Why 300 words?
The most common 300 words of a language make up roughly 65% of everything written and said in it. That is not because German has few words. It is because a small set of words does most of the work: the, and, I, not, to have, to be, with, good, to go.
First300 gives you exactly that set for German, ordered by how often each word is used. Articles, pronouns and little connecting words come first, because they are on every single line you will ever read. Then the everyday verbs, nouns and adjectives.
The list is built from word counts over 25 million words of everyday spoken German (film and TV dialogue), cross-checked against the Goethe-Institut A1 vocabulary. Names, swearing and crime-drama words were removed and replaced with the day-one basics every beginner needs. Each card carries one short, natural sentence and a translation that says what a native speaker would say, not a word-for-word gloss.
How it works
- Each card shows a German word with a short example sentence. Tap the card to see the meaning in your language.
- Swipe right or press the tick if you know it. Swipe left or press the cross if you don't.
- When you don't know a word, you see the meaning before the card leaves, and the word comes back a few cards later.
- Words you know stay known. Use Review now and then to check ten of them. Any you have forgotten go back into your deck.
- Your progress is saved in this browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no account.
Where the idea comes from
Tim Ferriss popularised the approach: learn the highest-frequency words first and ignore the rest until you need them. A learner who knows these 300 words can follow the shape of most sentences and look up only what is missing. That makes the first weeks of a language far less frustrating.
Five minutes a day is enough. When the deck is empty, you are ready for podcasts and graded readers.
What it is not
It is not a grammar course and it will not make you fluent on its own. It gets you through the first and hardest part: having enough words to start.