At one hour a day, German takes about 6.5 months to reach A2, about a year to B1, about 17.5 months to B2 and close to two years to C1. These numbers follow from the Goethe-Institut’s guidance: roughly 150–260 hours of instruction for A2, 260–490 for B1, 450–600 for B2 and 600–750 for C1, all counted from zero. For English speakers, the US Foreign Service Institute rates German one step harder than Spanish or French, mainly because of cases, genders and word order. Below you’ll find the table by level, what makes German faster or slower for you and a weekly plan that fits a working day.
Hours and months for each level
The Goethe-Institut gives an hour range for each level, counted from zero. The table takes the middle of each range and shows how many months it takes at different daily amounts.
| Level | Hours from zero | 15 min a day | 30 min a day | 1 hour a day | 2 hours a day |
|---|
| A1 | 60–150 | 14 months | 7 months | 3.5 months | 1.5 months |
|---|
| A2 | 150–260 | 27 months | 13.5 months | 6.5 months | 3.5 months |
|---|
| B1 | 260–490 | 49.5 months | 24.5 months | 12.5 months | 6 months |
|---|
| B2 | 450–600 | 69 months | 34.5 months | 17.5 months | 8.5 months |
|---|
| C1 | 600–750 | 89 months | 44.5 months | 22 months | 11 months |
|---|
How we counted: months = midpoint hours ÷ hours per day ÷ 30.4 days, rounded to half a month. Goethe hours are classroom hours with a teacher, and courses expect homework on top, so count only focused study here: learning words, reading, listening, writing, speaking. Half-watching a series while scrolling your phone counts for less.
The scale is similar for other languages: Cambridge English estimates 350–400 hours to B1 in English and 500–600 to B2. More in how long it takes to reach B1 and B2.
What the Goethe-Institut and the FSI say
The Goethe-Institut plans its courses in teaching units (Unterrichtseinheiten, UE) of 45 minutes. Its course FAQ lists these totals from zero:
| Level | Teaching units (45 min) | Hours |
|---|
| A1 | 80–200 | 60–150 |
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| A2 | 200–350 | 150–260 |
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| B1 | 350–650 | 260–490 |
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| B2 | 600–800 | 450–600 |
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| C1 | 800–1,000 | 600–750 |
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| C2 | 1,000+ | 750+ |
|---|
The ranges are wide on purpose: intensive courses, prior knowledge of another Germanic language or plenty of contact with German push you towards the lower end.
- Germany’s integration course for new residents plans 600 teaching units of German, about 450 hours, to reach B1, plus 100 units about life in Germany.
- The FSI of the US State Department puts German in Category II: about 36 weeks, or about 900 class hours, for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency (roughly C1), plus self-study. Spanish, French and Italian are in Category I with 24–30 weeks.
What makes German faster or slower for English speakers
What helps:
- Shared roots. English and German are both Germanic languages, so many everyday words look familiar: Haus, Wasser, trinken, Hand, Buch, finden. Longer words often come from Latin in both languages: Information, Problem, Universität.
- Regular spelling. Once you know the rules, you can read almost any German word aloud correctly, which English can’t promise.
- Compounds. Handschuh is a “hand shoe” (a glove) and Krankenhaus a “sick house” (a hospital): long words often decode from short ones you already know.
What costs time:
- Three genders and four cases. der, die, das turn into den, dem, des depending on the role in the sentence. English lost almost all of this, so it takes months of practice. Learn every noun with its article from day one.
- Word order. The verb comes second in a main clause and goes to the end in a subordinate one: Ich weiß, dass er heute kommt. Separable verbs split apart: Ich rufe dich morgen an.
- False friends. Gift means poison, bekommen means to get, Chef means boss, and also means “so” or “therefore”.
- Sounds. ü, ö, the ch in ich and Bach and the German r need ear training, because English has no exact match.
