rebeccahenderson Last updated: June 10, 2022

Go with the Flow! 200+ of the Most Common German Nouns

German nouns have a pretty interesting reputation.

If you’ve already encountered some (especially long compound nouns), then you may be a bit intimidated.

But common German nouns that you are actually likely to use in everyday speech are often pretty short and easy to remember.

Once you get started with learning the most common German nouns, you will be building up a vessel of knowledge that will accelerate your learning and transport you towards fluency.

The Basic Characteristics of a German Noun
A Very Quick, Non-scary Look at German Compound Nouns
200+ Most Common German Nouns

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The Basic Characteristics of a German Noun

Here are a few things to know about German nouns that can help you spot them as you read or listen:

(1) Nouns are a person, location, object or concept. Examples of this include der Freund (friend), die Stadt (city), der Ball (ball) and die Freiheit (freedom).

(2) Nouns are capitalized, like proper names in English: Freund, Stadt, Ball, Freiheit.

(3) Nouns can be singular or plural, just like in English.

(4) Nouns have an article, which denotes their gender: der, die or das.

Nouns are used a lot in German, second only to verbs. Keep these characteristics in mind as you read, and you will start spotting nouns in no time!

A Very Quick, Non-scary Look at German Compound Nouns

What is the longest word you can think of?

How about Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz?

This German word meaning “law delegating beef label monitoring” was dropped after changes in EU regulations. But just knowing this 63 letter German word ever existed might make the idea of learning German nouns seem scary.

But before you panic, consider a few things.

Yes, you will see scary German compound nouns, but they follow a certain logic and are specially built to transport extra vocabulary.

Chances are, you probably won’t encounter a 63-letter-long word in your daily German reading, but you might come across smaller compound German nouns. It can be a bit like finding the tail of a snake and the head of another, but practice a few and you will get the hang of it!

You can combine nouns to form one single long word like the example below. Sometimes it forms what looks like a Kuddelmuddel (confusion, muddle) and can look and sound a bit funny.

The word die Groβschachanlage means “giant chess board.”

It is formed from the following words:

groβ means “large” or “giant”
(das) Schach means “chess”
(die) Anlage means “board”

All together, you have “giant-chess-board,” or Groβ-schach-anlage.

Some German compound nouns can be comprised of many, many nouns. The next time you are reading, see what compound nouns you can find.

200+ Most Common German Nouns

Memorizing the nouns below will give you a good general base of German vocabulary. The German words are divided into themed lists so that you can cover useful categories at your own pace.

You can expand upon this vocabulary with this frequency list of the 2000 most common German nouns.

Learning German nouns by hearing and seeing them used in context can be a particularly good way to remember their meanings. You can get this valuable exposure through German novels, movies and web videos. This is especially effective if you watch with subtitles–this way, you can read the phrases you hear and textually dissect how the nouns are at play with other words.

One way to learn German vocabulary with captioned videos is using FluentU, a language learning program that immerses you in German using authentic videos like news clips, cartoons and commercials. The captions on FluentU’s videos are interactive, so you can click words, nouns or otherwise, to get definitions and example sentences. You can also review the words you learn with flashcards and personalized quizzes.

Through a combination of reading, vocabulary lists and authentic German content, you can learn and remember nouns related to countless topics. The more you’re exposed to these words, the better you’ll get at recognizing them in conversations.

So go ahead and browse the categories below. Start learning these nouns so you’ll recognize them when you hear them later in context.

Learn common German nouns in more depth with FluentU.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

Make custom flashcard sets using these word lists and let FluentU pull video content to help you learn them, or use videos that include groups of basic words—like “Breakfast Vocabulary” or “The Days Of the Week Song“—to master useful nouns.

If you wanted to say, “Here is my Uncle Tom and Aunt Theresa” in German, you would say, “Hier sind mein Onkel Tom und meine Tante Theresa.”

