That’s why, if you are learning German, we strongly recommend that you make a set of flashcards to ensure that you master new German vocabulary.
Making these by hand can be cumbersome and time-consuming, which is why we’ll be introducing some amazing flashcard apps that’ll make vocab practice slick as ever.
Tips for Making the Most out of Your Flashcard Studying
How can you ensure that you learn the vocabulary from your flashcards, and integrate it into your daily life?
Learn 10 new flashcards every day. Ten is the perfect number: just enough so you can keep moving forward with the language, but not so much that you give up on your flashcards on day three.
Don’t put your mother language on the flashcards. Try to make German-to-German flashcards, and describe the word using German words you already know. This will decrease your dependence on your native language.
Say the words out loud. It’s crucial to say your flashcard words out loud. Not only will speaking help you memorize the words, but it will also help you with pronunciation and with integrating the words into your spoken vocabulary.
Use pictures as helpful memorization devices. Maybe you can’t think of a way to describe your German word using other German words, or want a funny image to help you remember a word. For both of these reasons, drawing pictures can be a great way to help you memorize your German words.
Cost: $ – limited, free version available Available on:Web | iTunes | Google Play
Key features:
Memrise is a website and app that uses image-based flashcards to help you learn languages and vocab. You can take courses in any given level of German (the site also offers other languages and topics) or to create your own courses.
With Memrise’s premade courses, you can easily work your way through the most important German vocabulary at any level. Flashcards come with audio, plus you can choose which meme/image appears for each.
The site and app present users with these vocab sets using the “spacing method,” which presents the same information repeatedly at intervals, a technique proven to hammer the information home. New words on Memrise begin as “seeds,” and the site will tell you as soon as words “need watering.”
Memrise also encourages users to make their own courses and share them with the community, though note that you can only make courses on the website version, not the app—but any course made on the website can then be used on the app.
FluentU isn’t just a flashcard app, but its video-enhanced flashcards are a central part of its learning method. The program is an immersive one, letting learners watch authentic German videos like movie trailers, music videos, vlogs, commercials and other native German media.
These videos are accompanied by tools to make them accessible to anyone along the journey to language mastery. These include a key words bank, downloadable transcripts and a post-video comprehension quiz.
But the most crucial part of FluentU is its subtitles and flashcard system. Each video has dual-language subtitles. You can turn both the English and the German captions on or off at will, but having the German subtitles on gives you an additional tool to use.
That’s because subtitles are interactive: If you come across a word you’re not sure about, hover your mouse over it for a quick definition or click on it to see its flashcard. These definition cards are contextual—you’re shown the correct meaning for that specific use of the word—and you can add these flashcards to decks of your making directly from the video.
In addition to flashcard sets from videos, there are other pre-made German flashcards, like common nouns, basic conjugation, question words and more.
Cost: $$ – limited, free version available Available on: Web | iTunes | Google Play
Key Features:
MosaLingua is a handy little flashcard app that comes with pre-made cards for useful words and phrases. It includes audio pronunciations, native dialogues, and categories and subcategories you can explore on various subjects like eating, transportation, flirting and more.
The philosophy behind the app is centered around a) learning the most useful parts of the language first and b) not wasting time studying things you already know (this last one being achieved through SRS technology).
What really makes MosaLingua stand out, though, is that in addition to the mobile version of the app, you can use the web version to conveniently translate words and phrases you find in reading material, then add these words and phrases to your flashcards across all devices. This gives you the advantage of being able to customize your learning while still making the process of learning easier.
Cost: $ – limited, free version available Available on:Google Play
Key features:
German Flashcards by BH Inc. is an app that provides users with a set of German vocabulary flashcards containing image, sound and text, which help you memorize information using different senses. And in addition to flashcards, there are a variety of learning modes: study, slide show, matching, memorize, quiz, spelling and re-arrange.
You can make your own flashcards or use the 4,000+ pre-made German vocabulary flashcards that cover nine main categories.
Games on this German Flashcards app can be played on your own, with friends or with random users. There’s a handy stats section too, which lets you view your learning progress. Premium features include text-to-speech, the ability to download unlimited flashcards for offline study, and customizing text and background colors on cards.
AnkiDroid is an Android app for the wildly popular spaced repetition software Anki. The app helps you remember vocabulary by testing you on words just before you’re about to forget them, which improves your ability to retain them.
You can create your own personalized deck if you want to choose the exact vocabulary you learn, or you can download free decks that will give you a good base of German vocabulary.
The app supports the use of text, images and sound on flashcards, meaning you’ll be able to customize them however you want.
You’ll also be able to keep an eye on how you’re improving with the progress widget.
No matter which method you choose, if you get started on your flashcard collection today, you’ll soon have a built-in way to memorize the German words that you encounter in your reading, lessons or everyday life. So what are you waiting for?
