American reacts to English vs. German Language | How Similar Are English and German Words?

Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to English vs. German Language | How Similar Are English and German Words?
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[@Leana._.]

The reason why the words are capitalized is that in german not just proper names are capitalized but all nouns too

[@caccioman]

👍

[@CRYOKnox]

​@@lbergen001i think he allready did that but forgot about it. 😅

[@lbergen001]

@@CRYOKnox ah, OK thanks. 👍👍I don't have an overview what Ryan already has seen.

[@CRYOKnox]

@@lbergen001 well it's kinda hard to remember, he reacted to one such a video, but for all means i can't remember the name of the video because most times what sticks with me is his videos thumbnail.😅

[@strasbourgerelsass1467]

They used lame examples: finger ... Finger arm ... Arm hand ... Hand chin ...Kinn shoulder ... Shulter hair ... Haar knee ... Knie nose ... Nase sea ... See land ... Land field ... Feld wind ... Wind water ... Wasser sun ... Sonne green ... Grün brown ... Braun red ... Rot blue ... Blau orange ... Orange grey ... grau gold ... Gold silver ... Silber bronze ... bronze winter ... Winter summer ... Sommer cold ... kalt warm ... warm ice ... Eis fire ... Feuer frost ... Frost wild ... wild butter ... Butter beer ... Bier tea ... Tee wine ... Wein oven ... Ofen cellar ... Keller house ... Haus garden ... Garten bed ... Bett underground ... Untergrund sugar ... Zucker salt ... Salz pepper ... Pfeffer sour ... sauer bitter ... bitter wide ... weit full ... voll lamp ... Lampe man ... Mann etc. 😁

[@nichtthunder]

05:40 German has this very unique thing where all nouns are capitalized. In fact, in some cases changing the capitalization of a word can change its meaning entirely. For example: Laut = (the) Sound laut = loud Morgen = (the) morning morgen = tomorrow

[@madeye6896]

10/10

[@madsmemme6788]

Or: Weg=way/Road weg=away

[@charliefoxtrott1048]

And then there is: umfahren = either 'to drive around' or 'to drive over' "Lass mal den Mann da vorne umfahren" = "Let us drive around that man" or "Let us drive over that man" It's all about your inner mindset (or if you are driving a tank)

[@nichtthunder]

@@charliefoxtrott1048 German must be so confusing to learn, considering that "umfahren" is the exact opposite to "umfahren"

[@ryanwass]

[@WereDictionary]

"What lies between sex and fear?" - as a German, I'd say fünf.

[@heha6984]

You always sound very well when you are NOT trying to vomit out the german words 😉 More tenderness and less sound of a German officer in WW2! 😆

[@avr7120]

and less emphasis on the R! this isnt russian (though there are dialects in Germany that have that)

[@Ankesadventures]

🤣 the vomiting part had me...

[@Rente2011]

Mich stört das auch wenn Er die Worte wie ein N.zi ausspricht 😟Und die Gruppe Rammstein ist eine künstlerische Ausnahme 😅

[@hellemarc4767]

@@Rente2011 na ja, die Bayern z.B. rollen das "r" immer noch, und meine saarländische Großeltern und ihre Geschwister, die um 1910 geboren waren (sowie die Leute ihres Alters), taten das auch, obwohl das heute niemand mehr tut. Genauso war es mit einem Mann aus Siebenbürgen (Transylvanien), dort wurde es auch so gesprochen, und die Leute, die dort lebten, waren Nachkommen von Menschen die im Mittelalter dorthin ausgewandert sind. Ich habe mal gelesen, dass es früher im deutschen so ausgesprochen wurde, es wurde erst im 20sten Jahrhundert "modern", das "r" so auszusprechen wir die Franzosen (kann sein, dass es in manchen Kreisen und Orten sogar früher der Fall war, seit dem 18ten Jahrhundert mit der Aufklärung z.B., oder dem frühen 19ten als Napoleon viele Orte in Deutschland besetzt hatte). Ausserdem wurde es in der Kunst (Theater, Oper) auch so gemacht. Sogar in alten deutschen Filmen tun sie es.

[@christinehorsley]

Well, pineapple is not an example of a word with a „germanic“ origin, just as some other foods like pumpkin and chocolate they weren’t introduced into Europe until after the discovery of America …

[@ansgar759]

English is of Germanic origin but Latin is a huge influence on this language since the Romans conquered Britannia and later the French.

[@RainerLP]

I would say the norman invasion was far more important. Low class words are more germanic as the people spoke that and high class words, like different types of meat, are more french like as only the rich could eat it.

[@haraldmax9685]

The Germanic tribes first came to the island as mercenaries in the course of the Roman occupation of Brittania. The actual settlement of Brittania by Angles and Saxons only began after the Romans had left the island and the original Celtic population had been decimated by the Romans. The Normans......... Vikings (Germanic tribes) under William the Conqueror, who had adopted the Vulgar Latin of the Franks (Germanic tribes, , who had close ties to and were influenced by the Roman Empire). William's conquest brought England a new nobility and new church leaders who spoke a different language (Vulgar Latin), which over time became mixed with the original vernacular.

[@hellemarc4767]

The Romans got their a**es kicked out of Britain by Boudica and they didn't go back for at least 70 years; they had military garrisons stationed there, but they didn't mingle much with the local population. They conquered the Gauls in what is now France long before they even set foot in Britain. The Latin (French) influence came with the Normans and William (Guillaume) who spoke the ancient French they spoke back then. There is so much French in English that it would take time to make a list of words, but look for instance at the names of meat compared to the names of the live animals: pig/pork (French porc), sheep/mutton (mouton), venison (venaison), etc.

[@Varus78]

so they first conqered britain and THEN france? must have been quite impressive at the time going around spain and france to do a sea invasion so far from home :grinning_squinting_face:

[@jenniferharrison8915]

So where were the Picts and Celts, just watching silently?? Romans never reached Scotland! 🤔 Who spoke French in 1066? What did the Norse speak or the Huns?? 🤨😵

[@pikkozoikum8523]

Btw they chose "monkey", but we have no different words for ape or monkey, both is called "Affe". Ape - Affe sounds more similar :3

[@dansattah]

Technically, we can differentiate between "Affe" (monkey) and "Menschenaffe" (ape).

