Learn Top 100, 500, 1000+
Most Frequent German Words

Research on language understanding shows that learning German efficiently depends on learning the most frequent words first, not on memorizing long vocabulary lists. In our large-scale study measuring how understanding grows with vocabulary size, we analyzed how much real German learners can comprehend at each stage of learning.

According to the research, learning the top 100 German words gives you about 48% language understanding, the top 500 words about 63%, and the top 1000 words around 70% of real-world German. This page focuses on the first step: the Top 100 most frequent German words, which form the foundation of everyday comprehension.

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Top 100 Most Frequent German Words

Below is a representative list of the Top 100 most frequent German words, ordered by real-world usage frequency.

#	Word	#	Word	#	Word	#	Word
1	der	26	sich	51	oder	76	doch
2	sein	27	für	52	da	77	lassen
3	die	28	was	53	wenn	78	ihm
4	und	29	wir	54	über	79	dir
5	das	30	nach	55	hier	80	wieder
6	in	31	auch	56	dieser	81	diese
7	ich	32	können	57	durch	82	gehen
8	ein	33	aus	58	sehen	83	mehr
9	dem	34	wie	59	geben	84	jetzt
10	zu	35	aber	60	vor	85	erste
11	sie	36	so	61	sagen	86	müssen
12	werden	37	ihr	62	dann	87	Leben
13	von	38	bei	63	ihn	88	neu
14	er	39	dass	64	gut	89	Mal
15	den	40	ja	65	Habe	90	ihre
16	mit	41	Jahr	66	dich	91	Waren
17	nicht	42	bis	67	alles	92	finden
18	haben	43	mir	68	man	93	Hast
19	an	44	noch	69	seine	94	keine
20	im	45	um	70	kommen	95	ab
21	es	46	einer	71	machen	96	wo
22	auf	47	nur	72	nein	97	tun
23	du	48	wollen	73	schon	98	zwei
24	eine	49	mein	74	uns	99	Zeit
25	als	50	mich	75	unter	100	groß

What to Do Next

The top 100 words establish the core of German understanding. The largest gains come as learners move to the top 300 and 500 words, where comprehension grows rapidly, and then to 1000+ words, where German becomes comfortable to read and understand in real contexts.

WRD is built on the same research and tracks language understanding precisely as each word is learned, guiding learners from the top 100 German words to higher levels in the most efficient way possible.

Designed around word frequency, the WRD app helps learners move beyond the top 100 words toward higher-level vocabulary.

→ Download WRD and start learning today

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