Levels of linguistic ability are significantly determined by the breadth and depth of an individual's vocabulary. For anyone who wants to develop their vocabulary for personal or professional reasons, an insight into vocabulary-building is very useful: Which types of set phrases are important? How does the grouping of words into families help? How can you best recognise and remember metaphors? What are the functions of technical terms, educated vocabulary or regionalisms? How do you use a dictionary? How does your native language affect your acquisition of German vocabulary? This book answers these questions from the learner's perspective. It uses examples from the elementary vocabulary A1 to B1 and from the basic vocabulary, comprising some 7,000 words. This vocabulary has already proven its worth as a tool in university practice and is just as suitable for individual study as for classroom learning. It is particularly useful for students and teachers of German as a foreign language both within and outside Germany as it contains structured materials for studying and communicating the vocabulary.