[@stef987]

Similar with "Hund": "hound" would have sounded more alike (though that's probably not too hard to guess for English speakers and while Hund is the name for all kinds of dogs, a hound and a dog on the other hand aren't exactly the same).

[@brittakriep2938]

@@stef987 : A hound is as far as i know a Jagdhund, while a Dogge is a Mastiff ( first Mastiffs had been imported to HRE arroud 1500, so that Germans of those days surely thought Dog(ge) is the name of Mastiff breed.

[@MellonVegan]

These would be false friends and are not interchangeable. But most people do not know the difference.

[@steemlenn8797]

And never, ever call the librarian a monkey!

[@insu_na]

Imagine if they had continued counting past 20. Ryan would be so confused xD

[@-cirad-]

In English the order changes (nineteen, twenty-nine), in German "und" is added (neunzehn, neunundzwanzig). That's all there is to it.

[@insu_na]

@@-cirad- Yeah, but it confuses the heck out of people who don't speak German or use that counting system

[@triskelion86]

⁠​⁠@@-cirad- German not only adds the “und” it also changes the actual order of the number. Taking your example, in English they say twenty-nine (20-9) but in German you say neun-und-zwanzig (9 and 20). That’s a huge difference!

[@berlindude75]

@@triskelion86 Yeah, but the point is that for numbers 13 to 19, English does the same "reverse" order like German: 13 = thir-teen (drei-zehn), 14 = four-teen (vier-zehn), 15 = fif-teen (fünf-zehn), and so on. I'm sure we all know what a "teenager" is. For greater numbers, English switches the order (21 = twenty-one), while German does not and keeps the "reverse" order (21 = ein-und-zwanzig) for any (part-)numbers below 100.

[@-cirad-]

@@triskelion86 Take a closer look at my example. The order in German remains the same after 20 (smallest digit first), it only changes in English. In German, however, it changes after 100 (>= the third digit). Here you can see that the smallest digit changes place in English, but stays in place in German: einhundertACHTzehn, einhundertACHTunddreißig, one hundred and EIGHteen, one hundred and thirty-EIGHT.

[@Thorium_Th]

An old German word for the number two is "zwo". It's still used today if you want to clarify the number two because especially over the telephone or in a loud environment "drei" (3) and "zwei" (2) can sound a little bit similar. Many German Z-words are T-words in English: Zehn - ten Zunge - tounge Zoll - toll Zinn - tin Zwanzig - twenty zahm - tame Zeh - toe zimmern - to timber Zwielicht - twilight Zweig - twig zwicken - to tweak Zwirn - twine

[@Jun-fg1zm]

There are dozens of these changes.... you can convert qay too many words this way! All the subtle changes of how letters change (among germanic langs)

[@Jun-fg1zm]

​@@The_RyanWassshut up

[@mrpadi64]

Its used a lot on airports and train stations. "Departure from platform two" --> "Abfahrt vom Gleis zwo"!

[@SchmulKrieger]

zwo is the female version of zwei.

[@Thorium_Th]

@@SchmulKrieger No, both are female: die Zwo / die Zwei. "Die" is the female article in German.

[@Nifuruc]

Banane and Ananas were poor choices because they're both loans from other languages. Pferd is an interesting one. Not because they're related, but because the related word is "Ross" which was "ors" in OHG and the and changes their position, which is very common in indo-european languages. (i.e. "garden" and "grad") Edit: Oh... And etymologically it should be: Affe - ape Hund - hound and there are many more interesting words like: Schwein - swine Tier - deer (don't ask...:) Maus - mouse Ratte - rat Gans - goose Henne - hen

[@brittakriep2938]

Cock/ Gockel, sow/Sau, calf/Kalb, bull/ Bulle, steer/ Stier, fish/ Fisch, whale/ Wal, weazle/ Wiesel, frog/ Frosch, fox/ Fuchs, lynx/Luchs, ox / Ochse (Oxford in England, Ochsenfurt in Germany), buck/Bock, hare/Hase, goat/ Geis( Goas), beaver/Biber, falcon/Falke, swallow/ Schwalbe, raven/ Rabe, snail / Schnecke, worm/ Wurm, dragon/Drache.

[@Jun-fg1zm]

Yeah.. this is hpw letters usually change, shift.... ..... f goes p goes b, or f goes w, and then b... s goes t and back, s and sh , and khh or this ch or gh in english whereby it is silent... t goes d... k goes g goes j goes etc.etc. you can also delete letters like s or t or n etc.etc. aaaaand way more like ei goes e or oi... i goes e goes a goes o goes u, a and au and blablahblahblah blahblah way moaaa

[@Nifuruc]

@@Jun-fg1zm Are you ok? Should I call an ambulance? ^^ Btw... If it wasn't obvious from my first comment - I'm a linguist and German. So I know...

[@Jun-fg1zm]

@@Nifuruc hahahaha xD ja ja... alles immer fresh, nich' waaaahr? XD uuuuuund jaaaa... es is' so, dass der mään hier, also dieser jun-typ, auch eknige dinge nur aus so deutsxhen dialekten abgekupfert hat, insg., aber letztlich findet man so'n paar dinge auch immmer wieder und kommt priiiima-mäßig auf d8e anderen dinge, is' zu cool!! Und wenn du linguist bist, - das is' ja mal eeepisch -, dann erzähl, was zu erzählen is' bitte, wenn du maaaagst! Vielle8cht fällt dir iwas großartiges ein..., was issschhh nich'weiß, von dem, was ich so mir selbst ergründet hab', weil man das soeht, und die zunge legztendlich einfach ihr ding macht und die wandel geschehen!!^-^

[@SchmulKrieger]

Ross was Hros, hross, hors, it only was ors or ros in Old Low German including Dutch.

