Vocabulary / German
The 1,000 most common German words
These are the 1,000 words you will meet most often in German, in frequency order, each with its most common English meaning. A small core of words does most of the work in everyday speech, so learning them in this order gets you further, faster, than any themed vocabulary set.
German nouns have three genders and the list gives you the bare word. Learn each noun with its article (der Tag, die Zeit, das Jahr), because the article decides how the word behaves in a sentence, and guessing later costs more than learning it now.
Many of the most frequent German words are separable-verb parts and particles (an, auf, aus) that look tiny and mean little alone. They earn their rank by combining: ankommen, aufhören, aussehen. When a small word seems too common to be believed, it is working inside verbs.
German builds long words from short ones, so the frequency list undersells how much vocabulary you actually get: Arbeit unlocks arbeiten, Arbeiter, Arbeitszeit. Every noun you learn here is a building block, not a single brick.
| # | German | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | wissenˈvɪsn̩ | to know |
| 2 | sagenzaːɡən | say |
| 3 | gehenˈɡeːən | go |
| 4 | werdenˈveːʁdən | to become |
| 5 | machenˈmaxən | make |
| 6 | kommenˈkɔmən | come |
| 7 | gutɡuːt | good |
| 8 | seinsaɪ̯n | to be |
| 9 | sehenˈzeː.ən | see |
| 10 | dadaː | there |
| 11 | könnenˈkœnən | can |
| 12 | wollenˈvɔlən | want |
| 13 | habenˈhaːbən | have |
| 14 | tuntuːn | do |
| 15 | gebenˈɡeːb(ə)n | give |
| 16 | lassenˈlasn̩ | let |
| 17 | hörenˈhøːrən | hear |
| 18 | vielfiːl | much |
| 19 | denkenˈdɛŋkən | think |
| 20 | Mannman | man |
| 21 | mehrmeːr | more |
| 22 | sollenˈzɔlən | shall |
| 23 | immerˈɪmɐ | always |
| 24 | glaubenˈɡlaʊ̯bən | believe |
| 25 | wiederˈviːdɐ | again |
| 26 | müssenˈmʏsən | must |
| 27 | findenˈfɪndn̩ | find |
| 28 | sehrzeːr | very |
| 29 | Lebenˈleːbən | life |
| 30 | ganzɡan(t)s | quite |
| 31 | vielleichtflaɪ̯ç(t) | perhaps |
| 32 | meinenˈmaɪ̯nən | mean |
| 33 | anderˈʔandər | other |
| 34 | wirklichˈvɪʁklɪç | really |
| 35 | nieniː | never |
| 36 | nehmenˈneːmən | take |
| 37 | Fraufʁaʊ̯ | woman |
| 38 | einfachˈʔaɪ̯nfax | simply |
| 39 | Wegvɛç | way |
| 40 | würdeˈvʏrdə | would |
| 41 | bringenˈbrɪŋən | bring |
| 42 | Zeitt͡saɪ̯t | time |
| 43 | Tagtaːk | day |
| 44 | brauchenˈbʁaʊ̯xən | need |
| 45 | wartenˈvartən | wait |
| 46 | schönʃøːn | beautiful |
| 47 | verstehenfərˈʃteːən | understand |
| 48 | bleibenˈblaɪ̯bən | stay |
| 49 | sicherˈzɪçər | sure |
| 50 | Haushaʊ̯s | house |
| 51 | jahrjaːr | year |
| 52 | helfenˈhɛlfn̩ | help |
| 53 | redenˈʁeːdən | talk |
| 54 | Leidlaɪ̯t | sorrow |
| 55 | kleinklaɪ̯n | small |
| 56 | großɡʁoːs | big |
| 57 | zurückt͡suˈʁʏk | back |
| 58 | Gottɡɔt | God |
| 59 | stehenˈʃteː.ən | stand |
| 60 | Leuteˈlɔɪ.tə/ [ˈlɔe̠.t(ʰ)ə | people |
| 61 | Freundfrɔʏ̯nt | friend |
| 62 | genauɡəˈnaʊ̯ | exactly |
| 63 | kennenˈkɛnən | know |
| 64 | sprechenˈʃprɛçən | speak |
| 65 | kindkɪnt | child |
| 66 | klarklaːr | clear |
| 67 | passierenpaˈsiːʁən | happen |
| 68 | haltenˈhaltn̩ | hold |
| 69 | Morgenˈmɔrɡən | morning |
| 70 | richtigˈʁɪçtɪç | correct |
| 71 | Vaterˈfaːtər | father |
| 72 | neunɔʏ̯ | new |
| 73 | geradeˈɡra(ː)d(ə) | just |
| 74 | Liebeˈliːbə | love |
| 75 | besserˈbɛsɐ | better |
| 76 | jungeˈjʊŋə | boy |
| 77 | Geldɡɛlt | money |
| 78 | versuchenfɛɐ̯ˈzuːxən | try |
| 79 | Mutterˈmʊtər | mother |
| 80 | fragenˈfʁaːɡən | ask |
| 81 | rausʁaʊ̯s | out |
| 82 | Paarpaːr | pair |
| 83 | Menschmɛnʃ | person |
| 84 | tötenˈtøːtən | kill |
| 85 | heißenˈhaɪ̯sən | be called |
| 86 | sterbenˈʃtɛrbən | die |
| 87 | erzählenɛɐ̯ˈt͡sɛːlən | tell |
| 88 | gleichɡlaɪ̯ç | same |
| 89 | altalt | old |
| 90 | selbstzɛlpst | self |
| 91 | arbeitenˈaʁbaɪ̯tən | work |
| 92 | laufenˈlaʊ̯fən | run |
| 93 | Fallfal | case |
| 94 | Nachtnaxt | night |
| 95 | bekommenbəˈkɔmən | get |
| 96 | herheːr | here |
| 97 | Rechtʁɛçt | right |
| 98 | essenˈɛsən | eat |
| 99 | mögenˈmøːɡən | like |
| 100 | fahrenˈfaːɐ̯(ə)n | drive |
This page is the short version. The full list has 5,000 German words.
See all 5,000Sources and licences
The ranking is ours, built from the frequency data below and published under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Two things worth knowing before you read it. The list holds content words - nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs - so the function words that top any raw frequency count are not in it: no the, of, and, and no pronouns. And each entry gives one everyday meaning, written to be the one you are most likely to need, not the word's full range of senses.
To cite this resource: linguafolks. The most common German words. www.linguafolks.com/articles/most-common-words/de. Teachers and institutions are welcome to use, print or adapt the lists in coursework with attribution and a link.
- FrequencyWords, over OpenSubtitles 2018
Word frequency counted across film and television subtitles, via OPUS. Generator MIT (Hermit Dave); corpus OpenSubtitles 2018 via OPUS.
P. Lison, J. Tiedemann & M. Kouylekov (2018). OpenSubtitles2018: Statistical Rescoring of Sentence Alignments in Large Corpora. LREC 2018.
- Wiktionary
Pronunciation (IPA), where an entry has one - coverage is partial, and a word without one shows none. CC BY-SA and GFDL, dual-licensed.
Obtained in machine-readable form from kaikki.org. Tatu Ylonen (2022). Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data. LREC 2022, pp. 1317-1325.
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