German A2 Vocabulary List
Elementary German words
Everyday life beyond the basics: travel, shopping, work, feelings, health. · 563 words.
Study them as German flashcards & Anki decks by topic, see how to learn German vocabulary fast, or pick words up on YouTube with the dual-subtitle Chrome extension.
A2 builds straight on A1. If the basics are still shaky, the free A1 course starts at the alphabet and gets you to the end of A1 in about eleven hours.
563 A2 words
Which of these A2 words do Germans actually say?
We analysed the subtitles of 192 real German videos — 4,575 lines of spontaneous speech — and cross-referenced every word on this list against them. Out of the 563 A2 words, 223 (40%) were genuinely spoken. The most frequent is ganz, appearing in 85 out of the 192 videos. The list below arranges words by that count, so the ones you will meet first sit at the top. Click any word to view a line of real German speech and watch the moment it was spoken.
Corpus recorded on 2026-09-20. The “Heard in” column tallies how many videos feature the word, not how often it occurs inside them. A dash means that word never came up once.
| German word | English meaning | Heard in |
|---|---|---|
| ganz | whole/entire | 85 of 192 |
| genau | exact/precise | 29 of 192 |
| als | as, when | 28 of 192 |
| wirklich | really, truly | 23 of 192 |
| wenn | if, when | 19 of 192 |
| wegen | because of | 18 of 192 |
| etwas | something | 17 of 192 |
| natürlich | of course | 16 of 192 |
| rund | round, circular | 16 of 192 |
| dabei | in doing it | 15 of 192 |
| doch | but, yet, however | 15 of 192 |
| fast | almost, nearly | 15 of 192 |
| besonders | especially, particularly | 14 of 192 |
| dass | that | 14 of 192 |
| dort | there | 14 of 192 |
| der Unfall | accident | 14 of 192 |
| das Krankenhaus | hospital | 12 of 192 |
| berichten | report, tell | 11 of 192 |
| endlich | finally | 11 of 192 |
| gern | gladly, with pleasure | 10 of 192 |
| nett | nice | 10 of 192 |
| direkt | direct, directly | 9 of 192 |
| erst | first, only | 9 of 192 |
| stark | strong; powerful | 9 of 192 |
| zeigen | to show | 9 of 192 |
| meinen | mean/think | 8 of 192 |
| pro | per | 8 of 192 |
| super | great, super | 8 of 192 |
| das Projekt | project | 7 of 192 |
| prüfen | to check, test | 7 of 192 |
| das Stück | piece | 7 of 192 |
| vorsichtig | careful, cautious | 7 of 192 |
| die Autobahn | highway; motorway | 6 of 192 |
| das Buch | book | 6 of 192 |
| eigentlich | actually | 6 of 192 |
| fantastisch | fantastic, great | 6 of 192 |
| das Fest | festival | 6 of 192 |
| frisch | fresh | 6 of 192 |
| heiß | hot | 6 of 192 |
| interessant | interesting | 6 of 192 |
| nächste | next | 6 of 192 |
| das Paar | a few, couple | 6 of 192 |
| der Weg | path, way | 6 of 192 |
| das Brot | bread | 5 of 192 |
| erreicht | reaches, achieves | 5 of 192 |
| die Familie | family | 5 of 192 |
| finden | find | 5 of 192 |
| Laptop | laptop computer | 5 of 192 |
| neben | next to | 5 of 192 |
| der Park | park | 5 of 192 |
| sterben | die | 5 of 192 |
| der Strand | beach | 5 of 192 |
| tief | deep | 5 of 192 |
| warm | warm | 5 of 192 |
| beliebt | popular | 4 of 192 |
| das Büro | office | 4 of 192 |
| drüben | over there | 4 of 192 |
| fragen | ask | 4 of 192 |
| gefährlich | dangerous | 4 of 192 |
| genug | enough | 4 of 192 |
| hin | there, towards | 4 of 192 |
| jeder | each, every | 4 of 192 |
| mindestens | at least | 4 of 192 |
| plötzlich | suddenly | 4 of 192 |
| die Seite | side, page | 4 of 192 |
| die Situation | situation, circumstances | 4 of 192 |
| sonst | otherwise; usually | 4 of 192 |
| tragen | carry/wear | 4 of 192 |
| trocken | dry | 4 of 192 |
| untersuchen | examine, investigate | 4 of 192 |
| vergessen | forget | 4 of 192 |
| der Vertrag | contract | 4 of 192 |
| weich | soft | 4 of 192 |
| weil | because | 4 of 192 |
| die Zahl | number | 4 of 192 |
| zuerst | first, at first | 4 of 192 |
| aktuell | current | 3 of 192 |
| dringend | urgent | 3 of 192 |
| erreichen | to reach, achieve | 3 of 192 |
| freundlich | friendly | 3 of 192 |
| geradeaus | straight ahead | 3 of 192 |
| das Gesicht | face | 3 of 192 |
| hoffentlich | hopefully | 3 of 192 |
| jemand | someone, anybody | 3 of 192 |
| die Kette | chain, necklace | 3 of 192 |
| der Kontakt | contact | 3 of 192 |
| die Nachricht | message | 3 of 192 |
| nervös | nervous | 3 of 192 |
| niemand | nobody | 3 of 192 |
| online | online | 3 of 192 |
| das Paket | package, parcel | 3 of 192 |
| die Person | person | 3 of 192 |
| probieren | to try, taste | 3 of 192 |
| der Rücken | back (body) | 3 of 192 |
| das Schiff | ship | 3 of 192 |
| setzen | sit, place | 3 of 192 |
| sicher | safe; certain | 3 of 192 |
| sogar | even; in fact | 3 of 192 |
| das Spiel | game, play | 3 of 192 |
| der Supermarkt | supermarket | 3 of 192 |
Quiz yourself on A2 words
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Frequently asked questions
How many words are in the German A2 vocabulary list?
563 words, each with its English translation, the article (der/die/das) and an example sentence.
Is the German A2 word list free to download?
Yes — download the whole list free as a CSV spreadsheet or an Anki flashcard deck for spaced repetition.
What topics does German A2 vocabulary cover?
Communication & Media, Everyday Actions, Feelings & Character, Society & Abstract, Leisure & Sport, Travel & Transport, Body & Health, Work & Education and more — browse them above, or open a topic for its own list.
Learn A2 by watching real German videos
Watch popular German videos with dual subtitles — German on top, English beneath — and tap any word for the same meaning, synonyms and etymology you see in the list above.
Vocabulary quiz
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