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Learn German with short stories

Read German books with English alongside, or English books with German alongside: the original and the translation side by side, paragraph by paragraph.

GermanEnglish

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

When Gregor Samsa woke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.

Er lag auf seinem panzerartig harten Rücken und sah, wenn er den Kopf ein wenig hob, seinen gewölbten, braunen, von bogenförmigen Versteifungen geteilten Bauch…

He lay on his armour-hard back and, when he raised his head a little, saw his domed brown belly, divided by stiff arching ribs…

»Was ist mit mir geschehen?«, dachte er. Es war kein Traum.

“What has happened to me?” he thought. It was no dream.

Die Verwandlung, Franz Kafka (1915), with our own English rendering.

Free German–English stories and ebooks

Stories to read in German, with the English beside each paragraph. They open in the browser, with no account needed, and each free one is also a free German–English ebook for Kindle, Kobo or any e-reader: downloading needs a free account, no payment (which file to pick).

Open the German–English library, where you can search the stories and filter them by level.

Want to hear it too? German stories with audio are narrated, free, with a speed control.

By level:

48 of 419 stories shown: the level pages above and the German–English library have the rest.

Free graded readers in German

Every story here carries its level on the Common European Framework, from A1 for beginners to C1 and beyond, so the library works as a set of German graded readers, most of them free: start at the level where you understand most of a page, and move up when the English beside it is something you check only now and then.

Want a book that isn’t here? Make your own German–English parallel text from any EPUB or PDF: free preview, and 50 free pages when you sign up.

Reading German with English alongside

German rewards patient reading. English and German are close relatives, so everyday words (Haus, Buch, trinken) are often guessable, and the grammar is regular once you have seen enough of it.

The difficulty is structure: cases, long compound nouns, and verbs that wait until the very end of the clause. With the English beside each paragraph you know where a sentence is heading before the verb arrives, and the pattern starts to feel natural.

Reading English books with German alongside

For German speakers, a parallel text makes English books quicker going, especially novels full of idioms, dialogue and wordplay.

If you read both languages, it is a way to meet Kafka or Rilke in the original, with a translation beside the passages that need it.

394 English stories in the library have German alongside: Englisch lernen mit Kurzgeschichten.

Where a parallel text helps most in German

The verb at the end

In subordinate clauses the verb comes last, so the meaning of a whole sentence can hinge on its final word. The paired translation removes the suspense.

Compound nouns

German builds long nouns from short ones. Seeing them beside their English, often a phrase of three or four words, teaches you to take them apart.

Separable verbs

Verbs like anfangen split in two, with the prefix sent to the end of the sentence. The translation shows what the pieces mean together.

German classics to read in parallel

Long out of copyright and easy to find as EPUBs. Any of them makes a good first German–English parallel text:

  • Die Verwandlung, Franz Kafka
  • Der Sandmann, E. T. A. Hoffmann
  • Effi Briest, Theodor Fontane
  • Kinder- und Hausmärchen, Brüder Grimm

Or use a book you already own: the method works best with something you actually want to read. See how to read a parallel text to get the most from it.

Questions about German–English stories

Where can I read German stories with English side by side for free?

Right here: 376 free German–English stories open in the browser with no account, the English beside every paragraph, from A1 to C2.

What is a German–English parallel text?

A German text placed beside its English translation, paragraph by paragraph, so you can read in one language and glance across to the other whenever you need to.

Which German story should I start with?

Pick the level where you understand most of a page: the beginner stories use short sentences and common words, and the levels above them add longer sentences and richer vocabulary. Each story shows its level on the Common European Framework.

Can I read German–English stories on a Kindle or Kobo?

Yes. Every free story is also a bilingual ebook; downloading needs a free account, no payment. Subscriber books download with Reader.