Goethe A1 Sprechen: all three parts with example questions and answers

Sprechen is the only part of the Goethe A1 you cannot solve silently: about 15 minutes, in a group of two or three candidates, with an examiner running the room. The good news: it is the most predictable part of the exam — three parts, three task types, all of them rehearsed at home. The bad news: it is also where nervous candidates lose the most points, with the format sitting right in their pocket.

Teil 1: Introducing yourself (~5 minutes)

The self-introduction is the only stretch of the entire exam you prepare at home. Five slides: name, where you are from, where you live, marital status and work or study, one hobby, why German. Five or six sentences, each built so you can vary it when the examiner asks a follow-up. Say it aloud until you are bored — and deliver it as an answer, not a recitation: the examiner will almost certainly ask one extra question, and a memorized text will not survive it.

• Ich heiße Anna Petrova. Ich komme aus Russland. Ich wohne jetzt in Kasan.
• Ich bin verheiratet und habe einen Sohn. Ich arbeite als Buchhalterin.
• Meine Hobbys sind Schwimmen und Kochen. Ich lerne Deutsch, weil ich nach Deutschland ziehen möchte.

Teil 2: Asking and answering questions (~5 minutes)

The core of the part: a card shows one word — you build a question from it, and the candidate opposite answers. Then the roles swap: you are shown a word, the examiner asks you, you answer. The costliest mistake is not grammatical: candidates state sentences instead of asking questions. The card words are always the same dozen: Beruf, Hobby, Wohnort, Familie, Sprache, Uhrzeit, Tag, Wetter, Essen, Urlaub.

• Card “Beruf”: Was sind Sie von Beruf? — Ich bin Krankenpflegerin. / Wo arbeiten Sie? — Im Krankenhaus.
• Card “Hobby”: Was machen Sie gern in Ihrer Freizeit? — Ich lese gern und gehe schwimmen.
• Card “Uhrzeit”: Wann beginnt der Deutschkurs? — Er beginnt um neun Uhr.
• Card “Wohnort”: Wo wohnen Sie? — Ich wohne in Hamburg, in der Nähe vom Hafen.

Teil 3: Requests and responses (~5 minutes)

The final part tests politeness formulas: you request — your neighbour responds — then the reverse. The card gives a situation (Sie brauchen Hilfe. Sie möchten Geld wechseln), the candidate opposite must phrase the request, you respond. Three request formulas and three response formulas are enough; learn them as pairs.

• Request: *Können Sie mir bitte helfen? / Könnten Sie das Fenster öffnen? / Ich hätte gern ein Glas Wasser.*
• Response — agreeing: *Ja, natürlich. / Kein Problem. / Gerne.*
• Response — declining (this is graded too!): *Tut mir leid, ich kann jetzt nicht. / Leider habe ich keine Zeit.*

Rehearsing all three parts in the real format is what separates a prepared candidate from an unprepared one: the full Start Deutsch 1 papers include the speaking part in its original format, with cards and roles. One run on paper teaches more than three YouTube videos.