German money vocabulary
These are the German words about money that come up most often in real speech, ranked by how often they appear in film and TV subtitles. Start with the first ones, such as Geld (money), Schatz (treasure), Schuld (guilt), because you will run into them on almost any page about the subject, and the rarer words make more sense once those are familiar.
Words in this list: 30
| # | Word | Pronunciation | Translation | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geld | /ɡɛlt/ | money | A1 |
| 2 | Schatz | /ʃat͡s/ | treasure | A1 |
| 3 | Schuld | /ʃʊlt/ | guilt | A2 |
| 4 | Dollar | /ˈdɔlaʁ/ | dollar | A2 |
| 5 | Wette | /ˈvɛtə/ | bet | A2 |
| 6 | Nutzen | /ˈnʊt͡sn̩/ | benefit | B1 |
| 7 | Penny | /ˈpɛni/ | penny | B1 |
| 8 | Cent | /tsɛnt/ | cent | B1 |
| 9 | Miete | /ˈmiːtə/ | rent | B2 |
| 10 | Bauer | /ˈbaʊ̯ɐ/ | pawn | B2 |
| 11 | Euro | /ˈɔɪ̯ʀo/ | euro | B2 |
| 12 | Versicherung | /fɛɐ̯ˈzɪçəʁʊŋ/ | insurance | B2 |
| 13 | Steuer | /ˈʃtɔɪ̯ɐ/ | tax | B2 |
| 14 | Gewinn | /ɡəˈvɪn/ | profit | B2 |
| 15 | Summe | /ˈzʊmə/ | sum | B2 |
| 16 | Bargeld | /ˈbaːɐ̯ɡɛlt/ | cash | B2 |
| 17 | Lohn | /loːn/ | wage | B2 |
| 18 | Gehalt | /ɡəˈhalt/ | salary | B2 |
| 19 | Münze | /ˈmʏnt͡sə/ | coin | B2 |
| 20 | Scheibe | /ˈʃaɪ̯bə/ | slice | C1 |
| 21 | Bezahlung | /bəˈt͡saːlʊŋ/ | payment | C1 |
| 22 | Pension | /pɛnˈzi̯oːn/ | pension | C1 |
| 23 | Strich | /ʃtʁɪç/ | mil | C1 |
| 24 | Lösegeld | /ˈløːzəˌɡɛlt/ | ransom | C1 |
| 25 | Budget | /byˈd͡ʒeː/ | budget | C1 |
| 26 | Vergeltung | /fɛɐ̯ˈɡɛltʊŋ/ | retribution | C1 |
| 27 | Hypothek | /hypoˈteːk/ | mortgage | C1 |
| 28 | Belastung | /bəˈlastʊŋ/ | bob | C1 |
| 29 | Kapital | /kapiˈtaːl/ | capital | C1 |
| 30 | Rektor | /ˈʁɛk.toːɐ̯/ | principal | C1 |
How to make these words stick
A list helps you see what matters, but a word only stays after you have met it several times in real sentences and pulled it out of memory yourself. That is how NativeLingo works: it swaps a few of these words into the pages you already read, at your level and in the right form, and then a short daily review asks you to type them back.
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Sources: translations and pronunciation from Wiktionary (wikdict, CC BY-SA 3.0) and ipa-dict (MIT), frequency from OpenSubtitles (FrequencyWords).