r/German

I work at a small liberal arts college with a strong German heritage and connection, and I have several colleagues who speak German and travel to Germany often. This summer I'd like to secretly learn German and surprise them by conversing in German when we return to classes in the fall.

I'm picking up a German grammar book from the public library today and combing through the resources in the Wiki. Are there any other suggestions for learning the language under the radar?

ETA: My degrees are in music, so I'm familiar with pronunciation and a handful of words through performing German Lied in recital. So not quite starting from zero, but I definitely can't form a spontaneous sentence.

I’ve been learning German on and off for over 4 years. 3 months ago I decided to finally take it seriously and started taking a B2 course. Then I realised the course would take ages (we’re still not done with B2.2), said to hell with it and decided to take my chances with the telc exam.

The preparation took 3 months but I wasn’t super focused till the last two weeks.

My results:
Schriftliche Prüfung: 172/ 225
Leseverstehen: 65/75
Sprachbausteine: 22,5/ 30
Hörverstehen: 57,5/ 75
Schriftlicher Ausdruck: 27/45
Mündliche Prüfung: 69/75
Über Erfahrungen sprechen: 23/ 25
Diskussion: 23/25
Gemeinsam etwas planen: 23/25
Summe: 241/300

My actual experience of the exam:
I took many mock tests before the exam and the course I was taking was super oriented to the telc exams. So I didn’t panic or feel stressed at all. I just fully spaced out during the listening exam and had to guess a few questions lmao. You only get to listen to once folks, so pay attention.

The speaking part was super easy for me because speaking is my strongest suit. At one point I realised the four of us were having banter, cracking jokes and laughing, in German. At the end of my exam, the two examiners just looked at each other and nodded. That’s how I realised I did well haha.

I have two criticisms about the telc company. First, our exam had to be delayed two hours and we had to wait in the lobby during that time, no connection to the outer world. I could see the other,already nervous exam takers were getting even more stressed. Second, even though I took a digital exam it took more than a month to get my results. (It normally takes 7-10 days)

All and all, I am really happy that I took this test earlier than I expected. Because of my two weeks of dedicated, I believe I really improved in my German abilities. I also feel much more confident now.

What I did right:
For the last two weeks before the exam I spoke German every day for at least three hours. One hour with someone who was at the same level as I am and two hours with a native speaker (we’re close friends). I really pushed myself to talk about more abstract and philosophical topics during these sessions. With both of my friends I did mock speaking exams, so I was very familiar with the structure of the speaking part.

My mistake:
Apparently for schriftlicher ausdruck, people are memorising a template with idioms and complex grammar and modify it to the topic that’s on the exam. Honestly I just winged it. Even though I tried to write something every day it’s still my biggest weakness. I struggle with grammar and I feel like my written vocabulary is very limited. Advice is greatly appreciated about this.

I already started studying for my C1 exam. This time I’ll take a bit more time to study and focus more on writing and grammar.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Hi everyone,
I'm working on a project involving German lemmas from the Grimm's Dictionary (Deutsches Wörterbuch). I have the list of words, but I am missing the definitions.

I’ve tried:

1. OCR (quality is too poor for Fraktur/old German).
2. Prompting LLMs (Claude/GPT-4), but they hallucinate archaic definitions constantly.
3. Contacting Woerterbuchnetz/Trier. I can search manually.

Is there a public, open-access dump (XML, TEI, JSON, or SQL) of the full DWB available somewhere? I am looking for structured data that maps lemmas to their original definitions.

Any leads on GitHub repos, university datasets (Zenodo, etc.), or hidden mirrors would be greatly appreciated!

I was watching the documentaries Der Letzte seines Standes (very cool btw) on Youtube today and came across this man, speaking wizardry without a wand. Wondering if this is a dialect or just a different language entirely, since I can hear a fair few German words in there, then he bolts back to gibberish. For reference the man starts speaking at 3:30.

Hi everyone! I've started learning German and am taking classes at a language school. But that's not enough—I want to read on my own outside of class. Can you recommend any books for beginners?

Hallo alle zusammen,

Ich bitte um Verzeihung falls ich einen Fehler mache.

Ich lerne Deutsch. Ich höre auch deutsche Lieder.

Letztes Lied das ich gehört habe ist 'Ich gebe alles' von Wilhelmine.

Eine Zeile ging wie 'Ich gebe alles, alles, alles, für dich'.

Ich weiß dass, nach Für einen Akkusativ Objekt stehen muss. Meine Fragen sind,

1. Ist der Satz richtig oder falsch?

2. Gibt es Fälle wo man auch Für mit dem Verb 'geben' benutzen kann?

Blackbird (Eng); Amsel (Ger); Merle (Fre)
Jackdaw (Eng); Dohle (Ger); Choucas (Fre)
Duck (Eng); Ente (Ger); Canard (Fre)
Any idea why, on that topic, those 3 languages have nothing in common? Are there other areas where those languages often use 3 different paths?
(I am learning the names in German of the birds I see daily, and it struck me how different those 3 main European languages are regarding birds.)

I have been learning German for some time now and I feel like I need to invest more time as I am getting better. For the people who went through these stages, what was it learning different levels like A1,A2,B1,B2 and so on. With each level did you need to invest more and more time or was it the same overall?

I'm doing some genealogical research of my family and I've stumbled across a surname that I can't really decipher. To me it looks like Tzscheschken.

