Top German Words in Spoken and Written Vocabulary

German Word Frequency for Spoken Words and in Print

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Updated on November 04, 2019

What German words will you encounter most frequently? The answer depends on whether they are in conversation or in reading material.

It's valuable to note what words are the most common, although they may not help you as much as you might think. They include many pronouns, articles, prepositions and common verbs. Those are probably not enough to understand what someone is trying to tell you.

Top Spoken German Words

The 30 words ranked here for spoken German are excerpted from the Rangwörterbuch hochdeutscher Umgangssprache by Hans-Heinrich Wängler (N.G. Elwert, Marburg, 1963). The words are ranked by frequency of use in everyday, spoken German.

Most-Frequently Spoken German Terms
Rank	Word	Comment/Link
1	ich	"I" - personal pronoun
2	das	"the; that (one)" neuter - definite article or demonstrative pronoun) More: Nouns and Gender
3	die	"the" f. - definite article
4	ist	"is" - form of "to be" ( sein)
5	nicht	"not"
6	ja	"yes"
7	du	"you" familiar - See Sie und du
8	der	"the" m. - definite article
9	und	"and"
10	sie	"she, they"
11	so	"so, thus"
12	wir	"we" - personal pronoun
13	was	"what"
14	noch	"still, yet"
15	da	"there, here; since, because"
16	mal	"times; once" - particle
17	mit	"with" - See Dative Prepositions
18	auch	"also, too"
19	in	"in, into"
20	es	"it" - personal pronoun
21	zu	"to; at; too" preposition or adverb
22	aber	"but" - See Coordinating/Subordinating Conjunctions
23	habe / hab'	"(I) have" - verbs - forms of haben
24	den	"the" - (form of der or dative plural) See Noun Cases
25	eine	"a, an" fem. indefinite article
26	schon	"already"
27	man	"one, they"
28	doch	"but, nevertheless, after all" particle
29	war	"was" - past tense of "to be" (sein)
30	dann	"then"

Notes and Observations

In this list of the top 30 spoken German words, there are no nouns, but lots of pronouns and articles.
Prepositions are important in spoken (and reading) German. In the top 30 spoken words, there are three prepositions (all dative or dual): mit, in, and zu.
The rank for spoken words can vary greatly from that for reading vocabulary. Examples: ich (spoken 1 / reading 51), ist (4/12), da (15/75), doch (28/69).
All the top 30 words are "small words." None has more than five letters; most have only two or three! Zipf's Law seems to hold true: There is an inverse relationship between the length of a word and its frequency.

Top Words in German Writing

The words ranked here are taken from German newspapers, magazines and other online publications in German. A similar ranking for spoken German would be quite different. Although it is based on it, unlike the word frequency compilation from the Universität Leipzig, this edited top 100 list of the most common German words in print eliminates duplicates (dass/daß, der/Der) and considers conjugated verb forms as a single verb (i.e., ist represents all forms of sein, "to be") to arrive at the 100 most common German words you should know (for reading).

However, most personal pronouns have their various forms listed separately. For example, the first-person singular forms ich, mich, mir are listed as separate words, each with its own rank. Alternative forms of other words (in parentheses) are listed in order of occurrence. The ranking below is based on the University of Leipzig compilation as of 8 Jan. 2001.

Most-Frequently Written German Words: 1–50
Rank	Word	Comment/Link
1	der (den, dem, des)	"the" m. - definite article
2	die (der, den)	"the" f. - definite article
3	und	"and" - coordinating conjunction
4	in (im)	"in, into" (in the)
5	von (vom)	"of, from"
6	zu (zum, zur)	"to; at; too" preposition or adverb
7	das (dem, des)	"the" n. - definite article
8	mit	"with"
9	sich	"himself, itself, yourself"
10	auf	See Two-Way Prepositions
11	für	See Accusative Prepositions
12	ist (sein, sind, war, sei, etc.)	"is" (to be, are, was, be, etc.) - verbs
13	nicht	"not"
14	ein (eine, einen, einer, einem, eines)	"a, an" - indefinite article
15	als	"as, than, when"
16	auch	"also, too"
17	es	"it"
18	an (am/ans)	"to, at, by"
19	werden (wurde, wird)	"become, get"
20	aus	"from, out of"
21	er	"he, it" - personal pronoun
22	hat (haben, hatte, habe)	"to have" - verbs
23	dass / daß	"that"
24	sie	"she, it; they" - personal pronoun
25	nach	"to, after" - dative preposition
26	bei	"at, by" - dative preposition
27	um	"around, at" - accusative preposition
28	noch	"still, yet"
29	wie	"as, how"
30	über	"about, over, via" - two-way preposition
31	so	"so, such, thus"
32	Sie	"you" (formal)
33	nur	"only"
34	oder	"or" - coordinating conjunction
35	aber	"but" - coordinating conjunction
36	vor (vorm, vors)	"before, in front of; of" - two-way preposition
37	bis	"by, until" - accusative preposition
38	mehr	"more"
39	durch	"by, through" - accusative preposition
40	man	"one, they" - personal pronoun
41	Prozent (das)	"percent"
42	kann (können, konnte, etc.)	"be able, can" modal verb
43	gegen	"against; around" - accusative preposition
44	schon	"already"
45	wenn	"if, when" - subordinating conjunctions
46	sein (seine, seinen, etc.)	"his" - possessive pronoun
47	Mark (Euro)	Der Euro was put into circulation in Jan. 2002, so "Mark" (Deutsche Mark, DM) is far less frequent now.
48	ihre/ihr	"her, their" - possessive pronoun
49	dann	"then"
50	unter	"under, among" - two-way prepositions

