[Course Forum] 5000 words sorted by frequency (strict typing)

Community-Created Courses German
1

Back when every course had its own, this course had a very active forum. I recently reset the course and started back from the beginning, and thought it would be nice to start a discussion forum as well.

I’m not sure if the course is being actively maintained at this time – the old forum was the way to communicate with the maintainer(s). Please chime in if you know.

I’ve started to compile a list of the numbered questions – such as “to begin (1)” , “to begin (2)” which always trip me up because I don’t recall the arbitrary numbering. Some of the multiple answer questions have hints showing which answer it is not, but this was not done with them all.

I will add to this list as I progress – the number following the German word is the course level where the word appears. I believe the words appear out of order because the initial numbering comes from the original 5000 words list which was sorted alphabetically, not by frequency.

why
(1) warum (2)
(3) wieso (4)

never
(1) nie (2)

the mom
(1) die Mama, -s (7)

the party
(2) die Party, -s (10)

indeed
(2) zwar (10)

to happen
(1) geschehen (10)
(2) passieren (11)

at least
(2) wenigstens (11)

the opinion
(2) die Meinung, -en (11)

to begin
(1) anfangen (12)
(2) beginnen (16)

necessary
(1) nötig (12)

anyway
(2) sowieso (12)

to prove
(1) beweisen (15)

instead of
(2) statt (15)

to look at
(2) ansehen (13)

to use
(1) benutzen (13)

the sea
(1) die See, -n (13)
(2) das Meer, -e (13)

the wedding
(2) die Hochzeit, -en (13)

to open
(2) öffnen (14)

at night
(2) nachts (15)

to be right
(2) stimmen (16)

the nonsense
(2) der Quatsch (17)

stupid
(1) blöd (17)

to close
(1) schließen (17)

2

kündigen has a mistake in the English (to give noticed instead of to give notice)

Also “der Abschnitt, -e” is defined as “the part” and it is confusing with Teil, and it also translates more to “sector”, “section” or “segment”.

Is anyone updating the course right now? This course was the reason I got into memrise and I’m picking it up again to finish it (once and for all!) and I’m really sad to see all the discussion I was involved in years ago is gone.

3

First things first: I find this course extremely useful, so many thanks to the creator and original maintainers. This is a must for anyone who seriously wishes to learn german vocabulary. As I go through the course carefully, I found a few inaccuracies and potential places where the definitions and synonyms could be improved. How can I contact whomever maintains the course? I will gladly give back to the community and share my findings to others who want to follow the course at a later date. Just let me know how to proceed.

4

Hello everybody. I was granted a contributor status for this course by Memrise. I am learning about 10 words a day since October 2020, and I have learned ~1900 so far. While I progress, I will slowly start correcting the few inaccuracies I found, and improve ambiguous or unclear definitions. This is overall an outstanding course, and I will be very careful.

5

I have updated the first 20 levels. Here are the changes I am making as I go along:

  • I remove the declensions from the definitions. bei (+ dat) becomes bei, and the (+ dat) goes in the English definition. This was confusing, but fortunately only appeared twice.

  • I add alternatives to words with multiple definitions. Now, definitions such as the sea (1) and the sea (2) include German alternatives, so you do not need to know which one is “das Meer, -e”, and which one is “die See, -s”. You need to type the word that does not appear. This was quite confusing as well.

  • I add alternatives with words with similar but not identical definitions, when applicable.

  • The three Memrise courses with 5000 German words (5000 German Words (top 87%) - by Paul_Wilson - Memrise, 5000 Words (top 87%) sorted by frequency - by Miłek - Memrise and 5000 words sorted by frequency (strict … - by puffino - Memrise) come from the same corpus. As I learn the words, I compare both courses sorted by frequency (strict typing and not strict typing), and carefully review all discrepancies between both courses using multiple dictionaries and online sources. This has allowed me to find many errors and improve many definitions. This explains why I deleted a few words, and why about 20 new words appeared in the middle of lessons. You must learn these words if you completed the levels before I reintroduced the words. I suspect that these words were deleted by mistake throughout the years: the interface to the course database provided by Memrise is crude an unforgiving (impossible to undo, no version control, …).

For new users wondering which course to choose to learn German vocabulary, I suggest the course 5000 words sorted by frequency (strict typing) [5000 words sorted by frequency (strict … - by puffino - Memrise] for three reasons:

  1. Learning a large number of words in alphabetical order makes no sense for non-masochists. If you stop after 1000 / 5000 words, then congratulations, you now know all the most frequent words starting by A-B-C-D-E. With frequency lists, you learn the most important words first, and you can stop at anytime.
  2. The strict typing is harder at first, but much better over the long-term.
  3. The strict typing course contains fewer errors than the non-strict typing course (even before I started improving the strict typing version). It is even more accurate now.
6

Hi Huguesm,

thanks for improving the course and adding new words in as well. I am glad to see the changes to “bei” and “nach”. I had to ignore those because it was so unintuitive.

