The fastest way to learn German is to spend most of your study time on German you can mostly understand. That kind of German is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- Level 1
I'm just starting out or know only a few words.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Read short dialogues with audio and a translation, and listen to each one twice. Watch Nicos Weg, the free video course from Deutsche Welle, and say a few lines out loud.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the translation and look up only the words that stop you. Watch the slower Super Easy German street interviews, and start short talks with a tutor or a friend.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Read the day's news in plain German on Nachrichtenleicht, and listen to each lesson once more without reading along. Talk about what you read for longer.
- Level 4
I understand most content but miss some nuance.
Read and watch 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Listen to the Easy German Podcast, where the hosts explain words as they talk. Watch a German series with German subtitles, one episode a week.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch German series and the regular tagesschau news without subtitles, and read articles about things you like. Look up only the words that block the story.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read German novels and newspapers, and talk about them, for their own sake.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn German?
German takes about 828 class hours to reach professional fluency, according to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. That puts German in its second group for English speakers, with Indonesian, Malay, Swahili and Haitian Creole.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish, French | Category I | 30 |
| German, Indonesian | Category II | 36 |
| Russian, Vietnamese | Category III | 44 |
| Korean, Japanese, Mandarin | Category IV | 88 |
The Goethe-Institut, Germany's official cultural institute, 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. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | Goethe A2 (260 hours) | Goethe B1 (490 hours) | FSI professional fluency (828 hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 17 months | About 2⅔ years | About 4½ years |
| 7 hours | About 8½ months | About 16 months | About 2¼ years |
| 14 hours | About 4 months | About 8 months | About 14 months |
| 28 hours | About 2 months | About 4 months | About 7 months |
These are class hours, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding German on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Nouns Without der, die or dasEvery German noun takes der, die or das, and you often can't tell which from the noun itself. Save each new noun with the one it came with.
- Case Tables AloneGerman has four cases, and a table of their endings is hard to use until you have read each form in many sentences.
- Content Far Too HardA German film where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which German app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning German, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our German app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn German in three months?
You can learn enough German to order food, greet people and talk about your day. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which falls inside the Goethe-Institut's estimate of 150 to 260 hours to complete A2.
How much should I study German each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of German you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is German hard for English speakers?
It is in the middle, by the Foreign Service Institute's measure: German is in its second group, so it takes longer than Spanish and less time than Russian. Many German words look like English ones, such as Haus (house) and Buch (book), and most of the time goes into the cases and the der, die or das of each noun, which you pick up fastest from German you understand.
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 your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
The German lessons on this site are also free and need no account.
