Hardest Languages to Learn. It certainly isnt the easiest language for English native speakers to learn. However difficult it may be to learn, it is certainly an important piece of European culture. Learn which conjunctions change word order in German and which dont.
Freundschaftsbeziehungen (Friendship relations). It resembles English through the Roman writing script, although German has unique consonants like (pronounced Eszett). As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world!
As someone from a non English speaking country, you're always surrounded by English. 1. Photos: DPA.
Speakers: 75 million speakers.
Arabic. German. 25. Until the mid 14th century Latin was the official written language, as most of the German-speaking regions of Europe were comprised in the Holy Roman Empire. Youre doing your best, studying your chosen language daily, but still not feeling anything close to fluent. I think the hardest dialects are the ones that are considered to be separate languages: Plattdeutsch Schwyzerdtsch Ltzebuergesch If raoulsson says, even as a Swiss he can't understand Walliserdeutsch, it is possible that this is the "hardest" one. It uses the subject-object-verb (SOV) instead of the subject-verb-object (SVO). Indeed, Norwegian and Swedish took the best two spots. It is also a place to discuss the language at large and for the kinds of submissions that elaborate on the reasons why we're interested in German, where they're not geographically specific like /r/DE, /r/Austria or /r/Switzerland. Dutch language, like English, has an extensive population of speakers outside the Netherlands. I took off my pants. This entry was posted in Language on April 22, 2021 by media. Learning a new language opens the doors of communication in more ways than one.
Though varied by region, those of the southern half of Germany beneath the Benrath line are dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant shift, and the dialect continuum that connect German to the neighboring varieties of Low Franconian and Frisian. 5. Those expectations should be that yes, German has its tricky aspects. Indeed, we have delegated Danish as the most un-hard of the hardest dialects to learn. Learn languages October 26, 2011. The Worlds Hardest Languages to Learn for English Speakers. Some people separate Mandarin and Cantonese and the consensus is that Cantonese is more difficult. Here's my assumption: Learning English is different from an English person learning a different language. Japanese can be considered one of the hardest languages to learn because of just that- the writing system. Chinese, German and Russian or any of the other hardest languages to learn. 1. Cantonese (Chinese) Mandarin (Chinese) * Japanese. Mark (until 1923) French Franc (1920-1935) Reichsmark (1935-1947) Saar-Mark (June Nov 1947) French Franc (Nov 1947 1959) Deutsche Mark (1959-2002) Euro (2002 current) Verbs. Category IV offers a huge variety of languages from Amharic to Czech to Nepali to Tagalog, each demanding 44 weeks (or 1100 hours) of study. Croatian. You will be able to sharpen your comprehension and understanding of the sample text below, which is part of the Article 26 and 27 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sommer by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1810) Goethe is one of Germany's literary giants. With focus and lots of practice, German is very doable. An Honest Analysis For Beginners. The nearest sound you can compare it The vocabulary is huge. Written Mandarin is pictoral and contains over 20,000 characters. Is Italian easier than German? Go to top. It depends on the dialect you're learning.
It is spoken as a native language by 13 million people, most of whom live in Hungary. This is where lots of listening and a bit of patience come in. Swiss German (Schwiizerdtsch) 2. /as/. So if you think German is purist, then you havent heard of Icelandic. However, when comparing the main Scandinavian languages Danish, Swedish and Norwegian the great pick for the hardest language from these three is the Danish language.
But good news! For many foreign language learners figuring out which language in the world is the hardest to learn is easy: the one you are currently studying!
German is one language that has plenty of words for the gaps that English has neglected to fill. !Eichhrchen Shirts Here! 10 Difficult German Words and How to Pronounce Them 1. 1.
Yes. A mental violence, basically. /r/German is a community focused on discussion related to learning the German language.
Listen to people from Germany speak English in their native accent and, in some instances, German in their native dialect. One of the toughest umlaut to pronounce is the , which doesnt sound quite a lot like the vowel u. A mental violence, basically. If youre going to improve you will have to insist on speaking German. Beginning language learners may want to start with an easier language, such as Spanish, German or Italian. Let me quote some examples: Korean.
