--- title: German description: This topic builds on basic German skills, focusing on past tenses, subordinate clauses, and expanded vocabulary. Learners will improve their reading comprehension, follow standard spoken German, and express opinions on familiar topics in writing and speech. category: languages subcategory: germanic-languages difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/german-(intermediate) --- # German This topic builds on basic German skills, focusing on past tenses, subordinate clauses, and expanded vocabulary. Learners will improve their reading comprehension, follow standard spoken German, and express opinions on familiar topics in writing and speech. ## Where to start Start with Nicos Weg, Deutsche Welle's free B1 video course, which follows the same characters into topics like work and housing while moving to longer, more complex sentences, with transcripts and exercises for each episode. If you only use one resource, make it Martin Durrell's Hammer's German Grammar and Usage, the standard English-language reference grammar of German. For natural spoken German, move on to Easy German on YouTube. ## Available Resources 4 Books • 6 Courses • 10 Websites ## Websites ### 1. Anki German Decks A directory of user-contributed Anki flashcard decks for German, covering frequency vocabulary, verb conjugation, and noun genders. Downloading one gives you a spaced-repetition schedule that reviews words at increasing intervals as recall improves. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/german **Tags:** flashcards, spaced-repetition, vocabulary, anki, german ### 2. German.net Free grammar exercises, vocabulary lists, and short graded reading texts, sorted by level with instant answer checking. Working through the drills reinforces case endings, verb tenses, and word order without needing an account. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://german.net/ **Tags:** grammar, exercises, vocabulary, reading, german ### 3. Deutsch-perfekt A magazine written for German learners, with articles graded easy to difficult, glossed vocabulary in the margins, audio versions, and grammar exercises. Regular reading builds vocabulary around current events and everyday usage. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.deutsch-perfekt.com/ **Tags:** reading, vocabulary, listening, current-events, german ### 4. Deutsche Welle Learn German Germany's public international broadcaster offers free German courses from A1 to C2, including video series, placement tests, grammar reference, and news read at slow speed for listening practice. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://learngerman.dw.com/en/overview **Tags:** german, listening, grammar, video-lessons, cefr-levels ### 5. LingQ A reading and listening platform where imported German texts become clickable, with unknown words tracked and reviewed as you go. Suits learners past the basics who want volume of authentic input over structured lessons. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.lingq.com/en/learn-german-online/ **Tags:** reading, listening, vocabulary, extensive-input, german ### 6. German Stack Exchange A question-and-answer site where learners and native speakers debate German grammar, etymology, register, and idiom, with answers voted on and often sourced to Duden. Useful for resolving specific usage questions textbooks gloss over. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://german.stackexchange.com/ **Tags:** grammar, usage, q-and-a, etymology, german ### 7. LingQ **Author:** Steve Kaufmann Reading and listening platform where learners import or choose texts with audio, look up unknown words inline and track vocabulary as it moves from new to known. It supports daily comprehensible-input practice and steady vocabulary growth across dozens of languages. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.lingq.com/ **Tags:** comprehensible-input, extensive-reading, vocabulary-acquisition, listening-practice ### 8. Easy German **Author:** Cari Schmid and Janusz Hamerski Video project built on unscripted street interviews with native German speakers, shown with German and English subtitles and grouped by level. Regular viewing trains listening comprehension of natural, everyday speech and builds vocabulary through comprehensible input. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.easygerman.org/ **Tags:** german, comprehensible-input, listening-practice, street-interviews, subtitled-video ### 9. Linguee **Author:** DeepL Searches a large corpus of bilingual documents and shows each German word inside real sentence pairs with their English equivalents, alongside conventional dictionary entries. Useful for checking how a phrase is actually used and which collocation a native writer would pick. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.linguee.com/ **Tags:** website, languages, germanic-languages ### 10. deutsch-lernen.com Deutsch-lernen.com is an online resource for learning German, especially for beginners. It provides structured lessons, grammar explanations, vocabulary lists, and interactive exercises (with audio) to build practical language skills. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://deutsch-lernen.com **Tags:** websites, languages, germanic-language ## Courses ### 1. German for Beginners Duolingo's free German track teaches vocabulary and grammar through short gamified exercises covering translation, listening and speaking, with spaced repetition. Working through the tree gives you basic reading ability and simple conversational phrases, though little practice producing extended speech. