The 300 Most Common German Words: Frequency Lists

Frequency List: The 300 Most Common German Words

To give you a taste of the words you’ll use most commonly in daily conversation, we’ve assembled a list of the 300 most common German words. To help you memorize them more easily, we’ve broken them down into thematic groups.

We used Vocabeo and Wiktionary to help compile these lists. Feel free to check out these resources for additional information.

Articles

In German, nouns are preceded by an article. If you know a little Spanish or French, then this might sound familiar. So it’s probably no surprise that articles are on the top of the list of the most common German words. However, German has a few more articles to choose from than certain other languages. This is because German utilizes multiple cases, and each requires different articles. There are 12 in total: der, die, das, den, dem, des, ein, eine, einer, einen, einem, and eines. You’ll see all of them fairly often, but the most important are der, die, das, ein, and eine.

We’ve made a little table to help you understand when to use each of these. Be careful, because some can be used in multiple situations. For example, der applies to both the nominative masculine (when the noun is masculine and the subject of the sentence) and the genitive feminine (when possession is being expressed, and the possessor is feminine):

• Der Tee ist heiß. – The tea is hot.
• Die Tiere der Nachbarin. – The [female] neighbor‘s animals. (Genitiv)

There are 4 cases in German called:

1. Nominativ
2. Genitiv
3. Dativ
4. Akkusativ

These cases vary depending on the verb and other factors like possession.

 

	Nominative	Accusative	Dative	Genitive
Masculine	der ein	den einen	dem einem	des eines
Neutral	das ein	das ein	dem einem	des eines
Feminine	die eine	die eine	der einer	der einer
Plural	die	die	den	der

Pronouns

Pronouns are also used very commonly in German. Here’s a table summarizing the most important personal, reflexive, and possessive pronouns. Don’t forget, however, that possessive pronouns will vary depending on the gender and the case.

Personal Pronouns	Reflexive Pronouns	Possessive Pronouns and Adjectives
ich	mich / mir	mein/e
du	dich / dir	dein/e
er, es / ihn / ihm	sich	sein/e
wir	uns	unser/e
ihr	euch	euer/eure
sie / ihnen (plural)	sich	ihr/e
Sie / Ihnen	Ihr	Ihr/e

Sein/e, ihr/e, and ihre/r are also frequently used words.

Careful! The function of these pronouns can change depending on their location within a sentence as well as the gender of the object/subject. Context is very important, so make sure you always take it into account!

Other pronouns

• Demonstrative pronouns

Within the pronoun family, demonstratives are extremely common in daily speech. In English, this group includes “this,” “that,” “these”: dies, diese, dieser, dieses, diesem, diesen. As you can imagine, these also vary depending on case.

Selbst is another demonstrative pronoun worth noting. You’ll use it to talk about yourself, or to say “in person,” “personally,” or “even.”

• Relative pronouns
  

You can also use der, die, and das to introduce a new idea. In English, these translate as “that” or “which.” For example:

Die Katze, die Fleisch frisst, ist schwarz und weiß. → The cat, who eats meat, is black and white.

These are considered relative pronouns. Among the most common relative pronouns are dessen and deren (they can also sometimes be classified as demonstratives, depending on their position in the sentence):

• • dessen = whose, of which (masculine)
  • deren = whose, of which (feminine)

• Interrogative pronouns (Fragepronomen)

Welcher, welche, welches?

Example: Welche Tasche gefällt dir am besten? (Which handbag do you like most?)

• Indefinite pronouns
  

German	English
man	they, you, one
etwas	something
nichts	nothing
jeder, jede, jedes	each (individual)
alle	everyone
all, alles	all, everything
einige, manche, ein paar	some

Careful! All of these pronouns decline according to their case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive).

