how hard is it to learn German?

As somebody who speaks both, I can tell you that german is harder in grammar, but french is harder in pronounciation by far. German pronounciation is VERY easy because there are no silent letters whereas french as many silent letters. The reason that german grammer is hard is because it's different than english. I see a lot of people here saying that it's the same, but its not. For example, to say "If I had more money, I would buy myself a car."...in german: "Wenn Ich mehr geld hätte, würde Ich mir selbst ein Auto kaufen.", literally, "if i more money had, would i my self a car buy"...you can see that the word order is hard...whereas in french: "si j'avais plus d'argent, je m'acheterait une voiture", literally: if i had more money, i for me would buy a car"...you can see that french grammar is more like english grammar. if you'd like more information, please contact me.

also, one more side note: english words have roots both in german and french....more directly to german

examples:

french:
aimer=to love....aimable comes from aimer
plus=more....plus is an english word too

german:
sprechen=to speak....the english word speak comes from sprechen
recht=right.....you can see the ressemblane
Angst=angst.....didn't even change for english

some examples of words whose roots are hidden:

german:
reden=to talk
kaufen=to buy
Entschuldigung=welcome/apology

french:
annuler=to cancel
lire=to read
parler=to talk

2006-08-20 13:41:06 · answer #1 · answered by John 2 · 41⤊ 1⤋

Is German Hard To Learn

2016-11-01 04:30:30 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋

Learn German Fast ans Easy!

2016-07-14 02:24:40 · answer #3 · answered by jacquelyn 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋

As a second laguage German is harder to learn then English or French. I don't know about other languages. I had my education in Germany so I should know :-).
Some things are easier. Pronunciation is more consistant. So are the rules for placing commas, periods and other interpunctations.
Grammar is more complicated, as is spelling. There are more characters in the German alphabeth. Also, there are some very long composite words that would be separated in English.
For instance: great grandfather = Urgrossvater,
or: large property owner = Grossgrundbesitzer etc.
or: through traffic = Durchgangsverkehr - just to show some samples.
However, the grammar is the worst. I won't bore you with samples.

2006-08-20 15:59:19 · answer #4 · answered by fresch2 4 · 9⤊ 0⤋

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
how hard is it to learn German?
Compared with learning French?

2015-08-18 20:16:09 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋

I'm learning German right now!
English is more of a Germanic language than French, so if you would be a German-and-English speaking (insert nationality) it would be easier.
Well, this all depends on your natural abilities. I found German easier because of its vocal posture. French had a posture that I couldn't possibly get used to, so I dropped out.
:D
Hope this makes sense.

2015-02-26 10:05:44 · answer #6 · answered by W 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋

I have taken German every year since my freshman year in high school (i'm a college sophomore), and I took French my senior year in high school. I didn't have trouble with either language, but whenever I heard some person complaining how hard French class was, I would think to myself "that person does NOT want to even ATTEMPT to learn German then." I'd say German has a decent level of difficulty.

People say that French is harder, since English and German are related, but you have to realize that after the Norman Conquest, French had a lot of influence on English, so I think German's relationship to English plays a fairly insignificant role in its ease of learning vis a vis French.

2006-08-20 13:08:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 12⤊ 1⤋

I found French far easier. German has a lot more grammatical rules than French. For a start, it has 3 definitive & 3 indefinitive articles. It has 4 cases, which all change the forms of the definitive & indefinitive articles. It changes the endings of its adjectives according to the gender of the article. It has 3 extra vowels & the 'sz' character. It has a lot more irregular verbs.

Shall I go on????

2006-08-20 11:41:39 · answer #8 · answered by manorris3265 4 · 11⤊ 0⤋

I found French harder. It is true that German has more grammatical rules but I found that they were logical. French was more difficult to pronounce. However, if you have already learned Spanish or Italian, then French would be easier.

2006-08-20 11:44:07 · answer #9 · answered by Maggie 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋

german is actually quite easy to learn. The sentence structure is closer to english, and the words, though they look complex, are not. German is a very organized language. I learned how to speak converstationally in one year or evening classes after work.

2006-08-20 11:43:36 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 6⤋

thank you for your explanations, as i understand it, german language is somewhat like forth programming language.

2014-08-25 04:08:43 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋

how hard is it to learn German?

18 answers