University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Most of these apps are free, but some of them have free versions with an optional choice to pay for more services.
Duolingo- A Free App! One of the best apps to learn languages, it uses a game-like way of teaching you lessons. You can learn many languages on this app, and even learn a language as a non-English speaker. This application is based on phone use, so you can take your lessons everywhere you go. One of the best things about this app is that many of the lessons are created by native speakers, so you know you can be assured you are learning usable and prevalent phrases.
HelloTalk- A Free App! This app makes practicing speaking many languages super easy. Users can look for native speakers and converse with them using a whatsapp-like chat that has both text and voice messages. Correction of the messages exchanged is easily done with a built-in tool that transforms the exchanges into tiny tutoring sessions. Also included with this app is an integrated translation system when those moments of uncertainty may hit you.
HiNative- A Free App! This app makes learning correct pronunciation a breeze. It allows you to get the benefits of getting in touch with native speakers without the hassle of searching for an exchange partner or having to schedule a chat. Anything is up for question here; you can ask for translations, input on pronunciation, or advice on cultural norms. You can also help fellow learners with the knowledge of your own language(s)!
MindSnacks- This app is only for iOS devices (Apple products) but it sure takes the gold in gamification of learning languages! MindSnacks teaches 7 languages and it does this by having eight or nine tiny lessons with games at the end of them that are designed to help you learn vocabulary, grammar, or practice your listening. The app monitors your progress so you can see how much more learning you need to obtain proficiency in the skills taught. The basic download is free but is limited, and the buy in option is cheap and opens up your options.
Babbel- This app is a paid "cousin" of Duolingo, though with 40 free lessons, it is a great option! Each class uses pictures to teach you vocabulary. Then the words you learned are used in related phrases and short dialogues adjusted to the the level you are at to build conversation skills. There are handy pop-ups that explain the most important grammatical points related to the learned material and if you are on a computer, they also include short cultural notes. You can also get separate packages devoted to improving specific skills such as grammar or vocabulary if you already have some experience with the language and only want to improve certain skills. Lastly, Babbel’s classes can be downloaded and kept offline for you to study.
Memrise- Memrise is the place to go for your vocabulary retention. There are a lot of courses on almost every language, including ones that are "fictional" (Klingon, anyone?). You have your options between more standardized courses based on popular textbooks, vocabulary frequency lists, and less expected vocabulary collections with naughtier words or translations of works. What makes this app great are memes and gamification. The app has a learning method that relies on creating funny or bizarre associations with the studied words. Memes come to play with this method of teaching, and the everyone in the community can add their own! Learning, revising and creating memes is a source of points that help you advance in the Memrise hierarchy of users (which ranges from Membryo to Overlord).
Datenbank-Paket Duden--contains 18 online Duden dictionaries, including Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache and Das Stilwörterbuch.
Online Dictionaries
YourDictionary: Germanic Languages -
includes Old High German dictionary and more.
includes a vocabulary trainer.
For Synonyms and Antonyms
Woxikon - Synonyms (no antonyms); menu has multiple interactive features.
What is the opposite of... - interface in English, but works with German words.
Verb Conjugation
About.com German Verb Conjugator
Verbix - German Verb Conjugator
Reverso - German Verb Conjugation
Translators
Print Dictionaries
The Literatures and Languages Library circulates print dictionaries. To find a monolingual German dictionary, search the Online Catalog using the subject heading German Language Dictionaries. To find a German/English dictionary, search the Online Catalog using the subject heading German Language Dictionaries English.
The Library subscribes to Rosetta Stone Foundations, which features 30 languages from around the globe. To enter the database, go to Rosetta Stone Foundations/Alternative link . You can also use Rosetta Stone on a mobile device. To get set up, use the Tutorial for Rosetta Stone Mobile. If you have trouble entering the database and signing up for an account, contact Paula Carns at pcarns@illinois.edu. If you have difficulties once you set up your account, please use the "Contact Support" option at Rosetta Stone (linked off of the entry page).
Conversational German in 7 days. by
General Resources
BBC Languages: German - A comprehensive and lively collection of free audio and video courses for both beginners and intermediate learners.