People

German	English
Kind, das	child
Frau, die	woman
Mann, der	man
Mensch, der	human being
Menschen, die	human beings
Vater, der	father
Mutter, die	mother
Hand, die	hand

Geography

German	English
Berlin	Berlin
Deutschland	Germany
Platz, der	place, square
Stadt, die	city
Land, das	country
Welt, die	world
Wasser, das	water

Time

German	English
Zeit, die	time
Minute, die	minute
Uhr, die	hour, watch
Tag, der	day
Woche, die	week
Sonntag, der	Sunday
Monat, der	month
Jahr, das	year
Jahre, die	years
gestern	yesterday
heute	today
jetzt	now
nun	now
spät	late
später	later

Other nouns

Numbers

German	English
zwei	two
drei	three
vier	four
fünf	five
Million, die	million
Millionen, die	millions
Milliarden, die	billions
Erste/erste	first
zweite	second
einmal	once, one time

Most common German verbs

• Auxiliary and modal verbs

The conjugations included in the table below are not the only forms. But they are the most common. You’ll eventually need to learn all of them, but start with the three singular subjects and the polite “you” form.

German Infinitive	German Conjugation	English Infinitive
haben	(ich) habe (du) hast (er/sie/es) hat (Sie) haben	to have
sein	bin bist ist sind	to be
werden	werde wirst wird werden	to become
können	kann kannst kann können	to be able to (capacity)
dürfen	darf darfst darf dürfen	to be able to (to have permission)
sollen	soll sollst soll sollen	should, ought to (advice)
müssen	muss musst muss müssen	must (obligation)
mögen	mag magst mag mögen	to like
wollen	will willst will wollen	to want

• Common verbs

German	English
arbeiten	to work
bauen	to build
beginnen	to start
bekommen	to receive
bieten	to offer, to provide
bleiben	to stay
brauchen	to need
bringen	to bring
denken	to think
erklären	to tell, to explain
erhalten	to obtain
essen	to eat
fahren	to go (by car)
finden	to find
führen	to direct, to guide
geben	to give
gehen	to go (on foot)
gehören	to belong
gelten	to count, to be valid
halten	to hold
heißen	to be called
kaufen	to buy
kommen	to come
lassen	to allow, to leave behind
laufen	to walk, to run
leben	to live
liegen	to lie down, to be located
machen	to do, to make
nehmen	to take
schreiben	to write
sehen	to see
setzen	to put
sich setzen	to sit down
spielen	to play
sprechen	to speak
stehen	to be, to stand
stellen	to put, to place
tun	to do
wissen	to know
zeigen	to show

• The most common conjugated forms

Sometimes, a particular conjugation is the most common use of a verb in German. Here are a few examples :

• • bleibt – bleiben (he/she/it stays)
  • gab – geben (he/she/it gave)
    gibt – geben (he/she/it gives)
  • geht – gehen (he/she/it goes)
  • [hat] gemacht – (he/she/it made)
  • heiβt – heiβen (he/she/it is called)
  • kommt – kommen (he/she/it comes)
  • liegt – liegen (he/she/it is located / he/she/it is laying)
  • sagte – sagen (he/she/it said)
  • steht – stehen (he/she/it is / he/she/it is standing)
  • sieht – sehen (he/she/it sees)

Most common German adjectives

Here are the most frequently used adjectives in German:

German	English
alt	old
besser	better
beste,-r,-s	(the) best
deutsch	German
einfach	easy
ganz	whole, entire
groß	big
gut	well, good
hoch	high
jung	young
klein	small
kurz	short
lang	long
letzte	last
möglich	possible
nächste	next, closest
nah	near
neu, neue, neuen	new
richtig	true, correct
rund	round
stark	strong
schön	pretty, beautiful
sicher	safe, secure, certain
schnell	fast
solch	such
weit	extensive, far
wichtig	important

Adverbs

German	English
allerdings	however, indeed
also	so
auch	also
bereits	already
besonders	particularly
bisher	so far, until now
da	there
dann	then
dort	there
erst	first
etwa	about, approximately
eigentlich	in fact, really
fast	almost
gar	at all
genau	exactly
gerade	currently
gern	well
gleich	same, immediately
hier	here
immer	always
ja	yes
kaum	barely, hardly
mal	time (instance)
mehr	more
natürlich	of course
neben	beside
nicht	not
nie	never
noch	still, just
nur	only
ohne	without
oft	often
schon	already
sehr	very
so	too
sogar	same
solch	such
viel	many
vor	before
weiter	in addition
wenig	less
wieder	again
wohl	probably
zwar	specifically
zurück	back

Prepositions

German	English
ab	from, starting at
an	at, on
auf	on
aus	(coming) from
bei	near, for, at
durch	through
für	for
gegen	against
in	in
mit	with
nach	near, after
über	on, of
um	around, at, by
unter	under
von	of
wegen	because of, due to
zu	to, for
zwischen	between

