12 German songs for beginners, easiest first, and the grammar each one teaches

Start with "Du hast" by Rammstein, "Wer kann segeln ohne Wind" by Santiano and "Genau jetzt" by Nena. Each gets through the whole song on fewer than 50 different words and repeats them until they stick. After those, move to slower songs built from everyday sentences, like AnnenMayKantereit's "Du bist anders". Save the songs that tell a story, like "99 Luftballons", for last.

Below are 12 songs in that order, with the line worth learning from each. All 12 have lessons in LyricFluent, so the word counts I quote come from our own lesson data: the number of different words in the whole song. One thing to know up front: eight of the twelve are by just three acts, Rammstein, Nena and AnnenMayKantereit, because their lyrics repeat so much. The other four are by four different artists, so if you want more voices, mix those in early.

What makes a German song easy

Not what you might expect. Rammstein is a loud metal band, and three of their songs are among the easiest German lyrics we have. Till Lindemann pronounces every consonant, so you can hear where one word ends and the next begins, which matters in a language full of long compounds and consonant clusters. And their lyrics barely change from line to line: "Du hast" gets through a whole song on 31 different words.

So look for a small vocabulary first. The easiest songs here use 31 to 66 different words, while "99 Luftballons" needs 122. Then pick a singer you can actually hear, because a chorus you can't split into words teaches you nothing however often it comes back.

Sing along rather than just listen. In a study by Ludke, Ferreira and Overy in Memory & Cognition, adults who learned Hungarian phrases by listening and singing did better on tests that asked them to recall and say the phrases than adults who learned them by speaking. It was 15 minutes of practice in a lab, so treat it as a reason to sing, not a promise.

Start here: very few words, a lot of repetition

1. "Du hast", Rammstein

The whole song is a wedding vow and a refusal, told in 31 different words, the fewest on this list: Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab' nichts gesagt, "You asked me and I said nothing". Those two lines give you the perfect tense twice, hast ... gefragt and hab' ... gesagt, with the past participle pushed to the end of the clause the way German always does it.

The title is also a pun you'll only get in German. As Wikipedia explains, du hast ("you have") and du hasst ("you hate") sound identical, and the song keeps you guessing which one he means. It's on the 1997 album Sehnsucht.

2. "Wer kann segeln ohne Wind", Santiano

A German shanty-rock band singing a Swedish folk song and lullaby. The original is "Vem kan segla förutan vind", and Santiano's version mixes German and English. Our lesson counts 38 different words, and the first line is the title as a question: Wer kann segeln ganz ohne Wind?, "Who can sail without any wind?"

Then it turns into a string of commands, which makes it the best imperative drill here: Schließ die Augen, "Close your eyes", Komm, nimm Abschied, mein Bruder, "Come, say goodbye, my brother", and Nimm deine Hand vom Ruder, "Take your hand off the rudder". Notice that nehmen becomes nimm: the vowel change you see in du nimmst carries over into the command.

3. "Genau jetzt", Nena

Almost every word in it is a number, a noun or vielleicht, 46 different words in all. The opening is three lines that differ by one word: Vielleicht ist es zu spät, vielleicht ist es zu früh, vielleicht ist es genau jetzt, "Maybe it's too late, maybe it's too early, maybe it's right now".

The verse is a free lesson in gender: zwei Personen, eine Seele, ein Herz, ein Moment. Seele (soul) is feminine, so it gets eine; Herz (heart) is neuter and Moment masculine, so both get ein. Learn the nouns with their article from the start and you'll never have to relearn them.

4. "Ich will", Rammstein

Nearly every line starts Ich will, "I want", and the song needs only 48 different words. The useful part is what comes after it. Ich will eure Stimmen hören, "I want to hear your voices", puts the infinitive at the end. Ich will, dass ihr mir vertraut, "I want you to trust me", uses dass, which sends the verb to the end too. By the last chorus you'll have both word orders without trying.

It also drills ihr, the plural "you" that textbooks skip over: Seht ihr mich? Versteht ihr mich?, "Do you see me? Do you understand me?"

