How to learn German as an adult: speak first, let the cases come later

The short version

1. Week 1: pronunciation (German is nearly phonetic) and your first 20 words, each noun with its article.
2. Weeks 2–4: 200 words by situation, plus one spoken exchange every day — even with the wrong case.
3. Months 2–3: daily ten-minute conversations about real situations, corrected afterwards. Cases and word order arrive through the corrections.
4. Always: speak before you feel ready — and when a German answers in English, keep going in German.

Week 1: pronunciation and the article habit

German is kind to the reader: nearly every letter has one sound. Learn the few that differ once — w is 'v', v is 'f', z is 'ts', ei is 'eye', ie is 'ee', ch is the soft hiss of ich or the throaty one of Bach, and the three umlauts ä ö ü are a e u said with rounded lips. Stress is usually on the first syllable. One week of reading signs and menus out loud and you're done.

The single most valuable habit you can build in week one: never learn a noun without its article. Not Tisch but der Tisch; not Frau but die Frau. Gender in German is mostly arbitrary, and the article is the only reliable way to get it into your ear. Everything about cases later depends on this.

Weeks 2–4: the 200 words, out loud

Greetings, numbers, sein / haben / wollen / gehen / können / müssen, question words, food, directions, time, family, a few adjectives. Our German vocabulary by topic groups 200 of them by situation, each with the article; ten a day, said aloud.

Daily rule: one sentence to someone, today. Hallo, wie geht's? counts. Say it with the wrong case if you must — a German understands ich habe ein Hund perfectly well.

Months 2–3: situations, corrections, and where the verb goes

Ten minutes a day on one situation — the bakery, the U-Bahn, introducing yourself at work, your weekend — repeated until it's easy. Then corrections after the thought: what you said, the German version, one line on why.

Two patterns will come up again and again, and you'll learn them from the corrections rather than from a chart: the verb is second in a plain sentence (Heute gehe ich…, not Heute ich gehe), and it goes to the end after words like weil and dass. Hear it, copy it, get it wrong, get fixed. By month three it's automatic.

What to skip (for now)

• The genitive. Spoken German mostly uses von instead. Learn nominative and accusative first, dative when corrections make it obvious.
• Adjective endings. Even Germans shrug. Say the adjective, get the ending wrong, move on.
• Long compound words. They're just short words glued together (Handschuh = hand-shoe = glove). Read them in pieces.
• *Perfect der/die/das.* You'll miss a third of them for a year. It never stops a conversation.

How long does it really take?

German takes a little longer than Spanish or Italian, mostly because of the grammar. With 15–20 minutes a day, mostly speaking: simple everyday conversation in three to four months (A2); comfortable conversation in a year to eighteen months. English speakers get a quiet head start — the two languages are cousins, and a surprising amount of everyday vocabulary matches (Haus, Wasser, Bruder, trinken).

Where to practise speaking

In order of how much they'll make you speak: a patient German-speaking friend (free, rare), a private tutor (the best feedback, €15–30 an hour), a language-exchange partner (free, hit-and-miss), and an AI conversation teacher (unlimited patience, available at 11 pm, free or cheap). Most people end up combining the last two.

If you want to try the AI route, Lena on SpeakingVibes is a German teacher you talk to out loud: she answers in German, slows down when you ask, corrects you gently afterwards — including that verb you put in the wrong place — and saves every new word to your flashcards. The free account covers the daily ten-minute conversation this guide is built around.