Vocabulary

German Vocabulary Lists by CEFR Level

7,164 German words graded A1 to C2, each with its article and plural or its principal parts, English glosses, 34,807 example sentences from real usage, and native audio. Each level is one list ordered by frequency, so the words you meet first are the ones that carry the most meaning.

7,164 words

34,807 examples

7,031 with audio

6 CEFR levels

By level

Pick your level

Each level lists only the words that level adds. Working through A1 then A2 gives you the full cumulative vocabulary with nothing repeated.

A1 · Beginner 378 words Your first German: everyday words, der/die/das, and short sentences you can use on day one. The start of the frequency list Start at word 1 A2 · Elementary 568 words Everyday German: shopping, travel, family and work, plus the past tense and modal verbs. 946 cumulative from A1 Start at word 1 B1 · Intermediate 842 words The independent-user threshold: opinions, plans, experiences, and connected written German. 1,788 cumulative from A1 Start at word 1 B2 · Upper Intermediate 1,861 words Fluent, spontaneous German for study and work, including abstract and technical topics. 3,649 cumulative from A1 Start at word 1 C1 · Advanced 2,987 words Academic and professional German: implicit meaning, register, and long complex texts. 6,636 cumulative from A1 Start at word 1 C2 · Mastery 528 words Near-native command: nuance, idiom, and effortless reading of anything written in German. 7,164 cumulative from A1 Start at word 1

By gender

der, die or das

German nouns carry a gender you have to learn with the word. These three lists let you drill them in bulk — and the pattern in the endings starts to show once you see a thousand at once.

Masculine der — 839 nouns Every masculine noun in the list, commonest first. Browse Feminine die — 1,748 nouns Every feminine noun in the list, commonest first. Browse Neuter das — 521 nouns Every neuter noun in the list, commonest first. Browse

By word class

Verbs, nouns, adjectives

Part of speech 1,897 verbs German verbs with their principal parts (present, preterite, past participle) and auxiliary. Browse Part of speech 3,165 nouns German nouns with gender, article, plural and genitive. Browse Part of speech 1,690 adjectives German adjectives with comparative and superlative forms. Browse Part of speech 246 adverbs German adverbs of time, place, manner and degree. Browse Part of speech 151 function words Prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, articles and numerals — the connective tissue of German. Browse

By subject

Topic word lists

All 38 topics

Common questions

How many German words do I need at each CEFR level?

This list holds 7,164 words graded A1 to C2: A1 adds 378, A2 adds 568, B1 adds 842, B2 adds 1,861, C1 adds 2,987, C2 adds 528. Cumulatively that is about 946 words by A2, 1,788 by B1 and 3,649 by B2 — roughly the ranges the Goethe-Institut and telc syllabuses assume.

How is the vocabulary ordered?

Within each level, commonest first. Frequency comes from a 65-million-sentence subtitle corpus, so the words at the top of a level are the ones you will actually meet first.

Does every word come with audio?

7,031 of the 7,164 words link to a native pronunciation recording on Wikimedia Commons. Press the speaker next to any headword.

Is this free?

Yes. Every word, example and translation on the site is free, with no account and no paywall. The data is published under CC BY-SA 4.0 — see the attribution page for sources.

Word data from Wiktionary, Tatoeba and OpenSubtitles, used under CC BY-SA 4.0. See sources.