Question 1

How many German words do you need to know?

Accepted Answer

The first 1,000 German word families on Einlang's frequency list cover 84.27% of everyday spoken German and 76.55% of the prose in real books. Two thousand reach 88.24% and 81.92%, and the full 5,000 reach 92.42% and 87.92%. Coverage climbs steeply at first and then flattens, which is why the first thousand words are worth far more study time than the fifth.

Question 2

What are the 100 most common German words?

Accepted Answer

In order, the commonest German word families are der (who), ich (I), sein (to be), sie (she), und (and), ein (a, an), haben (to have), du (you), er (he), das (the), nicht (not, non-), zu (to, towards), in ([with dative] in, inside, within, at), ihr (her), wir (we), mit (with), werden (to become), was (what), auf ([with dative] on, upon), von (from), so (so, such, that), wie (like), an (on, upon, at, in, against), aber (but), können (to be able), sicher (sure, certain), mein (my), wollen (to want), sagen (to say), ja (obviously), wenn (when, whenever), da (since), dieser (this one, this), kommen (to come), noch (still, yet), sehen (to see), gehen (to go, to walk), als (at), für (describes an abstract directionality towards a person or matter), nur (only, just, merely, simply). The first 100 together cover 64.09% of everyday speech and 55.42% of a book. They are almost entirely function words - articles, pronouns, prepositions and the handful of verbs every sentence is built from.

Question 3

How is this German frequency list built?

Accepted Answer

Einlang blends two corpora: 151 million words of subtitle dialogue for modern everyday language, and 48 public-domain books for written and literary language. Words are grouped into families, so one entry covers a verb and its conjugations rather than scattering them across dozens of ranks. Where one spelling is two different words, its occurrences are divided between them on corpus evidence rather than given to the commoner one, so both keep a row. Headwords, parts of speech and meanings come from Wiktionary. Proper nouns are removed - 0 of them - along with anything no German dictionary recognises.

Question 4

How do I look up a German word?

Accepted Answer

Type it into the search box on this page. Einlang ranks 20,029 German words and recognises 19,926 inflected spellings, so a conjugation or a plural resolves to the word it belongs to and comes back with its meaning, its part of speech and how common it is. A word too rare for the 5,000 rows published here still returns its rank rather than nothing.

Question 5

Can I download this German word list for Anki?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Einlang's list downloads as a tab-separated Anki file with three columns - the German word, its meaning, and its CEFR level as a tag - and also as CSV or plain text. It is free, needs no account, and you can filter to a single CEFR band first so you only export the words at your level.

#	Word	Part of speechType	Meaning	CEFR
1	der	pronounpron.	who; that; which	A1	1 in 2	8.3%
2	ich	pronounpron.	I (first person singular nominative (subject) pronoun)	A1	1 in 5	10.8%
3	sein	verbverb	to be	A1	1 in 4	13.8%
4	sie	pronounpron.	she	A1	1 in 7	15.4%
5	und	conjunctionconj.	and	A1	1 in 3	19.1%
6	ein	determinerdet.	a, an	A1	1 in 5	21.1%
7	haben	verbverb	to have; to own (to possess, have ownership of; to possess a certain characteristic)	A1	1 in 8	22.3%
8	du	pronounpron.	you (singular familiar), thou	A1	1 in 14	23.1%
9	er	pronounpron.	he	A1	1 in 5	25.3%
10	das	determinerdet.	the (neuter); that	A1	1 in 6	27.0%
11	nicht	particlepart.	not, non- (negates the meaning of a verb, adjective, or adverb)	A1	1 in 8	28.1%
12	zu	prepositionprep.	to, towards (indicates directionality)	A1	1 in 6	29.6%
13	in	prepositionprep.	[with dative] in, inside, within, at (inside a building)	A1	1 in 6	31.3%
14	ihr	determinerdet.	her (possessive)	A1	1 in 11	32.3%
15	wir	pronounpron.	we	A1	1 in 27	32.6%
16	mit	prepositionprep.	with (in the company of, alongside)	A1	1 in 9	33.6%
17	werden	verbverb	to become; to get; to grow; to turn	A1	1 in 15	34.2%
18	was	pronounpron.	what	A1	1 in 19	34.6%
19	auf	prepositionprep.	[with dative] on, upon (positioned at the top of)	A1	1 in 12	35.4%
20	von	prepositionprep.	from	A1	1 in 11	36.3%
21	so	adverbadv.	so, such, that	A1	1 in 12	37.0%
22	wie	conjunctionconj.	like	A1	1 in 15	37.6%
23	an	prepositionprep.	on, upon, at, in, against	A1	1 in 13	38.3%
24	aber	conjunctionconj.	but; however; though	A1	1 in 14	38.9%
25	können	verbverb	to be able (to do or be something), to have the possibility of, can.	A1	1 in 21	39.3%
26	sicher	adjectiveadj.	sure, certain; safe	A1	1 in 11	40.1%
27	mein	determinerdet.	my	A1	1 in 20	40.6%
28	wollen	verbverb	to want; to wish; to desire; to demand	A1	1 in 21	40.9%
29	sagen	verbverb	to say (to pronounce; communicate verbally)	A1	1 in 20	41.4%
30	ja	particlepart.	obviously; certainly; of course; as you know; as is generally known (indicates and emphasises that one is expressing ...	A1	1 in 41	41.6%
31	wenn	conjunctionconj.	when, whenever	A1	1 in 25	41.9%
32	da	conjunctionconj.	since; as; because; given that	A1	1 in 19	42.4%
33	dieser	determinerdet.	this one, this	A1	1 in 20	42.8%
34	kommen	verbverb	to come; to arrive	A1	1 in 26	43.1%
35	noch	adverbadv.	still, yet (up to and including a given time)	A1	1 in 20	43.5%
36	sehen	verbverb	to see; to have sight	A1	1 in 22	43.9%
37	gehen	verbverb	to go, to walk	A1	1 in 30	44.2%
38	als	conjunctionconj.	at (approximately) the same moment, when, while, as	A1	1 in 16	44.7%
39	für	prepositionprep.	describes an abstract directionality towards a person or matter	A1	1 in 37	44.9%
40	nur	adverbadv.	only, just, merely, simply	A1	1 in 26	45.2%
41	auch	adverbadv.	also, too, as well (in addition to whatever or whoever has previously been listed)	A1	1 in 19	45.7%
42	gut	adverbadv.	well (accurately, competently, satisfactorily)	A1	1 in 38	45.9%
43	hier	adverbadv.	here; in this place; refers to an environment one is currently in, or to something within reach	A1	1 in 48	46.0%
44	wissen	verbverb	to know; to be aware of (a fact)	A1	1 in 50	46.2%
45	machen	verbverb	to make, to produce, to create (an object, arrangement, situation, etc.)	A1	1 in 40	46.4%
46	aus	prepositionprep.	out of; from (from the inside of something)	A1	1 in 25	46.7%
47	kein	determinerdet.	no; not a(n); not one; not any	A1	1 in 45	46.9%
48	um	prepositionprep.	about	A1	1 in 30	47.2%
49	sollen	verbverb	should; to be obligated (to do something); ought; shall	A1	1 in 37	47.4%
50	bei	prepositionprep.	by, near	A1	1 in 29	47.7%

The 5,000 most common German words

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