About.com German Language - This website, maintained by About.com's German Guide, features a variety of language lessons, commentary on traveling and teaching skills, and several interactive elements including quizzes.
German Blog: Language and Culture - Offers brief blog post introductions to German culture with interspersed vocabulary lessons. Great for beginning to intermediate students.
Germany Today: Intensive Study of German Language and Culture through MIT's opensoftware.
Radio Lingua German Materials - relaxed, short podcasts on everyday German phrases. Not currently updated, but valuable to casual learners.
Populearn German - free basic German vocabulary lessons based on repetition and staggered recall.
Additional Resources
Deutsch-lernen.com - beginner and advanced lessons, tests, links to jokes, quotes, and online penpals.
Deutsche Welle: Deutsch lernen - free e-learning with videos, podcasts, and audio courses as well as traditional texts and worksheets for print-out.
FSI Language Courses: German - Free German audio courses designed by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. The interface is plain and perhaps uncomfortably formal, but there are plenty of exercises, lessons and many audio files.
Goethe Institute's Learn German Online for Free
Interactive learning games to improve your German skills at all levers; expert chat where you can find out interesting facts about the German language; foruem for sharing information and asking questions; and groups and partners.
Woerter Blog - Maintained by Worldblogs GmbH, this blog offers humorous posts on advanced usage topics. Great for graduate student level German learners.
Social Sites to Help Learn German
Livemocha - A language learning community designed to connect you with lessons and two-way exchanges for evaluating oral and written work at beginning to high intermediate levels. Free and fun if you enjoy online social networking.
Busuu - audio and written exercises in an online community setting. Seems best for basic vocabulary.
Wordreference.com forums - Active language forums where you can post grammar questions to have them answered by native speakers, or you can learn by reading other threads or answering others yourself. You will almost always get replies by authoritative, knowledgable posters, which you can verify by seeing their native language, number of posts and reputation.
The German Conversation Group (Deutsch Konversationsgruppe) meets weekly during the semester. Speakers at all language levels are welcome. Extra credit for attendance occasionally is offered by instructors of our language courses. For additional information regarding times and locations, please contact the German department.
To listen to or subscribe to a podcast, you can use these individual websites, or you might find it easier to search in the iTunes music store.
Here are a few major starting points for searching for podcasts:
One of the top German podcasting portals is called Podster.de. The podcasts are organized by subject. For advanced listeners, this directory can be a great way to find challenging listening materials. Searching for keywords such as "Deutsch lernen" may retrieve some podcasts appropriate for beginners.
Beginning German
The "Learn Out Loud" website has a list of beginners' German podcasts that you can play directly in your browser - no need to download iTunes, iPodder, or similar software for these.
MyGermanClass - lots of video skits with goofy humor. There are German subtitles and episode scripts in English/German available.
Learn German with this Free Podcast - the name of this podcast is accurate!
Young Germany - The Young Germany website has intermediate German podcasts as well as a "starter kit" page that links to grammar basics as well as some "survival German" (beginners') podcasts.
Intermediate and Advanced German
Slow German - Short podcasts of German texts spoken slowly. Texts available as PDFs. Difficulty ranges from beginner to intermediate-advanced.
Schlaflos in Muenchen - Buchkritiken, Filmreviews, Interviews, Anniks Gedanken und vielen anderen Geschichten. From the maker of Slow German.
Pukka German - A podcast that teaches slang, idioms, and common words and phrases. (View in iTunes)
German GrammarPod - Podcaster Laura focuses almost exclusively on German grammar. Her blog accompanies the podcast that you can listen to in your browser window.
German LingQ - free podcasts with full transcripts. (View in iTunes)
A Flavour of German - ten episodes of German phrases for intermediate to advanced learners (View in iTunes)
German today [sound recording].
listenlive.eu - directory of German radio stations streaming live on the internet.
About.com: Radio in German - annotated directory to German radio available online.
Westdeutscher Rundfunk - German public broadcasting (radio and TV) from North Rhine-Westphalia.
ARD (Das erste) - the principal public broadcaster in Germany.
Deutsche Welle - federally funded radio station; available in multiple languages.
