Some of my Aussie and British coworkers are learning German too, on Duolingo and Busuu. At lunch, one of them said “Ich habe meine Brillen vergessen”, and when I said “meine Brille”, singular, he refused. “There are two lenses, mate.”

“Die Hose” made it worse, since in German he’s wearing one trouser. He didn’t take it well either.

“Brille” comes from “Beryll”, the stone early lenses were made of. Dutch keeps bril and broek singular, while Polish makes okulary and spodnie plural like English, so my head runs both systems at once. Praktika doesn’t always catch me saying “meine Hosen”.

Are there other German words like this that trip up English speakers, or are these the main ones?

"Sie ist eine Frau. Wenn es hart auf hart kommt, zieht sie hier ins Über."

This is from Death Note where Light was talking to Naomi Misora in episode 7 ("Overcast").

I get the "Wenn es hart auf hart kommt" part, but this one "zieht sie hier ins Über." i don't.

I've asked Claude and this is its respond: " 'Ins Über ziehen' isn't colloquial German slang, and I can't find any established meaning for it."

Maybe I misheard "Über"?! I don't know. That's why I need your help. Thanks.

Basically the title. When do you use -e and when do you use -en? Like if I were to say “Es regnet am zweiundzwanzigsten April”, is that the correct ending? If so/not, why?

I mean the everyday phrases at work that nobody teaches in class, like how colleagues phone each other or how they say they are unsure.

Did you keep a list, or did you pick them up over time?

Learning German in Germany for 8 months from scratch, yesterday I tried my luck with the B2 Digital Hören and Lesen parts and actually passed it
Hören: 80
Lesen: 70
I'm going to take Schreiben and Sprechen in the upcoming weeks
Should i wait A little while for Them or should I take them Immediately

Hi everyone! My BAMF B2 Beruf exam is on 29 October, and I’m feeling nervous. 😟
For those who have already taken the exam, do you have any last-minute tips for Lesen, Hören, Sprachbausteine, Schreiben and Sprechen?
Was the actual exam similar to the practice tests? What should I focus on most?
I would really appreciate your advice. Thank you! ❤️

Hello everyone! I’m planning to apply for an undergraduate program in Germany next year. I currently have zero knowledge of German, but I’m aiming to reach at least a B1 level before I go. Where should I start, and what would you recommend?

I am in the United States and enrolled in a nearby community college. In summer 2026, I enrolled in a German language course. Currently, I am finishing the second course. A few of the local community colleges offer 4 courses in German.

The community college that is near me offers German 3 and 4 once a year. It is taught in the fall months. The earliest I can take the third course is in fall 2027. Thereafter, the fourth course in fall 2028. Any suggestions please to keep what I relearned intact.

Thank you.

A discussion has come up with my friends and me, all of which are native German speakers, and apparently my family is the only one saying "der Navi" as in "der Navigator" for the thing in the car giving you instructions on where to drive. The others say "das Navi" as in "das Navigationssystem". Even the Duden says "das Navi" only. So I'm now wondering if my family is really that unique in that and if you have found other examples of different articles because of disagreements on what something is short for. Is there maybe someone out there saying "die Navi"?

Does anyone here have experiences with online integration courses? I live in a rural area in Northern Germany and the next city with in-classroom integration courses is hard to reach with public transport.

A friend of mine only studied sample questions and claimed that all the questions came from the same question sets he had attempted from an „undisclosed source“
I was quite surprised, since neither did he disclose where he got the questions from, nor did he bother to elaborate.
I’ve been facing challenges with a few teils esp SBS2
If this supposed myth were true, then shouldn’t TELC do something about it?👀

I’m interested in taking a 3-week intensive German language course at the Goethe Institut in Göttingen and wondering if I’ll feel out of place at age 70?

Forty-five years ago I lived and worked in Osnabrück for 18 months without hearing a word of English.  When I left, I was completely fluent.   Germans would ask if I were Dutch when I spoke.

I hate to lose such hard-earned facility in German, but after 45 years of not using the language I test out now at a B1/B2 range.

Now that I’m retired I have the time and money to go back to Germany and try to recapture my youth and German language skills.  When you get to my age, you always view yourself a lot younger than do others.

Just wondering how I’d fit in at an intensive Goethe course where I’m looking to just immerse myself in German and study for the 3 weeks . . . ?

I am thinking and debating between taking german B1 level on Goethe Institut or DaF test, and i heard that if i fail Goethe test it just says that you’ve failed and it’s over, like it won’t give you certificate for lower level (A2) and if i take DaF B1 and fail it, it will give certificate for A2. Is that true, is there any difference between them?

Hi everyone,

I am currently at A1 level and living in Graz, Austria. My ultimate goal is to reach solid C1 fluency with strong speaking skills within the next 18 months. Because I am currently not working, my schedule is completely open, and I have the time to treat language learning like a full-time job.

I’ve designed a hybrid approach to maximize my hours while keeping costs down, but I want to pressure-test it with this community to see if I’m missing any blind spots. Here is the plan:

1. Online Classes: I am planning to enroll in the Goethe-Institut India’s online Superintensive courses. The value proposition is insane, it offers 22.5 hours of live instruction per week for 7-week blocks per level, costing only around 29,000 INR (approx. €315). For the raw number of structural hours, local options in Austria simply can't compete.
2. The Immersion Buffer (Self-Study & Local Life): Since I am physically in Graz, I plan to spend an additional 1.5 to 2 hours every single day forcing myself out into the local environment. I'll be ordering food, shopping, and doing daily tasks strictly in German to bridge the gap between screen time and real life.
3. The Speaking Component: I am pairing this with weekly in-person Language Café (Sprachcafé) sessions right here in Graz to actively practice speaking with locals, get used to the Austrian accent, and break the fear of talking.