Most-Frequently Written German Words: 51–100
51	wir	"we" - personal pronoun
52	soll (sollen, sollte, etc.)	"should, ought to" - modal verbs
53	ich	Obviously "ich" (I) would rank higher for spoken German, but it also ranks high in print.
54	Jahr (das, Jahren, Jahres, etc.)	"year"
55	zwei	"two" - See Numbers
56	diese (dieser, dieses, etc.)	"this, these" - dieser-word
57	wieder	"again" (adv.)
58	Uhr	Most frequently used as "o'clock" in telling time.
59	will (wollen, willst, etc.)	"wants" ("to want, want," etc.) - modal verbs
60	zwischen	"between" - two-way preposition
61	immer	"always" (adv.)
62	Millionen (eine Million)	"millions" ("a/one million") - number
63	was	"what"
64	sagte (sagen, sagt)	"said" (past) "say, says"
65	gibt (es gibt; geben)	"gives" ("there is/are; to give")
66	alle	"all, everyone"
67	seit	"since" - dative preposition
68	muss (müssen)	"must" ("to have to, must")
69	doch	"but, nevertheless, after all" particle
70	jetzt	"now" - adverb
71	drei	"three" - number
72	neue (neu, neuer, neuen, etc.)	"new" adjective
73	damit	"with it/that; by that; because of that; so that" da-compound (with preposition)
74	bereits	"already" adverb
75	da	"since, because" (prep.), "there, here" (adv.)
76	ab	"off, away; exit" (theater); "from, starting at" - adv./prep.
77	ohne	"without" - accusative preposition
78	sondern	"but rather"
79	selbst	"myself, himself," etc.; "self-; even (if)"
80	ersten (erste, erstes, etc.)	first - adverb
81	nun	"now; then; well?"
82	etwa	"about, approximately; for instance" (adv.)
83	heute	"today, nowadays" (adv.)
84	weil	because - subordinating conjunction
85	ihm	"to/for him" personal pronoun (dative)
86	Menschen (der Mensch)	"people" ("human being")
87	Deutschland (das)	"Germany"
88	anderen (andere, anderes, etc.)	"other(s)"
89	rund	"approximately, about" (adv.)
90	ihn	"him" personal pronoun (accusative)
91	Ende (das)	"end"
92	jedoch	"nevertheless"
93	Zeit (die)	"time"
94	uns	"us, to us" personal pronoun (accusative or dative)
95	Stadt (die)	"city, town"
96	geht (gehen, ging, etc.)	"goes" ("to go, went," etc.)
97	sehr	"very"
98	hier	"here"
99	ganz	"entire(ly), complete(ly), whole(ly)"
100	Berlin (das)	"Berlin"

Notes and Observations

In this eited list of the Top 100 German Words, there are only 11 nouns (in ranked order): Prozent, Mark (Euro), Jahr/Jahren, Uhr, Millionen, Mensch/Menschen, Deutschland, Ende, Zeit, Stadt, Berlin. These nouns reflect common news and business content in German-language periodicals.
Since several simple past tense forms (Imperfekt, war, wurde, sagte) appear in the top 100, it might be better to introduce the past tense earlier in German instruction/learning. In German reading material, the simple past is used more than in conversation.
Zipf's Law seems to hold true: There is an inverse relationship between the length of a word and its frequency. The most frequent words are monosyllabic. The longer the word, the less it's used, and vice versa.

Source

Projekt Wortschatz - Universität Leipzig Stand, vol. 8. Jan. 2001

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Your Citation

Flippo, Hyde. "Top German Words in Spoken and Written Vocabulary." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/german-words-in-written-vocabulary-4071331. Flippo, Hyde. (2023, April 5). Top German Words in Spoken and Written Vocabulary. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/german-words-in-written-vocabulary-4071331 Flippo, Hyde. "Top German Words in Spoken and Written Vocabulary." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/german-words-in-written-vocabulary-4071331 (accessed June 8, 2023).