The Defense Language Institute considers German to be a Category II (out of IV) language for difficulty. Their class lasts for 35 weeks and includes about 750 hours of study. At the end of the class, students are expected to have a Level 2 comprehension where Level 5 is completely fluent.

In this article, we will attempt to determine just how difficult German is to learn.

Is German Hard to Learn?

German, along with English, Dutch, Swedish and Faroese, is an Indo-European language in the Germanic family. This means that the above languages derived from a common ancestor and generally have some similarities. A native speaker of these languages might find learning German to be easier than a native speaker of another language.

In order to figure out how difficult it is to master the German language, let’s go over some reasons German appears to be a hard language to learn. We will also cover ways in which German can seem easy to learn and compare it to some other languages that are considered difficult.

Ways in Which German is Difficult to Learn

Here are some of the ways in which German may seem difficult to learn.

Unfamiliar Grammar

Anything different from what you know can seem difficult until you learn the rules. Most languages have their own specific grammar rules and learning these can feel difficult, especially if it is your first time learning a new language.

Case System

German uses four cases including nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Nouns and pronouns take on different suffixes depending on the case. Articles are also case-sensitive. English uses three cases including nominative (he), accusative (him) and genitive (his) and only the pronouns are affected.

Noun Gender

Unlike English, German nouns are masculine, feminine or neutral. Definite articles include der (M), das (N) and die (F) in nominative case, but they change with each case.

Plurals

In English, plurals are generally made by adding an -s or -es to the word. In German, a plural word can take an -e, -er, -n, -en, -s or nothing at all at the end.

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Ways in Which German is Easy to Learn

On the flip side, German has its easy points, too. For example, the German language has been standardized. So, even though you will find a variety of dialects, words and language rules are the same wherever German is spoken. English, on the other hand, is not standardized and this is most notable when comparing British English and American English. For example, American English uses cookie or french fries. British English refers to those same words as biscuits and chips, respectively.

It is easy to see how one could easily be confused even when speaking their native tongue. In all German-speaking areas, asking for keks will always be understood that you want a cookie. A few other ways in which German can be an easy language to learn include:

Pronunciation

German letter pronunciation is consistent and phonetic. The sound of the letter is always the same. Consider the English c in words like circus. As a non-native English speaker, words like this that include both the hard and soft sounds of the consonant can be a major headache.

Structured Spelling

Likewise, spelling is uniform and structured. Diphthongs like the German ei will always be pronounced as eye. In English, the same diphthong can be pronounced at least two different ways, and there are no clear-cut rules for spelling the sound. For example, both weird and ear sound alike but are spelled differently.

Conjugation Patterns

German verbs, both regular and irregular, follow a pattern for conjugating. Though it may seem difficult to learn at first, once you figure out the pattern, it becomes much easier.

Cognates

German and English, deriving from the same language family, use almost 40% of the same or similar words. Cognates are words in different languages that are spelled similarly and mean the same thing. For example, the English athlete is athlet in German.

How does German Compare to Other Difficult Languages

Since language learning is so subjective, it is hard to compare the difficulty in learning German to the difficulty in learning other languages. Russian, along with Chinese, is often considered one of the most difficult languages to master. It uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which is mostly different from the German alphabet. It also has six cases compared to German’s four.

Chinese uses 2,400 basic characters and verbs remain the same independent of the subject. The alphabet does not share any common characters with the German alphabet.

How Long Does it Take to Learn German

The length of time it takes to learn German is highly dependent on the individual. A native speaker of English may pick up German quicker than a native Japanese speaker because the languages are more similar. A few other factors that will influence how long it takes to learn German include:

How Long Does it Take to Speak Fluent German?

Gaining complete fluency, which is thinking and speaking in the language, can take between three and five years. However, this is not a guaranteed time parameter. Just like with learning to speak German, it highly depends on the learner. Another factor that contributes to fluency is immersion.

Immersion is living in a German-speaking community and using the language daily. Though it isn’t always possible to learn by immersion, it is the fastest way to gain fluency.

The German Alphabet

German uses the 26-character Latin alphabet like English. It also contains four additional characters, three of which are the umlauts ä, ö, ü and the ligature ß. Many of these letters are pronounced the same in German and English making it super easy to learn. Here is a resource that can help you master the German Alphabet.

The Best Free Resources for Learning German

If you are considering learning to speak German, you can test the waters with a few different free resources. Duolingo German is one of the most fun sites for language learning. Its game-like platform and variety of speaking, writing and reading exercises keeps learning fun and interesting. Duolingo will not give you in-depth coverage of German, but it is a good supplement for a more comprehensive program.

