Is German a hard language to learn?

Answer 1

I personally say "yes" it is a hard language to learn. It's hard to speak as well as to learn the grammar. German has three genders for things (nouns).

SECOND OPINION:

I would say German isn't so hard to learn if you take it step by step and realize that all those impossible to remember words in German are simplistic once you know what they mean. For example, Geschirrspülmaschine comes from Geschirr (dishes), spülen (to wash), and Maschine (machine) it is the dish washing machine.

Third Opinion:

I argue that German is a harder language to learn than the other major European languages - Spanish French and Italian are all much easier for a native English speaker. The problem is the grammar - modern German grammar resembles old English and old French grammar - these languages were left by the wayside around 500+ years ago. There is a LOT of grammatical rules compared to English. For starters there are three genders. Secondly there are four cases - English and French do not have cases. They are annoying. Thirdly there are almost no rules for plurals. In English you just add s. In German each word has it's own plural form - ie das kind, die kinder, der tisch, die tische, die regel, die regeln. These are the major problems with German, although there are other issues that make it difficult. The verbs also require conjugations and there are irregular forms etc, but they are mostly annoying because of taking fairly arbitrary prepositions, i fall in love in, i wait on, i know from - commpletely different from English and somewhat counter intuitive. Add to this split verbs. Then there are the very very long compound words as described above. These are mostly intuitive, but not always, and of course you have to know all the meanings of the smaller words. You can get by speaking a bastard German, ie simplifying most of the genders to das, the plurals to "er" and ignoring the cases or using "dem" although you won't fool native speakers. You can learn the finer details if you think it's worth it and you have a few years to spend in Germany.

Fourth Opinion:

I, as a person who speaks almost 6 languages would say it's hard, but don't feel discouraged.

Fifth Opinion:

I say yes, but also no.

If you understand what you are learning, then it can be fairly easy. If you want to learn it, you can.

However, it can be confusing. I'm in my first year of German (and top of the class) and in my second year of Spanish. German is a lot harder than learning Spanish. There is not as many cognates (words that sound/are written nearly the same in English) as there is in Spanish. For example, die Apfel, apple, sounds nearly the same. In German you also have the articles: der, die, and das, which are matched to the noun. Those are harder to remember. In Spanish, it is easy because the noun usually ends in o (el, as in el perro [the dog]) or a (la, as in, la manzana [the apple]).

Sixth Opinion

I have been learning German for about a year and half. I don't think it is that hard to be fair. Yes there is the problematic Genders and Plurals and Cases. But while you will hate cases in the beginning, they become your friend later on. So if you want help with cases and Genders here they are.

Das can only indicate a neuter word.

Der is the Masculine Singular, also is the Feminine Dative, also the Genitive singular and plural.

Die can indicate a feminine or plural word in the nominative case.

Den comes only in masucline and dative plural forms.

Dem is the Dative Masculine and Neuter article.

Des is the Genative Masculine and Neuter.

This should make it easier for people learning German.

Seventh Opinion

If you love a language, it becomes much easier to learn.

The secret to learning German is to find a way to fall in love with it.

Answer 2

English is extremely difficult to speak fluently, but you can speak it very badly and still be understood.

The Language has a lot of traps for foreigners due to it's being formed of numerous other languages but, due to it's not having the complicated core grammar of most other European Languages, these mistakes generally just a non-native speaker sound stilted, instead of making them impossible to understand.

Another thing that makes English difficult are regional accents and slang, this is a global phenomenon, but is especially pronounced in England herself.

I am English, and it is oftentimes easier to understand somebody who is foreign than somebody who is from a different part of the country, since a foreigner will only use Standard English words, and will speak slowly, while a native speaker might take offense if not understood.

In conclusion, English is easy, it's just the way that we speak it that's hard!

Answer 3

The English language is a melange of many other languages.

As such, it tends to have a lot of inconsistencies from spelling to grammar. Words from French or even Gaelic are part of the English language, and retain their alternate rules of spelling and conjugation. Words from German, italian, Norwegian, Danish and others are all part of modern English.

Answer 4

That is a faulty question since it completely depends on whether you learned eastern languages first or western languages. Western are based off the Latin alphabet, which are interchangeable pieces which combine to form words.

Eastern uses strict characters which each represent a meaning, and is not interchangeable. Also the tone used when speaking a word changes its meaning, unlike western languages which has a flat word that's meaning never changes no matter how you say it.

Answer 5

It depends, because different people have learned different languages and in different ways and orders. Many languages are harder to learn than others, but many are saying Chinese is one of the hardest languages to learn.

Answer 6

No, English because it might not be your first language and the words are hard to pronounce if you re someone like me who is Polish.