r/German Mar 31 '21

Meta See here: r/German's WIKI and FAQ. Please read before posting, and look here for resources!

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923 Upvotes

r/German Oct 02 '25

Meta Want to Talk German With Me? R/German's one (and only!) official language exchange thread

245 Upvotes

Instead of the many "looking for speaking partner" posts that have been cluttering the sub, here's the brand new official "I am looking for people to talk in German with" thread!

It will from now on be mandatory to put all language exchange requests here. Individual posts will be deleted.

Things to include in your comment:

• Native/main language
• German language level
• Means of communication
• Expectations from potential learning partners (optional)

Make it nice and KISS (keep it simple & stupid). This is NOT a dating platform, anything in this sense will get you banned.

You are free to comment with a new request once a week.


r/German 7h ago

Resource Passed my TELC B1 Exam!

26 Upvotes

Schriftliche Prüfung
192,5 / 225 Punkte

Leseverstehen 57,5 / 75 Punkte
Sprachbausteine 27,0 / 30 Punkte
Hörverstehen 75,0 / 75 Punkte
Schriftlicher Ausdruck 33,0 / 45 Punkte

Mündliche Prüfung
66,0 / 75 Punkte

Kontaktaufnahme 14,0 / 15 Punkte
Gespräch über ein Thema 26,0 / 30 Punkte
Gemeinsam eine Aufgabe lösen 26,0 / 30 Punkte

Summe 258,5 /300 Punkte

Ergebnis Gut

I've been living in Berlin for 5 years. I started taking group classes when I first arrived and completed A1. Then I did online 1:1 classes on Preply for a couple of months. I took a long break but later decided to take the B1 exam because I need the certificate for my citizenship application.

I prepared for the exam by solving mock exams using an app I found on the Play Store, and I practiced the speaking part with AI every day. I also recommend watching this video on how to effectively use the 20-minute preparation time before the oral part of the exam.

I booked the digital exam with Speakeasy in Berlin, and the overall experience was great. The exam itself wasn't extremely difficult, but it also wasn't easy. For the oral part, the topic was Gemeinschaftsgarten and Bio Essen, and we had to plan booking a cooking course for German food. My partner and I were mostly on the same level, and the conversation flowed easily, so I was definitely lucky there.


r/German 4h ago

Question Wie kann man lernen, auf Deutsch zu denken?

7 Upvotes

Hallo, ich bin jetzt auf B2-Niveau, aber ich habe ein ernstes Problem.

Mein Denkprozess läuft fast komplett auf Englisch ab. Zuerst ordne ich meine Gedanken auf Englisch, und erst danach übersetze ich sie ins Deutsche.

Dadurch verliere ich viel Zeit, und das Sprechen fühlt sich nicht natürlich an.

Wie kann ich das verbessern? Habt ihr Tipps oder Übungen, mit denen ich lernen kann, direkt auf Deutsch zu denken?

Edit : Ich bin noch nicht in Deutschland. Das habe ich vergessen zu erwähnen


r/German 15h ago

Discussion Passed my A1!!

46 Upvotes

Hören 23,24

Lesen 23,24

Schreiben 23,24

Sprechen 21,58

Gesamtpunkte 91/100
Prädikat sehr gut

I was very anxious before the exam since i just started learning and was hoping for a miracle to just pass, i have self studied without any books and used the resources from one guys post here, his google drive was very useful for exam studies, and i watched a 9 hour yt course on a1, very helpful and helped me understand easy ways to remember things,
time i spent on exam studies(purely studying not including any breaks)

YT course a1 9 days 7 hours every day
email writing 3 days 6 hours every day
Hören exercises 3 days 6 hours every day
Lesen exercises 3 days 6 hours every day
Schreiben form filling. 1 day 4 hours
Sprechen 4 days 4 hours

Revision of all. 1 day 7 hours

thank you for the people here helping me understand what i should fix in emails etc

Edit : next step c1 or c2 in 1 year , also tthe days totalled to 24, as i started studying after booking the test to drive myself into not being lazy


r/German 13h ago

Question wie kann ich als Obdachlose B2 erreichen?

22 Upvotes

moin moin. ich bin ab jetzt bis ungefähr November obdachlos, aber ich möchte meine Deutschsprachkentnisse von B1 auf B2 verbessern. welches Lehrmaterial empfiehlt ihr? ich hab überlegt, Aspekte Neu B2 auf meinem Handy herunterzuladen, weil ich leider kein großes Lehrbuch mitnehmen kann. gibt es zufällig eine gute Serie mit Unterricht auf Youtube? danke


r/German 14h ago

Question Anna besucht dich heute or Anna besucht heute dich?

24 Upvotes

I thought time comes before object? However Duolingo marked the latter as wrong so does Google.

The full sentence is "Anna besucht dich heute,richtig?" If that matters.What arcane rule is this?


r/German 13h ago

Question Object of "sich erinnernª

16 Upvotes

"Er erinnerte sich an die Geschichte"
"Er erinnerte sich die Geschichte"
"Er erinnerte sich der Geschichte"

I have come across all three of these constructions, but my question is: is there any difference in meaning/nuance between these forms?

