GOOD GERMAN? 🤔 Fassbender's Accent in Inglourious Basterds

[@TehJuiceBoks]

To be fair, the whole scene is about the Nazi's doubting his accent. So any incorrect pronouciations work as intended. I came here to be sure his German DID sound foreign.

[@tomasinacovell4293]

Yeah, it paints this picture of him as he goes along.

[@featherelfstrom8405]

It does sound foreign. His character's German grammar, etc, is perfect, but his accent SUCKS. Michael Fassbender speaks fluent German IRL, so his 'real' accent is spot-on.

[@tomasinacovell4293]

It's just a uh princess and the pea slight quibbles perhaps but I guess there no specified foreign accent attribute specifically bad and strange sounding pronunciation which simply gives him up as a foreigner?

[@geosync9742]

Which makes it a genius scene to base it on that cultural nuance.

[@spawncampe]

@@featherelfstrom8405 I think he's Irish so maybe he put on that accent.

[@raddad9041]

Hiding an accent is nearly impossible if you learn a language later in life. For instance, your English is superb and yet I can instantly tell you have an accent.

[@AstroboyAdventures]

Not true.

[@jacekszkutnik6294]

I disagree. I met many Ukrainians whose Polish is just absolutely perfect. Also many who whatever they do their accent is very strong.

[@gorsching]

I must agree with OP. I'm from Texas and I can tell instantly he's not from around these parts lol. Ok all joking aside you sound European and not American. Most Americans speak with the same accents now but you can still hear in their accents or in the words they use. Salsa in Texas is not the same in California, tacos vs burritos above Interstate 20, coke vs pop vs sodas, ect. So yea native speakers will always notice accents or when a word is used incorrectly or is dated. By dated I mean a word I'd use in my youth that kids now a days would laugh and say we don't say that anymore just like I told my parents we don't use that word anymore. A great example is "poon" younger people would laugh at me if I called it that lol

[@kiwifruitpoo]

Yes, absolutely true. I work with people from all over Europe and they speak a standard Euro-English, the best have a touch of American idiom. I’m Irish and with my colleagues from Britain we all have mutually comprehensible dialects which baffle European colleagues who are 100% fluent.

[@michlo3393]

@@gorsching We're not saying "poon" anymore?

[@goodyeoman4534]

Inglorious Basterds was a showcase of European languages. The opening scene in French was phenomenal. And the German, Italian and ofc English is all superb. Good analysis, mate.

[@GodsFavoriteJewIsBlack_CAP-316]

“GRATZI” XD

[@Maksym10]

areverderche

[@tiburcio43]

I think Tarantino just wanted to show off Waltz's talents! 🙂

[@fincarosa]

Great comment. Mike Meter's scene is quintessential English both the language and culture of his character. It's an absolute pleasure to watch

[@davekarasik1857]

GORLAMI

[@rbarnett3200]

Fassbender is Irish but his dad is German, I believe (might actually be Austrian). What's complicated in this scene is that Fassbender is doing an antiquated English accent whilst speaking German. That's the joke. If you're native english you can hear his English-German accent. He basically sounds like a posh English person speaking German. He get's called out on it and says he's from Piz Palu (i.e. he has a regional accent) and almost gets away with it before he does the British "3" sign. That's pretty much the point of the whole scene. QT watched a lot of shitty films where this sort of thing happened. If you like meta references, then you can spend a life time happily working through Tarantino films

[@samueldocski4426]

He was born in Germany as well. Grew up there.

[@MrDante1047]

He is swedish

[@samueldocski4426]

@@MrDante1047 no he’s not. He was born in Germany, and holds 2 citizenships, German and Irish. Wikipedia. Try it.

[@MrDante1047]

@@samueldocski4426 hes irish youre right

[@ilqar887]

I mean doest it matter ¿u can grew up anywhere my cousin born and grew up in germany but hes still turkish ..fasbender is german but lived mostly in ireland they moved there plus mother is from there

[@Nunov103]

Diane’s accent in this scene is the proof that german is definitely not an ugly language,she sounds so cool,stylish and elegant,love it :)

[@razztastic]

people think german is an ugly language? i'd hate to be them then

[@georgschrotten622]

​@@razztastic Many people find german ugly actually. For my girlfriend for example. Even she grew up near to Austria(even more she looks like a typical woman from german alps, red hair, blue eyes, chubby etc). I think german is not so ugly, but obviously not so beautiful language. Personally i hate french especially when a man speaks it. I hate dutch as well, it sounds like french-german mixture. And i don't like spannish and italian when a woman speaks them, but those 2 sounds ok when a man speaks them.

