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June 17, 2020

How to Learn German Online Using Free Resources?

By Prathiba Sasi

There are plenty of online resources to learn German where you don’t have to spend a fortune to learn the language efficiently. Often websites and services help you learn German, which is free of cost and without any hassle. Numerous German lessons online could help you with vocabulary, grammar, communication skills, and comprehension, that you can practice from the comfort of your own home!

Are you still searching for “how to learn German online,” and not finding the apt website? But there are some online resources that are worth signing up. Here are some of the resources with which you can learn German online with style and ease. 

Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle is an international public broadcaster, funded by the Government of Germany. What makes Deutsche Welle stand apart from the rest of the online resources is that it offers the course for various native language speakers. There are plenty of nationalities to choose from, where you can learn German online.  

This website is favored by German learners, the reason being it offers free learning resources. They offer interesting videos with transcripts, and after watching it, you can try the exercises by which you get more familiar with particular topics. 

Duolingo 

If you’re a beginner who wishes to practice speaking, reading, and writing in German, then Duolingo is best for you. Using Duolingo, you can learn some basic German phrases, and depend on how far you’ve succeeded in learning it, you can learn German grammar. In fact, German language learning using Duolingo is quite interesting, since it’s similar to how you play games. When you take more and more lessons, you get more rewards, and you will keep on learning. Sometimes you need to type what you have heard, or translate phrases, or translate what you have heard. The questions will be repeated sometimes, to check if you remember everything or not. 

Deutsch Lernen

Deutsch Lernen is appropriate for all levels of German learners. No matter if you’re a beginner or advanced learner, you can definitely use this website. It provides formal classes for online German language courses with various topics. You can create a free account in Deutsch Lernen where you can assess exercise handouts. They provide holiday courses and summer school courses in Germany. The resources on this website are not only rigorous, but they are also very easy to use. In Deutsch Lernen, there are ten lessons for beginners and twenty-four lessons for Advanced learners. If you’re a beginner, you will be learning verb tenses, conjugation, types of verbs, along with exercises. If you’re an advanced learner, you have more lessons where you’ll also be learning about some tips on German orthography. 

Deutsch Akademie 

If you’re looking for how to learn German online, head over to the website of Deutsch Akademie. This website is appropriate for all levels of German learners, where you can assess up to 20,000 grammar exercises in German as well as vocabulary exercises. 

Participles, sentence system, case system, are some of the topics on this website for German learning. There are interactive lessons for German accusative cases and dative cases. One best thing with this website is that not only you can seek the help of your fellow learners, but you can also reach out to professional teachers online who are well-versed in German and could help you with any problem while learning. Normally only paid websites to learn German online provide you with the assistance of professional teachers, but it is not so with Deutsch Akademie. This is the major benefit of using Deutsch Akademie. 

Memrise 

One common thing that connects both Memrise and Duolingo is that both have a flashcard principle. In order to increase retention, Memrise uses spaced repetition of flashcards. This technique could significantly increase the rate of memorization. You will be tested repeatedly on German phrases and words until you are thorough with it. The site speaks aloud both words and sentences, where you can even opt for ignoring the phrases and words that you don’t want to see again. What’s notable in this website is that not only does it give you the English translation, it also gives you the literal translation as well. 

The German Professor 

This website is suited for students and teachers alike and covers numerous subjects. There is an easy explanation for everything, including the top 100 German verbs, the top 500 German words, to name a few. The website also has both a tongue twister section and a video section, also free German books to download, etc. With the German professor, you can learn German online by practicing speaking, listening, grammar, vocabulary, and also teaching the German language. 

Each section includes-

Speaking- Certain pronunciations and German tongue twisters.

Grammar- German verb tenses, top German verbs, etc.  

Vocabulary- Top 500 German words, parts of speech, etc. 

Listening- Schleswig-Holstein in Kürze 1 

Teaching the German language- Practising German numbers, teaching the German simple past tense, Teaching German days, months and seasons, etc. 

Tom’s Deutschseite

Tom’s Deutschseite is a great resource to learn German online, with numerous practice and explanation pages. Even though the site requires an upgrade, it is still considered relevant for German Grammar study. Every topic in grammar has an exercise sheet, its answers, explanations, and summaries that are available in PDF format. The website covers parts of speech, vocabulary, spelling, writing, pronunciation, etc. Most topics on this website are written in English. 

Loecsen

Another best way to learn German online is Loescen. The highlight of this website is that it offers beginner’s courses in twenty languages, including German, for free. For practicing everything, you can download the PDF and mp3 offered by the website. The approach is both efficient and objective whereby you can quickly and easily learn speaking in the German language. Loecsen emphasizes memorizing German phrases, words, and expressions which are both beneficial while traveling and in day to day life. Loecsen offers a read-aloud option where you have to pronounce certain German words, numbers aloud. The site also offers Express Quiz where you can practice German as well as illustrations where you can memorize an expression more. 

The German Project

For beginners in the language, they can make use of the German project to learn German online. They offer free access to language lessons with audio sessions. The German Project offers up to 15 lessons, where you begin with introductions and end with common slang and expressions. You will be learning how to pronounce German words, German greetings, and essentials, parts of speech, how to form basic questions in German to name a few. You will sound like a German, by learning German language slang through The German Project.

What makes this online resource stand apart from the other online resources that are free is that it offers the lessons with comics and other exercises meant for practice. You can read or listen to German fairy tales in The German Project. You can also find images and funny comics that help you to understand the context. 

If you’re going to Germany for a couple of days or planning to stay there, without being able to speak a minimum in the German language, it will be really difficult for you to contact the local people in Germany. There comes the importance of a few of these online resources that are free. You can learn German online through mobile or other devices, without going through a long process of learning German.