Would it be possible to add me as a course moderator as well?
I’ve recently completed the course and often wished to change or improve some flashcards. I also think that some things like “Nomen-Verb-Verbindung” are under represented, and I would like to add some of the more common ones.

For the new cards you added, I suggest the following changes:

Level 12: nutzen - to use (4) > nutzen - to use (3) # Since the numbers are based on alphabetical order, verwenden should become (4).
Level 20: erforderlich - necessary (3) > erforderlich - necessary (1) # nötig and notwendig need to be bumped up one number
Level 22: die Deutsche, - > die Deutsche, -n
Level 25: korrekt - correct (adj.). 2. correctly (adv.) (2) # Alphabetical order (1). “richtig” must be bumped to (2).

Another card I had to ignore:
Level 90: Das machts nichts! - That doesn’t matter! # This is wrong. It should be “Das macht nichts!”

Regards,
nkltss

7

Hello nkltss

Would it be possible to add me as a course moderator as well?
I’ve recently completed the course and often wished to change or improve some flashcards. I also think > that some things like “Nomen-Verb-Verbindung” are under represented, and I would like to add some of > the more common ones.

Sure, as long as you do not change the structure of the course.

For the new cards you added, I suggest the following changes:

Level 12: nutzen - to use (4) > nutzen - to use (3) # Since the numbers are based on alphabetical order, verwenden should become (4).
Level 20: erforderlich - necessary (3) > erforderlich - necessary (1) # nötig and notwendig need to be bumped up one number
Level 25: korrekt - correct (adj.). 2. correctly (adv.) (2) # Alphabetical order (1). “richtig” must be bumped to (2).

All fixed. You might find more instances elsewhere, since I did not worry to put the versions in alphabetical order, now that the alternatives appear.

Another card I had to ignore:
Level 90: Das machts nichts! - That doesn’t matter! # This is wrong. It should be “Das macht nichts!”

Fixed.

Level 22: die Deutsche, - > die Deutsche, -n

Thanks for pointing this out !!! The word declines, so I removed the feminine, and only kept the masculine

  • der Deutsche, die Deutschen <> the German male (the word declines)

I also clarified this for der Bekannte and der Verwandte.

I have completed the first 40 levels. The others will be updated much slower, because I will update them as I learn the words.

8

Hi huguesm,
thanks for the fixes. What do you mean by not changing the structure of the course? I will be mostly doing little fixes here and there. The most major improvement I can think of is adding new words that were missed at the end of the course (things like common Nomen-Verb-Verbindungen). Another change that I can think of is changing expanding the set of allowed answers for certain words that are using brackets to denote different forms, for example: ek(e)lig would have as acceptable answers: ek(e)lig, ekelig, eklig. Currently, if one forgets the brackets, it is wrong even though they got the word right.

Edit: also, what do you think of the idea of merging this course in? Top-Up to 5000 words course (strict typ… - by maxwellontoast - Memrise
If not, we should consider mentioning it in the description for people who have completed the course.

9

Updates:

25.05.2021
Level 30: färben - to dye, to color; Level 91: sich die Haare färben - to dye the hair # Duplicate imo
Level 22: der Deutsche, die Deutschen → Used to be “der Deutsche, -n, -n” which I think is fine and should be reverted to that.
Level 33: fegen - to sweep (2) → fegen - to sweep (1) # kehren should become “to sweep (2)”
Level 34: anhören - to listen to (2) # zuhören is the second alphabetically so should be “anhören - to listen to (1)” and “zuhören - to listen to (2)”
Level 40: herunterladen # this already exists somewhere
Level 41: selber, selbes, selbe # should be distinguished from derselbe, dasselbe, dieselbe

10

Hi there. I just started this course, and am assuming that the hyphenated forms of the words are the plurals, with a quotation mark for an umlaut applied in that form.

Although I doubt anyone just starting out in German would begin with this course alone, is there any kind of introduction I need to read/are there any other rules unique to typing for this course I need to look out for? I’m going off my own assumptions here, but it might not be obvious to people just starting, who are less familiar with plural forms.

Also, in level 3 ‘der Gott, "er’ has no hyphen - is this significant in some way, or was it just missed?

Thank you so much for maintaining the course!

11

Hello @Tonemdra,

I just started this course, and am assuming that the hyphenated forms of the words are the plurals, with a quotation mark for an umlaut applied in that form.

Correct.

