WunderDict turns the German words you actually meet into practice that keeps them in your head. The loop is short: look a word up, save it to a list, then let Smart Practice bring it back when it is due. This page walks through each step and ends with a few habits that make the difference.
Key points
- The loop: look a word up, save it to a list, practise.
- Smart Practice is the main way to practise: it picks the words that are due and what to test on each.
- Questions are untimed and have two options. A word is Known once you have recalled it several times across different days.
- Guests can search and build one list; practice needs a free account.
1. Look a word up, in German or English
Type into the search bar in either language. As you type, suggestions appear from words already in the dictionary, so you often do not need to finish. Submit, and WunderDict works out the part of speech and builds a full entry: the article and plural for a noun, the forms of a verb, the level, example sentences, and a translation into your language.
die Wohnung
Level A1apartment
You can paste a short phrase too, up to 250 characters. It is broken down into its words, and each is looked up on its own, so you save the ones you want rather than a throwaway translation of the whole phrase.
Set your language once, in the header. It drives both the interface and the translations in every list.
2. Save words to lists, and group lists into collections
A list is where saved words live. Make as many as you like (by topic, by lesson, by the book you are reading), rename them, and pin the ones you use most. Inside a list, words are grouped by part of speech, and each group shows what matters for it: nouns show their article and plural, verbs their forms.
The same word can sit in several lists, and deleting a list never deletes the word from the dictionary, only your copy of it in that list.
A collection groups lists: a course with one list per chapter, say. Add a list to a collection from the chip under the list's title. Open the collection and you see every word from its lists in one view, and you can practise them together.
If you would rather not start from a blank page, open Curated lists in the sidebar: ready-made lists such as the 1000 most common nouns or the top 100 verbs. You can preview them and practise on them without copying anything.
Note
As a guest you can search and build one list; it is kept in your browser. Practice needs a free account (email or Google), because that is where your progress on each word is stored.
3. Practise with Smart Practice
Smart Practice is the main way to practise, and the one to reach for when you are not sure what to do. You find it at the top of the Practice menu on any list of yours with at least 25 words, on a collection, and on the home page, where it covers every word you have saved.
It decides two things for you: which words are due, and what to test on each one. That can be the meaning, the article, the plural or a verb form. A session is short (ten questions unless you change it in Settings), and each question has two options. Nothing is timed. A right answer moves straight on; after a wrong one, or "I don't know", the correct answer stays on screen until you press Continue.
4. Or pick a mode yourself
The rest of the Practice menu lets you choose one skill to work on:
- Translation Quiz
- German to your language, and back. On any list with at least four words.
- Flash Cards
- Flip a card to reveal it; no score is kept. On any list with at least four words.
- Der/Die/Das
- The article of each noun. On lists with at least five nouns.
- Plural Master
- The plural of each noun. On lists with at least five nouns.
- Verb Forms
- Partizip II, Präteritum, present tense, haben or sein. On lists with at least five verbs.
- Word Match
- Match German words to their translations. On lists with at least four words.
- Preposition Match, Fill in the Blank, Case Picker
- The preposition a verb takes, and its case, in real sentences. On the curated Verbs with Prepositions list.
A few other curated lists add a drill of their own, such as Wo or Wohin? on the location and direction list.
Like Smart Practice, these quizzes are untimed. Word Match and Preposition Match also offer an optional timed challenge. It is there for fun and does not count toward your progress.
5. Watch words move from New to Known
As you practise, each word moves through three states:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| New | You have not really been tested on it yet. |
| Learning | Seen and in progress, not yet reliable. |
| Known | Recalled several times, across different days. |
The "different days" part is deliberate: a word you get right five times in one sitting is not learned yet, and a word you still remember a few days later is. A wrong answer brings a word back sooner. If you already know a word well, you can mark it as known yourself; WunderDict still checks it again a couple of weeks later.
You never build a review queue by hand. The list shows how many words are in each state, and the Progress page shows the bigger picture.
6. Check yourself against real text
Text Review takes a passage of German and highlights which words you already know, which you are learning, and which are new to you. It is a quick way to measure your vocabulary against something authentic (a news article, a page of a book) and to spot the words worth adding to a list next.
Getting the most out of it
- Add words from things you actually read or watch. A word with a memory attached sticks; a random one does not. Save the example sentence, not just the translation.
- Keep sessions short and daily. Spaced practice needs days to space across. Ten minutes every day beats an hour once a week.
- Let Smart Practice decide. It already knows which words are due; the manual modes are for when you want to drill one thing.
- Do not fear the wrong answers. A miss is how the app learns which words to bring back.
WunderDict is deliberately just the vocabulary half of learning German. For where it fits in the bigger picture, read why use WunderDict. For the grammar itself, start with the guides.
