German Vocabulary Study Guide: 613 Goethe Exam Words from A1 to B2

The Goethe-Zertifikat exams reward one thing above all: a vocabulary wide enough that you never stall mid-sentence. The Goethe German Vocabulary (A1–B2) deck (code FM9891) on Flip It gives you 613 English-to-German cards, ordered the way the syllabus itself climbs — survival phrases first, then daily life, then the abstract adjectives and connectors that separate a B1 answer from a B2 one.

How the deck is built

The order is thematic, not alphabetical. You start with greetings and numbers, walk through family, home, food, clothing, travel, work, health and the body, then hit a long stretch of verbs, then adjectives, then the adverbs and particles that glue German sentences together. Studying it front to back mirrors the order a Goethe course introduces the material.

Sample cards

What the 613 words cover

• Openers and civilities — Hallo, Auf Wiedersehen, Bitte, Danke, Guten Morgen, Guten Tag, Gute Nacht, Wie geht es Ihnen?, Freut mich, Woher kommen Sie?, Ich verstehe nicht.
• Numbers, dates and time — Eins to Tausend, Zwanzig, Vierzig, Hundert, Januar, August, Morgen, Nacht.
• People and home — Bruder, Großmutter, Junge, Kollege, Wohnung, Fenster, Tisch, Bild, Telefon, Garten, Baum.
• Food and going out — Ei, Kartoffel, Karotte, Zucker, Bier, Abendessen, Kellner, Rechnung.
• Travel and getting around — Hotel, Boot, Urlaub, Osten, Schnee, Winter.
• Body and health — Kopf, Schulter, Fuß, Gesundheit, Krankheit, Schmerz, Apotheke.
• Verbs — wissen, denken, schauen, stellen, kochen, schwimmen, beginnen, beenden, stoppen, verlassen, versuchen, ablehnen, reparieren.
• Adjectives and adverbs — groß, dick, langsam, nass, laut, nützlich, falsch, schlechter, wütend, mutig, ehrlich, heiß, manchmal, jetzt, vielleicht, ziemlich, genau.

Two tips that matter for German specifically

Say the article out loud even though the card doesn't print it. The deck gives you bare nouns — Quittung, Fenster, Geldbörse — because it tests meaning, not gender. But a noun learned without its article has to be relearned later, and the Goethe written paper punishes wrong case endings. Answer every noun card as "die Quittung", "das Fenster", "die Geldbörse". You lose nothing and you build the gender in at the same time as the word.

Split the verb list into separable and inseparable as you go. Ablehnen and verlassen look alike on a flashcard but behave differently in a sentence: Ich lehne das ab versus Ich verlasse das Haus. When a verb card comes up, produce a five-word sentence with it rather than just the infinitive. That single habit converts a passive recognition deck into speaking practice for the oral exam.

Pacing it to an exam date

Twenty-five cards a day clears all 613 in about a month, which fits neatly into the final revision block before a test. If your exam is closer, work backwards instead: the last third of the deck — the verbs, adjectives and connectors — is where B1 and B2 marks are actually won, so start there and let the food and family vocabulary come second.

Find FM9891 — Goethe German Vocabulary (A1–B2) in your library at flip-it.app. Preparing for more than one language exam? The same format exists for Spanish: Learn DELE Spanish Vocabulary (A1–B2).