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German

What is the best roadmap to learn German from scratch?

The six German levels from A1 to C2, how long each takes, what to focus on at each stage, and how to tell when you've moved up.

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German, like every European language, is measured on the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference), a six-step scale from A1 for beginners to C2. The steps are not the same size. Each one covers more than the last, and the Council of Europe, which wrote the scale, says going from A2 to B1 can take more than twice as long as getting to A2 in the first place.1

The route most learners describe looks like this:

  1. A1 to A2: one structured course as your backbone, flashcards for words, and listening from the first week. Start speaking early, even to yourself.
  2. A2 to B1: speak every week with a person, and start moving from course material to German made for Germans.
  3. B1 to B2: read and listen a lot. Most of the grammar is in place, and words become the main gap.
  4. B2 to C1 and C2: writing, precision and register (the right tone for the situation), usually alongside using German for work, study or daily life.

What do the levels A1 to C2 actually mean?

The levels describe what you can do, not which grammar you know. In short:2

Level What you can do Guide
A1 Introduce yourself and ask simple personal questions, if the other person speaks slowly and helps you A1 guide
A2 Handle routine tasks like shopping, and describe your work and background in simple terms A2 guide
B1 Get by when travelling, talk about familiar topics, and explain a plan or an opinion B1 guide
B2 Follow the main ideas of complex texts, and hold a discussion with native speakers without much strain on either side B2 guide
C1 Understand long, demanding texts and what they imply, and use German flexibly at work or university
C2 Understand almost everything you hear or read, and express fine shades of meaning

C2 is not “native level”. The Council of Europe says so directly: it describes a very precise, easy command of the language that successful learners reach, not a native speaker’s.3

“Fluent” isn’t a level at all, and learners use it for different things. For some it means keeping a conversation going without the other person switching to English. For others it means being able to tell a story or make a joke the way they would at home, or having the words to say anything they want. So some people at B2 call themselves fluent, others at B2 don’t, and some with a C1 certificate say they aren’t yet.4 If someone asks how long it takes to become fluent, ask them which of these they mean.

Which level do you need?

It depends on why you’re learning. For living in Germany, the law sets the levels:5

  • A1 for a spouse joining a partner who lives there. There are many exceptions, for example when the partner holds an EU Blue Card, the visa for highly qualified workers.
  • B1 for permanent residence (the settlement permit) and for citizenship.

For a degree taught in German, universities usually ask for TestDaF, the main university entrance exam, with a score of 4 in all four parts. TestDaF scores run from 3 to 5 and cover B2 to C1, so there’s no exact CEFR match. In practice, learners who started German-taught degrees describe passing a C1-level exam first.6 For a job, there is no single rule, so check what the employer asks for.

How long does it take to learn German?

Expect several hundred hours of lessons to reach B1, and more again for each level after that. The Goethe-Institut, Germany’s official language institute, gives these rough figures for teaching time from zero:7

To reach Hours of lessons
A1 60 to 150
A2 150 to 260
B1 260 to 490
B2 450 to 600
C1 600 to 750
C2 750 or more

Each figure is the total from zero, not the extra time for that level, and the ranges overlap because they’re rough. They count lessons only, so homework and practice come on top.

If you study on your own for about an hour a day, plan on about two years to reach B1. Learners who studied part-time on their own report one to two years, and the one who did it in a year put in two to three hours a day.8 It is a little slower than the lesson hours suggest: an hour a day is about 365 hours a year, which would put B1 at 9 to 16 months if every hour of your own study counted like an hour in a class. B2 takes longer again, and C1 longer still. For half an hour a day, see our study plan for busy people.

Germany’s integration courses for new residents give 600 lessons of 45 minutes, about 450 hours, to reach B1.9 The US Foreign Service Institute, which trains American diplomats, plans about 36 weeks of full-time study, 828 hours in class plus self-study, for diplomats to work in German.10

  • A1 can take two months or seven. One learner passed the Goethe A1 exam with 97 out of 100 after about 80 hours of self-study over two months.11 Another was still struggling in an A1.2 class (the second half of A1) seven months in, after starting mostly with Duolingo and leaving grammar gaps.12
  • B2 in about a year meant intensive study. One learner passed the telc B2 exam after nine and a half months (telc is one of the main exam providers), with about 570 class hours plus flashcards, podcasts and daily writing practice. They said they could not have done it through self-study alone. Others who managed it took classes three hours a day, or moved to Germany and lived entirely in German, and some felt it went faster than they could take in.13
  • Part-time, it takes years. Learners who studied a little at a time, or lived in Germany but worked in English, describe eight to ten years to reach C1.14

More hours a day help, up to a point: one learner found they stopped taking things in after three or four hours.15

If it feels slow, the reasons learners give are concrete: a long break, after which words were forgotten; an app-only start that left grammar gaps; or practising one skill and expecting another to improve, like doing flashcards and hoping listening would follow. One learner who felt stuck at B2 said two things helped: a weekly conversation lesson where the teacher saved corrections for the end, so she kept talking, and listening to podcasts actively instead of in the background.16

What should you focus on as you go up the levels?