But is German really any tougher to learn than other languages? Translation services companies will do the job for you. Zulu. Haitian Creole. German dialects are the various traditional local varieties of the German language. While it may feel like English as a second language is fairly common in the world now, native English speakers have a surprisingly difficult time with Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische, frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritz. Category V: 88 weeks (2200 hours) Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers. These are the most difficult languages that are in critical need, so the Khoisan languages do not count. Call us today for a free consultation for all of your translation needs. What is the hardest language to learn for English speakers? Though German is in the same family as English, its nuanced pronunciation gives it a higher difficulty level than other Germanic languages. Learning Arabic. The varieties of Native to countries of the Arab League and a member of the West Semitic language family, this beautiful and highly expressive language is guaranteed to torment any English speaker who dares to learn it. Is German useful in America? Many of their words are very long with unfamiliar letters and Korean. Streichholzschachtel (Box of matches). 1 More Example Eichhrnchen neutral (n) Like any language, it just takes time, dedication, and patience. 1. Photos: DPA. What is the hardest language to read and write? But it's a Romanic language, which means it's not as closely related to German as English, and many things just work differently. Germany 1 female, 24, 1975, German (exact ethnicity N/A), Hamburg.
4. The hardest language in the world to learn for English speakers is Arabic. Dont worry though, only half of them will contradict each other. Deutsche Sprache, Schwere Sprache (German language, hard language) is a phrase German speakers use to acknowledge the challenges of learning the EUs most widely spoken mother tongue. Japanese writing combines five different systems- kanji, hiragana, katakana, Arabic numerals, and the Roman alphabet. Here are some of the most difficult challenges for Spanish language learners. Is German a level difficult? German Reading. Mandarin. Languages are determined by how long it takes to learn them, with the easiest language taking 24 to 48 weeks and the hardest language taking 88 weeks. The Defense Language Institute considers German to be a Category II (out of IV) language for difficulty. It takes approximately 36 weeks (900 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. You might be trying to learn one of the 9 hardest languages for English speakers. 3. This, along with the aforementioned 2. Well none? All languages are as hard to perfect as the next. But that said: You can make yourself understood in English, Dutch, German and East Sc Wise words: A red cabbage is always a red cabbage, and a wedding dress is always a wedding dress. Most languages, including English, string smaller words together to form longer ones, but the Germans take this practice to new extremes. Streichholzschchtelchen simply means small matchbox, though it looks like it should mean so much more. * Languages preceded by asterisks are usually more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category. Dutch. First category: 2324 weeks, or approximately 575600 hours. Official Language: South Korea and North Korea. Is Saarland actually German? Category III contains no European languages at all (though it does contain Indonesian, widely regarded as one of the objectively easiest languages to learn). Speaking properly in German gives a lot of satisfaction, but it is undoubtedly a hard language to learn for foreigners. If you're trying to practice your German Reading then the page below should help. Arabic also excludes vowels from words. An example of a German word with this sound is, precisely, wort. Assuming you read our article on the simplest dialects, you might recollect that the Germanic dialects from Scandinavia to a great extent ruled that rundown. Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French. Iceland is known to have some pretty difficult words to pronounce, from place names to everyday words.
2 Chinese. Mandarin is considered a super-hard language by the US Foreign Service Institute. As for the most difficult language, the State Department lists Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Arabic. Origin: This word is from a French word. The Bavarian Dialect (Bayerisch) 4. Learning a verb in Spanish entails much more just a single word. Germany 2 female, 26, 1973, German, Mnster (& Brussels, Belgium) 1. Arabic is considered among the most difficult languages to learn, especially for English speakers. Definition: exhibiting or characterized by freedom from concern or care. But when it comes to word order, the language leans more towards the German influence.