[@peterjames232]

There is a german on TED Talk that explains german language is different from languages like french or spanish, mainly because it has more consonant sounds and less vowels sounds on words. Latin languages has one vowel each syllable. The word "now" in spanish "Ahora" has 3 vowels, 3 syllables. German "Jetzt" has 1 vowel.

[@RealMozart]

Her accent sounds a bit French

[@d.l.3530]

​@@georgschrotten622Sorry bro, but red hair is not typical german! 🤷‍♂️

[@porscheoscar]

The Italian scene was the most hilarious one in any Tarantino film ever.

[@borba72]

Dominic De Cocco, Enzo Gorlami and ...? Can't remember the name of the other "italian".

[@tomhartl6330]

@borba72 it was Antonio Margheriti. Tarantino referenced him in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as a filmmaker of a movie Rick Dalton starred in. Great Easter egg. BTW, It’s the name of an actual Italian filmmaker…

[@miltonparadise6001]

Correctomunde!

[@BobRobsstrikesagain]

GORLAMI

[@manifestgtr]

“Rrreeberdercheee…”

[@ryanhampson673]

Very cool breakdown from a native speaker. I remember when the American Otto Warmbier was arrested in N. Korea and he was “confessing” and reading his statement in English all of his wording was very odd. He used words like “I committed me crime task” and “I picked the quietest boots, the best for sneaking” in his confession. The word placement was just off to a native English speaker and it’s almost positive it was written by a N Korean and directly translated into English by someone not familiar with all the “Englishisms”. It’s funny how much you still don’t know even if you are considered fluent in a language and it’s probably near impossible to trick a native speaker of that language.

[@goodhumourwagon]

Excellent point, mate!

[@sahin3355]

this is probably my favourite scene in the whole movie and being interested in german reels me in more to the scene. trying to learn german and watching this video was really fun. thank you for your time!

[@paddypaddy2834]

This scene is one of the most brilliant in cinematic history. It was fascinating to pick this apart and understand why his accent was so obviously wrong. Loved it!

[@whosaidthat84]

This is the best breakdown I've seen of this scene yet! Well done.

[@adamgriss2025]

Excellent observations. I’ve been living in an Arabic speaking country for over twenty years and speak Arabic relatively fluently as a third language. Most of the time, people do not really notice that I’m not a native speaker but every once in a while, I get a quizzical look when they pick up that my accent come through, especially when I’m tired.

[@reginamartin3004]

Thanks so much for this video! One of my favorite movies and I habe always thought that Fassbender does such an awesome job in this scene. It was so interesting to have you break it down. I really enjoyed watching this video!

[@Paradigm7782]

Thank you so much for making this breakdown- i love this movie and literally have been searching 15 years to hear this lol

[@fredsalter1915]

It's funny how keen a native speaker's ears are when hearing even a minute oddity in speech. I live in California and there are literally dozens of languages spoken by various folks. I work with a lot of them and some of them have English as a second language, but with practically no accent (as many of them were born and raised in USA). But every now and then, my ear will hear a slightly off sound in their pronunciation of a word and I can then tell that English is not their first tongue. Thanks for posting! I.B. is the bomb! So is Q.T.!!!

[@edwardlenovo3240]

Americans have tons of regional accents, just like every other language including English.

[@virj42]

"...some of them have English as a second language, but with practically no accent (as many of them were born and raised in USA)" This is me. My English is unaccented unless I get very tired, in which case I tend to mispronounce words by stressing the wrong syllable or using an odd word in place of a much more common one.

[@RichardDCook]

I've been living in Southern California since I was a kid (I'm 65 now) and I'm always intrigued by the speech of my co-workers who were born and raised in Southern California. There's a variety of subtle accent differences, for example a few of them change "a" before "g" to an "eh" giving "flehg" "mehgazine" etc. Some also change "ih" before "ng" to "ee" as in "feenger" and "theeng". (These are people who only speak English whose parents only speak English.)

[@sachmo6864]

Bit of a correction here. While I know what you mean and ultimately do agree, what you are hearing are newer variations of an American accent. For example, my family is from the carribean coast Colombia and I grew up in the Miami-FtLauderdale Metropolitan area. Spanish was my first spoken language, sure - it has even left its mark on my speech - BUT, I am a native English speaker. I was born and raised in the US (with some excursions to Colombia here and there), and the English I speak is a derivative/variation of a recognized dialect (Miami/South Florida dialect with accompanying accent) that initially came from Spanish speaking immigrants. If someone is born and educated (in English) in the US, then in all likelihood they are native English speakers, and heritage speakers for their first spoken language (in most cases). Rest assured, my accent is American, even if you can guess where it has some of its roots.

