Eugène Delacroix, 1827, Wallace Collection (CC BY-SA)
Free German reading, level C1
Read Goethe's Faust in the original German verse
German literature's most famous verse drama, genuinely difficult, genuinely worth reading in the original.
Learn German with this book for freeFaust is German literature's most famous verse drama, and its poetic, sometimes archaic language is genuinely difficult even for confident readers. Lira keeps Goethe's verse exactly as written, but every unfamiliar word is one tap away from a translation, and every word you look up gets scheduled for review so the vocabulary survives past the page you found it on.
Key vocabulary from Faust
A preview of the words you'll run into early on, with pronunciation. Every one of them, and every other word you tap while reading, gets saved to your review deck automatically.
nahen
to approach, draw near
die Gestalt
figure, shape
der Blick
gaze, glance, view
sich zeigen
to appear, show oneself
schwanken
to waver, sway
trüb
clouded, dim, dull
What actually happens while you read
One tap to translate
Click any unfamiliar word for its contextual translation, right inside the page. No dictionary tab, no losing your place in the story.
Every word saved with its sentence
The word you looked up keeps the exact sentence you found it in, not an isolated flashcard, so the meaning stays anchored to real context.
FSRS brings it back before you forget
Spaced repetition schedules each word's next review right before you'd naturally lose it, so vocabulary from this book actually stays with you.
Ihr naht euch wieder, ! Die früh sich einst dem Blick gezeigt.
TRANSLATION
figures, shapes
CONTEXT
Ihr naht euch wieder, schwankende Gestalten! Die früh sich einst dem trüben Blick gezeigt.
Start reading free →The science
Recognizing a word isn't the same as remembering it
According to Stephen Krashen's comprehensible input hypothesis, a language is acquired durably through exposure to content you mostly already understand, not through isolated word lists. Reading a real book supplies exactly that kind of exposure. Spaced repetition on top of it is what turns a word you translated once into one you actually remember weeks later.
Learning approach
Retention with Lira
Start learning German with Faust today
Free, no credit card. Every word you tap gets saved and reviewed automatically so it actually sticks.
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