How anyone (including YOU) can read German

These AMAZING TRICKS can help anyone translate German words, whether they know any German or not. Remember to head to squarespace.com/robwords to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using the code "robwords".
German and English are part of the same language family. That means you can tweak German words to make them look a lot more like their English equivalents. In this video, I'll show you how.
I'll also teach you a bit about the shared history of German and English, and why we have Germany's famous fairytale-tellers the Brothers Grimm to thank.
Check me out on Twitter & TikTok:
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/ robwords

[@MasterQuestMaster]

After being a German native speaker for 27 years, I can now finally read a menu thanks to this video! Thanks KZbin for recommending me this 😂

[@Xenril]

Der Algorithmus hat uns richtig gut zugeteilt. War aber dennoch ein interessantes Video :D

[@cpK054L]

das gut. ja? das boot ish veter

[@mr.fabio.lous.]

Es ist jedes Mal schön zu sehen, wie sich, ich eingeschlossen, die Deutschen immer für Videos interessieren, die von ihrer Muttersprache handeln. Wirklich jedes Mal das selbe mit uns. :)

[@DdSSonicScienceLab]

@@mr.fabio.lous. Ach was, das ist doch ein verdammtes Klischee. Ich muss erstmal weg, etwas essen. Aber ich lasse mein Handtuch hier...

[@babboon5764]

Yeah Yeah (or Ja Ja) Ic was doing fine *until* the menu Now I'm hungry

[@brdl6192]

So happy that dutch is my native language, do half of the swaps and we understand german, do the other swaps and we are talking in english!

[@SingularlyNaked]

As an English speaker with a couple years of college German, I had a blast both times I was in the Netherlands! For example... Why do I keep seeing "Zuid" on highway signs. Oh! Zud! Of course! And then I learned it's pronounced more like "zoud" and started to wish I were a linguist!

[@brdl6192]

@@SingularlyNaked I'm Flemish, so our pronunciation is a tad less 'harsh' than dutch from the netherlands. I would guess that it's probably even easier to understand/ spreak for Brits and Germans!

[@bigscarysteve]

I'm an American who has a decent grasp of the German language, but I fall a bit short of fluency. Whenever I saw examples of Dutch in the past, it was incomprehensible to me. Then one day, I was looking at a Dutch text, and I suddenly realized, oh--that would be blah-blah-blah in German! Ever since then, I can make sense of written Dutch as long as it stays pretty close to how it would be written in German.

[@gessie]

Us Dutchies sure have an easy time there - even when jokingly using "German sounding" words, Germans tend to know exactly what we're trying to say and vice-versa. It's weird that the soccer hillbillies on both sides pretend the cultural differences between us are irreconcilable.

[@uribove]

@@brdl6192 Flemish represent!

[@judith8161]

As a german native speaker, I found it really easy to learn English. I first learned French and it was one hell of a struggle. When I started taking English classes two years later, I was positively surprised by how similar it is to my own language. Never mind the minor differences, to me our two languages are close relatives and I think that everyone who speaks English should also learn German. Never mind the grammatical genders - we'll understand you even if you get them wrong, promise!

[@MurrayMcDonald]

Understand but unconsciously correct us in my experience. ;-)

[@Bob-fh4ht]

German and English are like those 2 akward cousins, hard to understand eachother at first but find but bros at the end

[@thomasharter8161]

@@Bob-fh4ht Only 30% of the English language is of Germanic origin, he himself said so in his video concerning the French language. For an English speaker it is very difficult to learn German. It's easier to learn French for an English speaker.

[@Bob-fh4ht]

@@thomasharter8161 no one gives a shit

[@nessamillikan6247]

As an American, I always chose to learn Spanish in school and university because it makes the most sense geographically, but I also wish there were more German people here so I could reasonably practice German with others if I were to learn it. Spanish is very well-organized and straightforward to learn, but there’s something about German that seems like it would be even easier to learn and just tap into a part of my brain with less memorization required.

[@SIC647]

As a Dane who also speaks English and German, I find that when knowing those three languages, I can approximate any Germanic language. The Danish adds a layer, so I understand better than people who only understands English and German. And something that has always amused me, is that my brain tends to understand German as a Danish dialect, rather than a foreign language. I can't quite explain how it works in my head, but it makes it much easier for me to understand and speak German.

