It’s not as difficult as you might think to learn German, despite it being one of the hardest languages to learn. It can be frightening to learn German. Furthermore, it doesn’t help that there are countless different articles and complex grammatical structures that are rumored to exist. English speakers, however, can learn German quickly. Please read this article and try to determine why learning German is simpler than learning English.
Is German Easy To Learn For English Speakers?
Regular verbs’ past tense and past participle are both expressed by the same word in German, making it simple to remember how to conjugate these tenses.
There are no rules regarding whether or not a noun must be followed by an article in German because there are no articles in the language. As a result, learning German becomes much simpler since you don’t need to worry about memorizing challenging grammar rules.
Read More: Is It Difficult To Learn English? Why?
Germanic Language Rules
- There aren’t many hard sounds in German. The letter “his,” for instance, is pronounced like the word “hard” in English.
- Loanwords from other languages abound in the German language, but because they have been incorporated into the grammar structure, they are typically simple to understand.
- German words that are easy for English speakers to understand are the majority of the language’s vocabulary.
- The majority of German verbs only have two grammatical forms: the infinitive (to do) and the past participle (done).
- The writing system for the German language is left-to-right. The reverse, or from right to left, method of learning is used by English speakers.
Why German Is Easy For English Speakers To Learn
German is simple to learn for a variety of factors. These are the main explanations for why learning German is a goal that is reachable. Do not forget that with the right language learning techniques, even the best features of the language can be improved.
German Is Close To English
German and English are very similar languages, as was previously mentioned. The words that look alike or have a similar sound and have the same meaning are called cognates. The upshot of this is that you can easily and quickly increase your vocabulary. The following words have cognates in both German and English:
- die Prinzessin – princess
- schwimmen – to swim
- das Wasser – water
- der Frosh – frog
- das Buch – book
- das Eis – ice
Learning The German Alphabet Will Be Familiar
You might assume that the German alphabet is extremely new or difficult. It might seem intimidating with letters like “ä,” “ö,” “ü,” and “ß.” However, the English and German alphabets are essentially identical.
There are only 4 extra letters in the German alphabet, which contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet. It will therefore be simple to learn the alphabet.
Simple Pronunciation Rules In German
The harsh pronunciation of German is frequently exaggerated. The “ch” and “r” sounds can give the impression that the language is very aggressive. This is obviously untrue, though. Every other language has a melody, including German. And you could become fluent anyhow with enough practice.
What makes German pronunciation easy is clear rules. German is much simpler than English, which has many irregularities. You can apply the rules throughout the entire language once you have learned them all.
Like French, German doesn’t have any silent letters. which also greatly facilitates reading German.
Lots Of People Speak German
The use of German is widespread. Naturally, a large number of people speak it as their first language. But did you know that 289 million people also speak German as a second language? 15.4 million people are currently studying.
There must be many resources available to you in order for you to learn German. Compared to learning a difficult or uncommon language, this makes learning German much simpler.
Also very helpful and kind are the German people. When they find out that you’re learning German, they’ll encourage you, and even help you out. Asking a German person to check your grammar or pronunciation is always a good idea if you’re ever unsure.
German Verbs Are Easy To Conjugate
German grammar might seem like a monster to you. However, it often makes more sense than you might imagine. When you are learning German, conjugating verbs is very simple. The rules for regular and irregular verbs are the same. Let’s examine the following instance:
Geben – to give
- ich gebe
- du gebst
- er/sie/es gibt
- wir geben
- ihr gebt
- Sie geben
As you can see, the beginning is almost always the same while the ending varies from person to person. The verb tenses are also very similar to those in English.
The German pronunciation, “trink-trank-getrunken,” also alters the base vowel, similar to the English “drink-drink-drunk.” You’ll recognize them even though they are irregular verbs.
In general, learning German grammar is simple. There aren’t many exceptions to the rules because they are very clear. Once you are familiar with them, you can be sure of your knowledge. German is therefore simple to learn despite its infamous grammar thanks to this clarity.
Final Words
As you can see, it’s not hard for English speakers to learn German. German is a widely spoken and highly respected language in the world. You can learn about other cultures, develop your communication skills, and meet new people by studying German.