[@xaverlustig3581]

Sometimes when the words are different, there is a related word , but with different meaning or less common. Examples: German "Hund" is related to English "hound", which in English means a specific kind of dog, not just any dog; German "Affe" is related to English "ape" which means a specific kind of monkey ; English "horse" is related to German "Ross", which also means horse but is a bit old fashioned. The German word "Pferd" for horse is an odd one. It's a loan word from Latin "para veredus" which apparently means "postal horse".

[@brick6176]

Don't forget that there's not only "hound" - "Hund", but also "dog" - "Dogge". It's just that both languages use a different word as the more general term, while still retaining the other with a more specialized meaning.

[@johannageisel5390]

chafer = English word for some beetle of the scarab family Käfer = German word for beetle Both come from Proto-West Germanic _*kefrō_ (“beetle”), and changed in Old English to _ċeafor_ and in Middle English to _chafur_ or _chavere_ . Other meanings of the word "chafer", including the surname, have different etymologies.

[@hlfan]

Also funny how they took the word for animal, Tier, and assigned it to the deer.

[@melchiorvonsternberg844]

Danke, dass du mir die Erklärung abgenommen hast!

[@itsmebatman]

Also Ryan thought that zwei and two sound totally different. Little did he know, that you can also say zwo in German, it means the same as zwei and everyone will understand it as such. Suddenly it's not that different anymore.

[@chriscb8353]

In the german language all nouns are written in capital.

[@andreaerdfalvi-mckenzie6775]

In German, we capitalize EVERY noun - regardless whether it is a proper noun or a common noun. For foreigners, it should make it easy to be able to identify nouns in any text, even if they don't understand them.

[@groundloss]

In a lot of cases, the letter "Z" in German is transformed into a letter "T" in other languages, while staying somewhat similar otherwise. Two/Zwei, Tooth/Zahn, Toe/Zeh, Cat/Katze, Kitty/Kätzchen(/Katjes), while at that, a -chen at the end is often added fore cuteness.

[@MBP235]

Wanted to write the same, but you did it way better 👍

[@ErklaerMirDieWelt]

It's actually the other way around. It used to be T in Old High German, that's the version of German the Anglo-Saxons took to Britain with them. In Germany, T developed into Z (at the same time that P became F or Pf) while it stayed a T in English.

[@aramisortsbottcher8201]

Katjes? Never heard that, is it from the north? Also the "-chen" is not for "cuteness" but simply for smaller versions, kittens are cute, because cats are. There is nothing cute about a "Bäumchen" (small tree) or a "Steinchen" (little stone). "-chen" and "-lein" are diminutive endings.

[@felix6250]

@@aramisortsbottcher8201 I thinki it would be like Kitten and Kätzchen

[@hellemarc4767]

The "chen", like the "lein" at the end of words is called "Verniedlichung" in German. Like a diminutive, but also a term of endearment. "Kätzchen" would be a kitten, while "Kätzlein" would be a small cat. You have to alter the preceding vowel by adding an Umlaut, "Katze" - "Kätzchen", "Kuchen" - "Küchlein", except with "i": "Kindchen" - "Kindlein", and so on.

[@gwalon2089]

Ryan, I must say, you are getting better at pronouncing german words! Some of them almost sounded german.

[@umbrosia5202]

I must say, your pronouncing of the word "Katze" (cat) was almost perfect. Only a german could spot the difference.

[@nobodx]

It's really interesting, how english speaker count from 10-20 the same way germans do eg 15 => 5 & 10 => fifteen but above 20, they switch the last digits eg 25 => twenty & five ... meanwhile in german it's still 5 & 20

[@johannageisel5390]

I believe in former times this may have been different in English. "She saw it with concern; for what could a silent man of five and thirty hope, when opposed to a very lively one of five and twenty?" ----- quote from Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen, published in 1811

[@thomasfranz6467]

Indeed, I remember also something about four and twenty blackbirds or something like that in a nursery rhyme.

[@Windowsmasher]

Not only germans do this, the ducht do it too. 23 dreiundzwanzig in dutch is drieëntwintig.

[@nobodx]

@@Windowsmasher no offence intended, dutch always sounds like a drunk german / english mashup ;) (then again, that's also valid for plattdeutsch )

[@keineahnung5466]

As you can see from thirteen to nineteen, this was the case in English as well as in many other Germanic languages. In some languages that was changed only in the last hundred years, Germany is there rather resistant, one holds also to the capitalization of nouns. more kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJ2Qm4p6a7d0j6c

[@Raffael-Tausend]

Your pronunciation has gotten better! Especially the ch- sounds!

[@caccioman]

True! Some words were pronounced perfectly, even before the speaker

[@eucitizen78]

Sometimes English words are even more German than the German words.🙂 Window for example. It comes from Wind and eye. The eye of the house where the wind comes in so to say. Wind und Auge are German words and used in German language. In Germany we use the word Fenster for window. Fenster comes from a not Germanic language. It comes from the Latin "fenestra". I hope you see that in this case the English language is more Germanic than German. I could tell you about the word pineapple also. It is in fact Germanic but it does not matter. We're not in class here 😉

[@SchmulKrieger]

But in fact Window is a loan from Old Norse, the English used a different word for it and often they used fenester or fenster as well. But Auge for a window is used still, the bull's eye in English and the Bullauge in German refer to a round window, mostly on ships. It's also used for the round centre of a dart 🎯.

[@tommysellering4224]

In Norwegian the word for Window is still "vindue", as is was in old Norse spoken by the Vikings, who brought the word to the british islands.

[@lpschaf8943]

Ausguck

[@wallerwolf6930]

Korrekt ;-))

[@joanxsky2971]

@@SchmulKriegerOld Norse is a Germanic language too though

[@nichtthunder]

02:55 Technically English is the odd one out here, as English (and Spanish) are the only major languages in the world where it's valed "pineapple" instead of something similar like "Ananas".