The work changes as you go. Early on you’re building the basics. In the middle you’re moving from course material to real German. At the top you’re working on precision.

Starting out: A1 and A2

Start with the sounds, the basic sentence patterns and the most common words, and listen from the first week. A common starting kit among learners is Nicos Weg, Deutsche Welle’s free video course, as the backbone; Anki, a free flashcard app that shows each card again just before you’d forget it, for words; and videos for learners with subtitles, like Easy German, for listening.17 The Goethe-Institut’s A1 exam expects about 650 words, of which you should be able to use about half yourself and recognise the rest.18 By A2 it’s about 1,300 words, and by B1 about 2,400, at least to recognise.19

If you’ve started with an app, you don’t have to drop it, but add a course that explains the grammar. Learners who began with Duolingo alone report grammar gaps they later had to go back and fill.20

Speak from the start too. Learners who added a weekly tutor, a conversation partner or even recordings of themselves early on say it built their confidence and showed them mistakes they hadn’t noticed. With no one to talk to, talking to yourself and reading aloud count.

The A1 grammar is mostly about getting a simple sentence right. The Goethe A1 handbook lists the present tense, the rule that the verb comes second in a statement, questions and negation, separable verbs (verbs like anrufen, “to call”, that split in two in a sentence), modal verbs like können (“can”), the past of haben and sein (“have” and “be”), and a few forms of the Perfekt, the past tense Germans use when speaking.18 It also says you can learn some phrases as fixed chunks, like polite requests, before you study the grammar behind them.

After A1 there’s no official order, and each course picks its own.21 Our A2 guide and B2 guide cover what typically comes up. The grammar learners report getting stuck on is the case system, the four forms German nouns and articles take depending on their role in a sentence. Choosing between accusative and dative (roughly, the forms for the thing an action is done to and the person it’s done for), and remembering which case goes with which verb or preposition, come up again and again.22

The middle: A2 to B2

This is where learners stop relying on a course alone. The routines they describe mix four things: flashcards every day, an hour or more of listening or reading, some grammar work, and a weekly session with a tutor or friends to speak. One learner who reached B1 in a year without spending anything but the exam fee studied two to three hours a day. They used Nicos Weg, YouTube lessons, flashcards built from the Goethe word lists and videos with German subtitles. With no one to talk to, they practised speaking by talking to themselves, reading aloud and recording themselves.

From B1, reading and listening to German made for Germans becomes the main work. Learners describe reading novels by B2, listening to the news, and reading or listening daily, even ten minutes on a busy day. Graded readers, books simplified for learners, are a common bridge.

Learners disagree about looking words up. One who reached C1 credits looking up every unknown word and keeping her own word lists. Another, who reached C2, says that at B1 they would have worried less about each unknown word and simply read more.23 If looking words up slows you down so much that you stop reading, look up fewer.

Toward C1 and C2

C1 asks for more than B2 in three ways: understanding long texts on unfamiliar subjects and what they imply, organising a complex argument, and changing your tone and style for the reader. C2 adds combining several sources into one account and expressing fine differences in meaning.24

Learners who got there name three things. Reading books written for native speakers widened their words and phrasing. Writing needed its own practice: one learner failed the Goethe C1 exam after years of daily self-study because the writing wasn’t there.25 And most of them used German for something real, like a degree, a job or friends. C1 is possible without classes, but it takes a lot of hours: one self-taught learner who passed the Goethe C1 exam counted about 1,167.26

Is one course enough to take you through the levels?

No course takes you all the way. One course can carry you to about B1, but learners who got there added speaking and other material.

Nicos Weg is the course learners talk about most for this, and DW says it covers A1 to B1.27 Learners disagree on whether it is enough. Some find it a complete path to B1. Others find it too fast to rely on alone.28

Speaking is the gap learners report most: putting sentences together in real time doesn’t come from a course.29 What they added: tutors, language exchanges (tandems, where you swap an hour of your language for an hour of theirs), conversation with friends or host families, and recording themselves.

Other courses claim more levels than Nicos Weg, but these are the providers’ own claims:

Course Levels it says it covers
Nicos Weg A1 to B1
vhs-Lernportal (free, from Germany’s adult education centres) A1 to B1, plus job-focused B2 and C1 courses
Babbel up to B2, with extra C1 topics
Assimil German With Ease A1 to B2

One learner who finished Assimil judged themselves at A2 to B1, not the B2 the course advertises.30 Past B1, learners mostly move to classes, exam preparation and real German content instead of another app. Our reviews of Duolingo, the Goethe-Institut, Lingoda and Pimsleur say where each fits.

