Learn German

How to learn German by yourself? Start with an easy and free online course!

We have adopted an objective and efficient approach to learn how to speak a language easily and quickly: we suggest you to start by memorizing words, phrases and practical expressions that you can use in everyday life and that will be useful when traveling.
Getting used to pronounce words out loud, numbers for instance, is an easy exercise that you can practice often and at anytime throughout the day.
It will help you to get used to the sounds of your chosen language and thus make it more familiar.
And once your vacation begins, in Berlin, Hamburg or in another city in which German is the official language, you will be surprised how familiar and easy to understand it will seem.
Furthermore, using a pocket dictionary is always useful, particularly during a trip. It enables you to find the translation of new words and enrich your vocabulary.

Why speak German while traveling?

This is the most spoken language in Europe

No less than 100 million people around the world master German. In addition to being Goethe’s mother tongue, it is the official language of several countries, including Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Austria, and it is also spoken in some parts of Africa and certain communities in north America. As you can see, speaking this language is firstly a way to access a diversity of cultures, but also a way to increase your business opportunities both in European and African countries and in some American communities.  
The official language of the world's fourth-largest economy and the leading power in Europe is also the one of many classics of world literature such as the works of Goethe, the Grimm brothers, Thomas Mann and the winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature Heinrich Böll and Herta Müller.

A major language on the Internet

There is another reason why learning this language is useful: the Internet. We are in the digital age and domains with the ".de" extension (referring to Germany) is the most present on the web, just after the ".com" domains. Having access to such content can prove very useful when you want to expand your search capabilities or find information that is not widely known in other languages.
Germany's annual contribution to science and research is another interesting motivation. Did you know that every year one in ten books published in the world is written in this language? This country is among the leaders in research and innovation, occupying the third place in patent applications worldwide.
Germany's annual contribution to science and research is another interesting motivation. Did you know that every year one in ten books published in the world is written in this language? This country is among the leaders in research and innovation, occupying the third place in patent applications worldwide.

Make a success of your stay in Germany

Whether you are going to spend a few days with friends for a leisure trip or if you are on a business trip, nothing will be more useful to you than to be able to slip a few words in the language of your interlocutors, who will appreciate your effort and will be certainly more willing to help.

How to succeed in having good pronunciation within a week to a month?

It's easy: all the letters are pronounced
The pronunciation of German is fairly faithful to its writing: you can rely on the texts to pronounce this language correctly. You will need to learn some rules to have a good accent (for example, to know where to place the tonic accent), but in general it will not be too difficult for you to understand, despite some subtleties on syllables like "sch" or the "-e " in the end of a word — subtleties that may make Germans laugh when they hear you, but will not prevent them from grasping the meaning of your words, neither from appreciating your efforts to learn their language.
We invite you to listen to the pronunciation of the letters by clicking on the following link: German alphabet with audio.

What are the best websites to progress quickly?

100% Autonomous Learning - Online Resources

→ German courses by Deutsche Welle (DW)
Level: beginner to advanced (A1 to C).
Services:Deutsche Welle (DW) is an international broadcasting service in German. You will not have anything to pay; everything is free. You will find a very rich and varied set of resources, such as vocabulary sheets with audio, videos, interactive exercises, evaluation tests and the best news in the language.
Our opinion: the quality and wealth of this 100% free website will allow you to go through all the stages of your learning without ever getting bored. This site is undoubtedly the best we can recommend you.

→ Deutsch lernen
Level: for people who already have the first notions.
Services: exercises and summaries related to grammar and conjugation
Services: exercises and summaries related to grammar and conjugation.
Our opinion : this site is very focused on writing and formal rules (verbs and conjugations, declinations, names and articles, adjectives, numbers, pronouns, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, passives...). It is not really advisable for complete beginners, but it will be very useful as soon as you have some basic grammatical knowledge. In fact, you will not find a better free resource to do exercises. And it is very pleasant to use.

Resources to go further

→ Online dictionary Reverso
Level: all levels.
Services: online dictionary.
Our opinion: the interest of this dictionary is not to provide only a simple translation, but also a whole "cloud" of results.