Day One German | Beginner News-Focused German Course
Day One German is a 20-episode beginner podcast for absolute German learners who want to understand slow German news. No prior German is needed. In five minutes a day, you learn essential German words, verbs, phrases, grammar patterns, and listening skills. The podcast prepares you to listen to the main LinguaWire A1 German news feed, which posts daily episodes discussing real news stories in simple A1 German. LinguaWire podcasts use AI support with translations and multi-language recording under native speaker supervision.
Episodes
Day 20: Graduation: your first German news bulletin
The Day One German finale, with Felix and Leonie. Graduation day: a full German news bulletin, election, heatwave, strike, sport, built entirely from the last twenty days, read twice like real radio. Then the handover: you're ready for LinguaWire A1 Daily German News, a new episode every day, two real news stories in slow, clear A1 German. Subscribe via the link in the show notes and your first re
Day 19: How to read German headlines
Episode nineteen of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie, the penultimate episode. Headlines don't speak full German; they speak telegram: no articles, often no verb. Today you learn to expand them back into sentences you already know, drill three real headlines built entirely from series vocabulary, and pick up the diplomacy kit. Tomorrow: graduation, a full German news bulletin.▶ Practice this
Day 18: The German future with wird — and the will trap
Episode eighteen of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Yesterday the past, today the future: werden plus a verb at the end, the bracket again. Plus the business kit (the company, the factory, jobs, to build, to create) and the quirk that werden moonlights: with another verb at the end it means 'will'; on its own it can mean 'become' or 'get'. Today's sentence: Die Firma wird eine neue Fabrik b
Day 17: The sentence bracket: past tense, part two
Episode seventeen of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. A milestone: your first full two-sentence news story, exactly as breaking news is written. Today: the earthquake (a compound you can dismantle yourself), the past tense doing real work, and the sentence bracket, German's habit of opening a verb at position two and closing it at the very end. Today's story: Ein Erdbeben hat die Region in d
Day 16: The German past tense: the ge- hug
Episode sixteen of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Final week. News is mostly about things that already happened, so today you learn to RECOGNISE the German past: haben plus a ge- word. You don't need to build it yet; you need to hear it. Plus war and peace, the vocabulary of the biggest stories. Today's sentence: Der Präsident hat gestern gesagt: Der Krieg ist vorbei.▶ Practice this episod
Day 15: German question words — wer, was, wo, wann, warum
Episode fifteen of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie, the week-three finale. News exists to answer questions, so today you get the question kit: wer, was, wo, wann, warum, wie, including the famous trap where 'wer' means who and 'wo' means where. Plus the verb wollen, to want: the engine of every political story. Today's sentence: Wer ist die neue Ministerin, und was will sie?▶ Practice this e
Day 14: Kein vs nicht — the two German no's
Episode fourteen of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Bad news is news, and bad news is full of negatives. Today's quirk is genuinely useful grammar in disguise: German has two words for 'not', kein for things, nicht for everything else, and one simple rule of thumb to choose between them. Today's sentence: Im Norden gibt es keinen Strom, und die Schulen sind nicht geöffnet.▶ Practice this ep
Day 13: Days, months and seasons in German
Episode thirteen of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Every news story is pinned to a date. Today: the seven days (six of which end in -tag, and then there's Wednesday), the verbs to begin and to end, and the four diary phrases that place any story in time. Today's sentence: Der Gipfel beginnt am Montag und endet am Freitag.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10-minute homework:https
Day 12: Kommen, gehen, fahren — and nach for countries
Episode twelve of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. People moving, to festivals, to borders, to safety, is half the news. Today: kommen, gehen, fahren, twenty-five countries and nationalities, and the quirk that nach can mean after, but with countries and cities it often means to. Today's sentence: Tausende Menschen kommen für das Festival nach Deutschland.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson
Day 11: Sagen and your first German comparison
