German A1 Vocabulary: The Words to Learn First, by Situation
Short answer. At A1 you need a few hundred words, not thousands. Wortweg's A1 list has 347 words: 136 nouns, 80 verbs and 42 adjectives. Learn the nouns for the situations you face first (home, food, transport, appointments), always with der/die/das and the plural, and practise a few minutes every day rather than in one long session.
A1 is the level where German starts to be useful. You can introduce yourself, buy food, find the platform and fill in a form. The trap is treating A1 as one giant list. Below is a starter list sorted by situation, the counts behind it, and a daily routine that makes the words stay.
How many words do you need for German A1?
Word counts depend on whether a list counts phrases, inflected forms and number words. Wortweg is a vocabulary supplement, not a complete A1 course or exam syllabus. Our A1 list has 347 words, chosen to support everyday situations such as introductions, shopping, directions, times, dates and basic forms. These tasks also need grammar, listening and speaking practice.
Nouns are the largest group (136 of 347), and they are the expensive ones, because each noun brings an article and a plural with it. That is where the method below spends its effort.
German A1 vocabulary list by situation
Each noun is shown the way you should learn it: article, singular, plural.
At home
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| die Wohnung | die Wohnungen | apartment |
| das Zimmer | die Zimmer | room |
| die Küche | die Küchen | kitchen |
| das Bad | die Bäder | bathroom |
| der Schlüssel | die Schlüssel | key |
| die Miete | die Mieten | rent |
| der Nachbar | die Nachbarn | neighbour |
| die Tür | die Türen | door |
Food and shopping
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| das Brot | die Brote | bread |
| das Brötchen | die Brötchen | bread roll |
| der Kaffee | die Kaffees | coffee |
| das Frühstück | die Frühstücke | breakfast |
| die Rechnung | die Rechnungen | bill |
| der Preis | die Preise | price |
| die Kasse | die Kassen | checkout |
| das Trinkgeld | die Trinkgelder | tip |
Getting around
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| der Bahnhof | die Bahnhöfe | train station |
| der Zug | die Züge | train |
| die Fahrkarte | die Fahrkarten | ticket |
| die Haltestelle | die Haltestellen | bus stop |
| die Straße | die Straßen | street |
| die Stadt | die Städte | city |
| das Fahrrad | die Fahrräder | bicycle |
| das Hotel | die Hotels | hotel |
Appointments, forms and work
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| der Termin | die Termine | appointment |
| das Formular | die Formulare | form |
| die Unterschrift | die Unterschriften | signature |
| der Vorname | die Vornamen | first name |
| die Postleitzahl | die Postleitzahlen | postcode |
| die Nummer | die Nummern | number |
| der Arzt | die Ärzte | doctor |
| die Arbeit | die Arbeiten | work |
Time
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| der Tag | die Tage | day |
| die Woche | die Wochen | week |
| der Monat | die Monate | month |
| das Jahr | die Jahre | year |
| die Stunde | die Stunden | hour |
| die Uhr | die Uhren | clock, o'clock |
Notice the patterns already: every die noun above adds -n or -en except die Stadt → die Städte, and every plural takes die. Those two observations are covered properly in German plural rules, by the numbers.
Learn the bundle, not the translation
An English flashcard says table. German needs three things on the card:
- der Tisch: article and noun, said as one sound
- die Tische: the plural
- Der Tisch ist neu.: one sentence you could say this week
When you review, cover the German and produce the whole bundle out loud. Remembering only Tisch is half an answer, and the missing half is what breaks a sentence. For a shortcut on the article itself, see which endings predict der, die, das.
A 15-minute daily routine for A1 vocabulary
- Five new nouns a day, not thirty. Take them from the situation you will face next: a doctor's appointment, a shop, a train.
- Recall yesterday's five before adding new ones. Article and plural included, before you look.
- Once a week, mix everything. Shuffle the whole week and test yourself without the English side first.
- Say one real sentence with each word. Spaced review only works if the first meeting with the word was rich.
A1 words that trip up learners
- das Mädchen: neuter, because -chen words are always das, even when they mean a person.
- der Junge: masculine although most nouns in -e are feminine. Male people win.
- die Geschwister: siblings, plural only in everyday use.
- das Hobby → die Hobbys: German spells it -ys, not "Hobbies".
- Umlauts are real letters: die Küche, der Schlüssel, die Straße. Never write "Kueche" or "Strasse" in your notes. Here is how to type them.
Wortweg's A1 level draws on exactly the list counted above. Each word you find shows its meaning, article, plural and an example sentence, and no account is needed to start.
Questions learners ask
How many words do you need for German A1?
Official word lists for A1 run to several hundred entries once phrases are included. A focused core of around 300 everyday words, with articles and plurals, covers the A1 situations: introductions, shopping, directions, time and simple forms.
What German words should I learn first?
Learn the nouns and verbs for situations you face this week: home, food and shopping, transport, appointments and time. A word you can use in a sentence today is worth more than ten you might need later.
How long does it take to learn A1 German vocabulary?
At five new words a day, 300 first encounters take 60 days. That is a planning example, not a promise of retention or A1 proficiency; allow time for review and adjust the pace to what you remember.
Should I learn German nouns with the article?
Yes, always. Learn every noun with der, die or das and with its plural, as one unit. Adding the article later is much harder than learning it from the start.
For the exam-specific vocabulary reference, see the Goethe-Institut Start Deutsch 1 word list. Wortweg is not an exam provider.
How the vocabulary statistics were counted: corpus counts on this page are computed from Wortweg's own word list (3,306 CEFR-tagged words, 1,842 of them nouns with article and plural), the same list the game draws from. It is a learner's core vocabulary, not the whole German language, so treat the percentages as what you will meet in practice, not as grammar law.
Start an A1 board
Find a word, read its meaning and example, then try saying it in a sentence of your own. The board uses A1 vocabulary; it does not reproduce the tables above.
Play A1 vocabularyNo account needed. Choose another level in the game.