[@JpnhAbou]

My native russian wife and I live in New England. Our first trip to Georgia, the cashier at a fast food counter asked her "What y'all having?" It nearly broke her brain wondering what "y'all" meant, leaving aside that it sometimes is used as a second person _singular_ 😂

[@ShadowGJ]

This scene is so masterfully crafted. The imperfections in Hicox's German are entirely by design. Even the Sergeant can tell something's off, but being drunk and intimidated by the supposedly superior officer's scolding, he doesn't dare make a bigger fuss about it. It is only the Gestapo/SS (can't remember) officer who takes a real interest in Fassbender's character. The German's arrogance leads him to fall into that oh-so-classic Nazi cat and mouse power game. He knew he could probably arrest Hicox right away. However, in deciding to toy with him and checking if he can make him give himself away entirely, the Nazi got in way over his head, ending up outnumbered and doomed. He's no Hans Landa, and in a way this contrasting scene indirectly reinforces the main villain's sheer skill.

[@NewarkWilder]

Brilliant video. Appreciate the depth of analysis, particularly his pronunciation of 'ihrem', and the string rolled r - fascinating to hear this stuff from a native speaker.

[@jamiereekie9342]

Great scene, one of Tarantino's best! You can feel the tense in the air even as a non German speaker.

[@JustCallMeMeghan]

This was actually super interesting! Thanks for the lesson!

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Thanks for the kind feedback, Meghan! Much appreciated! 👊

[@ravensong9030]

I've been waiting for this video literally for years! I always wanted to see a really deep analysis into the details of Fassbender's German in this scene. Thank you for uploading!!!

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Thanks for the kind feedback, much appreciated! :)

[@AuslanderY]

I'm just learning Deutsch as a beginner, but I have heard so many videos that even i said it that sounded as if in that situation in real life would have given it away really fast and cost his life in the process. It didn't sound right, and good German makes me passionate about learning more. Great video! Thank you!

[@telecasteredtodeath]

I loved this whole scene and was always curious about the different German accents. The Gestapo Officer in the next room acknowledged what town each soldier was from by their accent but couldn't determine what region the Lieutenant's (British Spy's) accent was from. Great video by the way, thank you!

[@anthonykaiser974]

German dialects and accents are highly specific, to a local at any rate, so that actually makes sense, to the degree a Gestapo officer would be exposed to them. Given that Wehrmacht units were geographically tied, it would follow naturally that the Nazis could send local Gestapo agents to sniff out spies, though to what extent they did, I am not aware.

[@Beagle3561]

Don't know why this was on my playlist a year after it was released, But lucky me! What a great analysis!! I have not had time to read all the comments, however, I'd like to know how the Gestapo officer was able to distinguish the dialects (Frankfurt, Munich, etc.) from the other soldiers at the tables... I mean I know we can do it here in the U.S. (Boston, New York, Texas, Northern Minnesota)... But the Gestapo officer rattled them off pretty quickly. Great Video!

[@josezerpa8177]

Hi Dave, I speak intermediate German and and I lived 2 years in Frankfurt am Main, and even for me as a non-native speaker , I would have noticed that he isn't either. Great video, I enjoyed it a lot! Gruesse aus Kanada.

[@MissDutch2]

That was a great video Dave and very helpful, thank you.

[@imperialkain4838]

I had German as a second language in high school, a looooong time ago. My teacher would compliment me on my pronounciation of the words (sadly the grammar and verbs wasn't). I wished I kept going on reading and learning more but I just drop it. Huge mistake because i'm still fascinated by the German language to this day. Great video btw!

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Thank you, much appreciated!

[@matty6878]

darth avatar, loves german language okay

[@maxbeale8186]

Another awesome video, I especially love the way how you pointed out that Michael Fassbender rolling his ‘rs’ doesn’t apply to High German but only dialects like Bavarian and Austrian. Still, I like to roll my ‘r’s when I speak German

[@tomasinacovell4293]

I thought his structure flowed rather well, better than a more simple person could?

[@satyagrahaa]

It is accurate for the time period because „Theaterdeutsch“ (which included the rolled rs) was quite popular at the time among german soldiers (for obvious reasons). So him starting to roll the r to put extra emphasis on the word is not out of place.

