The course
The free German A1 course
The extension teaches you German from the videos you already watch. The course is the other half: a complete path from your first word to CEFR A1, for someone who has just moved to Germany, Austria or Switzerland and has to function in German this year.
It is 45 lessons across 8 units, about three minutes each and roughly 11 hours in total. 34 lessons carry their own video, and there are 430 practice questions — answered by choosing the missing word, never by typing. Every lesson ends with a scored test drawn from its own question pool. It is free: no signup, no email, no trial, no paywall, nothing to install, and your progress is saved without an account.
The order is the order you meet German in, not the order a grammar book lists it. You learn numbers before the bakery, articles before the furniture shop, questions before the train platform. By the end you can register an address, open a bank account, order at a counter, describe a symptom at a pharmacy, understand why your train is late and collect a parcel from a neighbour.
- 1Introduce yourself & first wordsAfter it you can introduce yourself: name, age, where you are from, where you live now, what you do.
- 2Articles & the present tenseAfter it you can say what something is and whether it is a or the.
- 3Word order & the AkkusativAfter it you can build a correct sentence whatever you put first.
- 4haben, plurals & foodAfter it you can say what you have, and what you are hungry, thirsty or afraid of.
- 5Your day & the PerfektAfter it you can describe your working day from getting up to Feierabend.
- 6Dativ, Imperativ & datesAfter it you can say who you are giving, telling or showing something to.
- 7Describing things & your homeAfter it you can describe what something looks like and whose it is.
- 8Health & everyday errandsAfter it you can make a doctor’s appointment and say what hurts.
The method
Beat the Forgetting Curve
In 1885, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus proved how fast we forget — and how the right reviews stop it. We schedule those reviews for you, so words move into long-term memory instead of fading.
German psychologist and founder of scientific memory research. He discovered the Forgetting Curve in his 1885 work Über das Gedächtnis — the theoretical basis for every modern spaced-repetition tool, from Anki to SuperMemo.
Flashcard boxes were later formalized by Sebastian Leitner (1972).
How it works
Three steps from any YouTube video to German you actually remember.
Add the extension
Install it in Chrome and sign in with your 3minGerman account. Your first videos are free.
Press play on YouTube
Dual subtitles appear on any video — grammar colored, every word tappable, spoken on demand.
Take the video quiz
A prompt turns what you just watched into memorized vocabulary, reviewed at the perfect moments.
From a YouTube video to words you never forget
Learn German vocabulary up to 5x faster — with videos you already enjoy.
- 1
Install the plugin
Add the free 3minGerman extension to desktop Chrome.
- 2
Sign up through the plugin
Create your free 3minGerman account right in the extension.
- 3
Watch any video, click any word
Get the translation and etymology instantly — and hear it spoken.
- 4
Your words land in 3minGerman
Every word you click is saved to your account automatically.
- 5
Take the daily quiz
The app tests you on exactly the words you clicked.
- 6
Beat the forgetting curve
Each word comes back at growing intervals — so you remember it.
Learn while you watch
Advanced subtitles turn every video into a lesson
Two lines, live: the video language and yours. Every word is tappable for meaning, synonyms and pronunciation — and the grammar is colored so patterns sink in without studying.
Then remember it
A custom word quiz for every video
Quiz the featured words from your favorite video, or from curated 3minGerman videos. Up to 3× faster memorization — enough to learn around 90% of the most common German words in a few months.
Quick quiz
What does Maschine mean?
faster memorization with spaced repetition
of everyday German words in a few months
of learners already watching and learning
Built on proven memory science and tested with hundreds of learners who picked up German the fastest this way.
Free word lists
267 German word packs, A1 to C1
Pick a topic and start: every list gives you der/die/das, the plural, an example sentence with its English translation and audio — then drill it as flashcards in your browser or download it for Anki. No account needed.
Loved by learners
People are actually sticking with it
“I finally stopped forgetting words. I watch my usual YouTube with the dual subs, take the quiz, and it just sticks.”
“The color-coded grammar is genius — I can see how a sentence is built while I watch. My reading jumped in a few weeks.”
“The review timing is uncanny. A word pops up right as I am about to forget it. Now I follow German vlogs without pausing.”
Start free on the videos you already watch
Your first videos are free. No credit card to begin.