[@MeriadocMuller]

Absolutely !!! Assolutamente (i love this italian word) !!! When I was a kid and first time visit the Netherlands, having no clue of dutch I noticed dutch tv news. While I didn't understand anything at first.... but with a delay of about 10, 20 seconds the meaning of whole sentences suddenly popped up in my brain. Thas was puzzling and amazing!

[@TheLaumix]

Funny thing that you mention the whole "sounds like a dialect" thing - For me that is actually the same thing with Danish and German, but in reverse. xD Good to see that I'm not the only one to notice something like this.

[@etuanno]

As a Swiss how almost exclusively speaks and writes in my Swissgerman Dialect (I don't remember the last time I spoke German), it's really handy because the Alemannic dialects are roughly stuck in the 15th century pronounciation wise. This then means any German sub language (like Yiddish) or Germannic derived language just sounds like a bit of a very strange dialect. I can easily read Danish, but the pronounciation is a bit hard because you sound like you have a potato stuck in the mouth.

[@paj4949]

wondering if you have heard the scots language and if you can easily understand that?

[@Ava_Grim]

I agree on the dialect statement, however, I´d call danish a german dialect :D

[@ChesapeakeHammockandOutdoors]

I'm a warehouse manager for Lidl here in the US and this video will help me immensely at work! Our regional VP, director and "Logistik" managers are all German and many of our imported items come with German labels. Having a quick and easy way to fumble my way through will be a life saver, AND get me major brownie points with my German bosses! Thank you!

[@toebs_]

Ok now I’m kinda curious about the products at a US Lidl. What is so special that it’s worth importing?

[@Grimmiges_Ranarrkraut]

Hehehe brownie points with germans

[@tonyxie4534]

@@toebs_ You'll see lots of chocolates, sweets, cookies and holiday deco's from Germany at the stores. The chocolates are especially rich and tasty with unique flavors.

[@ChesapeakeHammockandOutdoors]

Right now we have Favorina for Xmas

[@cv507]

vvellkämm tv kältzrüh pürämmitt ^L^

[@wangeroogerque2931]

I'm native German and I noticed some similarities to the English language, but I never noticed how easy you can swap out letters to translate the words.

[@gingkarl]

true also you can switch oo and ou for u like in foot and fuß

[@nostalji75]

@@gingkarl that would be "oot" changed to "uß". According to your example the german word would be fut.

[@gingkarl]

Sorry mate I also meant if you use the other rules of change so that t gets changed to s or ss or ß

[@nostalji75]

@@gingkarl Np, but these "rules" are not enough to understand English and German just by knowing one of them. Lets apply these "rules" to another English word which is similar: loot You recieve something like " luss or luß" But it actually translates to: "Beute" or as a verb to "plündern". They do help. Its easier to learn a language by using it, than looking at specific parts of how it "evolved" from one language into another.

[@gingkarl]

Totally right. It just is one more tool to learn something after all they developed differently. It's more like a nice guide same with Dutch as a German native speaker I can read it fine with some fantasy but spoken I don't understand any word

[@chicken-hb9zg]

My first language is Scots, when I started learning Dutch I was shocked at the similarities, a lot of the words are the same or similar, and sentence order is generally similar. "Heb je water?" "Hae ye water?" "Ken je hem?" "Ken him?" I started learning some German recently for an upcoming trip and it's been pretty easy as well!

[@a.rassek9585]

On my travels through Scotland I also noticed the similarities with German. For example St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh is called "High Kirk" - the spelling of kirk is a lot closer to German "Kirche" than it is to "church" 😃

[@helgardforche3400]

Ja, das Deutsch Lernen wird Dir nicht schwer fallen. Viel Spaß dabei. Am schönsten sind dann alte Gedichtbände. Rainer Maria Rilke z B.

[@nigeldunkley2986]

Native Scot with dual UK/Ge nationality living in Berlin (I married one!) and I find the similarities fascinating! Studied in Aberdeen and every year we had a "Wapinshaw" AUOTC shooting competition. In German a "Waffenschau", we "gang tae kirk" for go to church - auf Deutsch "in die Kirche gehen". We keep family silver etc in a "kist" or chest aka in German eine "Kiste". "eine Leine hieven" = to heave a line, Kiel is in English a keel, Anker is of course anchor and so on. Old Scots to "keek" is to kieken - to look. Fun! Viele Grüße aus Berlin!

[@stokbrot]

I dont know why i watch this. 1. I have a test tomorrow 2. I am German

[@John_Kennedy27]

Maybe it will make English make more sense

[@corneliusludwig665]

In the past, I (native German) used to be a German language instructor at a number of colleges and universities in the United States. What you have presented here is a brilliantly condensed version of the material with which I tried to calm down and encourage my students during their first week of German 101. Kudos!

