Stories, audio, and videos can all help you learn German when you can follow what they mean. That is the idea behind comprehensible input: learning from German you can mostly understand. Easy news is a good place to start. About 17 million adults in Germany find complex texts hard to read, so Germany's public broadcasters also make the news in Einfache Sprache, or plain German.
These apps help you find German at your level, or make the German you choose easier to follow. For courses, speaking practice, and tutors, see our German app comparison.
Custom Lessons Made for You
Bubblegum
Learn German with lessons made just for you. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes each one and helps you understand the words and grammar. If a sentence is hard to follow, just ask her to explain it.
Bubblegum also has news and stories, so you can read and listen to a mix of German about music, food, family, or daily life.
The trade-off is that Bubblegum can't help you with German you found yourself. For a book, a podcast, or a show you already picked, the apps in Read and Watch German You Choose are the better fit.
- Read and listen to lessons, news, and stories about things you like.
- Lessons fit your level, interests, and goals.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, so you review them by reading instead of using flashcards.
- Ask Poppy about a sentence while you read.
- Lesson audio uses AI voices, not recordings of German speakers.
- You cannot bring in your own books, articles, or shows.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so you can ask Poppy for a free one, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Read Stories and Articles Written for Learners
Readle
Readle turns news and stories into short German lessons about travel, food, culture, and more. New ones arrive every day, so there is always something short to read and hear at your level.
- More than 2,000 stories and news articles, sorted from beginner (A1) to advanced (C1).
- German speakers read every story aloud.
- Tap a word to see what it means, and take a short quiz after each story.
- More than 170 grammar notes sit inside the stories.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Todaii German
Todaii German turns everyday German into short articles with audio, so you can read a little at your level whenever you have a few minutes. German learners on Reddit recommend it for reading practice.
- Short reading lessons from A1 to C1 about culture, technology, business, and everyday life.
- Tap any word for its meaning, audio, and example sentences.
- Each lesson ends with a short quiz, and there are Goethe and telc practice tests.
- Flashcards
Mobile
Watch Videos Made for Learners
DW Learn German
Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster, makes free German courses with videos, news, and songs. Many German learners on Reddit recommend Nicos Weg. For listening, DW also reads the news slowly for B2 learners in Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten.
- Nicos Weg is a free video course that follows Nico, who moves to Germany, from A1 to B1.
- Kurz und leicht turns the day's news into a short video in easy German, Monday to Friday.
- Grammar pages, word explanations, and exercises go with the videos.
MobileWeb
Seedlang
Seedlang was made with the team behind Easy German, the YouTube channel of street interviews. It teaches words and grammar through short videos of real people, so you hear German the way people say it.
- Short video stories and flashcards with real German speakers, from A1 to B2.
- Tap a word you got wrong to see its grammar.
- Record yourself and compare your voice with a German speaker's.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Watch the News in Easy German
tagesschau in Einfacher Sprache
The tagesschau is the TV news show of ARD, Germany's public broadcaster. German learners on Reddit often suggest its plain-German edition as a first step into real news.
- The day's main news, rewritten in plain German, Monday to Friday.
- Spoken more slowly, with hard words and background explained.
- Watch on tagesschau.de, on YouTube, or in the tagesschau app.
MobileWeb
Read and Watch German You Choose
These tools help you learn from German books, shows, and web pages you pick yourself. They suit learners who already know what they want to read or watch.
LingQ
LingQ lets you read and listen to German from its library or bring in your own. Its reader highlights the words you haven't met yet and the words you are learning, so you can see what is new on each page.
- Thousands of hours of German audio with matching transcripts.
- Choose books, podcasts, and news from its German library.
- Import YouTube videos, books, and songs as lessons.
- Flashcards
MobileWeb
Language Reactor
Language Reactor shows German subtitles beside a translation while you watch. It has pages of German Netflix titles and YouTube videos to start with, and it is free to install, with paid extras.
- See German subtitles beside a translation on Netflix and YouTube.
- Look up words in a pop-up dictionary.
- Pause and replay one line when it goes too fast.
Browser extension
More German to Watch, Hear, and Read
Easy German films street interviews with subtitles in German and English, and its Super Easy German videos are slower. Learners also suggest Die Sendung mit der Maus, a children's show from WDR with funny stories and short films about everyday things, like a step counter or an ironing board. Its website has the newest shows, with German subtitles.
