Learn Vocabulary
Grammar is nice, but true progress comes from learning vocabulary. In my vocabulary section, we'll explore words, their meanings and their families in a meaningful way that actually makes you truly understand and remember them.
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Must have words
These are the German words you absolutely, totally, 100%edly have to know. They show up everywhere, carry a lot of meaning and will make a real difference to how well you understand and speak German.
Modal Particles
German particles like doch, noch, schon and eben are short little words that Germans use all the time, but they can be surprisingly difficult to translate. In this section, we’ll explore what they mean, how they shape the tone of a sentence and how to use them naturally.
What is the Difference
Verschieden or anders? Wenn or falls? Kennen or wissen? These and many other pairs make almost every learner wonder at some point, “What the hell is the difference?” In this section, we’ll clear them up one by one.
Broad Vocabulary
This section is for you if you want to build a broad and useful German vocabulary. We’ll explore words and word families that may not be absolute must-haves, but that you’ll definitely to come across sooner or later.
False Friends
In this series, we explore common and not so common false friends between German and English. We'll learn what they mean, how to properly translate them and we'll explore WHY the words look the same but don't mean the same.
Prefix Verbs Explained
In this section we look at the prefix verbs one at a time.
Spoken German
This section is all about the German people actually speak in everyday life. We’ll explore colloquial expressions, slang, idioms, weird grammar and all the little things you rarely find in textbooks but hear all the time in real conversations.
How To Say
Many English words have several possible translations in German, and choosing the right one can be tricky. In this section, we’ll explore the differences, look at how Germans actually express these ideas and clear up some of the most common word-choice mistakes.
Idioms & Expressions
German is full of colorful idioms and expressions that can sound pretty strange when translated literally. In this section, we’ll explore what they really mean, where they come from and how Germans actually use them in everyday life.
Prefixes & Prepositions
In this section, we’ll take a closer look at German prefixes and prepositions, one at a time. We’ll explore how they work in different contexts and try to find their “soul”, the underlying idea that connects their many uses and makes them easier to understand.
Wo & Da-Words
In this still fairly new series, we’ll go through German wo-words and da-words one at a time. We’ll explore their most common uses, see whether they have a second meaning as a side hustle and, if they do, find out how the meanings are connected.
How do my vocabulary lessons work
Behind many words, there's a story that can help us remember them much easier. In my vocabulary lessons, we're exploring these stories.
We'll look at words and word families, explore what they mean, how to translate them, what to watch out for and WHY they mean what they mean.
Some lessons just focus on one word, like "doch" for example. Others explore a family, like "rechnen" and all its relatives.
If you're looking for a specific word, just use the article search.
To explore the archive, use the sections below.
Full archive
Here's the archive that shows all lessons by date. ALL of them :). Including grammar and nonsense.
One reader described it as a messy attic full of gems, so if you like thrifting for treasures... here you go:
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Hi Emanuel, congratulation on the new baby :D ! A quick question, when I look up a word here, it shows me a number #115 on upper left corner (the 115th most common verb), so I thought there must be a list of common verbs on this website, but I haven’t managed to find it yet. Does it exit?
Not yet, but I’ll make that pill clickable soon, then it’ll take you right to the list.
Good to hear, but no rush! :D
Dear Sir, Please review the monthly business plan
What do you mean?
Hey, Emanuel,
I was wondering how can we distinguish between “Artikel” meaning german article (der, die das) and “Artikel” as a piece of writing? Are they different genders only?
Also about “English words” in German – Wie kann man sie erkennen (außer diesen, die offensictlich aus English kommen wie Team, Gamer…) und gibt es eine Tendenz die einen bestimmten Artikel mehr als die andere zu nehmen?
Und was für andere fremde Wörter auf Deutsch? Gibt es eine Tendenz auch für sie?
Der Artikel von ‘Artikel’ ist immer ‘der’, egal, was fuer ein Artikel :).
Das Thema gender von neuen Woertern ist kompliziert und wahrscheinlich einen Artikel wert.
Es gibt ein paar Trends, aber es ist sehr sehr viel Vibes und dann Basis-Demokratie.
Ich werde da bald mal was zu schreiben.
Hey, Emanuel,
I am currently learning a song by Schubert with text by Goethe – I stumbled across the following phrase in the text: “Röslein, Röslein, Röslein roth, Röslein auf der Heiden” repeated as a moto at the end of each strophae. I understand Röslein= small rose and Heide = an open landscape area with grass, herbs, etc. What about “roth” though?