5. "Es wird wieder gut", Max Raabe

Max Raabe sings slowly, with every syllable in place, so his 48 different words are easy to catch. The title line means "It'll be okay again", and it teaches the future with werden: Der Schmerz wird vergehen, "The pain will pass". You also get the past tense in plain speech, Es ging alles schief, "Everything went wrong", and an imperative you'll actually use, Gib nicht auf, "Don't give up".

Everyday sentences, still slow

6. "Du bist anders", AnnenMayKantereit

Pick this one if you want German for real conversations: it is an argument between two people, in 55 different words. The first line is the title, "You are different", and the second is Du hörst mir nicht zu, "You don't listen to me". That's a separable verb, zuhören, split in two with zu sent to the end. This is the easiest place to get used to them.

Henning May's voice is rough, but he sings slowly, and every line is a sentence you could say tomorrow: Ich frag' mich, ob du Angst hast, "I wonder if you're scared".

7. "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann", Nena

The title teaches the irgend- prefix on its own: somehow, somewhere, sometime. The lines are short, 65 different words across the song, and several are ones you can use as they are, like Gib mir die Hand, "Give me your hand", and Denk nicht lange nach, "Don't think too long". Nena first released it in 1984 and recorded it again in 2002, so you will find two versions online.

8. "Sonne", Rammstein

The chorus counts from one to nine: Eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, aus. That's German numbers 1 to 9 in one breath, with aus, "out", where ten should be. Then Hier kommt die Sonne, "Here comes the sun". The verses are harder and more poetic, which is why the song needs 66 different words; learn the count and the chorus first.

Songs that tell a story

These use more words, but they're still slow enough to follow, and they show you German narrating something rather than repeating a hook.

9. "Jenny Jenny", AnnenMayKantereit

A flight attendant's morning, one picture per line, in the present tense. It's a step up to 94 different words, but no line is hard on its own: Der Tag beginnt im Spiegel, "The day begins in the mirror", and Und dann der Kaffee, den sie jeden Morgen trinkt, "And then the coffee she drinks every morning". That second line is a relative clause with the verb at the end, the pattern you'll need for every "the thing that..." sentence.

10. "Durch die Nacht", Silbermond

Silbermond come from Bautzen in Saxony, and according to Wikipedia they sang in English until 2001, when they took their name and switched to German. This one is a sleepless-night song: Ich liege hier und zähl' die Tage, "I lie here and count the days", and Bin unter Tränen wieder aufgewacht, "Woke up in tears again". Stefanie Kloß sings clearly at a medium tempo, so 96 different words are manageable.

Listen for the clipped endings, zähl', lauf', kämpf', where the final -e of the ich form disappears. Germans drop it in speech all the time, and the chorus line Ich krieg' dich nicht aus meinem Kopf, "I can't get you out of my head", does it too.

11. "Hast du kurz Zeit", Wincent Weiss

A marriage proposal disguised as small talk. The title is how Germans ask "Have you got a minute?", and the chorus finishes the question: Hast du kurz Zeit, mit mir den Rest deines Lebens zu teil'n?, "Have you got a minute to share the rest of your life with me?" He even haggles over the length: So fünfzig Jahre reicht, bisschen mehr vielleicht, "About fifty years will do, maybe a bit more".

It's a step up, at 117 different words, but the pop production keeps the vocals clear. Steal this line: Wenn ich jetzt nicht frag', dann frag' ich nie, "If I don't ask now, I'll never ask". The wenn clause pushes frag' to the end, and the next clause flips to frag' ich.

12. "99 Luftballons", Nena

The most famous German song outside Germany, and not as easy as its reputation. It has 122 different words, the most on this list, and a story about balloons mistaken for UFOs that start a war. Start with the opening, which is simple: Hast du etwas Zeit für mich, dann singe ich ein Lied für dich, "If you've got some time for me, I'll sing a song for you". Leave the verses about war ministers and fighter squadrons for later. You'll also learn to say 99: neunundneunzig, nine-and-ninety.

How to work through them

One song a week is plenty. Read the translation line by line before you sing, and loop the lines you can't catch. Save five to ten words with the line they came from. Our step-by-step routine for learning German with songs covers each step, and if none of these songs is your style, there's a longer list of German songs by genre.

Three of these, "Du hast", "Genau jetzt" and "99 Luftballons", are rated 16+ in our lessons. Check them before using them with a class.