Top 100 German verbs

Top 100 German verbs

by TheGermanProfessor — 56 Comments ↓

This verb list comes from Randall Jones & Erwin Tschirner’s A Frequency Dictionary of
German. Core Vocabulary for Learners, which lists the 4034 (!) most commonly used words
in German. We’ll be doing lots of fun things with this list with posts in the coming weeks.
See also: Lessons from the Top German verbs list & Top 500 German words

1. sein to be
2. haben to have
3. werden to become
4. könnencan, to be able to
5. müssen must, to have to
6. sagen to say
7. machen to do, make
8. geben to give
9. kommen to come
10. sollen should, ought to
11. wollen to want
12. gehen to go
13. wissen to know
14. sehen to see
15. lassen to let, allow, have done
16. stehen to stand
17. finden to find
18. bleiben to stay, remain
19. liegen to lie, be lying
20. heißen to be called
21. denken to think
22. nehmen to take
23. tun to do
24. dürfen may, to be allowed
25. glauben to believe
26. halten to stop, hold
27. nennen to name, to call (a name)
28. mögen to like
29. zeigen to show
30. führen to lead
31. sprechen to speak
32. bringen to bring, take
33. leben to live
34. fahren to drive, ride, go
35. meinen to think, have an opinion
36. fragen to ask
37. kennen to know
38. gelten to be valid
39. stellen to place, set
40. spielen to play
41. arbeiten to work
42. brauchen to need
43. folgen to follow
44. lernen to learn
45. bestehen to exist, insist, pass (an exam)
46. verstehen to understand
47. setzen to set, put, place
48. bekommen to get, receive
49. beginnen to begin
50. erzählen to narrate, tell
51. versuchen to try, attempt
52. schreiben to write
53. laufen, to run
54. erklären to explain
55. entsprechen to correspond
56. sitzen to sit
57. ziehen to pull, move
58. scheinen to shine, seem, appear
59. fallen to fall
60. gehören to belong
61. entstehen to originate, develop
62. erhalten to receive
63. treffen to meet
64. suchen to search, look for
65. legen to lay, put
66. vor·stellen to introduce, imagine
67. handeln to deal, trade
68. erreichen to achieve, reach
69. tragen to carry, wear
 70. schaffen to manage, create
71. lesen to read
72. verlieren to lose
73. dar·stellen to depict, portray
74. erkennen to recognize, admit
75. entwickeln to develop
76. reden to talk
77. aus·sehen to appear, look (a certain way)
78. erscheinen to appear
79. bilden to form, educate
80. an·fangen to begin
81. erwarten to expect
82. wohnen to live
83. betreffen to affect, concern
84. warten to wait
85. vergehen to elapse; to decay
86. helfen to help
87. gewinnen to win
88. schließen to close
89. fühlen to feel
90. bieten to offer
91. interessierento interest
92. erinnern to remember
93. ergeben to result in
94. an·bieten to offer
95. studieren to study
96. verbinden to connect, link
97. an·sehen to look at, watch
98. fehlen to lack, be missing, be absent
99. bedeuten to mean
100. vergleichen to compare

Related Pages & Posts:

1. Lessons from the Top German Verbs list
2. Top 500 German words
3. Top 500 German words (101-200)
4. Top 500 German words (201-300)
5. Top 500 German words (301-400)
6. Top 500 German words (401-500)
7. Top German verbs: Scavenger hunt
8. studieren vs lernen
 56 comments on “Top 100 German verbs”

1. Ron Isaac says:

September 17, 2013 at 12:02 PM

Great start for vocabulary improvement. Thanks.

Is there the next 500 or 1500 words list freely available?

What A1 and A2 reading level books do you recommend?

Thanks for any reply

Ron Isaac

Reply

o TheGermanProfessorsays:
September 21, 2013 at 10:39 PM
Unfortunately, not freely available. They are only available by purchasing the book. Other
lists based on different corpora are available, however, e.g. the 2001 word list from the
Projekt Deutscher Wortschatz at the Uni Leipzig (http://wortschatz.uni-
leipzig.de/html/wliste.html) or the more recent list put out by the Institut für Deutsche
Sprache Mannheim (http://www1.ids-
mannheim.de/kl/projekte/methoden/derewo.html). Neither of these lists are as richly
developed as the Tschirner and Jones Frequency Dictionary of German (the source for the
above list), but one or the other may serve your purpose.
As I am not sure of your location, I don’t want to recommend a book you may or may not
have access to. Have you ever checked out the Learn German section of the Deutsche
Welle website (http://www.dw.de/learn-german/s-2469)? There are several free
interactive resources for learning and practicing German skills. They are listed by level
and include resources for Level A1/A2. Maybe you could find something that would
interest you there.
Viel Spaß beim Weiterlernen!
 o neeta says:
April 17, 2015 at 3:20 AM

thanks for teaching..

o ossama says:
August 11, 2016 at 7:21 AM

great thanks alot

2. Nicole Ingram says:

January 20, 2014 at 11:34 AM

Very helpful website! Vielen herzlichen Dank!