As well as its written script. The reply comes straight back to you in English. Pretty much Middle Easterners barely understand North African dialects (Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian as these 3 dialects are a mixture of Berber, Arabic and French)|It's hard to answer. Their class lasts for 35 weeks and includes about 750 hours of study. However, if youre up for a challenge, these are the 25 hardest languages to learn. Streichholzschchtelchen Pronounced (Schtraeyechholtsschaicktelchen) This one is a particular doozy due to the abundance of ch a combination not found in English. Many Americans who've never even tackled a foreign language have said Spanish is "easy", and yet for a German, say, of similar foreign-language challenged background, Spanish would be a nightmare of irregular tenses, whereby Dutch or even Danish would be much simpler for them. The German language has a reputation for being hard to pronounce, but, to be fair, its somewhat undeserved. Low German (Plattdtsch) 7. Youve done the hard prep work, made the effort to learn the language and ask a stranger a question in German. My native language is Hungarian, I speak both English and German. I think the best way to put arguments is to break it down to "inside the box" and Can you say Zungenbrecher (tz-ung-en-bre-cher) like these native speakers? In this sense, it can be difficult to call any language harder or easier to learn than another. Mandarin. Mandarin, on the other hand, is a hard language to learn to grasp for an English speaker. The word that describes the emotion youre feeling may actually exist youre just searching for it in the wrong language. Also a difficult one in English, this is a classic when it comes to difficult German words 2. Hardest language to learn #4: Mandarin. Only about 700,000 people speak Basque, so you wont run into it often, but what makes it difficult to learn is that it bears zero resemblance to any other language in the world. The video above shows people struggling with some complex and difficult German words. 4. A student who is starting to learn German, will have a really hard time finding the meaning of words in a dictionary. Certain words are separable, others appear with endings that have to be taken off, and, often, 2 or more words are combined to make just one word, without it appearing as that word in the dictionary. Pronunciation. Here are a few of my favourites. Umlaut vowels (or vowels with double dots) are one of the hardest concepts to wrap your head around when learning German. There's no doubt about it, German can be a challenge for language learners. Theres no such thing as an intrinsically difficult or easy language anywhere. If there were, children learning their native tongue would progress Is it easier to learn German or Dutch? Can you learn 2 languages at once? Pronunciation: in-SOO-see-unt. The line dividing the region where Upper German (in the south) and Lower German (in the north) were spoken can be traced from Aachen to Frankfurt an der Oder. of speakers: 5.5 4. A few examples of similar words in the two languages are: animal: Tier ( German) / dyr ( Norwegian) color: Farbe ( Year: 1951. Many words of more than 10 synonyms and most of them have the same meaning. I would say that Icelandic is the most difficult Germanic language. Deutsch-Test fr Zuwanderer A2/B1 or DTZ (a German language test for immigrants levels A2/B1 beginner/intermediate) is for those who are already living in Germany and wish to apply for German citizenship. 9. In German, w is pronounced like an English v. To learn more about Icelandic, see this tutorial on writing emails and letters in Icelandic. There is no such thing as the Germanic language. There is a German language (this is the language spoken natively in Germany, Austria, and Switze Hungarian. Arabic. Korean.
The Icelandic language is easiest to learn if you understand any other Nordic or German language. What language is closest to English? This is one of the hardest sound-to-spelling rules for English speakers and a frequent source of confusion for both German and English people trying to speak each others languages. This makes it one of the easiest languages to speak for Germans. German is (in)famous for its long words. One of the hardest languages to learn by French speakers (despite being in the Spanish and Portuguese languages family too). Arabic is a very guttural sounding language with a unique set of sounds. The Berlin Dialect (Berlinerisch) 6. The language of the land of ice and snow [1] I would say that Icelandic is the most difficult Germanic language. This is the most conservative Nort Because certain sounds are Whether it's online or whether your culture has expressions and phrases from English, you always feel from a young age that one of the "goals" is English. A student who is starting to learn German, will have a really hard time finding the meaning of words in a dictionary. Basque. For many Germans, though, a dialect is the first language they grow up speaking, something that they live and breathe. The further south you go in Germany, the more likely you are to find colourful variations of the German you learn in German class. But there are also dialects spoken in the north of Germany. This creates a cocktail that can prove incredibly difficult for language learners, confusing even seasoned students. This test was jointly developed by the Goethe Institute and telc gGmbH. Mandarin is the most widely spoken global language, belonging to the Chinese group of languages. In general I would say that German is not very difficult to pronounce. German is a very rich language that allows for the expression of ideas and concepts without much confusion. Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose Moreover, it is roughly the same type of language as both, as it has the (major) vocabulary of the latter plus the (minor) grammar. This German word literally translates to shit, crap, or damn and is the most commonly used German swear word. There are different kinds of conjunctions that have different effects on the sentence. German is one of the hardest languages to learn for non-native English speakers. U.S. rankings rank Japan as the third most populous country. The hardest languages for native English speakers to learn Icelandic (1100 hours) .