[@denisdrumm971]

Great job, Ryan! Give it another year or two and you can take your family on a trip to Germany and be the translator for them

[@foamheart]

Your pronunciation of "Katze" was perfect.

[@TheBalti123]

your pronounciation is on point for the most part!

[@xaverlustig3581]

Fruits and animals that were unknown in Europe at the time English and German split, were coined separately. Sometimes they were imported from the same language, in those cases it is the same word anyway. "Banana" is an example which both English and German imported from an African language. The same is true for "chocolate" which is originally from a native American language. Sometimes both languages went different ways though. German "Ananas" is also from a native American language, whereas the first English speakers who saw one apparently thought it looked like a pinecone and named it for that.

[@nerd8968]

Banana and Ananas i think is the same in all european languages because of that...foreign fruit.

[@windjager2177]

I think pineapple came from pina

[@gwalon2089]

Pineapple and Ananas are not the same because when europeans discovered this thing existed, the anglo-saxons had lived in England for so long that there was no linguistic connection between the two languages anymore and they just named it seperately.

[@niktura]

If you're interested in the connection between german and english - try watching a video with old english compared with german. Actually pretty interesting

[@ArmandoBellagio]

The English language is basically a mix. You have the Germanic from the Anglo-Saxons, Latin from the Romans, Norman French and Celtic from the Britons. So often you have for example a Latin or Celtic origin word and a Germanic origin word in English. Like e.g. dog comes from Celtic and hound from Germanic, similar to Hund, the German word for dog.

[@Nwk843]

Very true, english is a prostitute lang, it's a Creole language today.

[@melodiejupiter]

Due to the german grammer language rules, you have to capitalize every (nouns = Normen in german language) In englisch language you have article like a/an/the and you use (the) for every word. In german we have to always use this three article. For masculine words, we use (der). For feminine words, we use (die). For neutral words, we use (das). The article in german are (der, die, das) e.g. (der Apfel = the apple) (der Löwe, der Tiger = the lion, the tiger) (der Hund = the dog) (die Katze = the cat) (das Brot = the bread) (der Mann = the man) (die Frau = the woman) (das Baby/Kind = the baby/child) (das Handy = the cell phone) Your name is Ryan and by speaking german we say (der Ryan) because your name is masculine etc.

[@rosshart9514]

Bald auch bei uns: De Mann, de Frau, de Kind

[@Kiyuja]

dont worry about his "r", he has a very regional southern accent. Most German speakers dont say it like that. We use the same "r" as in French, if you know how that sounds. Lion was written capital als in German ALL nouns are to be written capital, this is actually important on plenty of words as sometimes letter combos are re-used but mean something else. But you can see what is a noun, what would be a verb etc.

[@brittakriep2938]

The man speaks a bit slow and unreal , but not the way of Southern Dialects ( Bavarian and Swabian/ Alemanic).

[@lpschaf8943]

Depends. My "r" is quite unstable.

[@MrFreezeYo]

Dude your "Katze" before even hearing him say it in german was 100% spot on! Wow - if I only would have heard this word from you, I would say you are 100% german :D

[@silassheriff7868]

English and German have the same origin. Dutch is an intermediate stage

[@Jan-jm6pm]

dutch isn't exactly intermediate. as in, german didn't evolve first and then dutch and then english. it's more like all three languages evolved at the same time from a common ancestor. the dutch traded a lot with the english and of course germany's their neighbour, so it really does sound like the intermediate stage of german and english!

[@silassheriff7868]

@@Jan-jm6pm that is obviously correct

[@erikeriksson1660]

@@silassheriff7868 Yes, but there are many more languages that come from Proto-Germanic (the common origin). Also Swedish. Dansih, Norwegian, Icelandic, Gutnish et cetera come from Proto-Germanic.

[@bas1330]

It becomes interesting when Dutch is included in the comparison. Dutch is the link between humans and Brits/Americans. :D

[@michaelburggraf2822]

The "R" sound in German is quite similar to the French one. If it's easier for you to pronounce a thrilled "R" using the tip of your tongue, it would be OK as well. The dialects in Franconia (around Nürnberg) use that too.

[@Hey.Joe.]

Hey Ryan, did you realize, that pineapple is a actually a weird compound-word? Because of pine and apple... 😅 The german word Ananas is just more similar to the latin botanic word "Ananas comosus" or "Ananas sativus" Yo asked, why we use capital at the beginning by words like Löwe, Apfel and more? For example in German is a rule to write noun, substantive, proper name, polite form, the first word of a sentence with capital in the beginning. Even writing in english often it's happens accidently to me, that I write some words big like in German and have to correct it after posting. 😂

[@lpschaf8943]

Es ist schlimm

[@MellonVegan]

3:40 The German R has quite a few possible pronunciations, depending on the dialect or regiolect. The uvular trill (that one in the video) is extremely rare though and I've never heard anyone use it for anything other than emphasis or comedic effect. 3:50 Yes you do, a uvula :D

[@thomaslenhard3088]

that's not true... the person in the video spoke "common german" called "hochdeutsch", like you learn in acting classes... that's why he also said "zwanzi(ch)" instead of "zwanzi(g)"... in bavaria the "R" would be pronounced more like a rolling "R" like in spanich, or in scotish dialect for instance. but many dialects, regiolects or sociolects in germany don't really pronounce the "R", more like it's done in english

[@olafbitter3999]

They are capitalised because they are nouns. If you try to learn them it's really important to learn their gramatical gender (der, die, das) because later on when you try to express for eg. that something belongs to someone you won't be able to do so without knowing the gramatical gender of the nouns.

