Is it so difficult to speak German?

German is a language that has a reputation for being difficult among the Spanish, and also for those who speak languages ​​derived from Latin, but, even so, there are many reasons to learn it. Also, if you speak English, it may be easier for you since a lot of vocabulary has similarities with the Anglo-Saxon language.

Is it difficult to speak German?

We know that the world is full of topics and logically it turns out that not all of them conform to reality, so we can ask ourselves, is German really as difficult as they say? Naturally, learning the language will be a slower process than studying a language that is related to yours, but surely little by little you will take it easy and you will be able to master it if you put your effort into it.

Next, we are going to address some of the characteristics of German so that you quickly realize what you are going to find if you decide to learn this extremely useful Germanic language and therefore so widely spoken in the world.

It has very defined rules

 Well, and starting with the simplest and most direct, we will tell you that, even though its sound is quite strange for us Spaniards and Latinos, learning the pronunciation of German is not going to be so difficult , as an advantage, unlike English, it has very good standards. defined.

Germanic, Anglo-Saxon and Latin vocabulary

It may seem that when we enter the field of vocabulary we already begin to complicate ourselves a bit. This is true because most of the words in German are of Germanic origin (naturally), and that is why it will not remind you of Spanish at all, however, many that are commonly used are quite similar to English.  And one more thing in our favor is that most of the educated German words tend to come from Latin.

German, the language of philosophy

Indeed, German is the language of philosophy that is the product of a culture and a history, which must logically be reflected in its language, enriching it with a good number of vocabulary and no fewer nuances. German has earned the fame of the 20th century language given its importance and contribution to contemporary art.

Declension and Word Formation

 It is also true that the formation of words in the German language offers certain difficulties , because many words are formed by the combination of several words. Pronouns, adjectives, and nouns are inflected in German.

In addition, German has a neutral gender, masculine and feminine, and the construction of the plural is more difficult than in Spanish. However, the conjugation of verbs is much simpler than that of Spanish, as its verbs have fewer tenses. On the other hand, irregular verbs turn out to be easier

German pronunciation

To know how to pronounce in German , one must learn the sounds of vowels, consonants and diphthongs. Unlike English, which is NOT phonetic, you can learn the pronunciation rules to know how to speak German correctly. It is not that from the first moment you are going to pronounce correctly, but the rules are fixed and you will have to practice the different sounds.

What are declensions and cases?

We have already said that in German both demonstratives and nouns and adjectives are inflected, but what does this mean?

Cases reflect the function that a word performs in a sentence. In Spanish to do this we usually resort to the use of prepositions but in German they are used for circumstantial complements. In German there are four cases:

• Nominative: indicates the subject, that is, who performs the action.
• Accusative: corresponds to the Direct Complement in Spanish, that is, what or who receives the action of the verb.
• Dative : corresponds to our indirect object, indicates what or who receives the indirect action of the verb.
• Genitive : indicates membership in a way similar to the English Saxon genitive.

The declensions are consequently the suffixes that are added to the words depending on the case in which they are used, that is, on the function they exercise in the phrase. In other words, the same name will have a different ending if it works as a subject or direct object in the sentence.

Basic structure of a German sentence

If you have read this far, you are probably quite clear that the order of the words within the sentence is quite important in German.

The words are arranged in groups within the sentences conforming the subject, the verb and the different complements as well as particles, these groups are the ones that have to have a certain order.

In declarative sentences and interrogatives with pronouns, the verb is always in the second position. In questions without a pronoun and imperatives it goes in the first position, that is, it starts the sentence.

The subject is never omitted

The simplest phrase will be made up of a subject and an intransitive verb:

• Ihr geht (you go)

With transitive verbs that require complements, the sentences get a little more complicated: subject + verb + complement

• Sie sehen uns (They see us)

If there is more than one complement, they are followed in order of importance

• Ich gebe die Information dem Polizist (I give the information to the policeman)

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