You’ll also come across some other forms of certain prepositions. These are simply the result of a contraction between an article and a preposition. These are all extremely common in daily-use German. Here they are:

• • am = an + dem
  • beim = bei + dem
  • im = in + dem
  • ins = in + das
  • vom = von + dem
  • zum = zu + dem
  • zur = zu + der

There are also a handful of words formed from da- + preposition. These can help you avoid repetition. Sometimes, they can have different meanings according to context. You’ll see that if the preposition begins with a vowel, you’ll add an “r” between “da” and the preposition.

• • dabei = da + bei
  • damit = da + mit
  • daran = da + r + an
  • darauf = da + r + auf
  • dafür = da + für
  • darin = da + r + in
  • dazu = da + zu

You’ll come across these words pretty often, but you don’t need to devote time to memorizing them. Instead, just understand how they function and be able to recognize them. Then you’ll be able to employ them yourself as needed!

Conjunctions, logical connectors, and more

German	English
aber	but
als	than, when
auch	also
da	there, because
dass	that
denn	because
deshalb	therefore
doch	but
jedoch	however
ob	if
oder	or
seit	since
sondern	but, otherwise
sowie	as soon as
und	and
während	while
weil	since, because

Question words

Asking questions is always important! In German, the most useful question words are:

• • wo – where
  • wer – who
  • was – what
  • wenn – when / if
  • wie – how
  • welche, welches, welcher – which

You might also come across wem, which means “who” / “to whom.”

Example:

• Wem hast du davon erzählt? (Who did you tell about this?)
• Wem hast du das Geld gegeben? (To whom did you give the money?)

Just like in English, these words can also be used in affirmative sentences, (except for “wem“).

 

German: A few fun facts

German influences on English

I’m sure you recognized the roots of some of the words above as shared with English. In fact, there are lots of everyday English words that have come from German. Here are few more fun English words of German origin:

• • foosball: This is a shortened form of Tischfußball (“table football”).
  • aspirin: A German man, Frederik Hoffman, created this medication and named it Aspirin. Today, it is a patented brand.
  • angst: This translates directly into German as “fear” or “anxiety,” but in English it’s often associated with emotional phases during adolescence.
  • noodle: Even if noodles and pasta are associated with Asian and Italian cuisine, our word for them comes from Nudel, a German word in use since the 16th century.
  • kindergarten: A combination of the nouns Kinder (children) and Garten (garden), this word was coined in about 1840 by educator Freidrich Froebel, who stated “Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers.”

 

 

Uncommon (but interesting) German words

In any case, each of these anglicized words are pretty easy to pronounce. But what are the most difficult words to pronounce in German? And what’s the longest word in German?

Let’s start with the longest word, because we can’t actually say definitely. Because German is agglutinative (remember, you can combine words almost endlessly), the length of German words is theoretically infinite…

But just for fun, here’s an example of how crazy things can get: Donaudampf-schifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft.

Don’t worry – you’ll probably never need to say this word, which refers to an old shipping company that transported people and cargo on steamboats along the Danube River in the early 1900s.

However, these tongue-twisting words just might make it into your German conversations:

• • Eichhörnchen – “squirrel”: Eich (pronounced with a soft “ch”) means “oak,” hörn means “horn,” and –chen is a diminutive.
  • Nichtsdestotroz – “nevertheless”: to pronounce this one, just break it up into individual syllables – nichts/des/to/troz.
  • Streichholzschächtelchen – “little box of matches”: Streichholz (pronounced with a soft “ch”) means “matches,” while Schachtel (pronounced with a gutteral “ch”: “chaktel”) means “box,” and –chen is a diminutive – Streich/holz/schäch/tel/chen.
  • Quietscheentchen – “little duck” (made of plastic): Quietsche comes from the verb quietschen (to scream, to squeak – pronounced “kviitchen”) and Entchen (with a soft “ch”); duckling: Quiet/sche/ent/chen.

Go further

And if you enjoyed learning about the most common German words, here are a few more frequency lists that you might enjoy:

• The Most Common Spanish Words: Frequency Lists
• The Most Common English Words: Frequency Lists
• The 300 Most Common French Words: Frequency Lists