One thing that can be said about German learners is that they have all been through it. Prior to you can even say “I speak German” properly, you need to contend with the truth that it is not Ich spreche Deutsch, the manner an English speaker may think to say it, but Ich kann Deutsch.
While being a German learner is to be confronted, on a constant loop, by greatly ridiculous compound words that were supposedly designed to troll you. German learners know from excruciating first-hand knowledge that it is Gute Nacht, not Gute Nackt. German learners are also continuously categorizing the world into der, die, das, and this is not a habit they can switch off at this point. But at the very least, they know ways to use that mysterious ß character, and that is worth the task or pain — supposedly.
If it is you, certainly you can relate.
The words are endless
One of the most distinctive and charming features of the German language is that the words are made to be stacked like Legos. This, certainly, gives rise to evocative compound words such as das Fingerspitzengefühl (“the fingertip feeling,” used to mention an intuitive flair or instinct) and der innere Schweinehund (“the inner pig dog,” or the figuration for the weakness of one’s willpower).
This makes a linguistic world in which the word variations are not just endless — they are ostensibly there to troll starter German learners with highly convoluted cut and paste jobs. Can you say fünfhundertfünfundfünfzig multiple times fast? Or even identify which of these German words are true? Best of luck.
“The” has 16 ways to say
German is not unique for having grammatical gender, but if you were reasonably fine with having two of them to have a track of when you were taking high school Spanish, you now currently have three: masculine, feminine, and neuter. And in reality, one for plural, too. Oh yes and you will have to conjugate those separately depending on whether you are using the nominative, accusative, dative, or genitive scenarios. There are 16 methods to say “the” in German, and although there is some way to the madness, you will perhaps still have to keep in mind properly which nouns are der, die, or das.
Pronunciation is not merciful
To be honest, German pronunciation is not that difficult once you get the measure of it, and the rules are quite consistent. But until then? Good luck. One thing you will rapidly find out is that you do not have quite a much leeway in German while you are still working to master the pronunciation. Contrary to other languages, where you may be able to fumble a bit and yet be understood, German speakers are less probably to understand you if you even slightly mispronounce any word. One can never actually be certain whether they are saying elf Meter scheißen (11-meter shit) or elf Meter schießen (11-meter shoot).
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