Show HN: Learn German with Games

#1

Post by predictand » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 11:50 AM UTC

I just started learning German, and it has been a frustrating experience, to say the least. There are so many seemingly arbitrary rules that make pattern recognition very difficult. Therefore, I have been looking for ways to make memorization a bit easier and fun. So, I came up with a bunch of games to make learning German a bit more engaging. Hope you find it useful as well!

Show HN: Learn German with Games
learngermanwithgames.com

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#2

Post by xg15 » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 1:23 PM UTC

It's a really cool idea! Watch out for AI mistakes though, especially when generating content in a foreign language. I see one mistake in the "Time Short Form Game" image where the image has "habl" for what should probably mean "halb".

Also, I'm not sure if converting between 5 digit numbers and words is a good starting task, unless you want to dive right in with German's (in)famous word chaining ability.

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#3

Post by tobi_bsf » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 1:46 PM UTC

Nice, not sure if "Guess the Artikel" makes sense this way. Sometimes it’s not clear whether the word is singular or plural, which affects the article. For example, I got "Ausländer," which can either be "die" for plural or "der" for singular.

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#4

Post by rspoerri » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

I don't see how people can learn a language by tests, which are only telling you if you did it right or wrong. I can see how this is used to verify the existing knowledge, but I don't see any usage in learning.

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#5

Post by IAmBroom » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:11 PM UTC

rspoerri wrote: post #4

I don't see how people can learn a language by tests, which are only telling you if you did it right or wrong. I can see how this is used to verify the existing knowledge, but I don't see any usage in learning.

It's gamified. People like winning games. People dislike taking tests.

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#6

Post by merelysounds » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:12 PM UTC

Congrats on the launch!

Quick feedback: the website looks very polished and intuitive. I especially liked the test about articles, where I didn’t have to type. I liked that the website works well on mobile too. The content is not what I’d call games though; based on the name I expected something different than test questions and quizzes.

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#7

Post by rwoerz » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:19 PM UTC

Congrats.

Some German natives may argue that the time short forms are wrong as they prefer "dreiviertel" instead of "viertel vor".

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#8

Post by rspoerri » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

IAmBroom wrote: post #5

rspoerri wrote: post #4

I don't see how people can learn a language by tests, which are only telling you if you did it right or wrong. I can see how this is used to verify the existing knowledge, but I don't see any usage in learning.

It's gamified. People like winning games. People dislike taking tests.

It's still not learning, it's verification of existing knowledge. It might be more fun than taking tests, nevertheless you cannot learn knowledge by testing knowledge, you can only verify it. Only if the user answers correctly you might consolidate the already existing knowledge.

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#9

Post by brettermeier » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC

rwoerz wrote: post #7

Congrats. Some German natives may argue that the time short forms are wrong as they prefer "dreiviertel" instead of "viertel vor".

Stay with "viertel vor" please :D Well, it depends on where you are in germany...

Re: Show HN: Learn German with Games

#10

Post by rob74 » Wed, Oct 29, 2025, 2:42 PM UTC

tobi_bsf wrote: post #3

Nice, not sure if "Guess the Artikel" makes sense this way. Sometimes it’s not clear whether the word is singular or plural, which affects the article. For example, I got "Ausländer," which can either be "die" for plural or "der" for singular.

There are words that can have several Artikel, sometimes depending on regional differences (e.g. Austrians have different preferences than Germans), sometimes because of multiple meanings of a word. In that case, I would expect the game to accept all valid answers. But I got the impression that all words were singular, so "der" would be the only valid option for "Ausländer". I had a similar issue with "Geschwister", where I picked "das" (correct according to https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Geschwister), but the game expected "die" (which IMHO only makes sense for the plural form). Looks like it needs a bit more QA :)