The celebrated writers of the 19th century, such as Goethe and Schiller, are generally credited with giving High German (or what is also known as Standard High German) its modern written form, creating a language for thinkers, writers, and scientists. The period of Modern High German started with Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible in the early 16th century.
To help you get to grips with the German language, this guide includes the following information: Indeed, a 2021 report showed that some 15.4 million people worldwide are currently learning German as a foreign language, and numbers are increasing, proving that it isn’t impossible to master. Despite having a reputation as being one of the most difficult languages to learn, German is actually not as difficult to grasp as it may first appear. German is the second most widely spoken language in the European Union (after English) and an official language in six countries in Europe.
#Best german words in english how to#
Here’s how to say a few basic German phrases.We delve into the origins and characteristics of the German language and provide information on where to learn it in Germany and abroad. Simple German phrases like “Good morning” and “How are you?” grease the wheels of daily conversation in most every language, including German. , but the basic conversational building blocks are a great place to start. The vowels “a,” “o,” and “u” have differing pronunciation if they are used with the umlaut (¨) as in ä, ö, and ü. While the scharfes S, ß, looks tricky, you can make its sound as an “ss.” “V” can be pronounced as “v” or as “f”, and “w” sounds like “v”. In words like Buch (book) and Bach (stream), it sounds like the Scottish pronunciation of the “ch” in Loch Ness. In German, the digraph “ch” sounds like the hiss a cat might make in words such as ich (I), mich (me/myself) and Licht (light). Let’s take a look at some of the more challenging sounds.
However, the German language does have a few sounds not found in English.
#Best german words in english plus#
However, unlike in English, the word order in a main clause can also be rearranged to emphasize something other than the subject by putting it first.Ī huge leg up for English speakers is that the German alphabet shares the same 26 letters as the English alphabet, plus the characters ä, ö, ü, and ß. In German, a sentence with a simple main clause can be written in a similar order to that in English (subject+verb+object).
Might not be as difficult as you imagine after you take note of the numerous similarities between the English and German languages. Here’s a German language primer for the basic aspects of German grammar and pronunciation, as well as a short list of common German phrases to get you started , so it’s a good idea to begin with simple phrases like how to say “Hello,” or how to say “I love you” in German. Grammar alone won’t teach you how the language is used by the Whether it’s for vacation, curiosity, or necessity, you can hit the ground running andīy familiarizing yourself with some of these basic German phrases. However, with about 128 million people worldwide who speak German as a second or learned language, you will not be alone as you conquer some of these tricky vocabulary pieces. It was Mark Twain who famously took offense to the “clumsy” tendency of the German language to create compound, multi-syllable words. At first glance, German does have some intimidating vocabulary. Learning to speak German sometimes can be thought of as a daunting task. After English, German is the most widely spoken language of the European Union, and is an official language in numerous countries- including Austria, Belgium, Germany, parts of Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, and Switzerland. There are over 229 million German speakers worldwide. German is a prominent language of both business and culture in the EU and beyond.