[@hellemarc4767]

The sentence "my house is green" is pronounced exactly the same in the southern German dialects (except for the pronounciation of the letter "r") and has the same meaning. For the German "r", try gargling, that's where it's pronounced, with the soft palate. "Apple" is also "Appel" in many dialects. In Middle Age England, both languages were even much closer, before the Great Vowel Shift (the vowels were pronounced like in German, for instance "i" was pronounced "ee", "u", "oo", etc.). This shift didn't happen everywhere at the same time, so there are places in the UK where vowels are still pronounced the old way, like some places in Scotland, where "child" is pronounced like "chilled". After the invasion of Britain by William the Conqueror (in 1066), French became the language of the nobility (many, like King Richard Lionheart, didn't even speak English: he was born in France, to a French mother), and so, many French words entered the English language, and they are still used today, but often spelled differently. That's a very simplified explanation, though. There are other interesting videos that go deeper into it, check them out.

[@t.a.yeah.]

👍

[@schaerfentiefe1967]

That's why German guitarist Thomas Blug called one of his songs "My house is green" ! 😇 He is from Saarbrücken (Saarland), Germany and in our local dialect "Saarländisch" (=Moslefränkisch) we would say "Mei Haus is grien".😅😅 kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3fEo6uJjdprecU

[@hellemarc4767]

@@schaerfentiefe1967 yes, exactly, Moselfränkisch. There is a linguistic frontier between Saarbrücken and Saarlouis with rheinisch Fränkisch (das do/dat lo) and even on the French side of the border, people speak variants of Mosel or Rheinisch, as well. Some would say "min Hus isch grien". There's Allemanisch in Alsace), too. Variants of Moselfränkisch are also spoken in Rheinland-Pfalz (around Trier) and Luxembourg, and in Saarland, there are towns where they speak dialects even I have trouble understanding, like around Merzig and Weisskirchen. I don't live far from Saarbrücken, but on the French side. I have to look up Thomas Blug, the name doesn't ring a bell, but I might have met him at parties back in the day...

[@johannageisel5390]

About the Ü sound: Try to pronounce a very closed oo sound, with your lips pursed. Then push your tongue slowly forwards and listen to how the sound changes. You will notice it will shift towards the Ü. In the end position, my tongue tip touches the inside of my lower teeth and sides of my tongue touch or maybe very slightly squeeze into the gap between my upper and lower teeth at the sides. The Ü is spoken pretty far in the front and with pursed lips. Of course this might change a little depending on which sounds come before or after it in actual words. But in "fünf", you have the f and n which are also spoken at the front of the mouth, so the ü fits right in. Just experiment a little with your tongue and lips positions until it sounds right. (Maybe look up a recording by a native German speaker.)

[@janetfree7743]

I love watching you learn German or take quizzes, I don't know why. It's sympathetic.

[@Dragon1wing]

I was surprised how perfect you pronounced Katze. No one would know with just this word that it isn‘t your first language.

[@TomSchrecker]

If you would know old german languages like native Northern "Friesisch" or "Plattdeutsch" you would find it really similar, the angels and saxons came from northern germany and denmark. There are words in english who came from the times, the french took england and put their vocabularys into the english language...

[@zeldamaster-12321]

I don't know why, but these videos just make me happy as a german. It just makes the days worth it sometimes.

[@neirgara2217]

Ryan, your umlaut pronounciation is great. And your pronounciation in general has become very good. Good work.

[@caccioman]

Has been a pleasure watching, as always 😁

[@stef987]

Your pronounciation got really good!👏 The r sound is a bit like gargling, I find that collecting some saliva in your throat first can really help.🤭 However, the man in the video speaks a very clear High (or Standard) German, which I basically speak too in my region, but I think we only pronounce the r like that when we want to sound particularly "correct"/"clear" or "fancy". But most of the time I think 🤔 people don't really pronounce the r at all (or can't even really do that anymore) and for example "Kürbis" would be more pronounced like "Küabis". In many other regions in Germany and other German speaking countries, the r sound is actually created more with the tip of your tongue, similar to how it is pronounced in for instance Italian or Spanish.

[@m.rubland6737]

The r sound in this video is actually formed with the tip of the tongue - like the people do in may parts of bavaria. It´s like in "brrrrrr", if you want to stop a horse - at least a bavarian horse😉

[@stef987]

@@m.rubland6737 well, to me it sounds like it's formed with the back of the tongue/in the throat, the way it's done in High German (which he speaks).

[@faultier1158]

Yeah, the guy in the video definitely overpronounced the R. In standard German, it's only a consonant at the start of a syllable. All other Rs are vowels (or part of a vowel).

[@stef987]

@@faultier1158 I think that he pronounced the r the "proper" way, but that people usually don't pronounce it like that anymore in High German. But my father often still pronounced it like that and his father even more than him.🙂

[@KandidatEins]

You'r actually doing very good mate. Keep going!

[@SiqueScarface]

5:50 In German, all nouns are capitalized. This has a very long tradition, dating back to the time the printing press was invented. In Western Europe, the usage of Antiqua fonts (like Garamond or Bodoni) spreat, while German typesetters preferred gothic types. But long passages of lower case words are hard to read in gothic type, thus typesetters started to use more upper case letters here and there. Even very old German prints from the 1500ies already show much more upper case letters than contemporary English, French or Italian prints.

[@Archphoenix1]

sometimes i truly question the damn american school system

[@compphysgeek]

German and English both are Germanic languages, however, linguists debate whether English really can still be considered a Germanic language since it's been heavily influence by French, a Romance language, when the British court spoke French after the invasion of the Normans

[@Spiffington]

Linguists don’t debate that, only laymen do. Linguists debate whether English is West Germanic or North Germanic.

[@erikeriksson1660]

@@Spiffington True, no linguists debate is English is Germanic or not. Only people that lack knowledge in linguistics debate it. There is a consensus amoung linguist that English is Germanic.

[@rhysodunloe2463]

In Lower German (Plattdeutsch) and Frisian which are even closer related to Anglo-Saxon and therefore Old English you count like this: Een - ian - one Twee - tau - two Dree - trii - three Veer - fjouer - four Fief - fiiw - five Söss - seeks - six Söben - sööwen - seven Acht - aacht - eight Negen - njüügen - nine Teihn - tjiin - ten Ölven - elwen - eleven Twölf - twaalew - twelve

[@uebelgunne]

When it comes to the numbers, it only becomes interesting from 21 onwards. While in English from twenty onwards the number of tens and then the number of units is mentioned first (twenty-one), in German it is the other way around (one and twenty).

