German A1 Vocabulary List: Every Word You Need to Start

A1 is the first proficiency level in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the standard used across Europe to describe language ability. At A1, you're expected to understand and use familiar, everyday expressions — introducing yourself, naming things around you, asking simple questions. The vocabulary below covers exactly that: the words you'll reach for constantly in your first weeks of German.

Rather than an alphabetical dump, these words are grouped by category — the way you'll actually encounter and use them.

Family (die Familie)

Numbers (die Zahlen)

German numbers follow a consistent pattern once you pass twenty — worth learning early, since they show up in prices, times, and dates constantly.

Colors (die Farben)

Everyday objects (Alltagsgegenstände)

Notice each noun above comes with its article — der, die, or das. Getting the article right from day one matters more than it might seem; we cover exactly how in Der, Die, Das: the only trick that actually works.

Food (das Essen)

What to do with this list

Fifty words is a solid start, but a list alone won't get them into long-term memory. The Goethe-Institut, the official German cultural institute responsible for much of the world's standardized German instruction, builds its A1 courses around exactly this kind of categorized, example-driven vocabulary — words grouped by real-life topic, always seen in context, never in isolation.

The same principle applies whether you're in a classroom or learning on your own: work through categories in small batches, review consistently, and always attach each word to a sentence rather than a bare translation.