so
so is an German adverb meaning so, such, that. It is the 21st most common word in German, which puts it at CEFR level A1. It turns up in about 1 in 12 sentences of real German prose.
21
rank
of 5,000
A1
CEFR level
by frequency
1 in 12
sentences
contain it
37.0%
running total
of a book covered
Running total is cumulative: knowing so and every German word above it covers 37.0% of the running words in a real book.
Is so worth learning now?
Yes - so is inside the first thousand German words, and those thousand cover 76.55% of the prose in a real book and 84.27% of everyday speech. Words this common are worth far more study time than anything further down the list.
Frequency is the honest guide to order, not to method. A word learned from a list on its own fades; the same word met inside a sentence you wanted to read stays. Check a German text against the CEFR bands to see whether what you are reading is at your level.
German words of the same frequency
- werden #17 - to become
- was #18 - what
- auf #19 - [with dative] on, upon
- von #20 - from
- wie #22 - like
- an #23 - on, upon, at, in, against
- aber #24 - but
- können #25 - to be able
See all 5,000 most common German words, or look up any of the 20,029 German words Einlang ranks.
Where this comes from
The rank is measured, not copied: 151 million words of subtitle dialogue for how German is spoken, and 48 public-domain books for how it is written. Conjugations and plurals count towards the word they belong to, so so is ranked as a word rather than as a spelling. The meaning and part of speech come from Wiktionary. Generated 2026-07-27.
Also on Einlang: the most common French words and the most common Spanish words.
Meet so where it actually lives
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