1000 Most Common German Words.

English and German are cousins, so you already know more German than you think. Hand, Name and Hotel look almost exactly like their English twins, and regular sound shifts link many more: where English has th, German often has d (denken is think), an English t often becomes z or ss (zwei is two, Wasser is water), and k often becomes ch (machen is make). A core of just 1,000 words makes up about 70% of everyday written German, and this book starts with the ones you can almost read on sight.

Part 1, Words You Already Know, gathers 516 of the thousand: two chapters of near-twins, six built on the sound shifts, and eight of close cousins such as haben (have), Haus (house) and Freund (friend). Part 2 sorts the rest by everyday theme, from the small words that hold sentences together (aber, wenn, dass) to people, home, time, places, feelings, actions, describing words, talking and ideas, so related words stay together.

Every entry gives the meaning, the IPA and an easy English respelling with the stressed syllable in capitals, and every noun shows der, die or das and its plural, if it has one: Hand (die; pl. Hände). Three example sentences follow, glossed word by word with a natural translation underneath, so the grammar arrives with the vocabulary. Four guides come first: how to pronounce German, the words most likely to fool you (Kind is a child, fast means almost), the everyday phrases German builds differently, from ich habe Hunger (I'm hungry) to es gibt (there is), and four pages of the grammar you need. The most common irregular verbs carry a conjugation table, each Part ends with a test, and the answer key and an A–Z dictionary of all 1,000 words sit at the back.