Is German Easy to Learn? Let’s find out!!

Is German easy or hard? This is a huge question everyone faces. Although it is a popular language in the Wishlist of many learners across the world, it comes with its own challenges. In this blog, we will breakdown the challenges you face while learning German and how to solve it.

Is German Easy to learn??

1.????? Only Six Tenses

2.????? Pronunciations

3.????? Easy Compound Nouns

4.????? Familiar Vocabulary

What makes German hard to learn?

1.????? Every noun has a Gender

2.????? Sentence Structure Formation

3.????? Reading Number

4.????? Four Grammatical Cases

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Is German Easy to learn?

Absolutely, if you are fluent in English, Learning German will be an absolute cake walk. German is one of the easiest languages to learn for English Speakers. Keep in mind that it also depends on your routine, commitment and consistency.

What Makes German Easy?

1.Only Six Tenses

English is more complex in terms of the number of tenses as it has 12 tenses! In German, there are only six primary tenses: present, present perfect, simple past, past perfect, future, and future perfect. Let us gain more clear insights on this.

In German, there is no present-continuous form. To form this in English, you conjugate “to be” by adding “-ing” on to the end of the verb.

In German, there’s no difference between “I eat” or “I am eating,” both are simply the normal present tense:?ich esse. No brainer!

If you want to emphasize the on-going nature of an action, you can just use an adverb like?jetzt?(now) or?gerade?(currently).?

There’s also no present perfect tense either, so no “I have eaten,” just “I eat” or “I ate,” depending on the context.?

2.????? Pronunciation

German pronunciation is generally straightforward once you understand the sound system. Unlike some languages with complex tonal and phonic systems or irregular pronunciation rules, German tends to be phonetic, meaning words are pronounced as they are spelled.

3. Easily identify different words

In German all nouns, for example, are always written with a capital letter, making them way easier to pick out when reading a text. (Apfel, Mann, Frau, Deutsch…)?

Verbs are also easily recognizable in German, with almost all verbs ending on?-en?in their infinitive form (singen, tanzen, machen) and starting with?ge-?in the past tense (gesungen, getanzt, gemacht).?

This, in turn, makes it easier to figure out what a word is doing in those longer and complicated sentences.?

4.Compound nouns are actually easy

You’ve probably heard about German’s insanely long words and scary words. But it’s not as scary as it looks because German basically just loves to squish words together to form one word. For example, In German, "environmental science" can be broken down as follows:

"Environment" is "Umwelt" in German.

"Science" is "Wissenschaft" in German.

So, "environmental science" would be "Umweltwissenschaft" in German.

5. Familiar vocabulary

There are so many words with similarities to English which will take loads of burden off your shoulder.Particularly in the world of tech, you can understand many things without even knowing a lick of German:?Laptop,?streamen, downloaden, Homeoffice, liken…

These many overlaps will give you a serious head start on your German learning journey, and make texts or videos that might at first seem daunting, far more manageable on a closer look.?

What makes German hard to learn?

Every coin has two faces, similarly there are some areas where you might feel German is difficult. Let us break it down and find the solution!

?1.Every noun has a Gender

Every noun in German is either masculine, feminine or neutral.

?Gender is extremely significant in German as different genders could mean different thing. For example:

Fortunately, there are an?awful lot of patterns, like certain common noun endings always have a specific gender.

2. Sentence Structure Formation

English tends to have a simple structure of?subject + verb + object.?German, on the other hand, can be quite a headache about where its verbs need to go.

For example, the word?weil?always sends the verb to the end. So the sentence “She cannot come because she is currently very ill.” will read:?

Sie kann?nicht?kommen,?weil?sie gerade sehr?krank?ist.?(Literally: She cannot come because she currently very ill is.)

3. Reading Numbers?

Again, English is quite straightforward in this area as 27 literally reads twenty-seven! Twenty is pronounced first followed by seven. But in German, the second number is referenced first followed by base number.

Example:

25 in German is funfundzwanzig.

Here funf(5) is read first accompanied by und(and) and finally zwanzig(20)

4. The four grammatical cases

There are four cases in German:?Nominativ,?Genitiv, Dativ?and?Akkusativ.?This is definitely one of the biggest challenges for English speakers since we don’t have cases in our language.?

In a nutshell, words can change in German depending on what they are functionally doing in the sentence.?In grammatical terms we call this what “case” the noun is in.?Think about how in English, pronouns change depending on what the word does in the sentence. We use “he” if he is doing the action, but then “him” if the action is being done to him. Compare “he sees” with “I see him.”

In German, it affects most every word, from nouns, to pronouns to adjectives.?

Let’s look at the example:?Ich sehe den Hund. (I see the dog)

·???????? Ich?is the subject, as it is doing the action, seeing. The subject always goes in the nominative case.?

·???????? Den Hund?is the direct object, as it is receiving the action. The direct object always goes in the accusative case.??

But you might be thinking, isn’t it?der Hund??Correct! But the masculine noun?der Hund?turns to?den Hund?in the accusative case.?This is almost certainly the trickiest hurdle to get over when learning German. But, over time, what once seemed like an obstacle will soon become cake walk!?

Despite these challenges, with dedication, practice, and exposure to the language learners can overcome the difficulties and become proficient in German. While German may be relatively easier for some learners compared to other languages, everyone's experience with language learning is unique, and what one person finds easy, another may find challenging.

German is even easier with LearnningTree . At LearnningTree, we embrace your vision and aspirations, empowering you to explore new horizons through our strategic language learning guidance. With diverse language learning courses, interactive learning and cultural insights, it enriches your linguistic development.