How to learn German from scratch: first steps

You can start German from zero on your own. The most useful way to organize the path is by levels: first A1, then A2 and, further on, B1. Each level comes with goals you can check. This text explains the levels, shows how to deal with pronunciation and with the articles der, die and das, and gives you a plan for today, without promising a deadline.

The A1, A2 and B1 levels

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, published by the Council of Europe, describes six levels, from A1 to C2, grouped into three bands: basic user, independent user and proficient user. The first three levels are the ones almost every beginner goes through. A1 corresponds to breakthrough or beginner, A2 to waystage or elementary, and B1 to threshold or intermediate.

Using the levels as a map helps. Instead of asking "when will I speak German?", ask "can I do what this level asks?". At A1, a good goal is being able to introduce yourself and ask for something simple, like "Ich heiße Ana" (My name is Ana). At A2, the goal can be describing your daily routine. At B1, holding a conversation about a topic you know. These goals are practical suggestions for organizing your study, not an official list. For the full text of the framework, see the description of the document given in the sources.

Pronunciation before perfection

Listen and repeat. Choose one short audio clip a day, repeat it out loud, and do not worry about sounding like a native speaker right away. Pronunciation mistakes are normal at this stage and show up as clues: if a word sounds odd in your mouth, listen again and repeat slowly until it gets closer to the audio.

When the material has the written word, use the audio together with the text. A reference dictionary of German shows the word with its article and plural form, which helps fix the spelling and the word order at the same time.

der, die or das: the article is part of the word

In German, every noun has a gender, and the article changes with it: der, die or das. The Duden dictionary lists Tisch as a masculine noun, with the article der Tisch, and the plural die Tische (Duden, entry "Tisch"). In Portuguese, mesa (table) is feminine. In German, the corresponding word is masculine. So the article cannot be guessed from a translation.

The practical rule is to always learn the noun with its article. Write der Tisch, not just Tisch. If you make flashcards, put the article in front of the word and the plural on the back. When you meet a new word, check the gender in the dictionary before memorizing it.

A simple sentence helps fix the word: "Der Tisch ist groß" (The table is big). Over time, you start recognizing the article from the context of the sentence, not only from the list.

Vocabulary: how many words you need

This text gives no target number of words, because none of the sources we checked gives that number for German. Start with everyday words: family, home, food, greetings and numbers. Learn each group inside a short sentence, not in a loose list.

Review with spacing

Reviewing is as important as studying. In 2008, Cepeda and colleagues published in Psychological Science a study on the spacing between study sessions, with more than 1,350 people who learned a set of facts. One of the central findings is that the ideal gap between study and review depends on how long you want to remember the material afterwards: the further away the test date, the longer the ideal gap. The study was not about languages, so use the intervals below as a starting point.

Practice: if you learned der Tisch and die Tische today, review them tomorrow. Then review again in a few days and one last time in a week. If the word starts to feel hard again, shorten the gap and review sooner.

Recall before rereading

Rereading a text gives a sense of safety, because everything looks familiar. But familiarity is not always learning. In 2017, Adesope, Trevisan and Sundararajan published in Review of Educational Research a meta-analysis, which combines many studies, on practice testing. On average, practicing by recalling, with questions or tests, produced more learning than simply restudying the material. The phrase "on average" matters: the advantage varies from study to study.

Practice: when you finish a lesson, close the material and try to write or say three sentences in German. Then check. A mistake at that moment shows exactly what needs review. See also spaced repetition for how to set up your review.

A plan to start today

1. Choose an A1 level material, preferably with audio, and set aside 15 minutes a day.
2. Learn five nouns, always with their article. For example: der Tisch, die Tische.
3. Close the material and say a sentence out loud with each word, like "Ich heiße Ana".
4. Review the next day, then in a few days, then in a week.
5. Once a week, listen to a short audio clip at your level and repeat what you understood.

How long it takes

There is no guaranteed deadline. A generic number of hours would be a guess, because it depends on your starting point, your routine and how much practice you can keep up. Use the level as your measure of progress: when you can do what the A1 goal asks, you know you have moved forward, and you can then look at A2.

If you do not progress after a few weeks, the first adjustment to try is the level of the material. Only then is it worth changing the pace.

Can you learn for free?

You can start with free materials, as long as the level is right and there is an organized review. For this plan, what matters most is consistency, not price.

Where studying alone has limits

Studying alone brings no pronunciation correction and no real-time conversation. So, whenever you can, listen to German in audio and repeat out loud. When a question comes up about gender, case or word order, write it down. That list of questions shows where to start your next study session, and it can be taken to a class or a reference book.

Sources

1. Council of Europe. (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge University Press. Description of the six levels and three bands taken from a page of the Luxembourg lifelong learning portal (INFPC) that describes the framework: https://www.lifelong-learning.lu/article/cecr-cadre-europeen-commun-de-reference-pour-les-langues/en
2. Bibliographisches Institut. (n.d.). Tisch, entry in the Duden online dictionary. Accessed 30/10/2026. https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Tisch
3. Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1095-1102. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02209.x
4. Adesope, O. O., Trevisan, D. A., & Sundararajan, N. (2017). Rethinking the use of tests: A meta-analysis of practice testing. Review of Educational Research, 87(3), 659-701. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316689306