German noun, masculine · CEFR A1
der Chef
Meaning in English: boss
False friend: Chef is not “chef”. It is the boss. A cook in a restaurant is der Koch. More false friends.
Example
Mein Chef ist heute gut gelaunt.
My boss is in a good mood today.
Der, die or das?
Chef is masculine: der Chef. How to tell the gender from the ending.
How common is Chef?
Chef is number 1,833 of the 5,000 most common German words. In the texts the list is counted from it appears 50 times per million words — about once every 20,000 words.
Know every word down to this one and you recognise about 70% of the words in an ordinary German text. A1 means a beginner word, usually met in the first weeks of learning.
Next to it in the frequency list
- 1,829der Flughafenairport
- 1,830zuständigeresponsible, relevant
- 1,831der Ratadvice; council
- 1,832Kartencards, tickets, maps
- 1,833der Chefboss
- 1,834die TürkeiTurkey
- 1,835nähercloser, nearer; more closely
- 1,836bestehendenexisting
- 1,837besonderesspecial, particular
In these word lists
- The 5,000 most common German words#1,833
- The most common German nouns#728
- German A1 vocabulary#510
- The most common German masculine nouns (der)#195
Translations, levels and examples were written with AI help and are awaiting review by a native speaker — how the list was made.