German
Level-by-level guides from A1 to B2, resource recommendations, and tool reviews.
Guides
- German learning roadmap
What actually changes at each CEFR level from A1 to C2, and a rough sense of how long the whole path takes.
- A1 Guide
What A1 German actually covers, and what's genuinely hard about it for English speakers.
- A2 Guide
What actually changes at A2: dative case, modal verbs, past tense, and where most learners slow down.
- B1 Guide
What changes at B1 German, why self-study learners tend to stall here, and what to work on.
- B2 Guide
What actually changes at B2: Konjunktiv I, nominalisation, and the shift between spoken and written register.
- Recommended Resources
German learning resources by category and level, with the trade-offs of each
- German Study Plan for Busy People
A day-by-day German study plan built around a commute, chores, and family time, not a spare hour that doesn't exist.
Best of
Tool reviews
- DW Nicos Weg review
Free, well built, and the usual answer to reaching B1 without paying. The gaps are speaking, writing, and anything past B1.
- Pimsleur German review
Unusually good pronunciation training, wrapped around thin and oddly chosen vocabulary, no writing at all, and a ceiling around A2.
- Goethe-Institut German courses review
Strong teaching, a teacher you cannot choose, and the same online course priced very differently depending on which country's institute you book from.
- Duolingo German review
Strong on daily habit and passive vocabulary, weak on grammar, and it teaches German nouns without their gender. Productive ceiling around A2.
- Babbel German review
Genuinely good grammar teaching at A1 and A2, then a B1 level roughly a sixth the size of A1, and nothing at all past B2.