

When you look up words with a German dictionary, actively scour through the rest of the info you may typically ignore.

This includes details like synonyms, antonyms, example sentences and etymologies. They can be incredibly useful for memorization and recall purposes further down your studies.

Additionally, if you’re using an online German dictionary, you can utilize some fun learner features provided by the platform. “Word of the day” is a common one in which the platform teaches a new, interesting word every day.

Bop to German songs

German songs with lyrics can be one of the most engaging ways you can pick up new German vocabulary. Different genres can expose you to different uses of the language, whether it’s a crooning ballad or a hardcore rap song.

Plus, because of the repetitive and catchy nature of song lyrics, whatever words you learn can be more easily memorized.

Songs are also quite good at teaching you more casual, idiomatic or slang German. Make sure you keep an ear out for them so you can add some hip and current lingo to your vocabulary bank!

Tune in to German radio and podcasts

Radio shows and podcast sessions make for great background noise, but they can be just as viable as learning resources.

Whether scripted or unscripted, German radio and German podcasts can expose you to a lot of German vocabulary and phrases as they’re naturally used.

Learning with podcasts and radio is also a very portable experience since you can listen to them anywhere. Plus, if you listen to regional-based stations and streams, you can learn some unique words and broaden your German language horizon!

Studying vocabulary on a regular basis forms the foundation for acquiring fluency in German. Yet, possessing functional knowledge requires surprisingly few words.

With a system that both regularly exposes you to new material and lets you practice consistently, getting there isn’t all that difficult. Your breakthrough moment in how to learn German vocabulary might come sooner than you expect.