General German

1. Import into Anki

Getting your deck into Anki takes about a minute. Your download link is in the receipt email from Lemon Squeezy, the payment service we use. It usually arrives within a few minutes.

Deck files are large, 130 MB or more depending on the deck, so use Wi-Fi when you download on a phone or tablet.

Another way: import the deck on a computer first, then sync it to your phone with a free AnkiWeb account. Your phone still needs the Anki app: AnkiDroid on Android or AnkiMobile on iPhone and iPad. The first sync can take a while because of the audio, so wait for it to finish.

German by Eidetic appears in your deck list with five sub-decks: Survival German (A1), Daily Life (A2), Fluency (B1), Advanced (B2) and Pattern Drills. The audio and the tags travel with the deck.

2. Recommended settings

Anki's defaults work, but these adjustments will give you better results with this deck:

• New cards per day: 10-15. A small number each day keeps the articles from piling up before they stick.
• Maximum reviews per day: 200. The default of 200 is fine. If your daily reviews regularly exceed 150, reduce new cards for a few days.
• Learning steps: 1m 10m. Anki's default. Leave it.

To change these: click the gear icon next to the deck name, then "Options."

3. How the three card types work

Das Pfand, the bottle deposit, becomes three cards. Recognition: you see the German and give the meaning. Production: you see the meaning and give the German, article included. Cloze: you fill the missing word in a sentence.

The deck holds 1,378 entries, which become 4,134 cards, plus 63 Pattern Drill cards in their own sub-deck. The drills cover the accusative and dative cases and their prepositions, separable verbs, strong verbs in the past, word order, modal verbs and the Konjunktiv II. Nouns carry their gender (der, die or das) and, where there is one, the plural, so learn the article as part of the word. About 40% of entries carry a cultural note.

Feeling overwhelmed? Suspend the Production cards for the first week. Focus on Recognition and Cloze. Add Production back once your daily reviews feel manageable. To suspend: select cards in the browser, right-click, "Toggle Suspend."

4. Where to start

The 42 themes are numbered by level: 1.1 to 1.13 in Survival German (A1), 2.1 to 2.13 in Daily Life (A2), 3.1 to 3.10 in Fluency (B1) and 4.1 to 4.6 in Advanced (B2). Each entry carries a theme tag, for example theme:1.3_At_the_Bakery_&_Cafe.

• Moving to Germany. Survival German (A1) has Getting Around, At the Supermarket, Accommodation and At the Pharmacy & Doctor. Daily Life (A2) adds My Flat, At Work and At the Doctor. Then open Bureaucracy & Paperwork in Fluency (B1) for the forms and the offices.
• Starting from zero. Begin with Survival German (A1). German has a reputation for being difficult, and the deck's view is that most of it comes from how German is taught. Say the article with every noun from the very first card.
• Sounding less like a textbook. Slang & Colloquial, Idioms & Expressions and Untranslatable German Words, all in Advanced (B2), are where the everyday voice lives.
• Austria or Switzerland. Austrian and Swiss variants appear in the dialect variants notes wherever vocabulary or pronunciation differs. Regional Variations is theme 4.3, in Advanced (B2).

What is inside General German

1,378 entries, 4,134 cards and 63 Pattern Drills, from your first conversation to Oktoberfest and Bundesliga.

• Four level sub-decks. Survival German (A1) holds about 1,150 cards, Daily Life (A2) about 1,320, Fluency (B1) about 1,010 and Advanced (B2) 654. The A1 to B2 levels are our own estimate of when a learner needs each word, not an official CEFR placement.
• Pattern Drills. 63 cards in a sub-deck of their own.
• Two voices. A male and a female voice for the word and the sentence, with a phonetic pronunciation guide.
• Variant notes. Many entries carry a dialect variants note, many on Austrian and Swiss usage.

One German entry, field by field

The entry for das Pfand shows how a cultural note rides along with a plain noun.