[@AndinoKiwi]

@@satyagrahaa Max Raabe, the singer, also rolls his r's as he tries to portray himself like a 1920's or 1930's singer.

[@lani6647]

Well, he came from a village in the shadow of Piz Paloooo. So why not.

[@singepoilu9845]

Austro-Bavarian are actually High German dialects.

[@thelonelypamphleteer5722]

This is one of my favorite movies, and any insight into how absolutely perfect this movie is, is pure gold to me.

[@tiburcio43]

I think Dave gives us a very nice counter-example. His accent is very subtle, anyone would have trouble describing why it is vaguely foreign... and yet most native speakers would pick that up.

[@BibaMedia]

Hey Dave, it was really fantastic how you broke down the linguistics by displaying the text of the dialogue. Also your explanation of the context of the pronunciations(high German, drunken German) revealed a lot of clarity in this well acted scene. Quite well done.

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Thank you! :)

[@FERALxIMP]

That scene was a hair raiser the whole time I've watched it. The fact that the smallest details of linguistics can raise suspicions with the huge giveaway to the 3 fingers was masterful in cinematography. Shows how a native speaker can recognize a slight change in pronounciation to ignorants of cultural custom.

[@grahamrich3368]

Ausgezeichnet! Many thanks Dave for this breakdown of Inglourious Basterds - as a learner of Deutsch, I found it really interesting the way Michael Fassbender's character became rumbled!! 🇬🇧 🇩🇪

[@Solus147]

Would love to see a part 2 and even 3 of this scene and maybe others too!

[@nkandukataya2813]

You asked what we think? Well i'm from Zambia, so maybe my opinion may count for nothing. Basterds is one of my favourite movies of all time. I am more of a movie lover than a language lover. Though I am trying halfheartedly to learn German, I speak English as a first language. I feel that Fassbender was cast perfectly for this role, I mean, the whole point of this scene was to have someone who speaks fluent but not perfect German. Of course the British Lieutenant's German was wrong!!! It was a very compelling scene. And its great you pointed out the nuances that i am sure more serious students of the German language will appreciate. Thanks for the great upload, loads of love from Zambia

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Thank you Nikandu, and yes, your opinion definitely counts no matter where you are from! To be honest, I feel blessed that my videos reach so many parts of the world! Cheers from Germany! 😊

[@AnFreden]

I'm a French speaker and the "zurückkeeeehhhrrrren" with your explanation killed me I can't stop laughing 😂😂😂

[@abruemmer77]

Mais avait-il raison?

[@ikmor]

Great editing on your video, with the highlighted text and letters. Tasty, and easy to follow!

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Thank you, much appreciated!

[@patrickthomas8890]

Not speaking German I was able to hear his posh English accent shine through his German which was amazing to me.

[@Terminalsanity]

RP is just uniquely stiff in its stresses & cadences it just stands out. Which I suppose owns to it origin as a way to speak in a fashion as clear as possible. It was never a natural conversational accent to begin with which is why so few people in the UK actually speak with it conversationally.

[@paulmryglod4802]

As example of slight variation giving away an accent, i learned Spanish in school, but in the real world from working with a cuban. When i went and worked with mexicans, they asked me "is that cuban or dominican?" I realized the difference in delivery cadance and some regional dialect after a day. Im not fluent in spanish, but i still developed an accent just from the source of instruction.

[@terencejay8845]

I'm hoping to move to Spain from the UK. I had two years of Spanish in school so I can blunder my way through a short conversation. Unlike many expats, I really want to learn proper conversational Spanish, but I'm wary of the 'Molby' efect. Jan Molby came to play football for Liverpool from Denmark and became a much loved player. However, he learnt all his English in Liverpool which has a very strong accent, so, to this day, he still sounds like a Liverpudlian - not the most attractive. I don't want to take local Spanish lessons, then find I'm treated like some country bumpkin in the cities because I've picked up the 'wrong' accent!

[@kelvinmartinez4770]

Cubans, Puertorican and Dominicans (later a combination of French accent) have a lot of our early ancestors from the Canaries Island and Andalusian. So our accent sounds more from those regions than Mexico or the rest of Latin America… well Venezuelans also have some of the canaries accent

[@cristianherrera1379]

Really interesting. You have a new follower, personally it's a pending matter to learn more about this beautiful language and culture.