[@ranro7371]

it's the same for Arabic and all the so called semitic languages. Turns out they're just mumbled Arabic. (went from 28 consonants to 22, think i,e,y = i). Just swap the letters, it becomes clear the mumbled nature.

[@TheBandit7613]

English is the most widely spoken German language.

[@moonhunter9993]

I am fully bilingual in German and English. I teach German as a foreign language to English speakers: I always explain to them how to "transmute" sounds to help them recognize and remember words. Examples: feather ➡️ Feder, leather ➡️ Leder

[@berndhoffmann7703]

When I had to learn English, I kind of was baffled at the similarities and immediately knew that there are common roots. I just was not able to pin it down like Rob, very helpful

[@franklake9308]

Zpp07707°7 SS. Plz w w. Ok so Ll5.1 a wa z lzll

[@moonhunter9993]

@@berndhoffmann7703 there are many more.

[@franklake9308]

Ur😅ueyyyy

[@franklake9308]

Yesey

[@Kommentator1000]

Noch nie habe ich mehr über meine Sprache erfahren als in englischen Lernvideos.

[@draugami]

An alternative title for your video may be: How to Memorize German Vocabulary.

[@compphysgeek]

I'm German with an Australian wife. She always says she wants to learn German but also immediately claims she can't learn German. I always tell her that English and German are basically the same language so she shouldn't really have too many issues. I'll show her this video, hopefully it will convince her to have another go.

[@tootaashraf1]

@@lozpower1790 No his username is Russian I think.

[@Chr15T]

Australian, that will work. As long as it's not Austrian 🙂

[@RayEttler]

i have a surprise for you: she does not want to learn german. she will come up with other excuses anytime.

[@Mikichan85]

@@lozpower1790 absolutely not... The German alphabet is EXACTLY the same of ours... That's cyrillic. How cannot you notice that?

[@Mikichan85]

@@tootaashraf1 Russian. In any case, cyrillic. Bulgarian use a similar alphabet, for example

[@verenasophie7820]

As a German native speaker, I love comparing Austrian dialect words to English. "La'ta", for instance, is the ladder. "Oiwai" (for "alleweil") is "always". These dialects are so much closer to the common roots of both languages (even today!), which is so beautiful and fascinating. An extinct example is "windlow" ("Windloch", so, "wind hole") for "window", but this has not been in use anymore even in my grandmother's generation (her mother, on the other hand, still used this word). There's also "dau'ne" for a kind of "down" meaning, and I guess this list could go on and on. All my examples are Upper Austrian, by the way.

[@SuperJammjamm]

Yes you absolutly right, special the bairische Talk room have much more inluence of the latin because we are occupied for over 500 Years. example we talk: I drink a hoibe Bier mit vui faam

[@hofnaerrchen]

Was Deutsche und Österreicher am stärksten trennt: Die gemeinsame Sprache^^

[@silkwesir1444]

some dialects have "allemal", have never considered it to be related to the english "always" that closely

[@nirfz]

"dau'ne" as you wrote it in my region means "away". (bei uns warats eher "dauni")

[@markus717]

Thanks for explaining the root of "window" (wind hole) to me. Many words started out as two words but now are one. eg: Nostril was once "nase tril' or 'nose hole' in Middle English.

[@LillianGraceFullofficial]

Good tip: most words in German that end with “en” is usually a action verb. like Kommen, is to come, gehen, to go & Geben, to give. :)

[@cryeordie]

This was actually a fantastic video. I grew up speaking German but lost my familiarity with the language once my grandparents passed. After learning other languages, I struggled with German but this has made me see my familiarity with it in a new light. Thanks for this contribution to the polyglot community!

[@Liggliluff]

Interesting that you didn't mention V→F, Vater→father, vier→four, Volk→Folk, and this one works for Swedish: Vogel→fågel (bird)

[@jestemqiqi7647]

also works for Vogel → fowl.

[@annikadamaris8068]

This is the same consonant with only another spelling. V in these words is pronounced as [f] in German. So it's not a shift in consonants but in letters.

[@matanadragonlin]

Yes. It will give you an idea what is written in English

[@matanadragonlin]

😁 yes we Germans were not scared, we smiled wisely when Darth Vader was introduced 🙂😌😉

[@Liggliluff]

@@annikadamaris8068 The video was about spelling, not pronunciation. It was about replacing letters to make words appear more familiar.