How do you know you’ve reached the next level?

Test each skill separately. The Council of Europe’s self-assessment grid describes every level for listening, reading, speaking and writing, so you can check yourself against real tasks. Many learners find their skills uneven, with reading and listening ahead of speaking and writing.

Finishing a course at a level doesn’t mean you can use German at that level. One learner finished a B1 course online but found their speaking and writing weak, because the exercises had never asked for either; they practised both separately before passing the exam.31 Another finished an intensive course aimed at C1 and then failed the TestDaF, the exam German universities use, on speaking.32

A practice exam shows you where you stand. The Goethe-Institut and telc both publish free practice tests.33 One learner also wrote short texts about their week for a teacher to mark, and after two or three the same mistakes kept showing up.34

Take an official exam when someone needs the certificate: for residence, a job, or a university place. Check which exam they accept, because it varies.33 Some learners take one early as a benchmark: an A1 exam showed one learner that their speaking needed the most work.35

Passing doesn’t make everything easy. A learner with a C1 certificate still missed much of a dinner conversation among Austrian friends in a noisy restaurant.36

Sources

Footnotes

  1. Council of Europe, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, section 2.2. ↩

  2. Council of Europe, CEFR global scale; Goethe-Institut, German examinations A1 to C2. ↩

  3. Council of Europe, CEFR Companion volume, section 2.6. ↩

  4. How long did it take you to become fluent in German?, r/German; Is someone considered fluent if they have B2?, r/German; How long did it take you to become fluent in German?, r/German. ↩

  5. Federal Ministry of Justice, Residence Act, section 2, section 9 and section 30, and Nationality Act, section 10, in German. ↩

  6. TestDaF-Institut, TestDaF results and certificate, in German; After a little over a year I’ve passed my C1, r/languagelearning. ↩

  7. Goethe-Institut Glasgow, German course FAQ. ↩

  8. I passed my B1 exam after a year of self-study, r/German; My free self-study German documents from A1 to B1, r/German; How long did it take you to become fluent in German?, r/German. ↩

  9. Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), The integration course: structure and target. ↩

  10. US Department of State, Foreign Language Training. ↩

  11. Pass A1 with 97 points with 80 hours of self-study, Medium. ↩

  12. How long will it take to achieve A1 German proficiency on your own?, r/German. ↩

  13. Assuming I spend 6-8 hours per day learning German from scratch, r/German; How long did it take you to become fluent in German?, r/German. ↩

  14. Just passed Goethe C1 with no formal study, r/German; A personal victory: C1 geschafft, Eiki’s newsletter; Goethe C1 exam, Andrej Istomin’s blog. ↩

  15. Assuming I spend 6-8 hours per day learning German from scratch, r/German. ↩

  16. German, Beth Aitman’s blog. ↩

  17. Looking for the best roadmap to learn German from scratch, r/German; Is Nicos Weg enough to learn German?, r/German; My German journey: B1 in six months, Medium. ↩

  18. Goethe-Institut, A1 Start Deutsch 1: exam goals and test description, p. 77 and pp. 100 to 105, in German. ↩ ↩2

  19. Goethe-Institut, Goethe-Zertifikat A2 word list and B1 word list. ↩

  20. Just passed Goethe C1 with no formal study, r/German; My German journey: B1 in six months, Medium. ↩

  21. BAMF, Framework curriculum for integration courses, section 1.3.1, in German. ↩

  22. I passed the C1 Goethe exam through self-study, AMA, r/German; B1, the next step to German understanding, An Aussie in Austria. ↩

  23. Just passed Goethe C1 with no formal study, r/German; I passed my C2 after 5 years of mostly self-study, r/German. ↩

  24. Goethe-Institut, Goethe-Zertifikat C1 and Goethe-Zertifikat C2, in German. ↩

  25. Goethe-Zertifikat C1 abgelegt, personal blog, in German. ↩

  26. I passed the C1 Goethe exam through self-study, AMA, r/German. ↩

  27. Deutsche Welle, DW launches Nicos Weg, in German. ↩

  28. Is Nicos Weg enough to learn German?, r/German; Is Nicos Weg enough to reach B1?, r/German. ↩

  29. Is Nicos Weg enough to learn German?, r/German; How much time does it take to complete the DW course?, r/German. ↩

  30. For those who managed to complete Assimil German, r/languagelearning. ↩

  31. My free self-study German documents from A1 to B1, r/German. ↩

  32. Alejandro Huahuala, The German and me, La Pausa. ↩

  33. Goethe-Institut, Goethe-Zertifikat B1; telc, Zertifikat Deutsch / telc Deutsch B1, in German. ↩ ↩2

  34. Finished a course but still can’t use what I learned, r/German. ↩

  35. Are certificates worth it?, r/German. ↩

  36. Wie kann man ohne Prüfung wissen, auf welchem Niveau man ist?, r/German, in German. ↩