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Hey Cristian, thanks a lot and welcome! :)

[@cristianherrera1379]

@@DefinitelyGerman danke👍👍

[@dianem8544]

How interesting! I wonder if those little errors are in there intentionally so the other guy could remark on what an unusual accent he has. Maybe not, since like you say, MF isn't a native German speaker, but his dad is, so maybe MF's German really is close enough to perfect that he could pass as a native speaker. As someone who grew up with a non-rhotic accent (in English), I can tell you it's really hard to learn the rhotic version and once you've got that down, it's very hard to switch back to non-rhotic speaking. And that's all within the same language, so I imagine it's harder to do while also switching languages.

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Hey Diane! I can totally picture that. It's the other way round for Germans speaking (American) English and the like, since we don't use that phoneme in German either. But I guess it's also part of the fun in learning foreign languages: Differences one has to get used to. :D

[@dianem8544]

@@DefinitelyGerman Yeah, but we Americans are really forgiving when Germans can't say the rhotic R since it just sounds cool/British to us. When (American) English speakers can't, apparently it's HILARIOUS. We also don't require Germans to be able to say "th" but I personally am really impressed when you can. :D

[@robertgumpi7235]

I don’t think the little errors are there intentionally. MF does a good job but you immediate hear that he is not German. This is the reason why he is dubbed in the German version.

[@coniaric]

@@dianem8544 ...and the Irish lose the th.Tis ting is great!

[@BravoDox]

​@@coniaricThat's not how an Irish person says that. There are various Irish accents and none pronounce "this" as "tis". For those that don't pronounce the "th" fully, it would be "dis".

[@walterbailey2950]

So, in other words, a native German speaker watches this, and concludes that Michael Fassbender does a good job of portraying a fluent German speaker who will be identified by native speakers as not a native speaker. This validates Fassbender‘s performance as exactly what was intended by the script.

[@Anglashock]

Fantastic scene. Had me on the edge of my seat for the entire time. The tension constantly building to the ultimate violent ending🇦🇺

[@kronosaraya]

Just stopping by to congratulate you for yet another cool video 😀

[@julioguadalupe6935]

Dave! Fun video and you are an outstanding explainer. Look forward to relearning German through your channel.

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Hey Julio, thanks for the kind words! Enjoy my videos :)

[@jamestiburon443]

Thanks. That was a great explanation, as an American who studies Deutsche Cultur. Danke

[@FifthKnowledge]

Great video, I wish you kept analyzing longer! Das ist interestingkishteh (my own form of German!)

[@Parmesana]

I appreciate the commenting on the subtle things. It really helps. Vielen Dank

[@drewschumann1]

Our family is from Naufeldt, I've lived in Frankonia, and I have a friend from Saxony. All three places have radically different accents and could almost be considered separate languages

[@snapmalloy5556]

Very interesting! Thanks for this video. I always wondered about this scene. Personally I spent two weeks in Germany and learned one phrase. "Icht mochte Ein bier bitte". Sorry if I annihilated the spelling.

[@coniaric]

Ich möchte ein Bier bitte better: Könnte ich bitte ein Bier bekommen?

[@Custer0706]

“Ein Bier bitte” works perfectly fine in all circumstances. Don’t kill yourself with “möchte”.

[@frankherbert3005]

Second comment, sorry… I’m totally subscribing! In enjoy your focus on pronunciation!!! And your English is amazing!

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Thank you very much for that kind feedback and for subscribing! It's much appreciated :)

[@bravocharlie1428]

In the movie he (Herr Fassbender) explains his accent due to being from the area of Piz Palu. It looks like that's in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, just guessing that as an American who spent a few years in Switzerland as a kid...regardless, do you have any idea if his accent matches with his explanation? Is he speaking with a Swiss-German accent? Or maybe even Swiss-Italian who learned Swiss-German as a second language?

[@bravocharlie1428]

Much thanks for the videos-very fun to learn from you!

[@CatherineAaBb]

Oh mein Gott thank you, it's the only one video about his accent with explanation about what's wrong with it, as non german native speaker I couldn't hear the difference between him and other officers and your video explains a lot and helps me with learning German

[@ilearnjapanese]

I am German and learnt something about the german language today

[@Graeberwave]

A VR Chat video game based on this scene, and if your tutor (who is also your opponent) catches you slipping, everyone draws their gun-hopefully you survive that level! Can someone please make that game so I can play it, and keep my language skills up??

[@jasonarnold6273]

Just found your channel, great video thank you! 🙂

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Thank you, you're welcome! :)

[@ankurd2889]

Awesome performance by the whole German-Austrian cast..& specially the master, the virtuoso Christoph waltz..have normalised German people once again.. I think people don't see it..but waltz has single handedly cast an awesome image of the region in zeitgeist..simply because he's one of the best..I'm yet to see his mad-hamlet..but in these roles of a guy from europa.. no competition.. these soft powers are far influential than anything else...

