Learn German for Free: A1 to C2 Course and Word Lists

Language courses in Germany are good, but they cost money and they run on someone else's schedule. If you are still abroad, work shifts, or just want to start before the first VHS term begins, a free course you can open on your phone is a useful first step. This guide covers one of them: Verbavia's free German course, what is in it, and how to use its word lists to learn the vocabulary you will actually hear on day one in Germany.

It works well next to the advice in our practical tips for learning German and the German learning guide. Think of it as the self-study layer under a class or an integration course, not a replacement for speaking with real people.

What makes German hard (and what a course should do about it)

The difficulty of German is structural. There are four cases, three genders, and verbs that jump to the end of the sentence. A course that only teaches phrases will leave you stuck at A2. According to Verbavia, its course introduces case and word order early, attaches der, die or das to every noun, and gives sentence brackets (the split verb in Ich rufe dich morgen an) their own lessons.

The good news: German and English share a lot of everyday vocabulary, and compound words can be read left to right, so a long word is usually just two or three short ones stuck together.

What the free course covers

The Verbavia German course runs from first word to C2. By its own numbers:

• 30 grammar points in the core
• 892 hand-written lessons, A1 to C2
• 10,870 words in the frequency list
• 16,848 German recordings

You can start without an account. Progress is saved on your device, and an account syncs it across devices. The course is free with a short ad and one language at a time. Verbavia Premium costs $4 a month (7-day trial) and removes both limits. Verbavia states that it uses no advertising network and no tracking.

The order of the first grammar points

The sequence matters more than the number. The first 14 grammar points go like this:

1. Singular subject pronouns and sein
2. Plural pronouns, plural of sein, and the sie/Sie distinction
3. The verb haben and simple statements
4. Regular present tense and du/er endings
5. Noun gender (der, die, das) and capitalisation
6. Plurals and the plural article die
7. Stem-changing verbs (fahren → fährt, sprechen → spricht)
8. Word order rule one: the verb is second
9. Yes/no questions and the imperative
10. Accusative case and pronouns
11. Negation: nicht vs kein
12. Modal verbs and the sentence bracket
13. Separable verbs and the bracket again
14. Possessives and their endings

Notice that the verb-second rule comes at step 8 and the accusative at step 10. That is early, and it is the right call: these are the two things that trip up English speakers the longest.

How one lesson works

A full lesson takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and three lengths are available. Each one runs through the same loop:

1. Review every card due today
2. Learn a handful of new words, each with a recording
3. Study one grammar point with worked examples and tables
4. Read a German passage in three parts, with comprehension questions
5. Listen to a similar passage in three parts
6. From lesson 7 on, write German of your own, with marking

Twenty to thirty minutes a day is realistic next to a job and a pile of paperwork. It fits the 1 to 2 hours of daily study we assume in our realistic timeline from A1 to C1.

Start with the words you will hear first

Vocabulary in the course follows a frequency list, taught in rank order, so you learn the words that appear most often before the rare ones. Verbavia publishes this list openly:

• The most common German words, free to browse online
• Printable PDF of the 1,000 most common words, for the fridge or your bag
• CSV file to open in Excel or import into Anki
• The two-minute German vocabulary test to see roughly where you stand

If you already use Anki, the CSV is the quickest way to get a ready-made deck. Our learning tips explain why spaced repetition is worth the effort.

The 100 most common German words

Verbavia's article on the 100 most common German words is based on 156 million words of German film and TV subtitles (OpenSubtitles 2018). A few findings worth knowing:

• The top 100 words cover 51.5% of all dialogue; the first ten cover 19.4%.
• The most frequent word is ich (I), followed by sie, das and ist.
• None of the top 100 is a noun. The first noun is Mann, at rank 102.
• Four words look English but are not: was (what), also (so, well), man (one, as in "one does") and will (want).

That last point is a classic trap for expats. Was is not "was", and will is not "will".

How many words do you actually need?

The honest answer depends on what "speak German" means to you. Verbavia's guide, how many words do you need to speak German, looks at the data:

• The first 1,000 word forms cover 77.6% of subtitle dialogue, more than in Spanish or Italian.
• Reaching 95% coverage takes 21,502 word forms in German, the most of the five European languages it compares (French needs 13,909).
• In Jones and Tschirner's German frequency dictionary, the first 10 words cover about 27% of text and the first 20 cover about 35%.

The article also makes a point every learner should keep in mind: coverage is not comprehension. In German, endings and word order carry grammar, so knowing a word is not the same as understanding the sentence it sits in. That is why vocabulary lists and grammar practice need to run side by side. For a comparison across languages, see which language has the steepest frequency curve.

A simple plan for your first month

1. Week 1: Take the vocabulary test, start lesson 1, and print the 1,000-word PDF. Learn our week-one phrases for real situations.
2. Weeks 2 to 3: One lesson per day. Do the writing task from lesson 7 on, even when it feels slow.
3. Week 4: Move the word list into Anki, and start using German at the bakery, at the doctor and in your building.
4. Alongside: Book a VHS or integration course for speaking practice. Self-study builds the base; conversation makes it stick.

Where this fits in your move to Germany

Language is one part of settling in. The legally required steps come first: register your address (Anmeldung) and sort out your health insurance. Once those are done, a daily 20-minute lesson is an easy habit to add.