Another free language learning platform is Deutsch Leren. It offers 10 beginner lessons with German exercises and alphabetical word lists. After mastering the beginner lessons, move on to advanced German lessons. Again, this isn’t the most comprehensive program, but it does give you an idea of what to expect when learning German.

The Best Paid Resources for Learning German

One of the most comprehensive courses for money is GermanPod101 by Innovative Languages. This offers monthly subscriptions as low as $8 with four expertise levels from Absolute Beginner to Advanced. You’ll find tons of podcasts, videos and interactive learning tools to guide you on your path to German fluency.

Another paid resource is Mimic Method developed by Idahosa Ness. As a musician, he uses music and sound as the basis for learning. Similar to the Pimsleur Method, the Mimic Method claims to teach you the same way you learned your native language, by listening and mimicking.

So, is German Hard to Learn? Conclusion

Though German can seem difficult for some and easy for others, we feel that overall it is on the easier side of language learning. Again, it is highly dependent on the learner’s motivation and dedication to becoming fluent in German. With proper time and immersion into German, anyone willing to put in the time can succeed.

As a native English speaker who has learnt German, I am always surprised that other native speakers consider German ‘difficult’ to learn.

While I found German relatively easy to learn in the beginning (due to the similarity in basic vocabulary), it is true that the intermediate and advanced levels were trickier than expected.

In this article, I’ll be delving into the main similarities and differences between English and German.

German and English belong to the West Germanic language family, a family that also includes Dutch, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Frisian amongst others.

German is spoken by about 95 million people worldwide, and is the official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

Written German has been standardized from a myriad of related dialects into Hochdeutsch or ‘High German’, although there remain significant regional differences in the spoken language.

English is known as a lingua franca. The English language is a global powerhouse. It is the third most common native language in the world, behind only Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

It is the most widely spoken second language in the world and an official language of the United Nations, the European Union, and many other international organizations and businesses.

English and German both belong to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. Because they are so closely related, they share many features.

SIMILARITIES

1. English and German are Germanic languages

English and German are recently descended from Proto-Germanic, which was spoken for thousands of years as one language.

Geographically the proto-West Germanic language centered around present-day northern Germany and then spread to southwards as well as northwestwards and before going global with European colonization.

The Germanic tribes had been speaking their own version of English before the Normans invaded and conquered England. 

Norman and Latin words didn’t displace much vocabulary, or subtract anything but rather added to the existing Germanic language.

Today, 80 of the 100 most common words in English are Germanic in origin. 

These most basic, most frequently spoken words in English and German.

They are similar with some minor spelling and pronunciation differences. For example:

• I have – Ich habe
• It is long – Es ist lang
• Where is that – Wo ist das

The Germanic language in the British isles was also influenced by the Celtic people already living there and the later raids by Vikings from Scandinavia. 

A lot of Latin, Celtic and Norse words have come into both English and German, creating a lot of cognates that are easy for us to understand, even though they were not existing in the Proto-Germanic language. For example:

• Direct and Direkt come from the Latin Directus
• Activ and Aktif come from Activo.

2. English and German use the same alphabet

While both languages use the Latin alphabet, there are a few additional letters in the German alphabet:

• umlauted letters (ä, ö and ü)
• Eszett or sharp S (ß)

DIFFERENCES

1. Phonology

The /th/ sound as in words like the in English and thing does not exist in German so many German speakers have problems reproducing such sounds correctly. 

Ever noticed that Germans struggle to pronounce the letter w correctly in English? The /w/ also does not exist in German so although German words beginning with this letter, it is pronounced like a /v/.

This explains the mispronunciation of English words we or wine as ve and vine.

2. Grammar

German has 4 cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative and Genitive. In English, there is only nominative, accusative, and genitive for pronouns e.g. “I, me, my/mine”.

This is something that intimidates many native English speakers learning German but in reality this is not so complicated, especially when compared to Slavic languages (like Russian) which have many more cases.

German can sometimes have very long compound nouns and I mean really long! For example, Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung, which means ‘automobile liability insurance’ has a whopping 36 letters!!

Another characteristic of German is that the first letter in a noun is always capitalized; that’s why Handy, Schiff, and Buch are all written with a capital letter.

Another difference is that in English, the definite article is “the,” and the indefinite article is “a” or “an.” However, in German, the definite article can be der if the word is masculine, die if it’s feminine, das if it’s “neuter” or die if it’s “plural”. 

For example, Tisch (“table”) is masculine so it’s der Tisch. There is of course nothing particularly “masculine” about a table.