RTL Television - some videos available from this popular station.
Readers offer mini-lessons in grammar and vocabulary before and after each reading and thus are a great way to improve reading skills. To find readers, try searching the Online Library Catalog using the following words as a subject:
German language--Readers
Primers, German
German language--exercises and readers
Guide to Magazines in German - written from a student's perspective.
Stern - very rich in photos; one of Germany's top illustrated magazines.
Der Spiegel Online - One of the best German magazines online.
Computer Bild - Computer magazine that addresses games, software, etc.
Bunte - popular woman's/gossip magazine.
Das Beste - the German edition of Reader's Digest.
Capital - weekly finance magazine.
In German
Frankfurter Allgemeine - Feuilleton - Buecher der Woche
Rezensions-Datenbank - from Deutsche Welle
In English
Words Without Borders - organized by author and country, often reviews of books in translation
Litrix - monthly book reviews from the Goethe Institute
New Books in German - book reviews of popular German titles sponsored by the Goethe Institute in London
In English and German
German Studies Review - academic journal devoted to German studies includes numerous book reviews in English and German
All countries
OnlineNewspapers.com - select from a large list of newspapers.
Germany
Frankfurter Allgemeine - a well-respected national daily newspaper.
Goyax - stock exchange and finance news.
Sueddeutsche Zeitung - very famous (and densely written) German daily.
Die Welt - another one of Germany's most famous daily newspapers.
Die Zeit - nationally renowned weekly paper.
Austria
Wiener Zeitung - one of the most famous and oldest, still published newspapers in Europe.
Wirtschaftsblatt - daily financial news service in Austria.
Tiroler Tageszeitung - daily newspaper for Tirol region from Innsbruck.
Salzburger Nachrichten - regional news from Salzburg.
Kronen Zeitung - well-known Austrian tabloid.
Switzerland
Basler Zeitung - daily newspaper from Basel, Switzerland.
Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) - large daily newspaper from Zuerich.
UIUC Library Newspaper Database - the database lists German-language newspapers, published in Germany, Austria, the United States and other countries, held by the UIUC Library in print and or microfilm. The database also includes freely available German and Austrian newspaper titles that have been digitized and are freely available through the Austrian National Library and the Berlin State Library websites.
International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) - this Center for Research Libraries page highlights and links to past, present, and prospective digitization projects of historic newspapers listed by country (look for various projects listed under Austria, Germany, Luxemburg, and Switzerland).
Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers - the database of digitized American historic newspapers, sponsored by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, includes 26 German-American newspaper titles. For more information about this project see, Leah Weinryb Grohsgal, “Chronicling America’s Historic German Newspapers and the Growth of the American Ethnic Press.”
Die neue Rechtschreibung : alle Regeln zum Lernen und Nachschlagen by
PONS Rechtschreibung Woerterbuch
Exploring the German language by
German for business and economics by
Business German Phrasebook - English to German; also includes sample resumes.
Export.gov: doing business in Germany - a lot of good information about regulations for travel and business in Germany.
ExecutivePlanet - yet another good German business site.
Dictionary of German slang and colloquial expressions by Henry Strutz.
Call Number: 437.09St89d2009
ISBN: 9780764141140
Publication Date: 2009
Pukka German - maintained by an American living in Germany. The site provides podcasts with scripts and vocab lists of German slang.
German Words to Avoid - a helpful directory of possibly offensive German phrases.
Medical and Dental Vocabulary - English-German glossary
dict.cc Dictionary - Subject: med. - This online dictionary has great lists of subject words, including medicine.
About.com - German to English Idioms Glossary
A number of websites provide verb tables and exercises. A few examples are listed:
About.com's German Verb Guide - Basic verb vocaulary, verb cases/tenses, verb classes, and links to the most common verbs.
German Verb Tables - Paul Joyce at the University of Portsmouth has designed an excellent website with verb tables and explanations of variouses tenses, moods, irregularities, etc. Great for all learning levels.
German Online Exercises - Links to exercises are organized by the order of topics in Deutsch - Na Klar! - a commonly used German textbook.
German Verb Conjugation Activities - Links to easy-to-print verb tables.