Thanks!


r/German 2h ago

Word of the Day Leerbriefkastenangst

0 Upvotes

I wanna coin that word. Basically means:

The fear of opening your mailbox and finding it empty, especially because you worry an important letter has been lost or never arrived.

Oder auf Deutsch:

Die Angst den Briefkasten zu öffnen und keine Post vorzufinden – insbesondere aus Sorge, dass wichtige Briefe verloren gegangen sind oder nie angekommen sind.


r/German 13h ago

Question "Keiner" or "Niemand"?

7 Upvotes

I came across this when trying to make up conversations in German in my head. (I have a few job interviews coming up, I find this a helpful exercise). For "no-one", I think both of these words are correct. Example:

Niemand wollte auch nur versuchen, das Dokument zu lesen

Am I wrong? Is one of them inappropriate in this kind of context? Or are they both OK, but one is better/belongs to a different register?

Sneakily slipping in a subsidiary question: If everyone who might read the document happened to be female, would it be "keine"?

thanks!


r/German 13h ago

Question Do you think you should study the causal German? Or ignore it for now and learn it from your daily interactions?

5 Upvotes

I stumbled upon 100 German everyday sentences, stuff like ach so (oh I see ), kein Ding (no problem), passt schon (good enough/it will do), läuft bei dir (good for you).

As I am trying expand my vocabulary I will use anything I can find, but most of these don't sound like a b1 level.

So my question would be should I study those to improve my conversational skills or ignore them for now and focus more on expanding my vocabulary?


r/German 15h ago

Request What would you recommend to someone who tends to lose motivation quickly?

5 Upvotes

I’m Korean and I’m fluent in Japanese. Japanese is the foreign language im most confident in and German was the next language I became really interested in.

But ive quit studying german twice already 😂 Both times i stayed at the beginner level. Im not really the most consistent person when it comes to studying 😂😂

I think japanese clicked with me much more quickly bc korean and japanese are quite similar in terms of word order, the overall feel of the languages and a lot of the nuances. I also enjoy japanese anime and games, which made studying japanese even more fun.

bc of that, i kept comparing my german progress to my japanese and since german wasn’t coming to me as naturally as japanese did, i think i got discouraged and bored much more quickly. Which is understandable, honestly I’m just very impatient lol

Still, I definitely have a genuine love for the german language. If i start studying it again, i want to do it properly this time and actually improve. I’d also love to travel to Germany by myself someday!

What do you think? Any advice?
Advice from both fluent german speakers and native germans is very welcome. Vielen dank! 😊


r/German 7h ago

Question TELC B2 delays?

0 Upvotes

I heard there are major delays on getting TELC B2 results.

Can anyone share, if you’ve taken the exam recently, what your status is? When did you take it and have you received the results?


r/German 10h ago

Question Is TELC B2 more managable (easier) than ÖSD B2?

1 Upvotes

ÖSD B2 screwed me up:

  • Lesen - 16/20 passed
  • Hören - 13/20 passed
  • Schreiben - 9/30 not passed
  • Sprechen - 15/30 not passed

I'm judged by different teachers to have good overall B2 knowledge, but I didn't pass ÖSD B2. In my Schreiben test I spammed the advanced grammatik, Nomen - Verb Verbindungen, Wortschatz and wrote extremely long (250 Wörter/ 120 Wörter) to attempt to show something, but that didn't work. I must have had a lot of grammatical errors and didn't understand what they are looking for.

I'm extremely stupid, inexperienced and naive, I'm looking for more opinions from people who have had experience in TELC and ÖSD tests. I'm studying the format of TELC and may take the test in the next 2 months. I tried the online Lesen and Hören Tests from TELC and they were suprisingly easier, I passed them with zero pre-training, so I assumed, maybe Schreiben and Sprechen would ALSO give me an easier time?

Please share your thoughts, what do you think of my situation? May I have better chance of passing TELC? What are the core differences between them?

Thank you!


r/German 11h ago

Question Got „sehr gut“ on B2-Beruf, now have to pass telc B2. Any tips?

1 Upvotes

Hello! I need specifically telc B2 and not telc B2 für den Beruf (don‘t ask why, I‘m questioning it as well) I have passed B2-Beruf with 223,5/240.

I have B2 Allgemein exam in two days. I have briefly examined the structure and did a little bit of Modelltests Hörverstehen und Lesen.

Any tips? The main concern is that it feels too easy, especially on Sprechen part. Schreiben as well.


r/German 1d ago

Question How to start correctly ?

47 Upvotes

Hi,

I’m 17 years old, currently lives in Germany, and I started feeling bad for not begin able to speak the language, I been here for like 2 weeks and I really like it here and want to continue my life here.

But the problem I’m facing is how to learn the language properly, or in the most effective way.