[@Chuiiken]

Watch out for the difference in German and Germanic, english is Germanic but that does not mean German. Both split from the Germanic language family and got influenced by different languages over the time. For example with Pineapple and Ananas, while both did not come from English or German, they were used by merchants. Pina used by the Spanish to probably refer to "pinecone of the Indians" and nanas from the Tupi word for pineapple. Also the reason you might think about Latin is because we use the Latin Alphabet, but watch out, we use Arabic numbers. :)

[@snakezockt5273]

4:58 Your "Katze" was perfect.

[@Lonno889]

As a German, I can say that he pronounced many of the words correctly

[@ChrisTian-rm7zm]

First grade boyin Germany: "Why do you spell tiger with a capital T?" Teacher: "Remember what I taught you? Things you can touch with your hands are always written with a capital letter." Boy. " Have you ever touched a tiger?"

[@painapple154]

The R sound (which you called the throat thingy) can usually be replaced with an A sound. So Kürbis would sound like Küabis. Actually, I barely ever hear the R pronounced that way. So sticking to an American R or just A instead would be fine too

[@gwalon2089]

If you look at a map of the roman empire at its maximum expansion, you will notice that it doesn´t stretch all the way through (modern) germany, only to the rhine river. So the latin language never fully reached the germanic tribes (also the anglo-saxons) and they developed a mostly independant language. French and spanish for example are latin languages because they used to be controlled by the romans. A historian/ someone who studied languages can probably explain that better tho.

[@Rob_Otter]

The origins and ramifications of German and Eglish are just very interesting. And it's even more interesting when you're fluent in Low German and can recognize even more commonalities

[@ChrisBVetter]

Funnily enough, the German word 'Pferd' stems from the Latin word 'paraveredus' meaning 'post horse' (eg. for pulling stage coaches) while the English word 'horse' actually comes from the gothic and old high German word 'hros' essentially used (in German) to describe a noble or precious horse.

[@brittakriep2938]

Not really. There is an old Joke: Why are Pferde unknown in southern Germany? There the people only know Gäule and Rösser!

[@MellonVegan]

Oh, so like "Ross"! I never knew

[@lpschaf8943]

​@@brittakriep2938 how incongruous

[@X33dbv]

I really appreciate your curiosity and I think u do a great job for culture understanding. It’s one step to appreciate the other culture, yes it’s also good to criticise in a nice way. I think this kind of actions is always a step to world peace in the long run.

[@Hatkeinhals]

it gets even funnier when you realize or watch some videos about frisian or "plattdeutsch" german dialects. Here in northern Germany just for one example "zwanzig" cann also be spelled in Plattdeutsch: twentich

[@JamesMartinelli-jr9mh]

My introduction to German was the tv show "Hogan's heroes", so I went through the exact same shock as Ryan. I was 23 before a German told me that English was a Germanic language. I had never heard that.

[@GifyTheOld]

2:55 I never understood where on the line in English they made that mistake, because Ananas, sorry pineapple, is an Ananas in just any other language than English, and also Spanish. 🤔 We have quite a few pine trees around, but I never saw growing that on them, only pinecones. :D

[@JakobFischer60]

Also have in mind that there are so many dialects. In Swabia, 5 is pronounced like "five". And in Scotland a cow is pronounced like the german "Kuh".

[@brittakriep2938]

Der schdierd en seim Deller rom ( swabian). He is stirring in his plate. Swabian: Oi Bier / one beer, Swabian: A Bier/ a beer. Low German: Reep/ Forke, lütt/rope, fork, little.

[@1983simi]

The world's major Romance languages (aka Latin based languages) are French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. The main 3 Germanic languages are languages like German (duh), Dutch and English. There are a lot more, but those are the ones with most speakers. English just looks really Latin because of it's area of origin very early in history being conquered by the Romans (43 AD to be precise). Add on top of that centuries of Christian - aka Bible influenced - history, you got a language with a large technically foreign vocabulary, but grammatical structure and many words of everyday use are very much still Germanic. It's like hanging a bunch of Christmas ornaments on a Fir. Sure, all the ornaments sure makes it look like Christmas, but at the core of it it's still a normal old Fir.

[@MellonVegan]

Latin went extinct when the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain. The Latin influence comes mostly from Medieval French (biggest contributor to modern English's vocabular) and from Latin's status as a prestige language in different ways (ruling classes across Europe speaking it in some periods, the church, yes, and also via science).

[@LexusLFA554]

I recently saw a sign for a festival that says: "N8 of Music". Sadly this is a stupid case of denglish mixture, and is supposed to say "Nacht of Music", but because it is written in english my english thinking brain reads it as "Neight of Music" every time.

[@winterschmied4583]

The basic rules for capitalizing a word in German are: 1.Rule: Capitalize nouns. 2.Rule: Verbs and adjectives that you use as nouns are also capitalized. 3.Rule: Capitalize pronouns and pronouns used in direct address in the polite form. 4.Rule: Names and proper names are also capitalized. 5.Rule: Always capitalize the beginnings of sentences.

[@Tenkoman]

For the tricky sounds - the "ch" (like in "ich") is a "teeth sound", while the "r" in "richtig"/"Tiger"/"Bier"/... is a "throat sound" -- and yes we gurgle a bit for the rolling throat r while speaking.

[@DanielJames-dg2zs]

The problem we have here is that some words have a direct counterpart in the other language, but the meaning changed in the course of time: There is a German word for horse which is closer in resemblance: Ross, but that would be translated into English nowadays as steed. The same is true for dog. In German, we have Dogge, which is called mastiff in English. The word hound is a special dog in German: Jagdhund, a dog used for hunting. In many cases, it won’t do to just compare the exact translation. Take the German translation to an English word and think a bit outside the box and you can often find a similar word. Take for example to die. The German word is sterben. So, think of dying of hunger (to starve) and you have the missing word.

