She almost laughed. A dictionary? She had apps. But the preface stopped her: “The 100 most common German words make up 50% of any text. The first 1,000 cover 75%. The first 4,000? 90%.”
Words like endlich (finally), vielleicht (maybe), and deshalb (therefore) appeared. She wrote her first coherent email without DeepL: “Leider kann ich heute nicht kommen, deshalb schicke ich die Datei anbei.” Her colleague replied: “Dein Deutsch ist ja viel besser geworden!” (Your German has gotten so much better!) german frequency dictionary
That evening, frustrated, she wandered into a used bookstore. On a bottom shelf, spine cracked and pages yellowed, lay a book titled: Price: €3. She almost laughed
Anna bought it.
The final list included aufwendig (elaborate), die Einsicht (insight), verhandeln (to negotiate). Anna re-read the technical manual. She didn’t need a dictionary. She understood dennoch and obwohl —and more: she understood the argument the manual was making. But the preface stopped her: “The 100 most