On the Easy German Podcast, the hosts talk about topics from Germany and around the world twice a week and explain words and expressions. Slow German is a free podcast by Annik Rubens about life in Germany, spoken slowly and clearly for B1 learners and up, and the text of each episode is on its website. Coffee Break German has free podcast lessons from beginner to upper intermediate.
For news to read, Nachrichtenleicht from Deutschlandfunk posts new stories in plain German every day, with a podcast from Monday to Friday and a word list that explains hard words. logo! is ZDF's news for children.
For books, the Dino lernt Deutsch books follow Dino, a young man from Sicily, on his travels through Germany, in short stories that start at about A1. Their publisher, LearnOutLive, also has free chat stories with audio and quizzes.
Learn German in Your Language
These counts cover menu-language choices, including script variants. Other apps’ counts and full lists come from their iPhone listings, except Language Reactor (Chrome Web Store). The free websites, podcasts, and YouTube channels are in German, some with English. Word meanings, lesson explanations, and other platforms may differ.
| App | Supported Display Languages | Full List |
|---|---|---|
| Bubblegum | 74 | Full list
|
| Readle | 23 | Full list |
| Todaii German | 16 | Full list |
| DW Learn German | 2 | Full list |
| Seedlang | 1 | Full list |
| tagesschau | 1 | Full list |
| LingQ | 17 | Full list |
| Language Reactor | 27 | Full list |
Other Apps We Looked At (12)
- Deutsch perfektA monthly magazine about life in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, written for learners. Its texts come in three levels from A2 to C2, with explanations for hard words and audio for many texts.
- News in Slow GermanNews, talk, and culture read at a pace learners can follow, with transcripts, English translations, and new episodes every week, from beginner to advanced.
- ReadlangClick a word or phrase on any German web page, or in a text or e-book you upload, to see what it means, then practice it with flashcards. It has starter stories for beginners, such as Urlaub in Berlin.
- MigakuClickable subtitles for German shows on Netflix, Disney+, and YouTube, such as Dark and Babylon Berlin, and for German websites. Click a word to make a flashcard.
- LingopieGerman TV shows, telenovelas, and travel shows with German and English subtitles. Click a word for its meaning, then review it with flashcards.
- BeelinguappStories and other texts with German and your own language side by side, for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners.
- FluentUReal German videos, such as clips from shows and movies, songs, and talks, with captions you can click for a meaning and example sentences.
- Yabla GermanA library of real German videos with tools to slow down and loop a line, plus games such as fill in the blank.
- ImmersionComprehensible input videos in German and French at four levels, with new German videos every week. Its app is new and growing.
- Deutsch to goMore than 800 free short listening texts at three levels, easy, medium, and hard, with exercises.
- EppikaWell-known books retold for learners from A1 to B2 in German and other languages, with audio and a translation for any word you tap. It is new and growing.
- LingoNewsReal German news with only the key words translated into your language, right inside the sentence. It is new and growing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Einfache Sprache?
In Einfache Sprache, sentences are short and each one says one thing. Hard words are swapped for easier ones or explained. Nachrichtenleicht also splits long words with a hyphen, like Bundes-Land, and its makers at Deutschlandfunk say this helps people learning German too.
How long does it take to learn German?
The U.S. Foreign Service Institute expects its students to need about 36 weeks of full-time classes, or 828 class hours, to reach a professional level in speaking and listening. That is six weeks more than it gives Spanish and French.
How do I find my German level?
Take Deutsche Welle's free placement test. It has tests for the A1, A2, and B1 levels and points you to a course that fits. Readle, Todaii German, and DW all sort their German by these same levels.
Is Bubblegum free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so you can ask Poppy for a free one, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- tagesschau, tagesschau startet Sendung in Einfacher Sprache
- Deutschlandfunk, Nachrichtenleicht: Nachrichten in Einfacher Sprache
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (FSI language categories)
- Deutsche Welle, Learn German placement test
- Bubblegum
- Readle
- Todaii German
- DW Learn German
- Seedlang
- tagesschau in Einfacher Sprache
- LingQ
- Language Reactor
Checked on October 8, 2026 against each app's own pages.
