Pretzly
German A1 Vocabulary: The 500 Words to Learn First
You don't need 10,000 words to start speaking German. You need the right 500 — learned with their articles, in the right order.
How many words is A1, really?
The official Goethe-Institut A1 word list contains roughly 650 entries, of which about 500 form the active core you should be able to produce, not just recognize. That's the vocabulary the A1 exam assumes — and, more importantly, it's the set that covers greetings, shopping, directions, family, food and the small talk of daily life.
Most learners can reach A1 in 40–50 hours of study. At 10–15 new words a day, the vocabulary side takes about six weeks.
The A1 word list by topic
Learn by topic, not alphabetically — your brain stores words in meaning clusters. These are the topic groups worth covering first, with examples:
| Topic | Examples | ≈ Words |
|---|---|---|
| Greetings & politeness | hallo, tschüss, bitte, danke, Entschuldigung | 25 |
| People & family | die Familie, der Vater, die Mutter, das Kind, der Freund | 45 |
| Numbers, time & dates | eins–hundert, die Uhr, der Montag, heute, morgen | 70 |
| Food & drink | das Brot, das Wasser, der Kaffee, essen, trinken | 55 |
| Home & daily life | die Wohnung, das Zimmer, der Tisch, wohnen, schlafen | 60 |
| Places & travel | der Bahnhof, die Stadt, links, rechts, fahren | 55 |
| Work & school | die Arbeit, der Beruf, die Schule, lernen, arbeiten | 45 |
| Shopping & money | kaufen, kosten, das Geld, der Preis, teuer | 40 |
| Core verbs & connectors | sein, haben, werden, können, und, aber, oder, weil | 105 |
Every noun in that list should be learned as article + noun + plural: not "Wohnung" but die Wohnung, die Wohnungen. It feels slower on day one and saves you months later — German grammar leans on gender everywhere.
The right way to learn the list
- Small daily batches. 10–15 new words a day, every day, beats 100 on Saturday. Memory consolidates between sessions.
- Active recall, not re-reading. Test yourself: see "exactly" and produce "genau". Recognition without retrieval fades in days.
- Context sentences. A word without a sentence is trivia. "Sie hat viel Erfahrung im Beruf" teaches you Erfahrung, its gender, and how it's used, all at once.
- Audio from the start. If you learn a word silently, you'll mispronounce it forever. Hear it, say it.
The A1 list is already in the app
Pretzly ships with 2800+ curated words organized by level (A1–C2) and topic — greetings, daily life, travel, work. Pick A1, choose your topics, and the app serves the right words with article, plural, audio and example sentences. Practice a daily batch and your streak does the rest.
Start with A1 words — free
When to move past A1 words
Once you can produce (not just recognize) about 80% of your A1 set, start mixing in A2 vocabulary — around 1,300 words total. Don't wait for perfection; the A1 words keep getting reviewed while new ones arrive. In the app this is one tap: change your level and the word pool follows.