[@oldoddjobs]

Normalised?! Wtf are you talking about

[@ankurd2889]

@@oldoddjobs exactly tf you dont get 😀 obviously

[@fairshareofdrownedsouls]

Brilliant video 👏🏾 Thank you.

[@kylekuervers3517]

Bravo! Thank you for the great video.

[@jammin1881]

Can we ALL just take a moment and agree on the beauty and level of skill in the Italian and pronunciations of Aldo Rains. World class Italian speaker. World class…… 🤣

[@jsimonlarochelle]

Its in the script that he has to get caught so I guess he is doing a good job. Threading the line is always difficult. Thanks for an interesting analysis.

[@joeylindeman2842]

As a virtualy non-German speaker, I always wondered what gave it away. I thought Fassbender's German was pretty slick. So,awesome to finally hear where he cuts the corners...😊

[@timrogers2638]

This is by far my favorite scene in this film. I am far from fluent in German, but have learned a smattering over the years. Since seeing this film have wondered how both the Oberfeldwebel Wilhelm and Sturmbannführer Hellstrom could detect that Lieutenant Hickox's German was suspect, so thank you for this analysis. I'm late to this post, so if you haven't done so already, I'd also love to learn how the Sturmbannführer could tell that Hugo Stiglitz was from from Frankfurt, and that Wilhelm Wicki was from Munich, especially considering the short contributions they had to the dialog before the Sturmbannfürher came to the table.

[@justwilly6778]

awesome breakdown - thanks for this

[@doggonemess1]

Thanks for this video - it makes enjoying the scene that much better.

[@jillhumphrys9349]

Im American from NWArkansas. Thousands of people from around the world live in this 40 mile radius because the WALMART World Home Office is here. So its quite a diverse area. But drive 25 miles south or east and its like Deliverance! So ive lived around many different accents my entire life. I don't know German, so the differences you point out are subtle to me. But it must be the same as me going to New York (we all speak english) but i speak as i normally do and try to convince others I'm a New Yorker. They know im not bc a New Yorker will not accent words in the same way i might.

[@jeaniecameron295]

Thank you for making this!!!

[@DefinitelyGerman]

You're welcome! :)

[@Eupher6]

As an American soldier, I spent almost 15 years in Germany. Became fluent enough to dream in German, and obtained U.S. military certification as a linguist along with my real job as a musician. I left Germany almost 30 years ago and miss it, along with having little opportunity to practice. To me, the big giveaway in the scene was the English/American sign of the number "three" which, of course, is completely wrong. Other than that, I didn't hear any obvious errors, but it's great to hear the tiny little details from Dave. Great analysis!

[@slayer8actual]

Since I've spent a lifetime moving from state to state and several other countries, my accent is pulled from different areas. People in the South think I'm from the North, and Northerners think I'm from California. Californians think I'm from Canada. Nobody can tell with any certainty where I am from but they all know I'm not from 'there' wherever 'there' is. Sometimes it's my accent that people remark on or it's the words I use to describe something or call particular things by a different name. No matter how much a person works on developing an accent or dialect to learn a language, there will always be those small, very hard to notice nuances that will make some people ask, "Where are you from?"

[@TheIBROWman]

awesome video ONE QUESTION THO... the german SS officer later in the scene calls the two german basterds "lieutenant frankfurt", and "lieutenant munich" before saying "captain i don't know what". did those two basterds speak with frankfurt and munich accent? are those different accents actually?

[@nealandkriz]

Yes he could have pinned down their dialects to the regions where they are spoken. Frankfurt and Munich as stand-ins for the respective states they are in, Hessen and Bayern. Although Hugo Stiglitz/Til Schweiger doesn’t speak a really thick dialect, but more of a mumbled mash of standard german.

[@TheIBROWman]

thank you i've been wantign to know the answer to this for years @@nealandkriz

[@DocM.]

So cool! Love this! ❤ Instant sub!!! I love that I took 3 years of German in highschool but I'm sad I never get to use it!

[@briandeal8927]

It’s so interesting how such little details give away people. Where I’m from there’s a town called Norfolk. People that are not from this area pronounce it “Nor-folk”. People that are from the area pronounce it “Nor-fek” and sometimes, but very rarely, “Na-fek”.

[@Lipo]

Very interesting and informative. Thanks!

