German Vocabulary Memorization Tips

Now that you have been learning German for a while, you are realizing the vast amounts of vocabulary you need to learn in order to speak it fluently. So how do you get the words to stick in your brain?

How can you learn the 500-650 words required to be considered at the A1 level or the 1000-2000 words needed for the A2 level? How will you ever reach the 16000 words you will need in order to reach the C2 level? With the tips and tricks I’m going to teach you in this post, you will be on your way in no time.

Reading

Start by thinking how you learned as many words as you know in your native language. I bet the answer you said just now is “books”. You didn’t study flashcards or do listen-and-repeat exercises. You read a lot of words and you heard a lot of words in various contexts and you eventually figured out how to use them on your own.

Reading is a great way to learn any language. Not just reading, but reading to learn, which is different and lots of people don't know the difference.

Herr Antrim's Reading for Learning Process (Patent Pending)

In January of last year, I went through my whole system for reading with the express purpose of learning new vocabulary. While I encourage you to watch that video, too, I’ll give you the cliff notes version here.

• Never read just once.
• Read the first time without stopping.
• Pick a start and end point before you start.
• Just read through the passage you chose and see how much you can understand.
• On the second reading, write a list of words that you don't understand.
• Look them up after you finish reading.
• Then read the passage a third time with the list next to you, so you can reference it while you read.
• On the fourth reading, don't use the list and see how much you have retained.

This process forces your brain to internalize the information. It draws your attention to the words you don't know so you are concentrating on improving your vocabulary. The more you read, the more you will internalize the phrasing and general Sprachgefühl.

Learn Words Without Reading

In the United States 21% of adults are illiterate. 54% of adults have a literacy below 6th grade level.

48.5% of American adults didn’t read a single book in the past year.

AND YET, the average native English speaker has a vocabulary from 20,000-35000 words.

The average 8-year-old knows 10,000 words and the average 4-year-old knows 5,000.

I took a super-legit online test while writing the script for this post and it says my vocabulary is just over 23000 words, which puts me on the lower end of the average-English-speaker continuum.

Because I was bored, I took another one from a different site and it said I knew 33000 words, which puts me at the higher end of the average.

What this tells me is that these online tests aren’t terribly reliable and that you don’t have to read in order to learn new words.

What Other Media Can You Use to Learn German?

Obviously, it will help, if you can read some, but in addition to reading, you need to hear as much German as possible. This could be via movies, tv shows and YouTube videos.

Again, focus on learning not being entertained.

• Watch 10 minutes of a movie, pause it often, write notes along the way for phrases or vocabulary you want to learn.
• Try to repeat what the actors are saying.
• Work on your pronunciation by trying to be as close to the intonation and pronunciation of the actors.
• Rewatch the segment over and over again, so you internalize the vocabulary and phrasing.

Which German words do you need to learn?

If you read like I read and you watch like I watch, you will master German vocabulary in no time. But there is one more issue you need to contend with. Which words do you learn? Is there an ideal order?

According to one website I found, the levels for language learning break down as follows: You need to know 500 words to pass an A1 exam; 1000 for A2, 2000 for B1, 4000 for B2, 8000 for C1 and 16000 for C2.

These numbers can fluctuate 20% up or down based on the words you learn. This fluctuation is caused by learning words you don’t need. I say all of this to bring you to this one tip, learn useful words. Ignore unimportant ones.

*Sarcastic Antrim: Yeah. Super advice, smarty pants. But how do I know which words are useful and which ones aren’t?

The easy answer is the ones you need are the ones you need.

*Sarcastic Antrim: Wow. You are just a wealth of knowledge. I sure am glad you made this post.

Finding the right words

What I mean by this is that you should start by documenting the words you need on a daily basis in your native language.

Do it by category. Don’t think about every word in that category, just think of broad groups of words you need to learn. Take yourself through a typical day.

• What do you do?
• With whom do you speak?
• About what do you speak?
• Where do you go?
• How do you go there?
• Follow this trail until you have a few categories of words to work with.
• Then when you start learning vocabulary, make sure you are checking off the categories in these lists first.

Once you get to about B1 or even the later end of A2, however, you need to go beyond your everyday vocabulary. The best resource for finding exactly which words you need to know at the A and B levels come from the Goethe Institut. They have a list you can download for each of the first 3 levels.

• A1 Vocabulary List from Goethe Institut
• A2 Vocabulary List from Goethe Institut
• B1 Vocabulary List from Goethe Institut

Once you get to B2, you are going to have to find another resource.

Aspekt Neu is a German textbook for English speakers. Their B1, B2 and C1 vocabulary lists are available for free as PDFs. 

In addition to all of those lists, there is also a website called Vocabeo that has a searchable database of German words sorted by list and frequency of use. This is great if you want to look up a word to see if it is worth committing to memory or waiting until later in your learning.

You can also see a frequency rating on Duden.de, if you are interested in that.

Flashcards

A list of words is undoubtedly the most inefficient way to learn a language. I’ve already talked about reading and watching German content so you can learn through context. Once you have seen the words in context a few times, it is a decent idea to start making some flashcards.

I have several videos on this channel about how to make the best flashcards for language learning, but I want to focus on one thing that I don’t mention in those videos. Context.

How to make the best German flashcards 

Why you should use physical flashcards instead of digital ones

I just said learning one word at a time is inefficient. So your flashcards should not be one word at a time. You can do everything from short phrases with prepositions or even prepositions and verbs that need to go together to full sentences that showcase several things at the same time.

Movie Quotes to Learn German?

Ironically, I don’t actually want you to memorize full sentences, although it is fun to quote your favorite movies in German.

“Hast du jemals im blassen Mondlicht mit dem Teufel getanzt?”

This isn’t a terribly helpful sentence to memorize on its own. It isn’t a common phrase. Most people are just confused by it. It contains several things that you can use in a variety of other contexts, however, and by learning them through this sentence, you can increase the number of words you learn in one fell swoop.

“Jemals” is kind of like “ever” and carries with it a connotation of doing something at least once.

“Mit dem Teufel” reminds us that “mit” is a dative preposition.

You can remember the word for “devil” as well as “moon” and “light”.

The word “blass” can also be used in a variety of situations to mean “pale”.

One sentence on one flashcard holds so much more information than just one word.

Goethe Institut Example Sentences

You don’t have to use movie quotes to get this method to work for you. The Goethe Institut vocabulary lists I mentioned before also include example sentences a lot.

I wouldn’t bother putting the vocabulary words on flashcards, but the example sentences would be a good idea.

Herr Antrim's Deutschlerner Podcast

You can also use my Deutschlerner Podcast for the same kinds of thing.

I took the list of A1 vocabulary from the Goethe Institut and broke it into various categories. Then I made videos showcasing the words and example sentences to go with them in several episodes of the podcast. It is a listen-and-repeat series, so it isn’t the most efficient way to learn vocabulary, but it will get the job done.

After 15 years of teaching German to American high school students and speaking German for over 20 years, I have learned a ton of tips and tricks to help you get vocabulary to stick in your brain. The ideas mentioned in this video are just a few of them.