[@FritzPinguin]

Hey Ryan, you are making great progress in your pronounciation! Gratuliere!

[@baaaser_yt2820]

No English was created out of German dialects. It was created by “Angel Sachsen”, a group of German speaking tribes. Both German and English are thus Germanic languages.

[@Chuiiken]

Funfact: in German and English the numbers 1-20 are said in the same way. They are read from the back to the front 16 - six-teen. But after 20 English reads them from the front to the back. 21 twenty-one. While in German it stays at the back to front. Ein und Zwanzig is 21 but is one twenty. Idk why this changed, but it was something about making it easier convert the spoken number into numbers. Also most languages use the front to back method and there are studies that say back to front is worse, but it probably won't be changed.

[@Arch_Angelus]

Hi here is some language history if you are interested: German laguage The German language is a Germanic language. That means it evolved from the language of the ancient Germanic peoples. It shares this origin with languages like English or Dutch, so they are similar. Almost one hundred million people have German as their mother tongue English language: It developed from the early Middle Ages through immigration to Britain of North Sea Germanic peoples, including the Angles (northern Germany, bordering Denmark) - from whom the word English derives - and the Saxons ( central and eastern Germany, one of the oldest Germanic tribes). The early forms of the language are therefore sometimes called Anglo-Saxon. In the further development came then franconian influences (Franconians were one of the major Germanic tribes from the group of Rhine-Weser (2 rivers in Germany)-Germanic ( origin mainly in the North German lowlands) ---- after the migration of peoples they became today's France and Germany - keyword Charlemagne) and also (500 AD) Dutch. It is certain that German and English as well as Dutch are equally old from the time of the great migration of peoples, in the first millennium of our era. It is assumed that this was around 500 AD Dutch language. Dutch is a West Germanic language. It is derived from Low Franconian (a branch of Low German) and from other Low German dialects and developed in the "Low Lands of the Frankish Empire" - northwest of the Benrath line. French language (first known notes from 842 AD): French basically originated from three different languages: the Celtic, Latin and various Germanic languages. But their origin in turn goes back even further to Asia and lies in Indo-European. Influences of this can still be found in the French language today. so have fun best regards from Germany

[@FrogeniusW.G.]

Since you asked: English is -so to speak - german with roman and (a bit) celtic mixed in. The Anglos and Saxons (germanic tribes) went to the British islands with their language around 2000 years back, and pushed the originally (since around 1000 BC) resident Celts/the celtic languages to the edges of the British islands (meaning Scotland, Ireland and Wales, thus the celtic name "Britain"). Just as the recently gotten there Romans already did. From around 800 AD the (scandinavian) Normans arrived. (They are also germanic though.) So the english language is a modified/shifted germanic language with roman influences/terms. Therefore the name "english", from the word Anglo. Check out RobWords on that topic!

[@dvont1383]

Your german is getting better and better. Your pronounciation is actually pretty decent. I'm really impressed.

[@reinhardmenge6176]

Hi Ryan, in the 5ṭh century two German tribes, the Angles and the Saxons conquered England which was shattered by wars between the English tribes. It seems to have been rather easy for them to establish their rein. In 1066 the island was conquered by the Normans (Battle of Hastings won by William the Conqurer) who came from France. And so the English language becameca mixture of German and French. Some words were added by the Vikings who tried to conquer England too and nearly succeeded....

[@brittakriep2938]

The Normans ( Nordmänner/ northmen) had been ,frenchified' vikings. Basicly English is a mix of 1500 years old Low German and 1000 years old Normandy version of French. Some decades ago there was in german TV an Interview with an artist from Alsace. The elderly man wanted in early 1960s to visit , Swinging London ' for artistical inspiration. In those days he could not speak english, but he knew english is a mix of French and German, which he as Alsatian spoke fluently. So he learned english rather fast.

[@suit1337]

well the numbering is very similar, if you account for the vocal shift that occured mostly over the last 1000 years in both languages if you take "one" and "eins" - eins is the high german version, but there are upper german versions (like bavarian or austrian german ) where you pronouce it "oans" which is pronounced similare "onzee" (with a shorter e at the end) or the two - zwei was actually derived from "zwo" (female), zwee (male) and zwei (neutral) - in today german only zwei survived but "zwo" remained to differentiate from "drei" (three) - in old english this was separated into twa (female), twegen (male) and tu (neutral) where tu and twa merged into two - in upper german mowadays you call it "zwoa" espeially in the case of the t or tw sound, it shifted to a z sound in high german (northern germany especially) and stayed something hybrid in upper german (southern germany, bavaria, austria) for example twig = zweig; twenty = zwanzig; Zwielicht = twilight

[@Koenin]

you're pronunciation is much better than at the beginning! really cool :D

[@Winona493]

I LIKE watching you learning German! It is fun!😂

[@fayette1963]

There are important differences between english vowels and german vowels: English vowels are often movements between a start position of the mouth (tongue, lips and lower jaw) and a final position. German vowels are mostly one static position to stay in until a certain time is over. Like in english "far", "feet", "truck". For each letter there is a long sound with more tension and a shorter "more lazy" sound. You can identify these short lazy vowels by a doubled consonant afterwards. For example: a --> Schal (long, like in "far") and Schall (short like in "truck"). ä --> quälen (long, like in "bad") and quällen (short, like in "let") e --> Beet and Bett (short, also like in "let") i --> Miete (long, like in "feet") and Mitte (short, like in "mid") o --> Ofen (this long sound doesn´t exist in English) and offen (short, like in often) ö --> Höhle and Hölle (none of them exists in English) u --> Mus (long, like in "mood") and muss (short, like in "look") ü --> Hüte and Hütte (none of them in English) But there are also 3 german vowels that are moving from one position to another. These are called Diphthong: ei --> nein (always long, like in "nine"), au --> Haus (always long like in "house") eu --> Heu (always long, like in "boy")

[@ottonormalo4638]

Sometimes the common origin is not obvious because the meaning and the pronunciation changed quite a lot: town/Zaun (means "fence") team/Zaum (bridle) beam/Baum (tree) bone/Bein (leg) drive/treiben shirt/Schürze (apron) stud/Stute (mare (!)) head/Haupt (main, chief) fee/Vieh (cattle) thread/Draht (wire) etc. Some words disappeared from English and remained in German: thorpe/Dorf (village) thane/Degen (held, warrior)

[@winterlinde5395]

But I love how often you can still see the correlation: The towns were fenced back in the days. The beam you need to build half timbered houses with is from trees. Beinern is an old expression for made from bones/ ivory(?). Haupt is also an old/ poetic form of head. Edit: and we say SchlagBaum for toll gate. That can be made from a wooden beam.

