The Fastest Way to Learn Austrian German in 2026

The fastest way to learn Austrian German is to spend most of your study time on Austrian German you can mostly understand. You'll see it called comprehensible input. The plan below lists resources for each level and how to divide an hour.

Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.

1. Level 1

   I'm just starting out or know only a few words.

   • Read and listen 35 min
   • Review 15 min
   • Speak 10 min

   Choose one of two ways to start. The easiest way is Bubblegum, where Poppy, your AI tutor, writes short Austrian German lessons at your level about your interests and goals and explains the grammar as you go. The other way is a textbook. Get Colloquial German and work through one lesson at a time, reading each dialogue while you play its free audio from the Routledge website. The book teaches standard German in general, so Austrian words come from Bubblegum and Austrian media. Plan on a few weeks of hard study to learn the basic grammar before you start using apps.

   • Textbook: Colloquial German
   • Free audio for the textbook
2. Level 2

   I can read simple sentences.

   • Read and listen 40 min
   • Review 10 min
   • Speak 10 min

   If you use Bubblegum, read its Level 2 lessons with the translation hidden, and look up only the words that stop you. If you use a textbook, try Colloquial German 2, the second book in the series, and play its free audio from the Routledge website as you read. Work through Sprachportal, the free German courses for Austria from the Austrian Integration Fund, which start at A1.

   • Textbook: Colloquial German 2
   • Free audio for the textbook
   • Sprachportal
3. Level 3

   I can read short stories and messages.

   • Read and listen 40 min
   • Review 5 min
   • Speak 15 min

   At this level you need more words, so read and listen a lot. Bubblegum reuses the words you saved in new Level 3 lessons. Read a short article from ORF's news in plain German, and talk about it with a tutor from Austria.

   • ORF news in plain German
   • Preply tutors
4. Level 4

   I can read longer texts about everyday life.

   • Read and watch 45 min
   • Review 5 min
   • Speak 10 min

   Watch ORF III's plain-German news on weekdays at 19:25, and read Österreich Spiegel for articles with audio reports. Read Bubblegum lessons at Level 4 about things you're into.

   • ORF III plain-German news
   • Österreich Spiegel
5. Level 5

   I can follow complex topics, but miss some details.

   • Read and watch 50 min
   • Speak 10 min

   Watch shows and news on ORF ON, and guess new words from the scene before you check them. Poppy can write your Level 5 lessons about anything you're into.

   • ORF ON
6. Level 6

   I can read almost anything.

   • Read and watch 50 min
   • Speak 10 min

   Read Austrian news in full and Austrian books, and talk about them with friends from Austria. Read Bubblegum lessons at Level 6 about the things you care about too.

   • ORF news

Think of these splits as a starting sketch. Move up once a level's lessons stop stretching you, and back if you can't tell what's happening by the third line.

Austrian German is standard German with its own words, so the hours for German apply. German takes about 828 class hours to reach professional fluency, according to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute, which puts German in its second group for English speakers. The Goethe-Institut estimates about 150 to 260 hours of instruction to complete level A2 and 260 to 490 hours to complete B1. The table uses the top of each range.

These are class hours for German in general, so the table shows the size of the workload, and study on your own will take a different number of hours.

• 🇩🇪Only Germany's WordsIf every text you read is from Germany, words like Jänner look wrong at first. Mix in Austrian texts from your first weeks, so Austrian words look normal.
• 🗣️Skipping Austrian SpeechIn speech, Austrians use the perfect tense more than the simple past. Watch Austrian shows, so what you hear matches what you read.
• 🗂️Word Lists by ThemselvesA word list gives meanings, but not the Austrian choice. Learn each one from a short line with audio, and review the line.