German may not be on the list of easiest languages to learn, but it's not one of the ten most difficult either.
If you're looking for a quick answer to the question of whether learning German is really as hard as you've heard - the answer is yes and no.
We've taken a look at some of the main reasons why people find German challenging, and put together a few facts that might change your mind.
Read on to learn why learning German might not be as difficult as you think.
Especially when we're trying to learn it in a fast-paced world, perhaps before or after work, or even in between other tasks.
German, with its endless amount of pronouns, specific vocabulary, and unfamiliar hard pronunciation to remember, doesn't sound much like a beach vacation.
Let's have a closer look at the German language. About 40% of German words are at least similar to English words with the same meaning.
That's almost half of all the words you could ever learn!
English and German come from the same language family, so about 80% of common English expressions are also of German origin.
For example:
Ich habe vs. I have; or Was ist das vs. What is that?
The longest word ever formed in the German language is "Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft", i.e. the "Association of the sub-officials of the main operating management of the Danube steamship electrics", with 80 letters. But this is a neologism cobbled together more out of fun than necessity and cannot be found in any dictionary.
The trick to mastering longer words is to look at the words that make them up.
In English, we often use a space or hyphen between the two parts that make up a word.
In German, we usually write all the parts together.
For example:
Busfahrer vs. bus driver
This also means that combining two German words into one word often works.
Try it out! Los geht's!
German pronunciation is hard
Guess what: the fact that German pronunciation is hard also tends to be part of the fake news. In fact, German is one of the few languages where pronunciation makes sense.
Each letter or combination of letters usually sounds the same, no matter where it is placed in the word. This is in contrast to English, where letters change their sound all the time: Just think of vase, case, and brass.
Once you memorize the patterns, pronouncing a word in German is easier than you think!
German grammar is complex. There's nothing to sugar-coat.
Its complexity can be frustrating at times, and will probably take a while to master.
Some of our students here at GermanMind struggle with the grammatical cases (to be honest, they can be a pain even for native speakers).
But once you understand how useful they are, you'll see why it's worth the work.
The cases help us to be very precise and unambiguous when it comes to, for example, who is performing or receiving the action in a sentence.
Ultimately, it makes our communication clearer and more efficient.
The good thing is that understanding English grammar can be of great benefit to understanding German grammar.
And remember, many English and German sentences have the same root word, so word order will seem familiar.
So don't worry if you don't always get the cases perfect.
People will still understand you, and that's the main goal at the beginning, right?
Is German really that hard to learn?
With lots of simple rules, German is not as hard to learn as most people think.
And since English and German are from the same language family, you might be surprised at what you learn without even trying!
And on top of that, it's also a useful language.
With about 130 million speakers, German is the 11th most spoken language in the world.
So what are you waiting for?
With a 5-star rating in teaching German, our native German teachers focus on students goals and progression, with exclusive offerings to enhance your learning experience in a fun and interactive way.
If you are serious about learning German, GermanMind is the only choice!
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