Volume four · English explanations

Deutsch B2 — where
German stops being
a subject.

At B2 nobody grades you on effort. You read a newspaper column and get the writer's stance, not just the facts; you switch register between a WhatsApp and a formal complaint; you concede a point in a discussion and still win it. Forty-eight days, ~400 new words, and the eight structures that make written German look written.

48
study days, 45–60 minutes each
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words in twelve fields, all speakable
4
exam modules, retakeable one at a time
8
role-plays at real B2 pressure
The B2 shift

Four things change between B1 and B2

Density, not difficultyA B2 sentence packs a relative clause into an adjective: die im Frühjahr beschlossenen Maßnahmen. Nothing is new grammar — it is compression, and it must be readable at speed.
StanceModals and Konjunktiv I stop describing the world and start marking how sure you are, and whose claim it is. Er soll krank seinEr muss krank sein.
RegisterSame content, three tones. Half the marks in Schreiben are lost by writing a correct sentence in the wrong voice.
Argument shapeThesis → argument → counter-argument → conclusion, with connectors as signposts. The examiner is listening for the shape before the vocabulary.
The schedule

Forty-eight days, ticked off as you go

Six weeks of new material, then two of consolidation and mocks. Tap a day when it is done — the sidebar keeps the count.

Days 2–4 · Partizipialattribute

A relative clause, folded into an adjective

Written German dislikes long chains of der/die/das-clauses. It squeezes them in front of the noun instead. Read them by unfolding backwards: find the noun, then the participle, then everything between the article and the participle.

FormFolded (B2 written)Unfolded (B1 spoken)
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Partizip I = active, ongoing
Infinitiv + d + ending: wachsen → wachsende. The noun is doing it: die steigenden Kosten — the costs that are rising.
Partizip II = passive, finished
The noun had it done to it: die beschlossenen Maßnahmen — the measures that were passed.
zu + Partizip I = necessity
die zu erledigenden Aufgaben = the tasks that have to be done. Rare in speech, everywhere in official letters.
Days 5–6 · Nominalstil

Translate officialese into verbs, and back

Reading needs the verb back; writing needs the noun. Learn both directions as one move, plus the fixed noun+verb pairs (Funktionsverbgefüge) that Germans never vary.

Nominal (Amtsdeutsch)Verbal (readable)
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Days 9–10 · Konjunktiv I & II

Two moods: someone else's claim, and the world that isn't

Konjunktiv I · reported
Der Minister sagte, er habe nichts gewusst.
The press register. Built from the infinitive stem + e/est/e/en: habe, sei, gehe, könne. It lets you relay a claim without endorsing it — which is exactly why journalists use it and why the Hören module tests it.
Konjunktiv II · unreal
Hätte ich mehr Zeit gehabt, wäre der Text besser geworden.
Past irrealis: hätte/wäre + Partizip II. Drop the wenn and the verb jumps to first position — the most B2-sounding move you can make in one sentence.
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Days 11–12 · Passiv-Ersatzformen

Five ways to avoid saying werden

All five mean roughly “can/must be done”. B2 readers meet them constantly; B2 writers are expected to vary them.

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Days 15–17 · Konnektoren & Wendungen

The signposts an examiner listens for

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Day 29 · Wortbildung

Guess a thousand words from nine pieces

German builds rather than borrows. Once the prefixes carry meaning for you, unknown words stop being unknown — they become arithmetic.

PieceMeaningWorked examples
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Days 22–23 · Register

One message, three voices

Same content — you cannot come on Thursday. Read down the column you actually need; the mistake at B2 is mixing two of them in one text.

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Days 24–26 · Schreiben

The Erörterung, in five paragraphs and 75 minutes

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Days 39–41 · Sprechen

Four minutes alone, then eight against someone

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Every day · 15 minutes

Flashcard trainer

Pick a field, say the German out loud before you flip. Mark anything you hesitated on — hesitation is the signal, not the error.

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The B2 word list

{{ totalWords }} words, twelve fields

Articles in colour: der · die · das. Tap a word to hear it, select it for the full dictionary entry.

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Speaking practice

Eight situations at B2 pressure

Read your side out loud, then cover the German and rebuild it from the English. Tap any line to hear it.

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Days 45–48 · Prüfung

Four modules — Lesen 65′ · Hören 40′ · Schreiben 75′ · Sprechen 15′

Goethe B2 is modular: each part is passed and certified separately, so a weak Hören does not cost you the rest. Sixteen mock items below — answer, then read why.

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After B2

B2 is the certificate employers ask for. C1 is the one you stop noticing.

With B2 you can work, study and argue in German — most universities and employers accept it, and the DTZ is well behind you. What separates C1 is not more grammar: it is idiom, precision under speed, and the ability to be funny. All three come from volume of contact, not from another book.

Read one column a day
Opinion pieces, not news reports — that is where stance, irony and idiom live.
Switch your working language
Meetings, notes, self-talk. Fluency is a habit of medium, not a level.
Keep the loop
The psychology module matters more at this level, not less — progress is now invisible by definition.
← the library B1 volume Psychology module