Practise German with a native speaker, and give them English conversation practice in return. Roughly 76 million people speak German natively, so partners are easy to find; the useful discipline is showing up on time.
Endonym
Deutsch
Script
Latin alphabet, plus ä ö ü and ß
Spoken in
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg
First thing to learn
Wie geht es dir? — "How are you?"
US Foreign Service Institute estimate for an English speaker starting from zero
~30 weeks
Moderate distance from English
German pushes the verb to the end of a clause, so you cannot build a sentence in the order you thought it in - the meaning only lands on the final word. Three genders, four cases, and separable verbs that split across the sentence compound it.
Knowing this in advance changes what you do with a partner. Grammar drills on Germanwill not fix a habit your first language gave you — only producing the sentence out loud and being corrected will. That is the specific thing an exchange gives you and an app does not.
A language exchange dies when nobody has anything to talk about. Take these into the call and you will fill the first half without silences.
Say Wie geht es dir? (vee GAYT es deer) as your first line, then ask your partner when they would use it and when they would choose something more formal.
Ask your partner to write your own name in Deutsch, then explain which sounds in your name do not exist in German.
Talk for two minutes about what you imagine daily life is like in Germany. Have your partner correct the parts you got wrong - in German first, then again in English.
Talk for two minutes about what you imagine daily life is like in Austria. Have your partner correct the parts you got wrong - in German first, then again in English.
Ask your partner for one sentence that exposes the hard part: German pushes the verb to the end of a clause, so you cannot build a sentence in the order you thought it in - the meaning only lands on the final word.
Switch to English and ask your partner to explain their own language's hardest feature to you. This is the half where you pay for the practice, so take it as seriously as your own turn.
You are not here to improve your English — you already have it. Practise German with someone who speaks it natively, and pay for it by answering their English questions properly. Fluent English speakers are the scarcest resource on an exchange, which is why you will match quickly.
Germany runs one of the largest English-language workplaces in Europe, so there is a continuous supply of professionals who need English for meetings and want to rehearse it with someone patient.
30 weeks of full-time study to working proficiency, on the US Foreign Service Institute scale - moderate distance from english. German pushes the verb to the end of a clause, so you cannot build a sentence in the order you thought it in - the meaning only lands on the final word. Three genders, four cases, and separable verbs that split across the sentence compound it.
Around 76 million native speakers, concentrated in Germany, Austria, Switzerland. English has already borrowed kindergarten, rucksack, wanderlust from it, so you are not starting from nothing.
Latin alphabet, plus ä ö ü and ß. The alphabet will look familiar, which is exactly the trap - the letters are the same while the sounds behind them are not, so reading fluently is not the same as pronouncing accurately.
Wie geht es dir? (vee GAYT es deer) - "How are you?". Hallo is casual. In shops, offices and anywhere unfamiliar, Guten Tag is the expected default, and it stays that way until the evening greeting Guten Abend.
kindergarten, rucksack, wanderlust, delicatessen, angst and zeitgeist all reached English from German - 6 words you can use on day one.
Free matching, free voice calls, free video calls. One twenty-minute call is enough to know whether it works for you.
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