How many words each level needs
Vocabulary is the slowest part to build and the easiest to measure. There is no German-only scale, but research that linked vocabulary tests to CEFR levels in European languages (Milton and Alexiou, 2009) gives these rough sizes: A1 up to 1,500 words, A2 1,500–2,500, B1 2,750–3,250, B2 3,250–3,750, C1 3,750–4,500.
At 10 new words a day you add about 300 words a month, so a B1 vocabulary takes about 9–11 months from zero, provided the words stay in memory. That is where spaced repetition pays off. The full breakdown, the first words to learn and German traps are in how many words you need in German. To see where you stand now, take the free German vocabulary test. Preparing for an exam? See Goethe-Zertifikat vocabulary.
A realistic weekly plan
An example for just under 6 hours a week, which adds up to about 300 hours a year: A2 in about 8 months and B1 in about 15 months.
- Monday to Friday, 45 minutes. 15 minutes of words (10 new plus scheduled reviews), 15 minutes of reading or listening at your level, 15 minutes of output: build sentences, write a few lines or speak.
- Saturday, 60 minutes. One grammar topic, such as the dative or verbs with prepositions, with exercises, then a longer text or a podcast episode.
- Sunday, 60 minutes. Review the week, write a short message about it and get it corrected, then watch something in German with German subtitles.
With only 15 minutes a day, keep the words and reviews on weekdays and move the rest to the weekend. Regularity matters more than volume: spreading practice out beats cramming (meta-analysis by Cepeda and colleagues, 2006).
How NewLexi helps
- Word sets in the chat. Ask for words by topic, level or exam, for example “Goethe B1, housing” or “A2, at the doctor’s”, and get a ready set already split into categories.
- Words in context with audio and spaced repetition: every word comes with an example sentence and returns just before you would forget it.
- A daily plan of reviews, new words, a story and a dialogue that fits the time you have.
- Stories and dialogues written for your level with your own words.
- Grammar lessons and exercises from A1 to C2, plus sentence building to practise German word order.
- Writing practice with instant AI feedback and an AI chat for conversation practice.
- Import from a photo of a textbook page, from Anki or from Quizlet, and keep words in sight with Lock Screen widgets.
NewLexi is for iPhone only. It is free on the App Store, with an optional Pro subscription.
FAQ
How long does it take to learn German to B1?
Usually 260–490 hours from zero, according to the Goethe-Institut. At one hour a day that is about a year, at 30 minutes a day about two years. Germany’s integration course plans 600 teaching units, about 450 hours, for B1.
Can I learn German in a year?
Yes, to B1: that takes about an hour of focused study every day, roughly 365 hours. B2 in a year needs about 1.5 hours a day, and C1 close to 2 hours a day or an intensive course.
How many hours a day should I study German?
30–60 minutes every day is realistic for most working adults and gets you to B1 in one to two years. If you study more than 2 hours a day, make part of it light: series, podcasts, easy reading.
Is German hard for English speakers?
Moderately hard. The FSI puts German one category above Spanish, French and Italian, mostly because of cases, genders and word order. Vocabulary is the friendly part: many everyday words share roots with English.
How long does it take to go from B1 to B2?
About 150 more hours if you compare the midpoints of the Goethe ranges, so about 5 months at an hour a day.
Sources
- Goethe-Institut London. FAQ: German courses (levels, teaching units and hours). goethe.de/ins/gb/en/sta/lon/kur/faq.html
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Institute. Foreign Language Training: language learning timelines. www.state.gov/national-foreign-affairs-training-center/foreign-language-training
- Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Glossar Migration, Integration, Flucht: Integrationskurs. www.bpb.de/kurz-knapp/lexika/glossar-migration-integration/570687/integrationskurs
- Cambridge English. Guided learning hours. support.cambridgeenglish.org/hc/en-gb/articles/202838506-Guided-learning-hours
- Milton, J., & Alexiou, T. (2009). Vocabulary size and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. In B. Richards et al. (Eds.), Vocabulary Studies in First and Second Language Acquisition (pp. 194–211). Palgrave Macmillan. doi.org/10.1057/9780230242258_12
- Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
- Council of Europe. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages
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