German · Deutsch
Guided 97 resource listings .
German has full A1–C2 paths and on-site tools on this site — start with the level that matches your speaking, not your reading vanity. Last reviewed 2026-08-01
About German
- Language family
-
Indo-European, Germanic, West Germanic Source: Glottolog stan1295
- Where it's spoken
- Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg
- Speakers
-
roughly 135 million native speakers Estimate source: Ethnologue language page (deu)
- Writing
- Latin
German descends from the West Germanic dialects spoken across central Europe and standardized gradually after Martin Luther's 16th-century Bible translation helped fix a common written form. It is the most widely spoken native language in the European Union. Its close cousin Dutch and its more distant cousin English share large amounts of core vocabulary and grammar with it.
Speaker counts are approximate orders of magnitude for learners, not census figures. Family labels follow Glottolog-style classification; vitality notes (when shown) follow UNESCO WAL / Ethnologue-style framing and should be re-checked for program planning.
Sources
- ISO 639-3:
deu - Glottocode:
stan1295 - Ethnologue — German (deu)
- Glottolog — Standard German (stan1295)
How to start
- Pick one free course (or free-with-upgrades) below and finish a short beginner unit before hopping apps.
- Bookmark one dictionary or grammar reference and look up every unknown word for a week.
- Add 10–15 minutes of listening most days — news, radio, or a teaching channel.
- Drill vocabulary with First 500 words , then situational lists in topic decks .
- Go deeper with the Language Hacks – German series · Buy on Amazon.
- When ready, use a tutor marketplace listing below for short speaking sessions.
Practice on this site
Deep links into trainers and drills that already cover German.
Language home First 500 words Topic decks Root Explorer Root of the day Cloze practice Conjugation Explorer Quick practice False-friend quiz Register & nuance Collocations Output workshop Media sheets C1 tasks Listening picker
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| Resource | Type | Levels | Cost | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Deutsche Welle News
News in German at multiple difficulty bands.
|
reading | B1-C2 | free | — |
|
DW Top-Thema
Graded current-affairs articles with exercises.
|
reading | B1-B2 | free | 2026-08-02 |
|
German graded readers (Open Library)
Searchable graded and bilingual readers.
|
reading | A2-B1 | free | — |
|
German stories — graded (German.net)
Short graded German reading texts.
|
reading | A1-B1 | free | — |
|
Google Books German
Well-known learning resource.
|
reading | B1-C2 | freemium | — |
|
Google News German
Well-known learning resource.
|
reading | B1-C2 | free | — |
|
LingQ German
Read and listen while saving vocabulary.
|
reading | A2-C1 | freemium | — |
|
Nachrichtenleicht
News in simpler German.
|
reading | A2-B1 | free | — |
|
Project Gutenberg German
Well-known learning resource.
|
reading | B2-C2 | free | 2026-08-02 |
|
Readlang German
Click-translate reader with flashcard export.
|
reading | A2-C1 | freemium | — |
|
Simple German Wikipedia
Use German Wikipedia (de.wikipedia.org) for topic immersion.
|
reading | A2-B1 | free | — |
|
Spiegel Online
Major German news magazine site.
|
reading | B2-C2 | free | — |
|
Süddeutsche Zeitung
Established Süddeutsche Zeitung resource for German learners.
|
reading | B2-C2 | freemium | — |
|
Wikipedia German
Open reading practice by topic.
|
reading | A2-C2 | free | — |
|
Wikisource German
Established Wikimedia resource for German learners.
|
reading | B2-C2 | free | — |
|
Zeit Online for learners — short politics
Politics section for advanced reading sprints.
|
reading | B2-C2 | free | — |
Know a better classroom-friendly resource for German? Suggest it with attribution.