Similarly, you would say, “Sie ist meine Schwester” if you wanted to say, “She is my sister.”

Household Objects

house: das Haus
bed: das Bett
table: der Tisch
door: die Tür
pillow/cushion: das Kissen
window: das Fenster
wall: die Wand
floor: der Boden
bedroom: das Schlafzimmer
bathroom: das Badezimmer
kitchen: die Küche
living room: die Wohnung
basement: der Keller
couch: die Couch
chair: der Stuhl
sink: das Waschbecken
toilet: die Toilette
bathtub: die Badewanne
shower: die Dusche
lamp: die Lampe
trash: der Müll
refrigerator: der Kühlschrank
stove: der Herd
microwave: der Mikrowellenherd
dishwasher: die Geschirrspülmaschine
cabinet: das Kabinett

In German, “Ich putze die Dusche” means, “I clean the shower.”

To say, “He sits in the chair,” you would use der Stuhl to say, “Er sitzt auf dem Stuhl.”

Transportation

car: das Auto
truck: der Lustkraftwagen (LKW)
bus: der Bus
plane: das Flugzeug
train: der Zug
boat: das Boot
taxi: das Taxi
school bus: der Schulbus
ticket: das Ticket
pass: der Pass
semi truck: der Sattelzug

Do you take the bus to work? Simply say, “Ich fahre mit dem Bus in die Arbeit.” (Literally, “I travel with the bus to work,” or more colloquially, “I take the bus to work.”)

Pilots would say, “Ich fliege das Flugzeug” to mean they are flying the plane.

Locations

city: die Stadt
country: das Land
mountain: der Berg
plains: die Ebenen
desert: die Wüste
school: die Schule
work: die Arbeit
homeland: das Heimatland

Do you live auf dem Land (in the country) or in der Stadt (in the city)?

Occupations

As with family and friend nouns, occupations have a masculine and feminine form.

pilot:
- der Pilot
- die Pilotin

doctor:
- der Doktor
- die Doktorin

dentist:
- der Zahnarzt
- die Zahnarztin

librarian:
- der Bibliothekar
- die Bibliothekarin

hairdresser:
- der Friseur
- die Friseurin

lawyer:
- der Rechtsanwalt
- die Rechtsanwältin

salesman/woman:
- der Verkäufer
- die Verkäuferin

bus driver:
- der Busfahrer
- die Busfahrerin

teacher:
- der Lehrer
- die Lehrerin

professor:
- der Professor
- die Professorin

assistant:
- der Assistent
- die Assistentin

stock broker:
- der Börsenmakler
- die Börsenmaklerin

marketer:
- der Vermarkter
- die Vermarkterin

insurance agent:
- der Versicherungsagent
- die Verischerungsagentin

truck driver:
- der LKW-Fahrer
- die LKW-Fahrerin

writer:
- der Schriftsteller
- die Schriftstellerin

editor:
- der Redakteur
- die Redakteurin

journalist:
- der Journalist
- die Journalistin

machinist:
- der Mechaniker
- die Mechanikerin

carpenter:
- der Zimmermann
- die Zimmerfrau

computer programmer:
- der Computerprogrammierer
- die Computerprogrammiererin

personal trainer:
- der persönliche Trainer
- die persönliche Trainerin

supervisor:
- der Vorgesetzte
- die Vorgesetzterin

boss:
- der Chef
- die Chefin

caregiver:
- der Pfleger
- die Pflegerin

clerk:
- der Angestellter
- die Angestellte

detective:
- der Detektiv
- die Detektivin

police officer:
- der Polizeibeamte
- die Polizeibeamtin

firefighter:
- der Feuerwehrmann
- die Feuerwehrfrau

What do your parents do?

You could say, “My father is a supervisor, and my mother is a clerk,” or “Mein Vater ist Vorgesetzte und meine Mutter ist Angestellte.”

