Comments on: How hard of a language is German to learn?

By: Gerr F

Gerr F — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 21:10:36 +0000

Look at the fastest and most effective way to learn German on this planet.

You can speak German Confidently and Naturally in less than 8 weeks!
References :

By: Deus ex Machina

Deus ex Machina — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:29:42 +0000

If you knew Latin it would be much easier to learn the German language.
But even if you knew Latin German is much harder to learn.
The adjective shows three declination-schemes depending on which accompanying word you have to choose (definite article, indefinite article or no article).
P. ex.
the great man
der groß-e Mann

a great man
ein groß-er Mann

great man
groß-er Mann

You have to differentiate and learn four cases:
Nom.: der Mann
Gen.: des Mann-es
Dat.: dem Mann
Akk.: den Mann

Linked with the definite article and an adjective you got:
Nom.: der groß-e Mann
Gen.: des groß-en Mann-es
Dat.: dem groß-en Mann
Akk.: den groß-en Mann

If you have to use the indefinite article you got:
Nom: ein groß-er Mann
Gen.: ein-es groß-en Mann-es
Dat.: ein-em groß-en Mann
Akk.: ein-en groß-en Mann

Without any article you got the same forms without the indefinite article:
Nom: groß-er Mann
Gen.: groß-en Mann-es
Dat.: groß-em Mann
Akk.: groß-en Mann

This is the masculine gender; in German you have also the feminine and the neuter gender:
the man – the woman – the child
der Mann – die Frau – das Kind

Okay, masculine and neuter gender are declinated similarily, except of the Akk. neutr. which is formally identical with the Nominative (as in Latin).

This is much harder than in French where no declination is found.
Somewhat likened these both languages are in their conjugation of the verbs – this conjugation shows a multifarious picture of forms and irregular verbs.
Take the personal endings of a regular verb in present time:
fragen (to ask)
ich frag-e
du frag-st
er/sie/es frag-t
wir frag-en
ihr frag-t
sie frag-en

German is my maternal language and I estimate it – but as we natural speakers of German say:
"Deutsche Sprach', schwere Sprach'." That means:
"German language is a hard language."
But hey, we love it – otherwise there wouldn't so much stuff to discuss and argue.
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By: jusso

jusso — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:42:41 +0000

finnish is much easier.....
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By: lizzie

lizzie — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:15:48 +0000

German is written phonetically and is closer to English than French but the grammar is harder than French grammar as in German there are more genders for nouns and the definite and indefinite articles ( the / a/an ) all change according to the case of a sentence and any adjectives you use with these nouns must match the gender and case. Here are some examples.
das Buch = the book
Das Buch ist gut. The book is good.
Das ist ein gutes Buch. That is a good book.
Ich lese das gute Buch. I am reading the good book.
Ich lese ein gutes Buch. I am reading a good book.
Der Autor meines guten Buches… The author of my good book …
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By: brian

brian — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:15:38 +0000

Most English speakers find Spanish or French easier to learn than German. I found the opposite to be true. German is a complicated language in terms grammar, but it is very structured and it has few exceptions.

Pronunciation of German also has few exceptions, and does not have multiple silent letters like French.

German isn't "nice" to listen to like a romance language, but it is better than Dutch….LOL
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20 yr German speaker.

By: Caicos Turkey

Caicos Turkey — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:14:08 +0000

German is very easy to start and then gets harder. It is very different from French and you will probably tend to like one more than the other. Unless you go ahead and have a go, you'll never find out for yourself whether you prefer the romance languages or the Teutonic languages. Please give it a try!
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By: Gespenst

Gespenst — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:13:13 +0000

not so hard, where I live children at 2 years old learn to use it.
So, how hard can it be if even babies can do it?
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native