🇩🇪 Free German Vocabulary Flashcards
8 beginner decks covering the 157 most useful German words — every word listed below with its English translation, free to read and free to study with spaced repetition.
Start studying free →Why start with these German words?
German and English are close cousins — Haus is house, Wasser is water, trinken is to drink — which gives English speakers a genuine head start. The decks above concentrate on the everyday vocabulary where that kinship shows most: greetings, numbers, food and family. Two things to notice as you study: every German noun is capitalised (a free reading aid), and the numbers past twenty are said "backwards" (einundzwanzig — one-and-twenty). Learn these core words with spaced repetition before touching grammar tables; a solid vocabulary base makes the famous German cases far less painful when you meet them.
How to study these decks
Read a deck below to preview every word, then sign up free to study it with spaced repetition — the method that schedules each card back right before you would forget it. Ten words a day is the sweet spot: enough to progress fast, small enough to sustain. Say each word out loud as you go, and practise English → German as well as the easier direction, because that is the one that lets you speak. For the method behind it, see our guide to learning a language with flashcards.
Numbers 1–20 20 cards
Counting is the first superpower in any language — prices, times, quantities and phone numbers all run on these twenty words.
| English | German (Deutsch) |
|---|---|
| one | eins |
| two | zwei |
| three | drei |
| four | vier |
| five | fünf |
| six | sechs |
| seven | sieben |
| eight | acht |
| nine | neun |
| ten | zehn |
| eleven | elf |
| twelve | zwölf |
| thirteen | dreizehn |
| fourteen | vierzehn |
| fifteen | fünfzehn |
| sixteen | sechzehn |
| seventeen | siebzehn |
| eighteen | achtzehn |
| nineteen | neunzehn |
| twenty | zwanzig |
Greetings & Basics 18 cards
The polite essentials: hello, thank you, please, sorry — the twenty phrases that set the tone of every conversation you'll ever have.
| English | German (Deutsch) |
|---|---|
| hello | hallo |
| good morning | guten Morgen |
| good day | guten Tag |
| good evening | guten Abend |
| good night | gute Nacht |
| bye (casual) | tschüss |
| goodbye | auf Wiedersehen |
| please / you're welcome | bitte |
| thank you | danke |
| yes | ja |
| no | nein |
| excuse me / sorry | Entschuldigung |
| I'm sorry | es tut mir leid |
| how are you? | wie geht's? |
| good, thanks | gut, danke |
| nice to meet you | freut mich |
| I don't understand | ich verstehe nicht |
| do you speak English? | sprechen Sie Englisch? |
Days & Months 20 cards
Plans, bookings and birthdays: the days of the week and months of the year, plus 'today' — the vocabulary of every calendar conversation.
| English | German (Deutsch) |
|---|---|
| Monday | Montag |
| Tuesday | Dienstag |
| Wednesday | Mittwoch |
| Thursday | Donnerstag |
| Friday | Freitag |
| Saturday | Samstag |
| Sunday | Sonntag |
| January | Januar |
| February | Februar |
| March | März |
| April | April |
| May | Mai |
| June | Juni |
| July | Juli |
| August | August |
| September | September |
| October | Oktober |
| November | November |
| December | Dezember |
| today | heute |
Family Words 19 cards
Mother, brother, grandmother, friend — the people words that come up in every getting-to-know-you conversation.
| English | German (Deutsch) |
|---|---|
| mother | die Mutter |
| father | der Vater |
| brother | der Bruder |
| sister | die Schwester |
| son | der Sohn |
| daughter | die Tochter |
| grandfather | der Großvater |
| grandmother | die Großmutter |
| uncle | der Onkel |
| aunt | die Tante |
| cousin | der Cousin / die Cousine |
| wife | die Ehefrau |
| husband | der Ehemann |
| family | die Familie |
| friend (m) | der Freund |
| friend (f) | die Freundin |
| child | das Kind |
| baby | das Baby |
| parents | die Eltern |
Food & Drink 20 cards
Menus, markets and breakfast tables: the core food and drink words you'll use every single day abroad.
| English | German (Deutsch) |
|---|---|
| water | das Wasser |
| bread | das Brot |
| milk | die Milch |
| coffee | der Kaffee |
| tea | der Tee |
| beer | das Bier |
| wine | der Wein |
| cheese | der Käse |
| egg | das Ei |
| meat | das Fleisch |
| chicken | das Hähnchen |
| fish | der Fisch |
| rice | der Reis |
| fruit | das Obst |
| apple | der Apfel |
| vegetables | das Gemüse |
| salt | das Salz |
| sugar | der Zucker |
| breakfast | das Frühstück |
| dinner | das Abendessen |
Travel & Directions 20 cards
Airports, tickets, left and right: the survival kit for getting anywhere — and for asking where anywhere is.
| English | German (Deutsch) |
|---|---|
| airport | der Flughafen |
| train | der Zug |
| bus | der Bus |
| car | das Auto |
| ticket | die Fahrkarte |
| hotel | das Hotel |
| beach | der Strand |
| city | die Stadt |
| street | die Straße |
| map | die Karte |
| left | links |
| right | rechts |
| straight ahead | geradeaus |
| near | nah |
| far | weit |
| where is…? | wo ist…? |
| station | der Bahnhof |
| luggage | das Gepäck |
| passport | der Reisepass |
| help | Hilfe |
Colours & Adjectives 20 cards
Colours plus the little describing words — big, small, new, expensive — that make your sentences suddenly specific.
| English | German (Deutsch) |
|---|---|
| red | rot |
| blue | blau |
| green | grün |
| yellow | gelb |
| black | schwarz |
| white | weiß |
| orange | orange |
| pink | rosa |
| purple | lila |
| grey | grau |
| brown | braun |
| big | groß |
| small | klein |
| new | neu |
| old | alt |
| beautiful | schön |
| ugly | hässlich |
| expensive | teuer |
| cheap | billig |
| good | gut |
20 Most Useful Verbs 20 cards
To be, to have, to want, to go: the twenty verbs that power the majority of everyday sentences.
| English | German (Deutsch) |
|---|---|
| to be | sein |
| to have | haben |
| to do / make | machen |
| to go | gehen |
| to come | kommen |
| to want | wollen |
| to be able to | können |
| to speak | sprechen |
| to eat | essen |
| to drink | trinken |
| to live (reside) | wohnen |
| to see | sehen |
| to know (facts) | wissen |
| to give | geben |
| to say | sagen |
| to work | arbeiten |
| to buy | kaufen |
| to love | lieben |
| to sleep | schlafen |
| to take | nehmen |