It is on this page: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-67JX-H7?cat=olib%3A1988979&view=explore&lang=en&groupId=TH-267-11867-12505-88

It is the october 15th marriage record. Thank you for the help in advance!

I am Australian and about to play a TTRPG with a German player. My turns of phrase have caused confusion even among native English speakers at times and I want to be on the front foot.

Absolute unit - person, or physical object that is abnormally heavy, large, strong or excessive with the task it performs.

eg: "That kid is an absolute unit!"

Is there a German slang equivalent?

Hallo, I know a lot of people will say it depends on the ausbildung, etc., or simply on your B2 to C1 level, but I know there are plenty of people who pass the B2 exam and still can’t hold a conversation in German, so I’m really asking how difficult German is at the berufschule. My biggest concern is the exams, I've heard that it's not recommended to pursue something too technical, like mechanics or electronics, especially since the content at berufschule will be very demanding.

Danke in voraus

let’s say i gave an A2 goethe exam and cleared how long is the certificate valid because on google it says lifetime but some consultants in my city are saying its valid for one year only because i have to apple for next year’s intakes if i get acceptance in april its good else winter intake

​

I’ve been noticing something interesting recently and wanted to know if others feel the same.

Back in 2023–2024, Goethe exam booking in India was absolute chaos at almost every level (A1 to B2 at least). If you search old Reddit posts, Facebook groups, Telegram/WhatsApp channels etc., people everywhere were complaining that:

- slots vanished in minutes

- everyone was panic refreshing

- people used multiple devices/accounts

- agents/bots were allegedly grabbing seats

- Mumbai/Delhi/Bangalore especially were brutal

I personally remember Mumbai B2 modular exams filling in under 5 minutes in 2024.

But now in 2026, the situation feels completely different.

I’m literally seeing free slots sitting open for days across multiple levels. Even Mumbai B2 June exams still has all 4 modules available more than 10 days after registration opened. You can Book sprechen and schreiben at Mumbai right now, these modules are so hard to book that you have no chance if you're late by 2-3 minutes.

What’s interesting is that the exam capacity hasn't increased. The website itself was already working fine in 2024 for many people. And exam was using the modular system back then as well.

So now I’m wondering:

Did Goethe actually fix something behind the scenes (anti-bot measures, payment restrictions, queue handling etc.) OR has the German-learning craze in India simply cooled down compared to the peak 2023–2024 period?

I've been learning German for a really long time, now I on B1 Niveau. But I still feel like I'm extremely bad. Why when I'm in a good mood, I understand german perfectly, but when I'm a little bit upset or tiered I can't comprehend even the easiest speech. I usually watch videos on YouTube in German for improving my Hörung, sometimes educational, sometimes something really dumb and funny. And I noticed that these stupid ones I understand much better. Also I love to watch series in German, but I have lack of resources. Entweder site doesn't work in my country, oder there's nothing interesting for me. So, the best way for me learn German is watching smth that's interesting for me, or that I had watched in other language, that I know.

1. Identical to its English counterpart

2. A very long literal description of what the thing is

3. An unholy garbled mishmash of nonsense letters

im a 20yo asian-american guy who loves learning german in college. my family, even tho they still support me learning german, always tell me how useless german is since everyone there speaks english so well. they say that everyone in germany speaks german so fluently that its pretty much impossible for german learners to actually practice and that natives frequently get "annoyed" and "impatient" with foreigners since it would be easier for them to just speak english. can anyone attest to how accurate that is? i know germany has one of the highest proficiency rates in english, but i still am very interested in the language and want to visit someday.

Hey! I started learning German a week ago, and I was wondering, which one of these do you use with strangers? What’s the most common term to say “excuse me” ? Can I say “entschuldigung” to someone I don’t know? Or do I have to say “entschuldigen Sie bitte” ?

I too do speak German but I'm lowk kinda insecure about my German so I wanna ask sth.

I'm working on an artwork and I want want write "Clothing has no gender" in it in German.

If I write "Kleidung hat kein Geschlecht" sound natural? Or how would you word it?

I’ll be going to Germany for Winter 2026 intake (public university admit already received), and I really want to at least reach basic A1/A2 familiarity before arriving. The problem is that I’m genuinely struggling with German despite trying consistently.

I’ve gone through multiple YouTube playlists, random apps, grammar videos, and even some structured resources, but nothing seems to click. Every time I learn one rule, another exception or sentence structure appears and I feel completely lost again. I’m good at academics/technical subjects generally, so this has honestly been frustrating and overwhelming for me.

Now I’m considering Goethe courses because everyone says they’re very structured and effective, but they’re also expensive. My fear is: what if I spend that much and still feel equally lost?

For people who genuinely struggled with German initially:

>What finally helped you reach survival-level German?

Any help would be really appreciated !!

I consider myself close to fluency. I mean, I read novels, watch movies, use German daily at work, passed my B2 exam, tried the mock exam for C1 quite successfully... anyway, long story short, I still struggle with gender and prepositions, that kills my confidence when I speak and especially when I write. I think in the end I don't do many mistakes, but I am always afraid of getting that gender wrong!

I sometimes feel more confident when speaking Chinese (I am not even B1), just because there are no declensions, gender, basically no grammar rules.

This is to ask, if you're an intermediate/advanced learner like, do you also have the same struggles? Or do you have other struggles? How did you overcome or are you overcoming them?