Reply

3. mohan bazarh says:

June 29, 2014 at 4:22 PM

Learn german language level A1

Reply

4. MOHAMMED ELNAEEM HASSAN ELNAEEM says:

September 21, 2014 at 7:25 AM

Ich möchte die Vergangenheit und die Zukunft und die Präsens des Verbs wissen, wenn
erlaubt
 Reply

5. TheGermanProfessorsays:
September 22, 2014 at 9:42 PM

Zeitformen des Verbs

PRÄSENS:
(1) Regelmäßige Verben: Infinitiv des Verbs minus –en + Endungen:
spielen minus -en = spiel-
ich spiele, du spielst, er spielt, wir spielen, ihr spielt, sie spielen
(2) Unregelmäßige Verben: sein, haben, werden, wissen, Modalverben, und Verben mit
Stammwechsel
ZUKUNFT: werden + Infinitiv; werden ist das konjugierte Verb, der Infinitiv ist am
Satzende
ich werde … spielen, du wirst … spielen, er wird … spielen
wir werden … spielen, ihr werdet … spielen, sie werden … spielen
VERGANGENHEIT: haben oder sein ist das konjugierte Verb, das Partizip II ist am
Satzende
ich habe … gespielt, du hast … gespielt, er hat … gespielt
wir haben … gespielt, ihr habt … gespielt, sie haben … gespielt

Diese Erklärung ist etwas vereinfacht, aber so funktioniert das grob.

Reply

6. MOHAMMED ELNAEEM HASSAN ELNAEEM says:

September 26, 2014 at 2:34 AM

Danke sehr

Reply

7. Shiv says:
December 1, 2014 at 12:31 PM
 Danke sehr gut. Tschus Auf wierdeshen. Super. 1

Reply

8. Asmaa says:
December 23, 2014 at 3:06 AM

Vielen Dank.

Reply

o Adnan says:
December 16, 2015 at 3:27 PM

Thanks teacher

9. rohan says:
January 14, 2015 at 4:41 AM

please tell me the pastparticiple form of all the 100verbs

Reply

10. TheGermanProfessorsays:
January 14, 2015 at 11:07 PM
Rohan, the information you are looking for is here:
http://www.thegermanprofessor.com/lessons-top-german-verbs-list/
And there is more here:
http://www.thegermanprofessor.com/principal-parts-german-verbs/
Reply
11. Maybody says:
February 11, 2015 at 8:04 AM

it is great

Reply

12. Mohamed says:

February 11, 2015 at 8:36 AM

Vielen Dank !

Reply

13. Yama says:

February 11, 2015 at 9:12 AM

Ich lerne einfach viel von Ihnen, und ich finde Ihre Hilfe sehr wichtig und nützlich!

Reply

14. van Tifa says:

February 11, 2015 at 9:28 AM

Very good thx

Reply

15. ahmad smaim says:

February 11, 2015 at 10:26 AM
 bitte.
ich brauche deise 100 verben

Reply

o Amin says:
January 28, 2016 at 4:26 AM

Danke schon

16. Isha says:

February 11, 2015 at 12:14 PM

this was exactly what i was looking for

Reply

17. Isha Thapa says:

February 11, 2015 at 12:16 PM

this is was exactly. ..what i was looking for ….. great

Reply

18. TheGermanProfessorsays:
February 11, 2015 at 2:00 PM

Danke an alle für die netten Kommentare. :)

Welche anderen Lernhilfen würden Sie nützlich finden?

Reply
19. maged Zahran says:
February 11, 2015 at 10:05 PM

Ihre Hilfe sehr nützlich,

Reply

20. raphael says:

February 12, 2015 at 12:04 AM

Am ready to lean

Reply

21. Euna says:

February 12, 2015 at 3:33 AM

Vielen dank!

Reply

22. meseret tesfaye says:

February 12, 2015 at 6:51 AM

Bitte schnell

Reply

23. uday says:

February 12, 2015 at 5:30 PM
 Very good information

Reply

24. Stephanie says:

March 30, 2015 at 1:43 PM

Super Auswahl! Sehr gut, um mit jemanden zu lernen. Vielen Dank für die viele Arbeit.

