How to Become More Conversational in German

Speaking German with native speakers is tough. It can be incredibly frustrating when you can’t understand everything they are saying, they speak too quickly for you to understand, and you don’t know how to answer their questions properly. So today I’m going to teach you a few tips that can help you improve your fluency in German. Most of these are things you can start using right away in the next conversation you have in German.

If your biggest problem is understanding German when native speakers talk at full speed, start with my guide on how to move from slow German to naturally spoken German. Then come back to this post for more general tips on becoming more conversational in German.

One thing that I wish more people would talk about when it comes to listening comprehension is this:

You Don’t Need to Understand Every Word

There have been countless times I didn’t understand this word or that word in a conversation. That happens all of the time in conversations I have in English. I’m old and my hearing isn’t as good as it once was.

When I was young and my hearing was good, I didn’t listen as well, because I was usually distracted by something else. The point is that you don’t need to understand everything.

Listen for the Subject and Verb First

Start by listening near the beginning of the sentence. This is usually where you will hear the subject and the main verb. If you pay close attention here, you can often figure out who or what the sentence is about and what the main action is.

If you hear a form of “haben”, “sein” or “werden”, be on the lookout for a secondary verb at the end of the sentence or clause. These words are trigger words for the Perfekt tense, which is used to talk about the past, and the future tenses.

Once you know what the subject and verb are, context will probably play a pretty big role in the parts you need to understand. If you don’t understand a word, listen carefully to the words and sentences used around it. Maybe you can figure it out based on context. Maybe you can use one thing to infer the other.

Focus on the Words That Matter Most

Yes, articles, possessives, and case endings have meaning and can change the meaning and intent of a sentence. But when you are listening in the middle of a real conversation, you do not always need to process every one of those details perfectly.

Again, this is when listening. Not when speaking.

This advice is for figuring out what someone said so you can respond. This is terrible advice if you are trying to learn the intricacies of the language or pass some exam.

This advice is simply for when you are in the middle of a conversation and you are trying to survive the encounter without embarrassing yourself.

Hey, Tim. Was hast du nach der POIUSDF gemacht? Wir haben lange nach dir gesucht, aber du warst schon weg. Maria und ich sind essen gegangen. -
Hey, Tim. What did you do after the POIUDF? We looked for you for a long time, but you were already gone. Maria and I went out to eat.

This is a simplistic example, but if you didn’t know the word that I made up for the purposes of making sure that no one knew what it was, you should be able to infer that it was a party or a gathering that the recipient of this sentence was also at.

Learn German Phrases Instead of Single Words

Short prepositional phrases like: mit dem Bus, im Sommer, nach Hause, or in die Ferien gehen.

Time components like: heute Morgen, morgen früh, am Donnerstag and general time telling phrases.

Verb and preposition combinations like: auf etwas warten, an etwas liegen, sich an etwas gewöhnen, an etwas glauben, sich auf etwas freuen, sich für etwas interessieren, über etwas (nach)denken, and a whole lot more.

If you want a giant list of these, I made my own list that includes over 150 verb and preposition pairings that will come in handy in a whole host of situations.

This is the tip that takes the most preparation and memorization, but it really boils down to frequency of vocabulary and phrases. Don’t learn just one word at a time. That is incredibly inefficient. Start learning phrases that you can use in a whole host of situations.

Im Sommer bin ich nach Deutschland gereist. -
In the summer I traveled to Germany.

Im Sommer habe ich Fußball gespielt. -
In the summer I played soccer.

Er hat im Sommer ein neues Auto gekauft. -
He bought a new car in the summer.

Vary How Your German Sentences Start

In the first two examples I use “im Sommer” at the beginning. In the last example I started with the subject, which is what you are probably more used to. This variation can make you sound more conversational and generally less boring.

Use Conjunctions and Relative Clauses to Say More

These are basically ways to connect one sentence to another or words that allow you to combine thoughts into one sentence. Start by learning the coordinating conjunctions, which don’t make you learn any new word order.

Then move on to the subordinating conjunctions. Once you figure out how to use these, your sentence length will expand exponentially and you will be amazed at how well you can communicate using them.

Meine Mutter geht gerne ins Kino, aber mein Vater bleibt lieber zu Hause. -
My mother likes to go to the movie theater, but my father prefers to stay at home.

Ich kann heute nicht mitkommen, denn ich habe schon einen Termin. -
I can’t come along today, because I already have a meeting.

Als ich ein Kind war, hatte ich einen sehr süßen Hund namens Cookie. -
When I was a child, I had a very cute dog named Cookie.

Da der Professor nicht zum Unterricht gekommen ist, müssen die Studenten nicht zum Unterricht kommen. -
Because the professor didn’t come to class, the students don’t have to go to class.

Die schöne Frau, die ich gestern im Geschäft getroffen habe, möchte mit mir ins Restaurant gehen. -
The beautiful woman whom I met yesterday in the store would like to go to a restaurant with me.

Use the Question to Build Your Answer

Most questions that people ask you will include a lot of the wording that you need in order to answer them.

Prepositional phrases will already use the correct case, so when you answer the question and you need to use the same prepositional phrase, just say what they said, but in a statement instead.

It is also super easy with yes/no style questions to simply switch the subject and verb, change out du for ich if needed, and say it as a statement.

Hast du einen Hund? -
Do you have a dog?

Ja, ich habe einen Hund. -
Yes, I have a dog.

Gibt es ein Kino in dieser Stadt? -
Is there a movie theater in this city?

Ja, es gibt ein Kino in dieser Stadt. -
Yes, there is a movie theater in this city.

Warum kommst du nicht mit? -
Why aren’t you coming along? Could also be “Why don’t you come along?”

Ich komme nicht mit, weil ich kein Geld habe. -
I’m not coming along, because I don’t have any money.

While most of the tips in this post so far have focused on what you can do as a listener to improve your speaking skills, there is one big thing that you can add to your sentences to make yourself sound a lot more fluent.

Use German Modal Particles to Sound More Natural

The best part is, you don’t actually need to know all that much German in order to make use of these little words.

Modal particles are words like ja, doch, halt, eben, or einmal. They are thrown into sentences to make things more conversational. They change the intonation in similar ways that we English speakers do with our inflection and tone. For example:

Er ist ja ein Junge, weißt du? -
He is a boy, you know?

Wir sind doch ins Kino gegangen. -
We did in fact go to the movies.

Hör mal zu! Ich mache das nicht. -
Listen up. I’m not doing that.

Ich wollte nur einmal sagen, dass deine Haare wunderschön sind. -
I just wanted to say that your hair is wonderfully beautiful.

If you want to learn more about these little words, I made a whole lesson about modal particles and how you can use them in sentences linked here.

Once you are ready to use what you understand in real conversations, keep practicing with real German listening exercises, conversation prompts, and sentence-building practice. The more often you listen for the most important information and respond with phrases you can actually use, the more conversational your German will become.