“roth” is just an old spelling of ‘rot’, the color :)
Thanks! Sorry for spamming (I just posted another question, but this song really does confuse my German-Anfanger bulgarian brain).
No worries at all.
It’s great if you ask stuff on the dictionary, as it fills it with life.
Keep it coming (but maybe not here, it’s too big a comment section already :).
This is really Informative….Thanks a Lot
“Lösen” scheint interessant zu sein. Tickets lösen, Probleme lösen, Schrauben lösen, Bremsen lösen, etwas in eine Flüssigkeit lösen…
Good idea!! I’ll do it!
Not to mention prefix versions. Which I assume there are, considering… well… German…
Ablösen, auflösen, einlösen, nachlösen, erlösen… not so many :)
Viel Spaß! Ich freue mich darauf
I believe that German uses so many different verbs for English “to get” so a word of the day ” bekommen” maybe helpful.
“gelingen” also means to manage. Yes , not sure if it “gelingen” has a wide range of possible translations. But certainly is a tricky verb.
That’s kind of trap, right there. It is used to express the same idea as to manage, but you can’t just plug in one for the other. “to manage” is what you do. “gelingen” is what your project does.
Not sure if its only me but one word that has always given me a mental block is the word “gelingen”. Is “gelingen” a difficult word ?
The most helpful thing I saw on gelingen was on the list of irregular verbs produced by the University of Michigen (in every respect a great online resource for learners of German).
https://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/Grammatik/Verb_Summaries/irreg_verbs_DNutting.pdf
I guess it is a “difficult” verb, or at least slightly tricky, because it is both a strong verb and, as the above list explains in a note, it is used impersonally, in a similar way to how with gefallen, “es gefällt mir” means “I like it”, “es gelang mir” means “I succeeded”.
MichigAn
Yeah, great resource indeed, with the worst name imaginable :). I can’t remember it , even after 6 years.
Great comparison to “gefallen”.
Well, if it’s difficult for you, then it is a difficult word :).
The best translation is probably “turn out a success”.
What exactly are you struggling with?
Is “immer” on your to-do list anytime soon?
Uh… no. Are you having problems with it? I thought it was pretty straight forward but maybe I am missing something, so let me know what you’re interested in .)
According to my dictionary it can mean “always”, “every time”, “still”, “just”. For example:
immer noch – still
auf immer – for ever
immer schwerieriger – harder and harder
wann immer – any time
fangen wir immer an – let us begin
immer langsam – take it slowly
I guess I’m not seeing the connection between all these uses, or getting the essence of the word.
Hmm… the core idea is that there is just no end or break to something.
By itself, it means “always” and “all the time”. “immer” can NEVER mean “still” by itself (without “noch”). For more about that you can check out my article on “noch”.
As for “immer schwieriger”… the idea is that something becames harder all the time/every time.
The last two are really weird and sound wrong to me. Which dictionary are you using?
Also, try not to get hung up on “words” as a translation. Think of it as a blurry notion of “all the time, incessantly, always”.
Does that help?
Yes thank you!
I’m using a German – Norwegian dictionary. The last two are listed as imperative expressions, so i should probably have added an exclamation mark. Another example of the latter is: Nur immer zu!
I’d actually recommend to use a very small dictionary. Are ignore all these expressions. Half of them are not idiomatic. I have never heard “nur immer zu” outside of some sort of fantasy movie.
For these expressions it’s better to just use the ones you come across in books or from conversations :).
Could you please have “während” as word of the day?
Yes!!! Will do!
I will like to know how to unsubscribe in future if I need to do so . Thanks for making German learning very interesting for now . Appreciated. (K)
What do you mean by unsubscribe? Do you mean the email notifications or the membership?
This site has been in existence for around 7 years. 7 X 365 = 2555 days X word of the day = 300+ articles. That seems about right. Click on this link for more info: https://yourdailygerman.com/2012/01/21/meaning-faulpelz/
#roastme
Touché!
I’ll volley that right back at you though… it is your word of the day, not mine. With 300+ articles you can read one everyday for about a year. Have you??? ;)
I’m going at about that clip. Well, if you don’t count the two weeks I was hospitalized from your “humour” making me facepalm so hard I gave myself a concussion. Been a member for 15 days.
Hahahaha… consider yourself one of the winners! My team of unpaid peon… I mean interns will reach out.
Woot! Now that I can be nice again (and perhaps take myself out of contention for a prize) this is the best site ever. My favorite part is the prefix verb series. It is like a curated dictionary. Love it.
Oops I’ve found it with the Da words undone. Sorry!