This is the most conservative North Germanic language and on top of that, the speakers of this language are very purist. The result is that unlike other languages, where it is pretty much enough to learn a word and move on, in German youll have to simultaneously learn its gender and its plural form. Its a fricative, labiodental sound. Wise words: A red cabbage is always a red cabbage, and a wedding dress is always a wedding dress. German is easier to read than English ( but not easier than French, f.i.). Capitalisation of nouns and gerunds, generous use of commas, that fact t The Upper Saxon Dialect (Schsisch) 5. Culture 10 German words non-Germans can't pronounce. Please select a sample from the list below. This is called L1 interference (to get really technical) and its a phenomenon that affects all language learners. 1. Basque. Generally regarded as one of the most difficult languages in the world, since it is not even remotely related to anything else. 2. Georg
For native English speakers, the Foreign Services Institute is the most challenging language to learn. The characters of the Chinese language make it one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, but they also are one of the most beautiful and charming aspects of the Chinese language.
The ch isnt quite a hard k sound, but more like the rough sounds German is known for. As someone who always felt that Finnish was less of a challenge than I had assumed, heres my two cents. I started learning Finnish for the same re Its singular, dual and plural forms of pronouns, nouns, verbs, and adjectives take some time to get used to.
The concept of articles probably confused you when you learned English, and the concept of like six ways of saying "the" in German bewilders a lot of Americans and Brits learning German. Dutch is also called Netherlandic or Dutch Nederlands in Belgium it is called Flemish or Flemish Vlaams. 3 More Examples ber (p) over Sie haben das Schild ber die Strae gehngt. When exclaimed alone, the closest English translation would be Damn! or Damn it!. 1. German vs English Language Challenge! Many beginner level language students have the misconception that German is an almost impossible language to learn. Oct 31, 2017. Dutch language, like English, has an extensive population of speakers outside the Netherlands. Grammar is so complicated that most Arabic speakers aren't aware of the accurate grammar rules. If we seek more of an objective answer, though, most experts will list Arabic as one of the hardest languages in the world to Dutch speakers usually describe the language as a combination of English and German. 1 Arabic Arabia Hardest Language in the World. May 5, 2020. Part of speech: adjective. However, it is also undoubtedly a very beautiful language. The Hardest Languages to Learn for English Speakers . Norwegian vocabulary is rather similar to German vocabulary. There is no Germanic language that is easily understood by speakers of all other Germanic languages without training. However, there is a high degr Arabic is hard for many other reasons. The German language has a reputation for being quite aggressive and having words that are hard to pronounce. However, the language is also home to some beautiful German words, expressing concepts that dont exist in the English language. Dutch. Austrian German (sterreichisches Deutsch) 3. However, there is no general agreement on that. 5. French is about as complex as German, it's not particularly hard. 2. Learn the rules of German word order and practice them so that you can you use the language more confidently. However, it's not the only super long word in the German language and, technically, it's not even the longest. Here, your native language gets in the way of the language youre trying to learn. German. Here is a list of the top hardest languages to learn: 1. German is also far from being the most difficult foreign language for a native English speaker. Torschlusspanik This German phrase means gate-closing panic when translated directly, but really describes the feeling of urgency to accomplish something before its too late. Is German worth learning? 7 Different Types of German You Should Be Able to Recognize 1. In my opinion the clear winner (or loser?) Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. The hardest language to learn is German.
