Gender
Recall the article that belongs with a noun.
How Wortplay works
From a new word
to a familiar one.
A guided German vocabulary course with a simple rhythm: learn a little, come back for reviews, and put familiar words to work.
A course to follow. A pace you choose.
One word, a few ways inLevel 1
A vocabulary lesson
die Welt
world
Plural: die Welten
A rhythm you can return to
Three parts to your practice.
Start with your due reviews. Add new words when you have room, and choose an optional challenge when you want more practice.
- 01
Remember what you’ve met.
Type answers from German to English and English to German. Both directions matter. Missed answers return later in the session.
Scheduled vocabulary reviews - 02
Make room for a few more.
Meet a small batch of words, read their meanings and grammar details, then complete a two-way quiz to start their review schedule.
New vocabulary lessons - 03
Give familiar words a new job.
Practice an article, a verb form, a preposition, or a gap in a sentence. Each challenge has its own queue and is optional.
Connected practice
Set your lesson batch size and daily vocabulary review cap in Settings. You can pause and resume your main study session.
Spaced repetition, made visible
A word returns.
The gaps grow.
New words come back soon. A perfect review moves a word one stage forward; mistakes bring it back sooner. Wortplay keeps track of when each review is due.
Apprentice
Hours → daysFour early steps to get a new word settled.
Adept
About 1 → 2 weeksTwo steps with a little more space between them.
Expert
About a monthCome back and check what you remember.
Master
About four monthsGive your memory a longer test.
Known
No scheduled reviewsMake room in your queue for something new.
Times above are approximate waits before the next review, not a deadline for completing the course. Levels 1–2 use faster early intervals. Known words leave scheduled reviews, and can be returned to study from their word page.
Read more about reviews and gradingA path through the vocabulary
Your next words,
already chosen.
Common words come early. Related words stay together. The course includes more than 17,000 words and expressions across 212 main levels.
When 80% of a level’s words have reached Adept at least once, the next level opens. Later mistakes won’t close it again. Mark words you already know to move past familiar material.
See free and paid accessBuild on what you know
sehenaussehen
A verb and a related word, learned together.
A place for the basics, too.
Level 0 holds pronouns, articles, numbers, and everyday grammar words. They start marked as known; unmark any you want to study. Level 0 doesn’t hold up Level 1.
Beyond translation
Four ways to practice a little deeper.
New challenges draw on vocabulary you’ve learned or marked as known. They keep separate review schedules and don’t change your vocabulary stages or level progress.
Conjugation
Practice verb forms. Present and separable patterns come first; Perfekt follows a broader Present foundation.
Prepositions
Choose the preposition a phrase calls for.
Clozes
Fill a gap in an example sentence. Sentences need at least 80% familiar vocabulary and at most one new supporting word.
Different words support different exercises. Examples, exercise coverage, and generated pronunciation audio vary by entry, with more material being added. Read about challenge availability.
Make the routine yours
A few things to know.
How are typed answers checked?
Nouns normally include their definite article. Capitalization is forgiving, and ae, oe, ue, and ss work for ä, ö, ü, and ß. Study settings control article strictness and typo tolerance. You can add valid alternatives in a word’s study notes. Read the answer rules.
Can I practice without changing my reviews?
Yes. Extra Study lets you practice without changing vocabulary stages or due times. Optional challenges also keep their own schedules.
Can I add listening practice?
You can enable listening questions in Settings. Pronunciation clips use generated German speech from Microsoft Azure; coverage varies. Word playback may fall back to a German voice on your device. More about audio.
Is this a complete German course?
Wortplay focuses on vocabulary and related drills, with English explanations. Use it alongside grammar, reading, listening, and conversation. It is easiest to start after trying some German elsewhere. Completing the course does not establish a CEFR level or a qualification.
Where can I study?
Wortplay runs in the browser on your phone, tablet, or computer. Sign in to keep your progress across devices. Native apps are planned, with no announced release date.
Your next few words
Start with a few words of your own.
Try the free levels and find a routine you want to come back to.