Common Hobbies in German
Let's start with the words for the most popular hobbies first. Many people would mention travelling, cooking or listening to music when asked about their hobbies.
Here is a list of German words for different hobbies:
- kochento cook
- fotografierento photograph
- reisento travel
- wandernto hike
- laufento run
- kletternto climb
- faulenzento laze about
- feiern gehento party
- Musik hörento listen to music
Sports
Let's have a look at the area of sports next: Many Germans enjoy doing sports as a past time activity. Popular sports here in Germany include football, handball, tennis, swimming, and cycling.
- der Fußballfootball
- das Tennistennis
- das Schwimmenswimming
- das Schlittschuhlaufenice skating
- das Badmintonbadminton
- der Volleyballvolleyball
In case you're interested in seeing a few more words for all different kinds of sports, check out our full article on German sports vocabulary.
Not included in the above list are fitness activities, such as running (laufen), hiking (wandern), and gym workouts (im Fitnessstudio trainieren), which are also very popular hobbies in Germany.
Arts & Crafts
- strickento knit
- häkelnto crochet
- nähento sew
- töpfernto do pottery
- malento paint
- zeichnento draw
- bastelnto do handicrafts
- tanzento dance
- schauspielento act
Collecting
If you are collecting something as a hobby, there are only a few words
you will need to remember, most importantly die Sammlung:
- die Sammlungcollection
- das Briefmarkensammlungstamp collection
- Briefmarken sammelnto collect stamps
- Comcihefte sammelnto collect comic books
Games
A lot of people love playing games as a hobby. Whether it's billard, ping pong or darts. Here are some common words for popular games:
- das Billardbillard
- das Dart / das Dartsdarts
- das Tischtennisping pong
- der Kickertable football
- das Kartenspielcard game