10 free German passages graded A1 through B2 — eight fuller texts plus two short paragraph drills. Each includes a vocabulary grid and an English translation. Read in your browser with no signup.
Prefer narrative format? Try German stories for beginners or German reading practice for more leveled input.
By the numbers
Source: Vocabulary research (Paul Nation, 2006)
Source: Word frequency research (Paul Nation, 2006)
Source: Language learning research on reading in context
Learning loop
Texts work differently from stories — shorter, topical, and built for vocabulary mining. Read first, confirm meaning, then lock in words.
What you get
Full passages
Tap highlighted words for glosses. Open one passage at a time — only the active reader stays expanded.
Quick drills
Compact German paragraphs for a five-minute session — same tap-to-learn tools as the full passages.
Prefer stories?
Narrative arcs with cover art and glossary — a different format, same Melolingua reading tools. Browse all A1 stories →
In December, Lukas visits a magical Christmas market filled with lights, music, and the scent of mulled wine and roasted almonds.
Every morning, Anna wakes up at seven o'clock. She goes to the kitchen and makes coffee. The coffee is hot and strong. Anna sits down at the table and looks out the window.
Nico shares a five-minute update, dodges jargon overload, and follows up with a concise email that actually matches what was agreed.
Tim steht in der Schlange für warme Brötchen, erkennt ein Roggenbrot am Geruch und verlässt die Bäckerei mit Krümeln auf dem Schal und besserem Deutsch.
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Story hub
Free graded German short stories from A1 through C1 — the narrative complement to these texts.
Reading hub
Leveled passages with glosses — pair with these texts for daily input volume.
Story format
Short A1–A2 narratives with full translations and glossed vocabulary.
By level
Beginner paragraphs and passages — start here if you need an easy German text.
Answers
MeloLingua offers free German texts organized by CEFR level (A1 through B2). Each text includes vocabulary grids with English glosses. No signup required.
Look for short daily-life scenes—breakfast, shopping, transit—with simple present tense, separable verbs in context, and a vocabulary row so compound nouns stay approachable.
Use the eighty-percent rule: you should understand most of the passage on a first read. If every sentence needs translation, step down a level; if it feels effortless, move up.
Yes. Reading German in short paragraphs builds case and word-order intuition faster than isolated word lists because you see articles and verbs in real sentences.
Melolingua delivers fresh German texts matched to your level, with native audio, tap-to-translate vocabulary, and speaking practice built in.