Episode eleven of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Week three is the verb week, and it opens with the single most-used verb in German news: sagen, to say. Plus the news colon, food basics (bread, milk, water, coffee, eating and drinking), and your first comparison. Today's sentence: Der Minister sagt: Brot und Milch sind dieses Jahr teurer.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10-minu
Day 10: Football German — spielen, das Tor, gewinnen
Episode ten of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie, you're halfway! Sport closes every bulletin: today you learn the team, the match, to play, to win, to lose, and the quirk that German sport is full of borrowed English, Fans, Team, Trainer. Today's sentence: Die Nationalmannschaft spielt heute Abend vor achtzigtausend Fans.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10-minute homework:https://
Day 9: Money in German — and the unbending Euro
Episode nine of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. The story that never leaves the front page: the cost of living. Today: prices, money, more and less, expensive and cheap, the verb kosten, and the small, useful quirk that after numbers German normally keeps Euro unchanged. Today's sentence: Die Preise sind hoch, und die Menschen haben weniger Geld.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet +
Day 8: Welded words — Flughafen, Hauptbahnhof
Episode eight of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Transport chaos is a news perennial, today you learn the trains, the airport, open and closed, and the most famous thing about German: compound words. Long German words aren't new words; they're old words holding hands. Today's sentence: Die Züge sind voll, und der Flughafen ist geschlossen.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10-minu
Day 7: Es gibt — how German says "there is"
Episode seven of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Every news broadcast on earth ends the same way, the weather. Today: it is forty degrees, hot and cold, the four compass directions, and the loveliest oddity in German: es gibt, 'there is', which literally means 'it gives'. Today's sentence: Es ist vierzig Grad im Süden, und es gibt keinen Regen.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10
Day 6: Election German — die Wahl, wählen, der Wähler
Episode six of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Week two begins: one news domain a day, starting with the biggest, politics. Today: the election, the word-family trick (learn one root, get the relatives free), am Sonntag, and the polls. Today's sentence: Die Wahl ist am Sonntag, und die Umfragen sind sehr knapp.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10-minute homework:https://linguawir
Day 5: German plurals and the umlaut
Episode five of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie, the week-one finale. Today: fifteen professions, the half-dozen ways German makes a plural (and the one island of calm), and your first full regular verb: streiken. Today's sentence: Die Ärzte und die Lehrer streiken heute.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10-minute homework:https://linguawire.com/dayone/german/5🇩🇪 More free German
Day 4: Big German numbers are Lego
Episode four of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. News is obsessed with counting, today you unlock the big numbers: hundert, tausend, and the famous German habit of gluing whole numbers into single mega-words. Plus the two words for people and the crowd vocabulary of every protest story. Today's sentence: Mehr als zehntausend Menschen sind bei der Demonstration in der Hauptstadt.▶ Practice th
Day 3: Der, die, das — never learn a naked noun
Episode three of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. The day every German learner remembers: the three words for 'the'. You'll meet der, die and das, complete the verb sein, learn the word heute, and discover why the girl is neuter. Today's sentence: Die Regierung, die Polizei und die Armee sind heute auf den Straßen.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10-minute homework:https://lingua
Day 2: The verb haben — and why nouns wear capitals
Episode two of Day One German, with Felix and Leonie. Today you learn the verb haben (to have), and with it, the ending pattern that runs nearly every German verb, plus the chancellor, the family, and the quirk you can see: every German noun wears a capital letter. Today's real news sentence: Die Kanzlerin hat zwei Kinder und wohnt in der Hauptstadt.▶ Practice this episode free, lesson sheet + 10-
Day 1: The verb sein and the German number trick
Day One German takes you from absolute zero to being ready for our daily news podcast, LinguaWire A1 Daily German News, in four weeks. Twenty episodes, five minutes a day, with Felix and Leonie. In episode one you learn the verb sein (I am, he is, she is), the word der Präsident, and the wonderful, slightly mad way German builds its numbers. By the end you'll understand and say a real German news
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