[@zennayo1]

As someone who's learning german, this is kinda helpful

[@Orincaby]

As a 124-year-old truck driver from Bohemia, I can relate.

[@kathleenking47]

The german flag is cool in the autum🇩🇪 B & V is similar to spanish as well

[@kathleenking47]

@@Orincaby 124? Really 🤔

[@kingbeauregard]

How are you with English grammar? Like, if I say "indirect object", are you clear on what that is? German and English are almost identical in components of a sentence, so if you can parse an English sentence with an analytical eye, it'll help you with German maximally. If you can't ... well, learn it in English, and then you can apply it almost effortlessly to German.

[@welovfree]

As an English speaker learning German, I think it is impossible not to notice most of these even if it's not consciously.

[@RebekahTinsman]

I grew up in Germany and am now a German teacher in Texas. I will DEFINITELY be using your amazing video for ALL of my German classes!! Thank you! Extremely well done my friend (mein Freund)! =)

[@TitaAguirreGarcia]

Hello- from Fort Worth. Do you teach at the international school? My kids are learning german but just from home.

[@japrolp3838]

Cool. Wie bist du dazu gekommen ?

[@kedrak90]

I really enjoyed that one. I am a native German speaker and every time I have to spell tongue I think of what the word might have been like in earlier forms of English. Fun fact: Not only are Kuchen and cake cognate, German also has a loanword "der Keks" derived from "cakes". It means biscuit. My favourite pair is fee and das Vieh. Both words are pronounced identically. In Old English it meant cattle, in modern German it means livestock and at some point in time English shifted the meaning because people used to pay their tolls with cattle.

[@RichWoods23]

I don't know if 'der Keks' came to German from English, but in modern English slang it means something very different to cake.

[@UniquelyCritical]

Biscuit like a cookie?

[@kedrak90]

@@RichWoods23 It is northern and Scottish for trousers or underpants isn't it? Quite neat that the word kicks made it into the clothing world twice.

[@monkofmayhem1373]

@@UniquelyCritical good point english speakers dont agree on what that word means lol

[@kedrak90]

@@UniquelyCritical It's a small, sweet and crispy baked good. Cookies are sometimes intentionally underbaked aren't they? The word Keks originally referred to a kind of hard tack English sailors had. There also is the word Plätzchen. It is the diminutive of a rarely used word that comes from the Latin word for cake placenta.

[@BarnOwl61]

This was fun Rob. As a native Dutch speaker this makes total sense to me. I have no problems with Deutsch or English, but it was an eye opener.

[@fonkbadonk5370]

I slighly envy the Dutch for having such a great starting point to learn both languages. (Well, and their amazingly pretty country, wonderful sounding own language, and a few other things.) For my 10th grade trip we went on a sail across the IJsselmeer, and the ship's mate didn't speak English nor German, and we only German and some really shoddy school English back then that wasn't at all enough for conversation. We had such a great time together still, and piecing together things between the three languages enabled us to have actual talks about real topics, and even have some nuance in there. This experience really opened my eyes to Dutch being a really nice middlepoint between English and German, with its own unique twists, especially when it comes to pronounciation. Love you guys!

[@TremereTT]

Yet ß doesn't "actually" replace a "ss". It's a ligature for "sz" and about 60 or 70 years ago there were still some Germans alive that could speak and hear the difference between sz and ss. Germans just lost the ear to differenciate "ss" from "sz" over time and now(23 years ago or so), ß ist used to write an sharp s ("ss") that follows a long vowel. The Swiss-German simply removed the letter that lost it's sound.

[@ingquisitive]

@@TremereTT so does that mean that fußball should have the same pronunciation at the ß as the sz combo in faszinierend?

[@TremereTT]

@@ingquisitive there are ways to make long vowels in German, even when there is no s sound behind them. Would work like a charm for your example! Also the Swiss people seem to get the word even with ss. For some reason the Swiss is just better than Germany in everymetric even in common sense and orthography. We realy should do it more like the Swiss people do.

[@Calatriste54]

Would like to see how Danish fits into this subject..

[@Altos_Entretenimentos0955]

13:42 Classic Duolingo phrase "Kaffee oder wasser"

[@FebruaryHas30Days]

Ja

[@greedykira]

I dont think i learned german but i did learn that you have a contagious smile. Just your vibe is very happy and i enjoyed trying to learn from you.