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.duolingo.com/course/de/en/Learn-German **Tags:** german, vocabulary, grammar, beginner-german, mobile-app ### 2. Nicos Weg DW's free video course follows a story set in Germany across A1 and A2, pairing each episode with grammar notes, vocabulary lists and interactive exercises. By the end you can handle everyday situations like shopping, directions and introductions. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://learngerman.dw.com/en/nicos-weg-beginners-course-level-a1-a2/s-12971 **Tags:** german, beginner-german, video-course, listening, grammar ### 3. Deutsch Interaktiv A self-study course from Deutsche Welle spanning A1 to B1, built on video and audio clips with transcripts, pronunciation drills, vocabulary trainers and graded exercises. Feedback is automatic, so it works without a teacher or classroom. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://learngerman.dw.com/de/deutsch-interaktiv/l-209494 **Tags:** german, self-study-course, listening, grammar, vocabulary ### 4. Nicos Weg The B1 continuation of DW's video series, following the same characters into topics like work and housing while the grammar moves to longer, more complex sentence structures. Each episode comes with transcripts and interactive exercises for self-study. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://learngerman.dw.com/en/nicos-weg-intermediate-b1/c-36519799 **Tags:** german, b1, video-course, listening, grammar ### 5. Advanced German DW's advanced section collects material for learners past B1: news reports read at natural speed, idiom explanations, vocabulary features and language columns, each with worksheets. Aimed at building comprehension of authentic German media rather than teaching new grammar. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://learngerman.dw.com/en/advanced/c-36519794 **Tags:** german, advanced german, german grammar, vocabulary, listening comprehension ### 6. Deutsch Online C1/C2 The Goethe-Institut's course catalogue, covering its online German classes up to C1 and C2. Courses are tutor-led with fixed schedules, graded assignments and feedback, and are aligned with the institute's own certificate exams. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.goethe.de/en/spr/kur.html **Tags:** german, c1-c2, goethe-institut, online course, fluency ## Podcasts ### 1. Coffee Break German **Author:** Coffee Break Languages A podcast course from Radio Lingua where a teacher walks a learner through German in short episodes, building from greetings and word order toward conversation. The learner's mistakes and questions get corrected on air, which is much of the value. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://coffeebreaklanguages.com/german **Tags:** german, podcast, spoken german, audio lessons, conversation ### 2. Slow German **Author:** Linguistica 360 Weekly episodes from Linguistica 360 in which current news is read in deliberately slowed German and then discussed, with parallel transcripts, grammar segments and expression breakdowns. Separate beginner, intermediate and advanced feeds let you move up as comprehension improves. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** de | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://newsinslowgerman.com **Tags:** german, podcast, listening comprehension, slow speech, news ## Youtubes ### 1. Easy German **Author:** Easy German Easy German is a YouTube channel built around unscripted street interviews with native speakers in cities across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Every video pairs natural, spontaneous spoken German with synced German and English subtitles, exposing learners to genuine accents, slang, and conversational rhythm that scripted lessons cannot replicate. It is widely considered the gold standard for comprehensible input in German. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** German | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/@EasyGerman **Tags:** german, listening comprehension, spoken german, street interviews, subtitles ## Books ### 1. Practice Makes Perfect: Complete German Grammar **Author:** Ed Swick A full grammar reference paired with extensive practice exercises, moving from noun gender and case endings through tenses, word order, and subordinate clauses. Answer keys let self-studying learners check their own work after each section. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071763600?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, languages, germanic-language ### 2. Hammer's German Grammar and Usage **Author:** Martin Durrell The standard English-language reference grammar of German, used on university degree courses. It documents forms and usage in detail, including register variation and regional differences, and answers the edge cases that classroom textbooks and shorter workbooks leave unresolved. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0340677031?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, languages, germanic-language ### 3. Intermediate German: A Grammar and Workbook **Author:** Anna Miell, Heiner Schenke Routledge's grammar-and-exercise combination for learners past the basics: each unit explains one area of German grammar, then tests it immediately. Covers cases, verb tenses, word order, and clause structure, with a key to all exercises. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0415284074?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, languages, germanic-language ### 4. 501 German Verbs **Author:** Henry Strutz Barron's verb reference conjugating 501 German verbs across all tenses and moods, one verb per page, with the strong and irregular forms laid out in full. Useful as a lookup companion while reading or writing German. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812044339?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, languages, germanic-language --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/german-(intermediate)