So, here's the deal. I'm stuck between German and Dutch (I know it's useless, whatever). I have pretty much the same resources for both, and am interested in both. Which should I learn first?
I would do Dutch but I've started back playing an online game which is available in German (among other languages), and I know that'd be a huge help using the language that much. Which do you think is easier to learn first?
Some background info:
I speak English natively. I'm at an intermediate level in Spanish, and the aforementioned game isn't in Spanish.
>>9
yes 3 countries, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. there are some other regions in Europe (ane Africa lol) where they speak German (e.g. Luxembourg), but theyre not worth mentioning.
most english words come from deutsch origin so deutsch should be very easy for you
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Anonymous2010-12-08 17:06
>>16
about the same percentage come from Latin, if not more
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Anonymous2010-12-08 17:34
>>17
About 50% of words in English come from Latin, but I assume there's more words of Germanic origin in everyday English...
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Anonymous2010-12-08 18:06
>>18
If 50% is Latin, there's not more words from Germanic origins, there's 50% left, so at least, the same amount?
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Anonymous2010-12-08 20:32
>>17 >>18 >>19
These numbers don't matter in this so much as you think, dudes - the core English is still pretty Germanic.
>>1
Dutch first. REASON: easier first, Dutch is more similar to English than German is to English.
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Anonymous2010-12-09 11:05
All English words come from Old German. And if I were you, I'd learn Dutch first (Flemish preferably) because your already learning German on your own. So yeah, start with Dutch.
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Anonymous2010-12-09 11:55
>>21 All English words come from Old German
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>your
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Anonymous2010-12-09 16:31
Lern Deutsch. :)
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mynameisjonas452010-12-09 23:35
Certainly not all words come from only German. I can think of two counterexamples. The words , "super" and "ultra" come from Latin. Obviously not all words come from Old German. If it makes you feel any better I know modern German...
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mynameisjonas452010-12-09 23:38
@OP...
I would learn German first. However, you must ensure you are very good at either of one of the languages first, before moving on to the next one. This is because both of the languages are so similar that you might get them mixed up. A lot of Dutch words are German cognates that have different meanings. I certainly think that after learning German, it will be easy to learn Dutch and vice versa.
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Anonymous2010-12-10 19:03
>>19
It's about 50% Latin, 25% Greek and the rest Germanic and elsewhere. It's just that most of the words of Latin and Greek origin are rather erudite and wouldn't be used in everyday conversation.
You better learn German first.
Sure, both languages are hard to pronounce for people with English as their mother tongue.
But Dutch contains sounds even I as a German can't pronounce correctly, e.g. the "ui" sound.
On the other hand Dutch has more words that are similar to their English equivalents.
So it depends on what is more important to you: easier pronounciation or easier learning.
Moin,
You should learn Low German. It is very the same as englisch (It is the language of the people who moved to england 1000 years ago ;) )
Low German is any of the regional language varieties of the West Germanic languages spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands. The historical sprachraum also includes contemporary northern Poland, the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia and a part of southern Lithuania.
Problem : I think no school will teach you...
Start learning German it's just used by more people so there is more stuff to learn it with btw what do you speak near the Ger Nl border? German oder dutch? if German lern german if Dutch lern dutch
Well personally I'd say go for German because it's spoken more and more widely used. And after that you could try to learn Dutch since both languages are related to each other =P