What are the most used German words?

The most used German words are short function words: der, die, das, sein, ich, nicht, und, haben. They appear in almost every sentence. The ranked table on this page lists the full top 1000 in learning order.

What share of everyday German do 1000 words cover?

Corpus studies across European languages consistently find that the most frequent 1,000 words cover roughly 70-80% of everyday speech, and German is no exception. The exact share depends on the corpus — but the return per word diminishes fast after the first thousand. Get these solid first.

How were these 1000 words ranked?

We rank by lesson order in our A1 + A2 curriculum, which follows Goethe-Institut frequency priorities. Earlier lessons = more fundamental words. It's a reliable proxy for frequency, though not a formal corpus analysis. For statistical frequency data, see the Deutsches Referenzkorpus (DWDS).

Can I download the 1000-word list as PDF?

Yes. Download the ranked list as a free PDF, or as a CSV that imports into Anki or Excel — no signup needed.

Are these 1000 words enough for B1?

No — the official Goethe B1 Wortliste counts around 2,400 words cumulatively from A1 to B1. But these 1000 are the foundation everything else builds on. Master them first, then expand with our B1 vocabulary list.

How long does it take to learn 1000 words?

With spaced repetition at 20 new words/day, you can cover all 1000 in about 7 weeks — but retention takes longer. Expect 3–6 months to actually know them rather than just recognize them.

What do the first 500 German words cover?

The first 500 are the function words and high-frequency verbs that appear in nearly every German sentence — der/die/das, sein, haben, nicht, und, the pronouns and the basic question words. They are a smaller share of the list than the count suggests: the top half does most of the work, and the second half fills in nouns and topic vocabulary. Download them on their own if a thousand is too many to start with.

Do I need to learn them in order?

The order matters as a learning guide — start from the top for maximum efficiency. But if you already know the basics, filter by type or use the search to find gaps in your knowledge.

1000 Words Most Used in German (PDF & CSV)

The 1000 most frequently used German words — ranked, with gender marking, English translations, and a free PDF. Master these first: everything else builds on top.

Preview of the free PDF: 1000 most used German words with English translations and example sentences — Preview — page 1 of the free PDF

The 80/20 rule applies to language learning. A relatively small vocabulary covers the vast majority of everyday conversation. In German, around 1000 high-frequency words handle most of what you'll encounter in daily life — news, conversations, errands, and work.

This list is drawn from our A1 and A2 curriculum, which follows Goethe-Institut frequency priorities. Words are ordered by lesson sequence — earlier lessons introduce the most fundamental vocabulary. It's a reliable learning order, though not a formal corpus analysis.

1,000 words

			Type
1	am	on (days/times)	preposition
2	der Artikel	article	noun
3	Auf Wiedersehen!	Goodbye!	phrase
4	aus	from, out of	preposition
5	der Automat	machine, vending machine	noun
6	der Bankautomat	ATM	noun
7	das Bild	picture, image	noun
8	das Buch	book	noun
9	der Buchstabe	letter (of the alphabet)	noun
10	buchstabieren	to spell	verb
11	der Computer	computer	noun
12	deutsch	German	adjective
13	Deutschland	Germany	noun
14	der Dienstag	Tuesday	noun
15	der Donnerstag	Thursday	noun
16	die Familie	family	noun
17	feminin	feminine	adjective
18	die Frage	question	noun
19	fragen	to ask	verb
20	der Freitag	Friday	noun

Showing 20 of 1000 words

How to actually learn 1000 words

A list is just raw material. Memorizing definitions doesn't stick — you need a method. Spaced repetition schedules reviews so you see each word just before you'd forget it, compressing months of rote repetition into weeks of targeted practice.

Pair spaced repetition with memory palace images. Each noun in our system has a scene-based image that anchors it to a visual memory. When you see das Haus alongside a specific green-lit house image, you're encoding both the word and its gender in one shot.

Start with nouns — they're the most frequent, and gender is a fact you can only learn once. Then move to verbs. Adjectives and connectors come after you have a stable core vocabulary.

How spaced repetition works → Memory palace technique →

What's NOT in this list

These 1000 words are everyday vocabulary. You won't find:

Abstract/formal constructions — Konjunktiv II phrasing, formal subjunctive registers
Academic language — technical terminology, discipline-specific vocabulary
Specialized domains — medical, legal, trades vocabulary
B1 vocabulary — the next tier of frequency beyond A1/A2

For B1 words, see our B1 vocabulary list. For connectors (conjunctions that structure sentences), see German connectors.

Methodology note

Our ranking is based on lesson order in the A1 + A2 curriculum — not a statistical frequency corpus. Our curriculum follows Goethe-Institut frequency priorities, so the ordering is defensible as a learning sequence. But if you need academic-grade frequency data, use the Deutsches Referenzkorpus (DWDS).

When we add an explicit frequency_rank field to our database, this table will re-sort to true frequency order. Until then, lesson order is the best available proxy.