[@saumitrachakravarty]

3:28 Wow! That cannot be a coincidence that deer originally meant all animals. The Sanskrit for *deer* is *mriga* which originally meant all animals. A derivative of the word, *mrigaya* still means to hunt animals in general in some of the languages derived from Sanskrit. Although the word mriga has now come to denote only one type of animal, deer, in its modern descendants. How cool is that? Indo-European family of languages!

[@RobWords]

Fantastic! Thank you

[@conorwhite2066]

Ditto for acorn.. the thing a squirrel (eekhoorn in Dutch) eats One thing you have to be aware of is false friends between languages English -German- Dutch Slim-schlim-slim Slim - bad - smart

[@builderbasti9773]

@@conorwhite2066 Also Dutch - Deutsch (German for German)

[@carlludwig8774]

@@builderbasti9773 actually the Dutch word for „dutch“ is „diets“ (although not used very commonly today) and the dutch Word for German is „duits“

[@leod-sigefast]

@@conorwhite2066 The Old English word for squirrel (a French origin word, unfortunately) was Aquern, akin to the Dutch and German words...well, at least it would be spelt like that in modern English if it had overlived (survived).

[@tjf2939]

I don't know why I'm watsching these videos as a German native but it's fascinating how close both German and English can be and how you can use tricks to better understand the other side!

[@iamme7626]

WatSCHing? LOL..typical German, lol. I am saying this because I am German also, lol, so please keep the S out of watCHing and you have it right ;)

[@melody_prinz]

We are all Germans!

[@iamme7626]

@@melody_prinz We ALL arent ;)

[@OmegamonUI]

@@iamme7626 ein Fehler hat der typ im video gemacht. ß vor diesem laut wird der vokal lang gesprochen. es heißt nicht Fuss sondern Fuuß.

[@iamme7626]

@@OmegamonUI Fuuß???? Dieses Wort gibt es in Deutsch NICHT!!! Sicher meintest Du Fuß, mit einem U, nicht mit zwei ;) Und es ist total akzeptabel zwei ss zu benutzen anstatt ein ß, da die meisten Amerikanischen Tastaturen kein ß haben 😃

[@paraply01]

11:15 Suddenly it became swedish for "day". DAG. Swedish - the language between german and english.

[@johnnyc0882]

I'm a native Spanish speaker with English as a second language and I picked up on the similarities between most german words and their english counterparts by listening to two bands sing in german (Rammstein and Lacrimosa). Lots of people I've talked to didn't believe me when I told them about the similarities with both languages (derived from the same source) because lots of words don't even sound or look alike and I told them that some words, not all, are similar

[@estebancorral5151]

Te lo creo. Ejemplo, eine Tasse Kaffee es una tasa de café. Y la tres palabras son femeninas como en el español. Otro ejemplo seria corbata y krawatte. Those people with whom you associate are clearly dummies. Cut your ties with them before they drag you down to the bottom of the Fjord.

[@mikebentley4832]

You taught me more in a few minutes than my German teacher taught me in one year, no joke! Thank you and thank you for the video!

[@TalibanSymphonyOrchestra]

Okay Biden.

[@mikebentley4832]

@@TalibanSymphonyOrchestra what does that idiot have anything to do with anything?

[@TalibanSymphonyOrchestra]

@@mikebentley4832 Come on man! NO JOKE!

[@mikebentley4832]

@@TalibanSymphonyOrchestra exactly what I said! NO JOKE MAN!

[@gibmaldenblunt8638]

@@mikebentley4832 und kannst du mich ein bisschen verstehen 😂

[@ChrisFalk2]

Why wasn't my German grammar lessons in school this good?! It would've been a lot easier and interesting to learn the language then. I love these videos where you begin with presenting a seemingly illegible text and then you proceed to break it down. It's all so obvious after you've explained it. The French video blew my mind!

[@ChrisFalk2]

@@marting.6587 Thank you for your input! But what I liked about the video is how Rob pointed out similarities between the languages. It got me more inttrigued about the German language at least.

[@terry2295]

Yup I wish schools would use more tasks structured like that as well.

[@Yutani_Crayven]

@@marting.6587 It's not meant for conversation, but rather as a starting point when learning the language, or when trying to navigate things as a short term visitor.