I am fully aware that 4.5+ hours of intense language learning a day plus real-world immersion is going to be incredibly exhausting. However, I am completely willing to put in the grueling effort, fight through the cognitive burnout, and do whatever it takes to make this work.

My main worries are:

• Waking up early due to the India-to-Austria timezone difference (classes start 9:30 IST).
• Standard Hochdeutsch from the online course clashing with the Steirisch (Styrian) / Austrian dialect I hear on the streets.

Is this a realistic way to fast-track my speaking and immersion to achieve C1 in 18 months?

Would love any advice, tweaks, or reality checks! Thanks!

Hello and good day to everyone. I would like to find german history channels whose videos always have english subtitles in their videos (spanish subtitles would be good too)

Hi all,

How do you say "At your service" as a reply for "Thank you"`?

Example:
- "Thank you for making the effort"
- "At your service"

Danke.

Hi I want to learn German and post some googling I ordered this book "Grammatik aktiv · A1-B1 Deutsch als Fremdsprache". My question is how to use this book if you don't know the alphabet of german language what prerequisites are to use this book?

Hallo!!

I’m an Honors German 3 student, and I’d say I’m relatively close to the top of my class.

However, I consistently struggle with reading and listening assessments, usually scoring around 70–80%.

With listening, I have a hard time processing the audio quickly enough to catch and write down the information I hear. With reading, I struggle to understand the passages well enough to answer the questions accurately.

I know I understand a decent amount of German, so I’m frustrated that I can’t seem to translate that knowledge into stronger test scores.

Does anyone have any tips, strategies, or practice methods that could help me improve in these two areas?

Vielen Dank!

Hi guys, I’m at A2 level in German but I really struggle with my pronunciation. Do you have any tips on how to improve it?

I'm a beginner, and came across this video. The "R" seems very dramatic, notably on "Gemerkt", the second time he says "Lernen", and "Rassismus". Like I said, I'm a beginner, so I'm ignorant of accents/dialects. Is he just putting it on for effect or is this an actual way of pronouncing the "R" sound?

Right now I am doing mbbs in my country and also learning german slowly.After I complete my degree I plan to shift to germany so my question is do I need to switch german layout? I mean If it will be beneficial I'll do it.

A few weeks ago, I was preparing for my TELC B1 exam. I work full-time as a software developer, have two young kids, and honestly, finding time to study was probably harder than studying German itself 😅

I had less than a month to prepare, so I had to be really careful with how I used my time.

Here's what worked for me.

1. Goethe's online B1 course

I bought the Goethe-Institut B1 online course during a promotion for €99. It's around 72 hours of material, but I managed to finish it in two weeks.

The funny thing is that I studied with Goethe but took the TELC exam 😂

I found the course really useful for building my grammar and vocabulary. It's also well structured, which helped a lot with self-study.

2. ChatGPT became my study partner

This was probably one of the most useful things I did.

I created separate ChatGPT conversations for Lesen, Hören, Sprachbausteine, Schreiben, and Sprechen.

Every day, I'd practice exercises, submit my answers, and ask it to explain my mistakes.

For Schreiben, I wrote so many emails that at some point I felt like I was working in customer support.

3. Easy German on YouTube

I watched videos from Easy German's B1 playlist almost every day.

Sometimes while having lunch, sometimes in the evening. It helped me get used to listening to German without feeling like I was studying all the time.

4. Speaking practice using my own life

Instead of memorizing random sentences, I asked ChatGPT to create speaking examples based on my actual life: my family, job, hobbies, daily routine, etc.

Then I practiced them using voice conversations.

This made a big difference for me because I wasn't trying to remember someone else's story during the exam. I was just talking about my own life.

5. Mock exams, mock exams, mock exams

During the final days, I focused much more on practicing the exam format than learning new grammar.

I wanted to know what each task looked like, how much time I had, and where I was making mistakes.

I eventually took the digital TELC B1 exam. Being able to type my writing answers instead of handwriting them was something I personally appreciated.

Looking back, I think the biggest lesson was that I didn't need to study everything. I needed to focus on what I was actually struggling with.

Die Waise

Dunkel die Wälder, trüb die traurigen Felder

In denen mein Blick sich stets verirrt.

Wie ein Hauch, der ziehend mich verwirrt

Und reißt mir das Herz aus dem Körper.

Zerrissen, höre ich sie mir sanft rufen.

Die blanken, verwaisten Wiesen sind es,

Die mir ins Ohr leise, schwach, über alles

Verlorene erinnern – Ich werde auch dort ruhen.

Gedanken fließen, überlaufen zwischen Bäumen

Wie ein Geist, der seine Heimat nie erkennen dürfte,

Wie ein Kind, das seine Eltern verlieren müsste,

Und ewig kämpft, sie zu erfinden – in den Träumen.

Mein trostloses Herz möchte ihm nachgehen,

Er, der Erlöser aller, die keine Wurzeln halten,

Er ist der Wind, dessen harte gnadenlose Gewalten

In mir den Mut erwecken, trotzdem aufrechtzustehen!

Naja. Ich lerne Deutsch seit ungefähr einem Jahr, und wollte meinem Schreiben ein bisschen üben (abgesehen davon, dass ich auch sehr gerne Gedichten, Prosa usw schreibe). Ich habe niemanden mit wem es zu teilen, deswegen teile ich es mit euch :).

Sagt mir was ihr davon haltet, was ihr beim Lesen gefühlt habt, oder was ihr verstanden oder nicht verstanden habt. Alle Bemerkungen, Kommentaren usw sind willkommen, auch (und eigentlich vor allem) kritische Bemerkungen.

Vielen Dank!