How to do comprehensible input in German

The short answer

Every day, spend time with German audio, video or text that you can mostly follow. Give it your attention. Look up only the words that stop you from following. Move to harder content when your current content feels easy. Count practice time so that you can see your habit. Add speaking when you want or need it, including from the start. The sections below explain each part.

Choose content at the right level

This is an important decision. Content that is too hard gives you little meaning to follow. Content at the right level has three signs:

• You can follow the story or the main idea without pausing every few seconds.
• You understand most sentences, and you can guess many of the new words from the situation.
• You notice new words and phrases, but they do not stop you.

For a true beginner, almost no "normal" German is at this level. You need content made for learners: a speaker who talks slowly, draws pictures, uses gestures and repeats the same words. Children's TV looks easy, but it is often fast and full of jokes and slang, so it is not always the best start. A learner series like DW's Nicos Weg or slow videos made for comprehensible input can be a better starting point. See the graded channel list for options.

Speed, accent and topic change difficulty more than people expect. A slow Austrian speaker can be easier than a fast Berliner. A topic you know, like cooking or football, is easier than politics. Use this: start new levels with familiar topics.

Active listening vs passive listening

Active listening means you watch or listen with your full attention and try to follow the meaning. This is where most progress happens. If you notice that you have thought about something else for two minutes, go back.

Passive listening means German plays while you cook, walk or clean. It helps less, but it is not useless. It works best with audio that you already understood actively: an episode you watched yesterday, a podcast at an easy level. Unknown, difficult audio in the background is mostly noise. A practical rule is to count only active time as "input hours", and to treat passive time as a bonus.

Subtitles: German, English or none?

• German subtitles are useful at most levels. German spelling is regular, so reading what you hear helps you split the sound into words. This is especially useful for long compounds and for separable verbs, where the small word at the end (an, auf, mit) changes the meaning.
• English subtitles let you follow a story that is too hard. But you will read English and hear German as background. Use them to rescue a video you love, or to check a confusing scene, not as your default.
• No subtitles trains pure listening, which is what you need for real conversations and for the listening part of exams. Try it with content that you can already follow, or watch an episode a second time without subtitles.

Some channels, like Easy German, show German and English subtitles at the same time. That is useful early on. Try to read the German line first.

Add reading

Reading is input too. You can see articles and case endings clearly on the page, and read at your own speed. Start with a short text that you can understand. You do not need to wait for a set number of listening hours.

• Read the transcript of an episode that you already listened to.
• Read easy news written in Einfache Sprache, such as Nachrichtenleicht from Deutschlandfunk.
• Read graded readers for learners at your level.
• Later, read native books that you already know in English, such as a translated series.

Words and look-ups

You do not need to memorise word lists before you start. You do need to look up words sometimes. Look up a word when it stops you from following, or when you have seen it many times and still do not know it. Ignore the rest.

When you save a German noun, save it with its article and, if you like, a short phrase: die Rechnung, auf den Tisch. Include the base article too: der Tisch. The cases and gender guide explains why. Flashcards like Anki are optional. Many learners use them for a small set of words from their input. Keep review short so that it does not replace the input itself.

Track your hours

Progress with input can be hard to see from one day to the next. A running total shows practice time, not proficiency. Count only the time when you were paying attention to content you could mostly follow. A simple spreadsheet works. Some apps, including ours, show watch time for you.

Hour totals are a guide, not a contest. German has a lot of shared vocabulary with English, but also cases and word order that English does not have. Two people with 300 hours can be at different levels. Compare yourself with yourself: re-watch a video from your first month and notice how much more you understand.

When to start speaking

There is no required delay. Start when you want or need to speak. These can make a first conversation easier:

• You understand slow conversations between two people without English help.
• You can ask your partner to repeat or slow down.
• You want to speak, and you have a person or a situation where you need it.

Many input learners start with a tutor who speaks slowly and lets them answer in short phrases, or with "crosstalk", where each person speaks their own language. Keep your input hours when you add speaking. Speaking shows you which words you do not have yet. Input gives them to you.

From Duolingo to comprehensible input

Many learners arrive here after a long streak in an app and find that they still cannot follow a real conversation. That is a common experience, and it does not mean the time was wasted. You probably know many basic words and some grammar. You need many more hours of connected, natural German.

1. Find your real level. Watch the first episode of Nicos Weg A1 and A2, and a Super Easy German video. Pick the one where you follow most sentences.
2. Swap most of your app time for that content. If you like your streak, keep a short daily lesson as a warm-up.
3. Do at least 30 minutes of input a day for the next month. Note the total.
4. After about a month, test again with a slightly harder video. You will often see a difference.

For a comparison of apps that are built around input instead of exercises, see Best comprehensible input apps (another site from our team).

A sample week for a beginner

• Monday to Friday: 30–45 minutes of beginner videos with German subtitles, plus 10 minutes of re-listening to yesterday's audio on a walk.
• Saturday: One longer session with a story series, and one easy news text.
• Sunday: Re-watch a favourite video without subtitles. Add up the week's hours.

For a wider view of how input fits with vocabulary, conversation and accuracy over time, read the Jibber Jabber learning roadmap and its page on comprehensible input.