[@jensschroder8214]

cat = Katze, (dog) hound = Hund, green = grün, gift ≠ Gift (means the opposite), maiden name = Mädchen-name (old German Maid); fee ≠ Vieh (sounds a like, but meaning differs) ; black ≠ blank ; is = ist; I = ich; thou = du (you) ; Father = Vater; Mother= Mutter; House = Haus; old English (pig) swine = Schwein; horse ≠ Hengst ; Fox = Fuchs; ox = Ochs; ...ford = ...furt; deer ≠ Tier (dt) ; have = haben (vb) ; blue = blau, red = rot; yellow = gelb (yg)

[@RevPeterTrabaris]

That was fun. I love the "horse" sound you were making whenever there was an umlaut, which you were interpreting as a sound in the throat. Not in the throat. Kind of like this: Pferd = pfayird. But the "r" in German is pronounced with a "rolled r". That takes a bit to get used to when learning German. Overall, your pronunciation was pretty good without the over exaggerations. Keep up the good work. Fun video. Peace

[@73smoo]

Langfocus has a couple of videos about the question if English is Germanic

[@Abbath77]

Sadly the counting stops at 20. His reaction to twentyone vs. Einundzwanzig would be fun to watch :D

[@momsspaghetti2246]

I can tell one of your videos is played next in the playlist because of the creaking of your chair in the beginning 😅

[@zeitiger]

That remember me that LangFocus made video about english is a creole language because it started as a germanic language and then get under heavy influence under latin with the Roman and later on by the French. Language evolution is a quite fine topic

[@ClarkCWSKent]

You pronounced Katze 100% perfect like a native german speaker

[@MAiKAeFeRLiKoER]

Counting up from twenty becomes more interesting: 21: twenty-one vs. einundzwanzig, also "one and twenty", 22: twenty-two vs. zweiundzwanzig "two and twenty"... 57: fifty-seven vs. siebenundfünfzig "seven and fifty" and so on. ;)

[@stevenvanhulle7242]

"Kürbis" (pumpkin): the "something in your throat" is pronouncing an "h' after the "K". Same for "Kaffee"

[@publicminx]

the German' Hund' is related to the English 'hound' (same roots). 'Affe' (German' was better translated with 'Ape' (English). Then you have 'House' (English) and 'Haus' German or 'Brother' (English) and 'Bruder' (German), 'this' (English) and 'dies' (German), 'that' (English) and 'das' (German), 'Mother' (English' and 'Mutter' (German) etc. ... apropos: 'bekommen' has actually the same roots as 'become' (which can be confusing) but the meaning changed in each of those germanic languages a bit over time and other words became more focus. the English word 'gift' is in modern German translated to 'Geschenk' (same roots, comes from 'geben/give') but there is actually still an older German word which also uses 'gift' (= 'Mitgift' - the present a bride gets if going to marrage) ... etc. etc.

[@brillitheworldbuilder]

5:12 the English word "horse" is actually related to the German "Ross", which is a kinda "noble" or "old fashioned" word for horse

[@ownageDan]

some of the words for animals are similar to english words that in indirect ways: monkey = Affe (-> ape). dog = Hund (-> hound), etc.

[@MrTjonke]

Pineapple is the odd one out, it's called Ananas or a similar word in basically all other languages.

[@vinnvinnvinn000]

example: Lets go! Let us go - lass uns gehen. very similar...

[@crazyhorseshoe5942]

I got a good example from agricuture.. in germany we have this tool who called Forke..its similar so fork ,means gabel, so Heu/mistgabel.^^

[@GCoding_]

Your pronunciation of the word "fünf" was excellent!

[@robfriedrich2822]

4:50 the second was perfect.

[@Darklord345646]

Interesting. This simple video helps to improve pronunciation a lot.🧐

[@johanmesser9218]

English and german are both writen in the latin alphabet, but are not latin languages (also, latin had a huge influence to both because it was the church-language for centurys). language and alphabet are not tied together, like many people think. For example, croatian, serbian and bosnian are more or less the same language and people can talk wogether with only little problems, but croatian is written always in latin, serbian is officially in kyril (but latin is also found) and bosnian can be written in both :) So people can talk to each other, but sometimes could not read a letter the other one wrote. There is a very good video about how any english-speaking person can help to read and understand german: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJbFhI2ofdKmf5Y Interesting fact about english/german: the more "basic" and "poor man"words are, the more they are the same. Like "Kuh" and "cow". But beef where extremlly expensive during middle ages, so a simple farmer maybe did not eat it during his whole life. Only the noble could afford that - and the noble where french. Richard I from england for example where the 3. generation born in england - but still did not speak a single englisch word. That is why "expensive" things often have french roots instead of germanic: "Beef" origins in the french "boeuf" and is very different from the german "Rindfleisch", while the animal (who was used to pull the plow, but never slaughtered) are of same origin.

[@brittakriep2938]

See also pork / Schweinefleisch, but Schwein/ Sau are swine and sow. And what is meat and Mett? And don' t forget dialect words or old words, for example lake and Lache, both are waterfilled.

[@tyttarentottero]

That throat thing is a uvular trill. It's like snoring (or a cat's purr) but you should do it while exhaling