[@deutschmitpurple2918]

I really love Frech language

[@loatherd]

Wish I could ask my dad what words they are but app you can learn German easy with around 20 words. That info and this video would give anyone a fast head start :)

[@user-bi8oe8fi5h]

Thank you so much! I am a russian speaker with a high level of English ( something between B2-C1) who started learning german just a week ago and now with all these tricks it is MUCH easier for me to learn new words. ( Of course, I noticed a lot of similarities before but didn't have a list of all sound matchings, so you have made a great job)))

[@aisha.2407]

I can't get over this video! It's so brilliant! ❤ Thank you so much for this gem. 🙏🏼

[@alisonirwin109]

UK Language Teachers - Try showing some of these brilliant recordings to inspire school children to take up foreign language studies. Rob reminds us that languages have meanings and really can be simple. We need to teach differently and highlight the similarities or common origins instead of the differences which immediately creates barriers to learning and negativity. Rob you are amazing!

[@Nicole-dj3jf]

I watched a reel of an from Australia It was so funny this man couldn't under how the f word is used as pH say alphabet the f isn't even apart of it but yet it makes the f sound he was so mad but he made a good point he wanted to know who made the English language hahah I understand now how I failed in spelling trying to sound out words lol I agree it's stupid

[@melissasalasblair5273]

I love learning languages, and cultures especially after taking syntax, and linguistics in grad school because I've honed my skills in various ways.

[@paulsutton5896]

You are wasting your time. Education was destroyed in the UK with the liberal reforms of the 1960s. The teachers themselves were at the forefront of this act of national vandalism. So in my opinion for instance, none of them deserve pay increases. I was once a maths teacher and I grieve regularly over the damage which they (largely the socialists) managed to do.

[@fearsomemumbler9946]

I wish my German teacher could have shown something like this when I was at school. Instead I had some moody old lady who barked German at us without explanation. The only time I ever heard her speak English was to my mother during parents evening and only then I found out she was a softly spoken Scotswoman 😂 Her teaching method didn't work for me as she would say something once in very fast German and somehow expected us to understand what she was saying and if you had the cheek to ask her a question in English then she would send you out of the classroom. Was absolutely the quickest and most effective way to crush a child's interest in learning a foreign language.

[@TheJeremyKentBGross]

​@@paulsutton5896Can you say more about this subject or refer me to some sources on the subject to increase my understanding of what happened and why? Btw do you know James Lindsay? He has a lot of interesting things to say on the evolution of Socialist thinking, including direct unbroken links back to Gnostic cults in the middle ages as well as likely the sophists of ancient Greece.

[@ChrisBGramz4u]

I remember the first time I read German. I was a mod in a chat community. My room was empty, the only room with people in it chatting was the German chat room. I started reading and realised the similarities, straight off. I remember joining in on the conversations, but replying in English.

[@portuguesebee]

I dunno why but that feels wholesome

[@hmcredfed1836]

Die englische Sprache ist eine ursprünglich in England beheimatete germanische Sprache, die zum westgermanischen Zweig gehört. Sie entwickelte sich ab dem frühen Mittelalter durch Einwanderung nordseegermanischer Völker nach Britannien, darunter der Angeln - von denen sich das Wort Englisch herleitet - sowie der Sachsen. Die Frühformen der Sprache werden daher auch manchmal Angelsächsisch genannt. have a good one :P You are all germans btw xD

[@Fuerwahrhalunke]

Go back to 11th/12th/13th century English and you will find out why it is so similar 🙂 The closer you get to the anglosaxon era, the more you will notice the roots of the English language.

[@byluckyshekhawat]

which chat community was it antiland?

[@ChrisBGramz4u]

@@byluckyshekhawat , Talk City.

[@yerkoa.f670]

The german word "ZU" is also very alike to the english word "SO", in his meaning too sometimes. The same happens with the german word "BEI" and the English word "BY".

[@sanpellegrinolimonata]

Thank you for this great video!! I find that learning a language becomes much easier when facts about etymology/general facts (linguistics, etc) are provided-they help to show patterns so it’s a lot easier to learn a bunch of stuff at once, plus it makes the lesson a lot more interesting. Much better way of learning a language than just rote memorisation

[@gaufrid1956]

You are right Rob about how useful Dutch is as an intermediary between German and English. My son-in-law has relatives from the Netherlands, and when I asked him about Dutch, he described it as "someone got drunk and tried to speak German".

[@doctor78212]

Now, that’s funny.

[@gaufrid1956]

@@doctor78212 Yeah! I had a good laugh!

