What makes German pronunciation easy is clear rules. While in English, there are a lot of irregularities, German is much more straightforward. Once you learn all the rules, you can use them for the whole language. German also doesn't have silent letters like French.
So is German Easy to Learn For English Speakers? We think so. Despite its initial complications, you'll find German to be an easier language to learn than most. The good news is, the benefits of learning German also outweigh other foreign languages as well.
One of the main reasons German isn't all that hard to learn is that German and English originate from the same language families and share more similarities than you probably realise. Both German and English are Indo-European languages that stem from the Germanic family of languages.
English Partially Originates In Germanic Languages
About 40% of German and English vocabulary are very similar to each other, which makes German one of the easiest languages to learn for native English speakers. So, basically, if you already know English, it should be a piece of cake for you to learn German.
But, I would definitely say that German is a little more difficult that English. English Grammar is easier than German Grammar. English is 50% of Grammar and 50% or vocabulary. Whereas German is 75% Grammar and 25% vocabulary ( which is equally difficult).
Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung (36)
Officially recognised by the Duden - Germany's pre-eminent dictionary - as the longest word in German, Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung is a 36-letter, tongue-tying way of describing a rather, mundane everyday concept: motor vehicle liability insurance.
The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) estimates that learning German will take about 30 weeks, or 750 classroom hours, as it is rated as a category two language similar to English.
The most common way of saying “hello” in German is “Hallo”. This is a casual greeting. You should only use it when greeting friends and family: Hello = Hallo.
1. Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers. Norwegian is a member of the Germanic family of languages — just like English!
The German language also has fewer words than English, making it faster to learn. The German dictionary contains approximately 200,000 words (and the number you need to actually speak and communicate is far, far lower). The English language on the other hand, uses up to one million words.
Knowing the German language provides your child with the opportunity to study in Germany, whose universities require some level of German proficiency. The cost of living and studying in this country are prodigiously low compared to other countries where you'd be able to study abroad.
German for Kids: Toddlers (Age 2-5)
Three years is said to be the optimal age to start learning a second language. This is because younger kids are better at mimicking new sounds and learning new pronunciations.
Getting Great at German
German might not be as familiar to English speakers as Spanish, but it's still one of the easiest languages to learn. Like Spanish, it's also a phonetic language, which makes pronunciation easy to figure out.
However, in general, we can say that German is generally considered to be an easier language for English speakers to learn than Japanese. This is because German and English share many similarities in terms of grammar and vocabulary.
Germany is considered as the 10th highest English proficiency in the world. According to the EF English Proficiency Index, Germany is on 10th number in best non-English speakers in the world.
Since German and English are related languages, they might be easier to learn than Chinese.
Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French.
The closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.
Guten Tag – “Hello” or “Good day”
Although guten Tag can also mean 'good afternoon', German people actually use it all day long.
The most common greeting is a handshake with direct eye contact. Men usually greet women first and wait for them to extend their hand. Close friends may hug to greet and younger people may kiss one another on the cheek. "Guten Tag" (Good day) or “Hallo” (Hello) are the most common verbal greetings used in Germany.
The German language has 6 CEFR levels – starting with A1 (absolute beginner), and ending with C2 (completely fluent).
It'll take you years to build up vocabulary and grammar in, say, Dutch, and then you'll have to do it all over again for German. Remembering the words might be a little easier, but you'll still be years behind what you'd have if you had started out with German in the first place.
The simple answer is, yes - you can learn it (to a basic conversation level) in 2 months.