Have you learnt German, English, both or any other combination of Germanic languages? Or perhaps you’ve learnt two or more languages from the same language family? If so, I’d love to hear your experiences. Write them in the comments section below this post or send me a message! I read all the comments that I receive.

Are you currently learning English? Click here to read our review of EnglishClass101.

Michael

Michael has been an avid language learner and traveler for many years. His goal with LanguageTsar is to discover the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. He is currently learning Japanese, French and Indonesian.

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I’ve also lived in both Germany (Munich) and the Netherlands (Utrecht) for a little over a year each so I’ve had more or less the same in situ exposure to both.

As a result, I have had ample opportunity to experience the similarities and the differences between the 2 languages and can judge how easy or difficult both are to learn for the native English speaker.

The Germanic Family of Languages

German and Dutch belong to the West Germanic language family, a family that also includes English, Afrikaans, Yiddish, Frisian amongst others.

Geographically the proto-West Germanic language centered around present-day northern Germany and then spread to southwards as well as northwestwards and before going global with European colonization.

Written German has been standardized from a myriad of related dialects into Hochdeutsch or ‘High German’, although there remain significant regional differences in the spoken language.

Similarly Dutch also has standardized spelling governed by the Dutch Language Union while maintaining many dialects and variations of pronunciation in the spoken form, the biggest being ‘Flemish’ which is a broad term covering the Dutch dialects in northern Belgium.

German is an official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

Dutch is an official language in the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.

Studying German? Read our review of our favorite German language program.

How similar are German and Dutch?

The lexical similarity between German and Dutch is roughly as similar as that between Spanish and Italian.

While German and Dutch are quite similar in terms of vocabulary, they do differ significantly grammatically. This is because Dutch has evolved to have a ‘simpler’ grammar structure for a learner.

German has 4 cases while Dutch has none. This is a major difference.

Whilst German cases are not as complex as in other languages that I’ve learnt like Russian and Ukrainian this definitely takes an investment of time to learn, especially if you have never learnt a language with cases before.

The word order in Dutch is also a little simpler and more flexible than in German with respect to the inversion of phrases for questions and the movement of subordinate clauses to the end of the sentence.

For example: “If you want to go the shop, call me!”

In German: “Wenn du in den Laden gehen willst rufe mich an!”

In Dutch: “Als je naar de winkel wilt gaan, bel me!”

Here you can see that although the verb has moved to towards the end of the clause, in Dutch you say “wilt gaan” or “want to go” while in German it’s “gehen willst” or “to go want”.

German has 3 articles while Dutch only has 2. The German definite articles are der, die and das while the Dutch have de and het (het is used around 20% of the time so you can guess de if you are unsure).

Studying Dutch on your own? Read our review of our favorite Dutch program.

Which was easier for me as a native English speaker to learn?

I spent a similar amount of time learning the 2 language and living in both Germany and Dutch so I have developed a well informed opinion about which of the languages is easier for the native English speaker to learn.

Dutch has simpler grammar and is lexically more similar to English than German. Therefore, logically the answer should be straightforward: Dutch is easier!

However, learning a language is not simply a question of how familiar the grammar and words are to languages you already know.

There are several other culture and personal factors that come into play to make a language either easier or harder for you personally.

In my experience, Germans are more likely to reply to foreigners in the local language than the Dutch will and that’s especially true with native English speakers.

The automatic default for the Dutch if the notice an English speaking accent is to switch to English. This made it frustratingly difficult to learn Dutch when I was in the Netherlands.

You can learn about how I overcame these issues in the Netherlands in this article.

In my personal life, it so happened that I developed more relationships with German speakers than Dutch (both romantic and friendships) and so I ended up having to speak German a lot more than Dutch.However, I have noticed that whenever I return to the Netherlands that I actually speak in Dutch almost all the time and people rarely reply in English to me anymore. It could be that the Dutch are more proud to speak their language with foreigners or it could be that my Dutch is just simply a lot better than before.

So while Dutch should in theory be easier for a native English-speaker because its vocabulary is more similar, it has no cases and has a simpler word order, I actually found it personally ‘easier’ to learn German because of the cultural and personal elements that go with learning languages.

These ultimately outweighed Dutch’s linguistic simplicity and allowed me to learn German faster than Dutch.

Have you learnt German, Dutch, both or any other combination of Germanic languages? Or perhaps you’ve learnt two or more languages from the same language family? If so, I’d love to hear your experiences. Send us a message.

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Michael

Michael has been an avid language learner and traveler for many years. His goal with LanguageTsar is to discover the most fun and effective ways to learn a language. He is currently learning Japanese, French and Indonesian.

languagetsar.com/