Hi Emanuel, really enjoying the blog and the comments that people make too. I know you are super busy right now but when you get time perhaps you could explain the usage of “Drauf” which Google translate seems to translate as “it”, but it seems to be used in dozens of phrases in many different ways and I can’t get my head around it. All the best.
Hi!
Thanks for the great resourse, one of the best thing I have ever seen and read ;)
You do not have something like Andriod app for that, correct?
Thanks for the great feedback :). An app would be great but I’m not quite there yet. Who knows… maybe in the future…
If you ever need a topic to write about, I would love to get some clarity about the different meanings of Vorstellung and Ausstellung – and when to use them correctly. Thanks
“Ausstellung” is an “exhibition”, a “Vorstellung” is a showing/presentation/imagination. They have a common idea but they’re not synonyms.
Have you read my articles on “ausstellen” and “vorstellen”?
https://yourdailygerman.com/2016/05/24/ausstellen-ausstellung/
https://yourdailygerman.com/2012/01/24/meaning-vorstellen/
Those might clear it up further.
Let me know in the comments there, if you have follow up questions :).
Hi there! Thank you for your lovely site, I learned so much from you by now! I love all these little quirks of the german language, and discovering the different meanings.
Do you have a section already on the difference prepositions “ge” and “be” bring to the verb (bezahlt/gezahlt, bewährt/gewährt, berrechnet/gerrechnet and so on). Maybe adding “ver” and/or “er” too. I’m always in a lot of confusion when I see berrechnet, gerrechnet, errechnet, verrechnet … :O
Thanks for the great feedback :).
I do have an article for “be-” and “ver-” (you can find them using the search, there’s no direct link).
Generally, the “ge-” marks spoken past. So “gerechnet” is a completed form of the action of calculating. I don’t have anything on “er-” yet, but it’ll come :)
Hallo Emanuel, that actually does help : ) and I think that is what my colleagues have been trying to explain to me. Thank you very, very much for that context.
It’s one thing to learn the words… but it’s quite another to learn how to use them appropriately. I feel very strongly that, if I am going to spend hours (…days, weeks, months…) learning the language, then I should learn it well. Your insight improves my chances of accomplishing that and I appreciate you very much!
It’s funny because I have a native German colleague whose role is similar to mine. I feel that our other German colleagues are really rude to him (“do it”) whereas with me, they are almost annoyingly polite. (I am an American, and they write to me mostly in English even though I really wish they would write to me more in German.) Now I can revisit that behavior with a fresh understanding that they are probably unnaturally polite with me… maybe because they are trying to say things the way an American would say them, or maybe because they feel less close to me… like I am an outsider who is doing them a favor while he is a true colleague who is just doing his job.
Also, maybe it hits on another thing… that Europeans think Americans tend to be fake friendly… if they think we overuse words like “please” then I guess that feeds into that belief.
I love words, too, Emanuel, because I think language is very human and learning language and linguistic behaviors gets right to the heart of what is truly human. That is one of the reasons why I am having so much fun learning German : ) I love how you find the pathways of how words came to mean what they mean today… I guess that is a mathematician, trying to find the logical formula for something that doesn’t seem logical at all : )
Thank you very much for your thoughtful response!
Hello Emanuel, thank you very, very much for all of your hard work on this project! It is extremely helpful to me! May I ask if you have ever done a WotD for “Bitte”? I tried to find one, but couldn’t. My colleagues tell me that I use “bitte” a lot when it isn’t necessary, so I am trying to find guidance on when it is / isn’t appropriate to use? So far, I understand “Take your seats, please” == appropriate. “Please find the information you requested” == not appropriate. I can’t understand the difference. I understand it so clearly when you explain nuances, which is why I am hoping you will do one on “bitte”? Many, many, many thanks! People said that I would never be able to learn German… but I couldn’t see why not? German is Easy : )
Hi Antoinette, I’m not sure I know how to help you because I’m not that familiar with how “please” is used in English (in formal ways, like in your examples). I’m pretty sure that German uses it less often (as German is generally less polite than English).
It feels appropriate if you really ask for a favor. If you’d like someone to sit down, that would be a situation where it fits. If you want to tell someone where to find something that THEY requested, it’s not really a favor for you. You’re just giving them information. And then a “bitte” sounds overly polite and a bit out of place.
– Please go to the right.
– Bitte gehen Sie nach rechts.
This works if going right serves YOU in some way. If they have to go right to get to the supermarket (where they want to go), using “bitte” would sound weird because you’re not benefiting from it.
Let me know if that helps a bit. If you have other examples where you’re not sure, bring them on :)