This article is dedicated to the study of the reasons for the use of stylistically lower vocabulary by young people in contemporary German.Despite the presence of some works on the proposed topic, there is still no research that investigates the differential distinction between the terms "slang," "jargon," and "argot," their stylistic features, and the reasons for the use of youth jargon by young people.Previous studies have examined youth vocabulary from a linguocultural perspective or have focused on its semantic and functional characteristics.The issue of social differentiation in the lexical composition of the German language is attracting more and more attention from Germanist researchers, as social factors influence the development of every language.Language as a social phenomenon reflects interpersonal relationships, which are represented by both common vocabulary and expressive vocabulary, including sociolects (jargon, slang, and argot).Jargon is closer to literary language, differs from it by specific vocabulary and pronunciation, but it does not have its own phonetic and grammatical system.Slang is emotionally charged vocabulary of a low and familiar style, common among lower social classes and certain age groups (craftsmen, school youth) and it involves departure from the norms of literary language.Argot, unlike slang and jargon, is a "secret language," a closed subsystem of language that contains elements of code and serves narrow social interests.Socially differentiated vocabulary is used for specific communicative reasons, reflecting particular speech preferences, and serves as an expressive or euphemistic synonym for already existing literary lexical units in the language.Jargonisms, slang, and argotisms are characterized by metaphorical reinterpretation, and a large number of neologisms are found among the studied vocabulary.Linguists attribute the main reasons for the emergence of youth vocabulary to the desire of young people to distance themselves from society and language norms, as well as to express their originality and creativity.In the future, it would be useful to examine the lexicostylistic and structural features of youth vocabulary in a comparative aspect using German and Ukrainian as material.