• German and pronunciation. das Pfand and PFANT, a neuter noun, plural Pfänder.
• English. 'Deposit (bottle/can).'
• Example sentence. 'Vergiss nicht, die leeren Flaschen zum Pfandautomaten zu bringen.' means 'Don't forget to bring the empty bottles to the deposit machine.'
• Cultural note. Germany's Pfand system is one of the most comprehensive bottle deposit systems in the world. Leaving Pfand bottles near public bins is a quiet act of charity.

Two more German entries

Two nouns from Daily Life (A2) that explain German habits.

• der Stammtisch. 'Regulars' table', a masculine noun. The note says it is a deeply rooted German tradition, a reserved table where the same group meets weekly or monthly to eat, drink and talk.
• der Feierabend. 'End of the workday, quitting time.' The note says it is almost sacred in German work culture and that 'Schönen Feierabend!' is the standard goodbye among colleagues. A variants note gives the Austrian and Swiss usage.

Habits that help in German

German has a few features that catch learners out. Here is how to work with them.

• Articles are part of the noun. It is das Auto, not just Auto. Nothing reliably tells you whether a noun is der, die or das, so repetition does the job. Patterns appear over time, such as most words ending in -ung being feminine.
• Long words are short words stuck together. Krankenhaus is Kranken (sick) plus Haus (house), a hospital.
• Du or Sie. The cultural notes explain how the line between formal and informal shifts depending on who you are talking to.
• Drill the grammar in its own sub-deck. The cases, separable verbs, strong verbs in the past and modal verbs each have drill cards, so you can practice them apart from the vocabulary.

Themes that belong to Germany

Many themes are everyday, and several are particular to German life. Here are the German-specific ones, grouped.

• Out and about. Going Out, Sports & Fitness, Driving & Transport, German Kitchen & Food.
• Culture and public life. German Culture & Traditions, News & Politics, Education, Nature & Environment, Travel in Germany.
• The language itself. Proverbs & Sprichwoerter, Slang & Colloquial, Regional Variations, Formal Register, Idioms & Expressions and Untranslatable German Words.

Common questions about General German

Answered from what the deck contains.

• Does the deck cover Austrian and Swiss German? Variant notes appear where vocabulary or pronunciation differs, and Regional Variations is a theme in Advanced (B2).
• What are the Pattern Drills for? There are 63 of them, in their own sub-deck, covering the cases, separable verbs, strong verbs in the past, word order, modal verbs and the Konjunktiv II.
• Is there a medical version? Yes. Medical German (FSP) is a separate deck for doctors preparing for the Fachsprachprüfung. General German covers everyday life, which the exam does not test.

Setting a German pace

Fifteen new cards a day is about 450 a month, and ten is about 300, so 3 to 5 new words a day. Survival German (A1) holds about 1,150 cards, which is roughly 75 to 115 days of new cards. Choose the themes that match your week and let the level sub-decks keep you in order. Say each article with its noun every time.

Practice and reading for German

These are free to read and try.

• Free browser preview. Try 20 German cards in the browser. Audio is included.
• Learn German. Our general and medical German decks side by side.
• How to Use Anki for Language Learning. Habits that keep a large deck manageable.
• Why Most Flashcard Decks Fail. What to look for in a deck, and what to avoid.

The "Again" button is your friend

When Anki shows you a card and you don't know the answer, hit Again. Not "Hard." Not "Good." Again.

Spaced repetition works best when you're honest about what you don't know. Cards you mark "Again" come back sooner. Cards you know well space out further. The algorithm adjusts to you. Trust it.

Audio on every word

Every word card has professional audio. On desktop, audio plays automatically when the card appears. On mobile, tap the speaker icon.

Every entry has audio in a male and a female voice, for the word and the sentence, with a phonetic pronunciation guide. Hear the article together with the noun, as in das Pfand, and say them as one unit. German articles are hard to guess, so hearing them is one more way to make them stick.

Lifetime updates

Your purchase includes free updates for the life of the product. When we add new cards, fix audio, or improve translations, you can re-download the latest version from Lemon Squeezy at no extra cost.

When we release a new version, it appears on your original Lemon Squeezy download link; download it again to get it.

Need help?

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