Also, in level 3 ‘der Gott, "er’ has no hyphen - is this significant in some way, or was it just missed?

Thanks for pointing this out. It was indeed an error. It is fixed now.

Although I doubt anyone just starting out in German would begin with this course alone, is there any kind of introduction I need to read/are there any other rules unique to typing for this course I need to look out for? I’m going off my own assumptions here, but it might not be obvious to people just starting, who are less familiar with plural forms.

Besides the plural, there is no other rule. This is not a grammar course. For instance, the inflected forms are not included (e.g. wem and wen are the dative and accusative forms of wer, and do not appear).

12

Level 30: färben - to dye, to color; Level 91: sich die Haare färben - to dye the hair # Duplicate im
Level 33: fegen - to sweep (2) → fegen - to sweep (1) # kehren should become “to sweep (2)”
Level 34: anhören - to listen to (2) # zuhören is the second alphabetically so should be “anhören - to listen to (1)” and “zuhören - to listen to (2)”
Level 40: herunterladen # this already exists somewhere
Level 41: selber, selbes, selbe # should be distinguished from derselbe, dasselbe, dieselbe

All fixed.

Level 22: der Deutsche, die Deutschen → Used to be “der Deutsche, -n, -n” which I think is fine and should be reverted to that.

Thanks for pointing this out. I reverted it to der Deutsche, -n. In many dictionaries such words are written as “Deutsche(r) dekl wie Adj”. This is also the case with, Erwachsene(r), Bekannte(r) and Verwandte(r) so far. For all these words I now mention in the definition that the word declines, and ask for the der masculine form. Erwachsene appeared twice, and for consistency I removed the feminine die form from the list.

13

Do you plan to put me as a moderator of this course?

Like I said, I will not be changing the course structure. Instead I will just do fixes as I come across them instead of writing them out here.

14

Hi @nkltss,

Another change that I can think of is changing expanding the set of allowed answers for certain words that are using brackets to denote different forms, for example: ek(e)lig would have as acceptable answers: ek(e)lig, ekelig, eklig. Currently, if one forgets the brackets, it is wrong even though they got the word right.

This is a very good idea. I have not encountered these words yet.

The most major improvement I can think of is adding new words that were missed at the end of the course (things like common Nomen-Verb-Verbindungen).

Edit: also, what do you think of the idea of merging this course in? Top-Up to 5000 words course (strict typ… - by maxwellontoast - Memrise
If not, we should consider mentioning it in the description for people who have completed the course.

I would prefer to be very cautious about this. The main advantage of the course is that the words are sorted be frequency. I understand that it is not perfect. Like you, I was also looking for the words verb, syllabe, vowel, consonant, and could not find them. Also, the list is a little old, and many very useful words related to the Internet appear to be missing (login, logout, subscribe, …). These words would probably appear in a more recent frequency list.

The only words I add now appear in the other frequency list (no strict typing) so I can insert them at the right position as I compare both lists and fix errors.

Here is my suggestion: whatever words you think are missing and useful, put them in a new course such as “Overflow - 5000 words sorted by frequency (strict typing]”, instead of at the end of the course where they would be out of place. I can then link to it from the main page of the course, and clearly say what is its purpose. BTW, I will certainly follow this course and provide feedback.

15

Sure, I will not extend this course but I would like to make fixes. So, will you make a moderator?

Level 46: gemäß - according to (+ dat) (2) → gemäß - according to (+ dat) (1)
mitten

Level 18: mitten - in the middle of (1) → mitten - in the middle of (2)
Level 18: inmitten - in the middle of (2) → inmitten - in the middle of (1)

16

Sure, I will not extend this course but I would like to make fixes. So, will you make a moderator?

In this case it is fine for me. Let me know if you see something worth being discussed; I will do likewise.

Level 46: gemäß - according to (+ dat) (2) → gemäß - according to (+ dat) (1)
mitten

I will let you fix that one, since it covers the part of the course I have not yet studied. I have completed the first 40 levels.

Level 18: mitten - in the middle of (1) → mitten - in the middle of (2)
Level 18: inmitten - in the middle of (2) → inmitten - in the middle of (1)

Fixed.

17

Fantastic, thank you for such a prompt reply @huguesm!

18

I am studying this course from last year, but recently some words has changed and audio of the levels grater than 50 are dropped, is this course going to die?

Can moderator of this course (if any) add pronunciations?

19

I am studying this course from last year, but recently some words has changed and audio of the levels grater than 50 are dropped, is this course going to die?

This is inaccurate. Some words have changed because we have corrected a small number of errors and inaccuracies. No audio was dropped. Towards the second half of the course audio was never included in the course.

20

Thanx for clarifying. Would you please add pronunciations for the rest of the course !?