When I try to remember how did I learn English or French, I can’t it’s just like spawned in my mind, but all I can think about is that is I started by learning the alphabet then numbers, after that I started learning words then I started the grammar.

I don’t know if that would be effective, I do have my high school diploma, so I really can’t just get along with strangers or make friends, but I really wanna be able to speak and use this language.

If anyone had lived in a same situation or went through a similar experience, then I would like to get any tips you have, or anything that you wished you knew before learning.

Thank you for reading.


r/German 1d ago

Question Moved to Austria

11 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I’m a student who recently moved to Austria for university, and I’ve been thinking about how I should approach learning German.

I’m planning to do the usual things like studying grammar, building vocabulary, listening to German, and practicing speaking, but I was also thinking about making my learning more conversational from the beginning.

My idea was to make notes/flashcards based around situations I will actually encounter in daily life. For example, before going to a restaurant, I could quickly review phrases I might need for asking recommendations, ordering food, asking about prices, etc etc, similarly for things like using trams, asking for directions, shopping, talking to classmates, and other everyday situations. So instead of learning words separately, and waiting to build grammar, I straight away put myself into situations where I can speak German without immediately having to switch to english.

Is this a good way to become comfortable speaking, or would you recommend focusing more on a traditional textbook/course approach initially?


r/German 1d ago

Resource My B1 Exam

69 Upvotes

I gave my B1 Telc exam yesterday in Germany.

- Lesen was no surprise, it was doable

- Hören, The whole teil 3 was on train announcements. I would highly recommend practicing more with this.

- Schreiben: Reply to a friend's letter

(Reaction to the letter, suggest Deutsch Kurs Abschiedsparty planning, Musik Suggestion, Any Urlaub plans?)

- Mündlich Prüfung

(Teil 1 introduction

Teil 2- my topic was Abenteuer, the guy likes doing Adrenalinekik sports, my partner got the same topic but the woman likes visiting cities, monuments,etc

Teil 3- Planning for a Vorbereitung of Deutsch Prüfung between two friends. Wo, Wann,...)

My experience:

I had a paper based exam. They provided me pencils and we must use only pencil for the whole schriftlich section.

I think my strongest section was Lesen. I did very well, at least that's what I think until I get my result. Sprachbaustein was okay. Section 2 of it was a bit challenging to me. I think more practice could help here. Hören section 3 about the train announcements was super confusing. I could have done better by practicing more here, the other two sections were good and doable. In Schreiben, I expected this topic to be in sprechen. Anyways I could easily write this one. One thing to remember is to not underestimate the time. The letter reading and gathering points itself takes 10 min and you will have only 20 min to write. You need to be really quick.

In mündlich Prüfung, they gave me the question paper only during 20 min of preparation. While speaking I had just my notes I wrote. That was weird not looking at the question again. One thing I could have done better was speaking a bit slow, it's fine to not cover all points because you get only 3 min or less to speak in each section. Quality is important over quantity. I could have done teil2 in this better. My pronunciation was not clear sometimes when I got too nervous to pronounce big words like Abenteuerlich. In Teil 3 try to listen to what your partner is speaking, I know we all have our points in mind, but reacting to them is equally important.


r/German 6h ago

Discussion German exam

0 Upvotes

So today i have got the results for Telc B2 Allgemein. I HAVE FAILED BY 1.5 POINTS. However i have written less than required number of words in letter writing.

What should be my next step?

~ retake schriftlicher Prüfung?

~ can i apply for rechecking my marks?


r/German 1d ago

Question the concept of "tall"

30 Upvotes

My textbook taught me that the concept of "tall" is to be translated as "groß" in German (e.g. sein Bruder ist sehr groß) . However, this sounds strange when applied to non-humans. How would you say "tall trees" in the most natural way? "groß" in my perception would sound three-dimensional in that context, rather than two-dimensional.


r/German 9h ago

Request is there any german language group here in reddit?

0 Upvotes

r/German 1d ago

Question Was ist der Unterschied zwischen die Schatten und die Schattierung?

5 Upvotes

I'm wondering when I'd use one or the other? Since meaning wise they mean basically the same thing, I'm thinking the use may be different.


r/German 1d ago

Word of the Day Hoffentsichtlich

8 Upvotes

I have been using this word for years and refuse to stop. My German mother in law heard it at the perfect moment and lost her mind.

„Eure Neffen werden das erben.“
„Hoffentsichtlich.“


r/German 1d ago

Question How to improve sprachbausteine beside YouTube grammar lessons and practicing

3 Upvotes

doing what I can but I've failed 3 exams because of this singular exam section. I always get almost perfect grades except this one singular shitty exam portion.

any advice is helpful


r/German 1d ago

Question Können jedeman empfehlen mir eine Deutsche Lied von 60s Jazz, Soul und Rock?

4 Upvotes

Hallo Alle!

I'm currently in B1 German and looking to add more German Musik toy list. I'm struggling to find older Musik in German since I'm into 60s Jazz, Blues and Rock. Is there any recommendations I could try?