Reply

25. Ahmed Azmi says:

April 30, 2015 at 4:48 PM

Hallo,

I think it is a great site and very useful. I have a comment on this page, I think that verbs
could have been grouped in another way, like similar verbs with different prefixes grouped
together.

Reply

26. peter says:

May 3, 2015 at 10:14 PM

love deutch

Reply

27. Nan Chan says:

July 4, 2015 at 7:56 PM
 Very helpful.
Vielen Dank

Reply

28. satya says:

August 22, 2015 at 10:13 AM

sehr gut
sehr gut lehrerin Sie.

Reply

29. Robert says:

September 8, 2015 at 2:33 PM

Eine Link zu Formen der unregelmaessigen Verb wuerde einen Lernenden aus dem
Verbloch helfen.

Reply

o TheGermanProfessorsays:
September 10, 2015 at 9:15 AM

Es steht eine unter der Verbliste in “Lessons from the Top German Verbs list”

30. Donny bones says:

November 13, 2015 at 9:11 PM

Eine hilfreiche Liste

Reply
31. Paolo says:
November 15, 2015 at 2:28 AM

and where is (be)zahlen, bitte??

Reply

o TheGermanProfessorsays:
December 2, 2016 at 10:20 AM
Based on the info in Jones & Tschirner, bezahlen is verb #168 or somewhere in that
neighborhood.

32. babakordi says:

January 25, 2016 at 8:13 AM

Dankeschön?

Reply

33. ahmad says:

February 21, 2016 at 2:23 PM

Nice

Reply

34. bojana says:

March 18, 2016 at 3:34 PM

This is perfect! Danke viel mal… :-)

Reply
35. gulzaman says:
June 26, 2016 at 6:42 PM

Ich be danke ihnen fur ihr information

Ich mochte mit
treffen.
Ich be danke ihnen ..Herr dammin herrd? awwi some
Gulzaman

Reply

36. chike kingsley says:

August 4, 2016 at 7:28 AM

Wie kanne ich lernen Deutsch?

Reply

o TheGermanProfessorsays:
August 9, 2016 at 11:45 PM

Have you considered an online class or a language learning app such as Duolingo or
Busuu?

37. Nick says:

October 31, 2016 at 4:50 AM

I appreciate your resources, especially these word-sorted-by-frequency lists, I have been

using them for a few weeks and already I am able read German newspapers reasonably
comfortable with the use of an online dictionary. I’m going to keep it up :)

Reply
 o TheGermanProfessorsays:
November 4, 2016 at 10:09 AM

Wow, that’s quite impressive! You are obviously doing something right!

38. Dilara Mehrab Arifsays:

January 11, 2017 at 7:55 AM

Nice!

Reply

39. Tauhidur Rahmansays:

March 1, 2017 at 6:29 AM

Sir,can you please kindly give me the regelmaSSig and unregelmassig form of these
verbs.ASAP

Reply

o TheGermanProfessorsays:
March 1, 2017 at 11:03 AM
You can find them here: http://www.thegermanprofessor.com/lessons-top-german-
verbs-list/

40. Anushka says:

September 19, 2017 at 7:15 AM

Hallo !! Professor, Mein Name ist Anushka und studiert in der Klasse acht, das ist eine neue
Sprache für mich aber von deinem Aufstellungsort, es ist sehr einfach für mich, die
deutsche Sprache jetzt zu verstehen und jetzt denke ich im wenig fließend Deutsch. Deine
Website ist sehr hilfreich für Anfänger wie ich war. Vielen Dank ! sehr viel für diese Seite.
Anushka
 Reply

41. Anushka says:

September 19, 2017 at 7:18 AM

Kannst du Sätze für diese Verben geben?

Warte auf deine Antwort, Professor !!

Reply

42. Samuel says:

November 15, 2017 at 4:45 AM

My name is Samuel,I am still at level A1 which book do you recommend me to read thanks

Reply

43. Baburam says:

January 1, 2018 at 7:20 PM

Excellent

Reply

44. Trupti says:

February 23, 2018 at 9:34 AM

It is really helpful

Reply
45. Hermann Hesse Studien Zentrum - Kathmandu / Nepalsays:
November 13, 2018 at 7:27 AM

Vielen Danke von Herman Hesse Studien Zentrum – Nepal

Reply

46. Fateme says:

February 22, 2019 at 9:11 PM

Hi,
Thanks for your all information.
You help the German learners a lot.
I learn it by myself so your website is really helpful.

Vielen Dank.

Reply

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