[@clownshow5901]

My parents are German so I grew up listening to it and speaking it yet to this day I still cannot understand spoken Dutch. Oddly however I watched a couple different TV series that were in Flemish and I was able to understand a fair amount. It all depends on the dialect you know. My mom visited once where I was living in Germany and couldn't make out anything anyone said (nor could I) as it was a very mongrel dialect of German that sounded like Chinese. They couldn't understand my German either until I hit upon the trick of just mushing my words together and only half pronouncing them and then suddenly they understood me. Go figure.

[@gaufrid1956]

@@clownshow5901 This is true of languages everywhere. In the Philippines there are more than 180 languages, and speakers of the official language Filipino (also known as Tagalog) usually understand very little of other languages. My wife is from Mindanao Philippines, and her daily speech is in Mindanao Cebuano. One of her sisters is married to a Tagalog speaking guy, and he can't understand or speak Cebuano. The Mindanao dialect of Cebuano also differs in many ways from that spoken in Cebu and the Visayas region. For example, we count to ten in Cebuano, and beyond ten in Spanish! Because I learned Latin when I was young, it has been easy for me to understand all the Spanish loan words. Just like you mentioned, many people speak and chat online with abbreviated words, or not exactly correct grammar. In the Philippines most people actually also add English words into sentences of their native language. Tagalog plus English is known as "Taglish" and is very commonly spoken. Cebuano is commonly known as "Bisaya", so Cebuano plus English is "Bislish". Languages are fun!

[@tjohanne]

As a Norwegian speaker, looking in the general direction of the Netherlands, it almost amazes me that those three languages aren't seen as just dialects of each other. If there was more interaction among British, Dutch and German, everybody could be fluent in all of them. German seems complicated, but it's only because we let ourselves be awed by it. If you keep to basic everyday vocabulary, it's almost all the same from there all the way to the Arctic circle. Seems to me that people often don't WANT to make themselves understood, like when Danish people switch to English when they speak with Norw/Swe. If they just cared to speak a bit slower, the languages are the same.

[@Eagle_Owl2]

I mean, as a German from the western/southwestern border I can read Dutch, Luxemburgish and Afrikaans (that's a weird one, but it is extremely similar to Dutch...I wonder why /s) without too many problems, even though I never learnt these languages (granted, reading is much easier than hearing or even speaking). Learning English was also pretty easy and in my native dialect, there are also countless French words. So I can read French okay-ish as well, although I forgot almost all of my school lessons :D I guess you have these things in many neighbouring countries. But especially for rather small countries it's funny that distinct languages even evolved and even formed distinct dialects that are sometimes only spoken by a couple of thousand people. Love it

[@LadySamurai88]

I’m Dutch and words like Leben and change the B into V becomes Leven in Dutch which means Live in English.

[@ridwandwiatmadja3309]

You'll be surprise that Dutch linguage is the most purist Germanic Linguage.

[@Quon]

i'm an italian / english speaker watching this bc im studying norwegian soon 😂

[@JNeedels]

Thank you for posting this. It is as very well structured which made it easier to remember. I studied German in high school and forgot a lot, but this observation was a great reminder, although I only remember some of the words “der, die, das” are associated with.

[@alexbowman7582]

The German word for Thursday is Donnerstag (thunder day). The German word for Wednesday is Mittwoch (midweek).

[@user-cl9hp9kb3c]

Interesting

[@gauravgill1831]

excellent video with very simple to understand concepts. Thanks Rob for this!! Extremely helpful.

[@Jin-HoLee]

Great video :) and also very interesting for German native speakers. One small remark about the "ß" is that it is NOT interchangeable with an "ss". This is actually a big thing in German elementary schools as children often tend to mix those up. They both are pronounced sharper/stronger than a single "s", but the difference is that "ß" implies an elongated and "ss" implies a shortened pronounciation of the preceding vowel(s). For just explaning the transition to "t" in English, it doesn't matter at all. But when you pronounced "Fuß" you actually said "Fuss" (some dialects also do this) 🙂 So I wasn't sure if people might get confused.

[@Kalenz1234]

Warum verwirrst du die armen mit sowas? 🤣

[@phibs2276]

Okay, but that was only introduced with the last writing reform. Old people will use 'ß' in places we now use 'ss' for (like daß/dass)

[@Kalenz1234]

@@phibs2276 Yap. The ß ss thing is something that even confuses Germans. The point of this vid was simplifying German so I don't get why he would bring up the ß thing.

[@Jin-HoLee]

@@phibs2276 Yeah, that's a good additional comment about the history of 'ß' and 'ss' 👍I almost forgot about it 😀... all in all, it is a very typical German thing...