Food

breakfast: das Frühstuck
lunch: das Mittagessen
dinner: das Abendessen
snack: der Snack
dessert: das Dessert
cake: der Kuchen
bread: das Brot
milk: die Milch
egg: das Ei
flour: das Mehl
sugar: der Zucker
meat: das Fleisch
turkey: der Truthahn
pork: das Schweinefleisch
chicken: das Huhn
tofu: der Tofu
salad: der Salat
pizza: die Pizza
cracker: die Cracker
cereal: das Müsli
oatmeal: das Haferflocken
pancakes: die Pfannkuchen
bacon: der Speck
chocolate: die Schokolade
fruit: das Obst
vegetable: das Gemüse
apple: der Aprfel
carrot: die Karotte
pear: die Birne
banana: die Banane
tomato: die Tomate
potato: die Kartoffel
celery: der Sellerie
broccoli: der Brokkoli
onion: die Zwiebel
cucumber: die Gurke
zucchini: die Zucchini
peach: der Pfirsich
nut: die Nuss
brussel sprouts: der Rosenkohl
lasagna: die Lasagna
spaghetti: die Spaghetti
macaroni: die Makkaroni
peanut butter: die Erdnussbutter
jelly: das Gelee
sandwich: das Sandwich
burger: der Burger
fries: die Pommes
soup: die Suppe
fish: der Fisch
rice: der Reis
beans: die Bohnen
burrito: der Burrito
ham: der Schinken
pasta: die Pasta

Was für einen Apfel haben Sie gern? (What kind of apples do you like?)

You might say, “I like red apples,” or “Ich habe rote Äpfel gern.” It’s always good to eat your fruits and veggies!

Pets

dog: der Hund
cat: die Katze
fish: der Fisch
bird: der Vogel
snake: die Schlange
mouse: die Maus
gerbil: die Rennmaus
hamster: der Hamster
ferret: das Frettchen

If you wanted to say, “My bird’s name is Perry,” you would say, “Mein Vogel heiβt Perry.”

To say, “I have a brown dog,” you would need to make sure “brown” has the correct adjective ending: “Ich habe einen braunen Hund.”

Clothing Items

shirt: das Hemd
pants: die Hose
coat: der Mantel
socks: die Socken
shoes: die Schuhe
shorts: die Shorts
underwear: die Unterwäsche
blouse: die Bluse
bra: der Büstenhalter (BH, for short!)
jeans: die Jeans
belt: der Gürtel
hat: der Hut
tie: die Krawatte
dress: das Kleid
skirt: der Rock
boots: die Stiefel

Welche Farbe hat dein Hemd? (What color is your shirt?)

Mein Hemd ist blau. (My shirt is blue.)

Haben Sie meine Krawatte gesehen? (Have you seen my tie?)

Sports

baseball: der Baseball
basketball: der Basketball
soccer: der Fuβball
football: der Football
hockey: das Hockey
rugby: das Rugby
tennis: das Tennis
lacrosse: das Lacrosse
cricket: das Cricket
volleyball: der Volleyball
golf: der Golf

Welcher Sport haben Sie besser, das Hockey oder den Golf? (What sport do you like better, hockey or golf?)

Ich habe leider beide nicht gern. Ich finde den Golf langweilig. (Unfortunately, I don’t like either. I think golf is boring.)

Personal Belongings

purse: der Geldbeutel
cellphone: das Handy
keys: die Schlüssel
wallet: das Portemonnaie
money: das Geld
watch: die Uhr
jewelry: der Schmuck
chapstick: der Lippenstift
bag: die Tasche
laptop: der Laptop
iPod: der iPod
MP3 player: der MP3-Player
notebook: das Notebook
credit card: die Kreditkarte
driver’s license: der Führerschein

Wo haben Sie deinen Schmuck gekauft? (Where did you buy your jewelry?)

Ich habe deine Tasche gern. (I really like your bag.)

You will end up using a lot of the above German nouns in conversations and writing.

So start here and do your best to memorize as many as you can!