[@aeris2001]

The way you describe Fassbender here, that he is mostly fine but you can tell he is not a native speaker, reminds me of how your English sounds to me, except you can explain why. I can tell you are not a native speaker, despite your English sounding completely fluent to me, yet I would not be able to tell you why you don’t sound native without looking into it. Which is testament to how hard it is to not only learn another language but sound native. As someone who only speaks English, learning other languages is so badass to me.

[@Ba_A]

This scene is intense when Major Hellstrom begins to interact with them. I would like to read commentaries regarding the Major's statement calling the other two spies Lieutenant Munich and Lieutenant Frankfurt as if he knew where their German accents were from.

[@hunterluxton5976]

Fantastic analysis, very interesting.

[@kadmii]

this video does a good job of summarizing truly how effective Fassbender's German performance is to achieve a "this German ain't quite right" feeling even among native German speakers. Same with how the 3 fingers is subtle for those who don't know and obvious for those who know.

[@anthonykaiser974]

That sort of difference in customs has been used before, I think going back to the 60s, but the tables were turned. I can't find the film or TV reference, but recall a German infiltrator caught by smoking his cigarette the wrong way and wearing his wedding band on the wrong hand.

[@TheOffkilter]

You know if QT wanted to go really deep into the history of it he could've had Fassbender's character play off that he wasnt German, but learned it when he was young or something. There were actually lots of non Germans in the Waffen SS. If he had played off that he was Danish or Norwegian or something he probably wouldve gotten away with it historically before he threw the infamous "3" up.

[@mitch775]

I saw this video about 2 years ago but came back to it after watching this scene. I find this topic fascinating for multiple reasons. For instance, I have worked with people of Mexican descent and having taken a Spanish language course in high school I felt that I could sharpen my skills in the language. Also, my philosophy is “I will meet you half way” in that it could only help if I learn Spanish especially when someone is trying to learn English. I am no means fluent but I could get by conversationally in vulgar, “everyday” Spanish. Anyway, regardless of my appearance, they would always be able to tell that I wasn’t a native if only because of my sentence structure; English tends to place the verb structurally odd comparative to other languages. My pronunciation notwithstanding. The point is, I come off as a backwards speaking American with notes of regional Midwest in Spanish to those who are fluent and native. Obviously, the same applies to the other way around. The other scene in a movie I thought of was from Die Hard With A Vengeance where an undercover operative German National very slightly misuses the American idiom “It’s raining cats and dogs” but instead says “it’s raining dogs and cats.” As an American, you’ll notice that with immediate suspicion and even eliminate any possibility of attributing the error to regional dialect. Long story short, I feel like I hear the English/Irish accent in certain moments as Fassbender speaks German. His German sounds British at times. Apparently, you noticed the word “zurückkehren” that even sounded French in the “eh” section! Like you said…It’s the little things that give you away. Finally, I am trying to learn German and Polish as my family is of those ethnicities. It’s tough when you don’t or no longer have anyone to practice with. Both I find difficult compared to Spanish. English has the skeleton of German but with the obvious added difficulty of gender as well as like 30 letter words. As an outsider, German seems very “exact.” You know exactly what something even performs as a machine but it’ll be a 28 letter word. Hard to explain but it’s almost “inefficient in its efficiency” if that makes sense? Polish is even more difficult. Nevermind the lack of the definite article “the.” The pronunciation of Latin characters superimposed onto a Slavic rooted language is enough to stumble out the gate as an American English native speaker….somehow this pertains to the original idea, I swear! Anyway, loved the video! Made me think more about the subject than I can even type! Cheers! Prost! Na Zdrowie!

[@Terminalsanity]

Funny thing its a RP accent comes through in his German like its unmissable the pronounced stiffness in he stressing of syllables & cadence but RP isn't Fastbender's natural English accent either.

[@Tony_SZ29]

Well, your English is very very good Dave, no heavy accent at all. You sound like a German who may have lived for many many years in the States.

[@gabriel.954]

Excellent! I've wondered about this since I've watched the movie. One of the best scenes ever. Question: Is it also true that Germans think it odd how he indicated "3" with his fingers which is what gave him away? Thanks!

[@wolflarsen1900]

not me. We here all indicate 3 like the german in the movie. And i find it odd to show it in the "inefficient" english way.

[@nerdlaboruncut]

That's actually something we do in Germany. We usually use the thumb as the counted one.

[@starcorpvncj]

Thanks. Good analysis. Personally, I liked the 3 finger give away.

[@Ahmedkhan8802]

Excellent video! (Ich bin Amerikaner. Deutsch ist meine erste Fremdsprache, deshalb ist es für mich etwas ganz besonderes). Danke sehr!

[@KasFromMass]

Former agents will say they don't try to fix their speech, they just have a great back story.

[@michaelblizzard3132]

Love that scene from Inglorious Bastards. Thanks for taking me back to my childhood. My Dad was in the Army. I remember saying or hearing other kids say nix, nein, Frankenstein.

[@gazzablanca]

I watched this movie years ago and I didn't understand how different his accent was until I started learning German and realised I sound like Michael Fassbender. 🤣

[@harijsbruns8582]

Brad Pit nailed italian in Bawnjorno-Gorlami scene 😆😆

[@chrisfarrell8691]

To cut this short, I grew up in Germany with a british dad and a german Mom. My Dad, although he mastered german grammer in his 50 years in Germany, still has a british accent. Fassbender sounds like my dad. He rolls the r and gets the vocals wrong. It's not like: "here he's a little bit off, and that is not regular" you can make him out as a brit in two sentences. And that's with giving him the benefit of the doubt for the first sentence.

[@wilb6657]

I'm not a German speaker. But after several viewings of this scene, even I can pinpoint Fassbender's character as a Brit pretending to be German.

[@johntheball]

Fassbender is Irish with German parents he is also fluent in Gaelic so i dont know what that might of done to his accent.....

[@gman52712]

I love these critiques. It makes the industry improve.

[@arklowrockz]

Michael Fassbender is from a place called Killarney in southern Ireland. Both of his parents are native German (as far as I know).

[@stickykitty]

I've learnt more German here than my entire schools year I want more!!!

[@DefinitelyGerman]

Lucky you! I just released a "follow up" to this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYHSf5RraJqln6s :) Thanks for the kind words!

[@israelhands4938]

Fassbender is actually a fluent German speaker in real life, as he was born in Germany to a German father and lived his early years there before relocating to Ireland. He speaks high German for one scene in the film Frank, and does it properly. :)

[@johntheball]

He is also fluent in Gaelic which is quite interestng...i knew his dad was German but did not know he had lived in Germany.

[@RandomStuff-he7lu]

He did say that he's a bit rusty sounding when he speaks German as he doesn't use it too much in his daily life.

[@edwardebel1847]

You are so correct when you say it’s the little things that give it away. In listening to someone speak with an American accent, if there is one inconsistency in an entire paragraph, it sets off a little “flag”…the same is true of emails sent by foreign spammers…a word misspelled or used incorrectly, or simply a word that should be capitalized but isn’t…little things give it away. As Vince Gilligan (of “Breaking Bad”) said many times (through his characters), “The devil is in the details.” Thanks for this video…as I am taking up German once again. 😊

[@Sachin_C10]

The woman when she is hurt, she shows her thumb, index & middle finger as the German three fingers, however Fassbender shows the usual 3 fingers by showing his index, middle & ring finger & the German guy easily figures out his disguise, that scene the German officer tells it all, he figures out the French guy has blown his cover.

[@gregoryhawkins4210]

The 'little bits' helped Fassbender to stand out as suspect of being native German, but the "3 fingers" order for the round of drinks, if you recall, was the final straw of Fassbender non native German giving himself away.

[@yzdatabase4175]

Piz Palü is in Switzerland.

[@ryanosullivan2871]

In the English sub-titles of this scene, it says Captain, Lieutenant, Major etc., but it sounds like there's actually a distinction made in German between the army and SS/gestapo ranks - is that right?

[@maikeru01]

I'm watching this video listening to your English, analyzing all the things you do in English that give away that you are not a native speaker or at least not from the US , Canada, NZ, AUS or UK. We can also spot foreigners basically instantly. It takes like 2 or 3 words before I can hear the imperfections.

[@DefinitelyGerman]

I'm sure I mix BE and AE things all the time for instance. You usually learn British English in German schools, but I'm mostly influenced by American English nowadays. And then I have the usual "second-language flaws", I guess.

[@jrok4312]

I came here to see those exact little details that made germans notice him, thanks!

[@Treva097]

the little things give you away - A Linkin Park reference ;) edit: oh great later in the video you explain it, I spotted it the first time you smirked saying it haha

[@NeilusNihilus]

The biggest giveaway is he looks totally British.

[@dovestone_]

Well he’s half German!

[@TheScaryTruthCatalyst]

And half irish.

[@oldoddjobs]

@@NeilusNihilus and is in fact not british at all

[@MrRamone_CBGB]

Cooles Video auf jeden Fall