[@Jin-HoLee]

@@Kalenz1234 Yes, that's right. It is one of the confusing things in German language. And I somehow mentioned, that the simplification serves the purpose of the video. That's why I brought it up as a comment for people interested beyond. I hope that's fine 🙃

[@swegfesh]

As a Swedish native speaker, I can read and understand about 80% of German words just by speaking my own similar language. The tip I have for English and American people when wanting to learn or understand another language is to simply take your time and study it to the fullest, just like all Swedes learn English. Just knowing a second language, especially if it's one you want to learn, will dramatically increase your understanding of other languages that you can't understand. I've studied Russian, Japanese, Chinese and German. And speaking from experience; the more languages you learn, the easier and faster it is to learn. Hope this gives someone inspiration :) Take care of yourself!

[@pauldonnelly3501]

You made some really good points however, I think it is far easier to carpet bomb a country and then make them speak your language 😊

[@patriciabarajas7925]

Yes! You have inspired me. 😊

[@PoisonNuke]

So youre speaking 6 languages? how many of them fluently? How often do you confuse languages? I grew up speaking only German and now I struggle to get my English as close as possible to mother tongue proficiency. But so many times I just confuse grammar, phrases and words between German and English. Cant imagine speaking more than 2 languages.

[@RealCadde]

@@PoisonNuke All Swedes under the age of 50 are almost guaranteed to know both Swedish and English due to schools having that as a requirement for further studies. Fluent English is a crapshoot though, the majority can understand it fluently but only around a fourth can speak it fluently, albeit with heavy accents. There are plenty of Swedish immigrants that speak at least three languages. Say, Arabic/English/Swedish. It's because they've left a war torn middle east for an easier life in Sweden where they are then (assuming they are young) put into the same schooling as the rest. Which means they learn Swedish and English while they still speak Arabic at home or with friends that also speak Arabic. It's not confusing to know more than one language and someone who is proficient at more than one language can switch back and forth seamlessly for whatever reason. A few times it's because they don't know the word for it or there simply isn't an equal word for it in the other language, other times it's because they want to tell a secret or because the subject of their talk changes which naturally calls for a different language. And even if you only speak English, you may actually know two languages already. The one you speak at home with friends and family, casual and relaxed. And one that you use at work which could be heavy in work related terms and structuring. If you talked to your family the same way you do working with a bunch of scientists in a lab, do you think your family would understand what you were saying?

[@PoisonNuke]

@@RealCadde what most people do not know about languages: every langue has its own mindset of thinking. Its not just the words and so on, to speak a language in the native way you need to think differently for that language (the movie Arrival showed that in a littler over-exaggerated way). And thats where many people struggle to speak a foreign language like a native because their mindset remains with their mother-tonge. Im currently forcing myself to think more like an Englishmen, which results me having troubles in both my mother-tongue and in English as well, because Im mixing up both mindsets. So now I speak German with an English-accent, but also English with German-accent. Its really hard to keep both languages apart and speak each in their native way. Thats why I cant imagine someone speaking 6 languages fluently.

[@thomasherreiner3583]

Brillant video. Not only what you teach us but also how. Thanks a lot!

[@gFamWeb]

I think this video really helped me understand the concept of mutual intelligibility. It doesn't mean that the words in one language are exactly the same as another. It's just that they're close enough that each can understand enough to work out the rest through non-verbal context.

[@JonahNelson7]

English and German aren’t actually that close to mutually intelligible in speaking. Generally mutual intelligibility is when speakers don’t have to really think to translate or anything, the languages are just similar enough and are spoken similarly. Italian and Spanish for example. However, French and Spanish have a harder time understanding each other because of pronunciation differences of the respective phonemes. Similar thing with English and German, especially in speaking. No normal speaker of English can pick apart the German words in speaking and then apply the rules, and the idea is you don’t have to do that for mutual intelligibility. Best case scenario German and English speakers catch a couple words maybe that sound similar enough, but definitely not most words, especially with the difference of grammar

[@elyjahwortham3496]

This is absolutely the very first thing that should be taught in any German class followed by linking words and prepositions. Of you have that you can basically read the language in less than a week

[@leod-sigefast]

Absolutely, I already knew all of this because I study (hobbyist, really) English etymology and Anglish. So knowing common word origins is very important. But yes, teaching this early in a German class (provided the class are English speakers) would cut the difficulties a lot. It is similar to learning French and knowing a lot of French words by sight due to English having borrowed a lot of French words.

[@Telencephelon]

Well with a year of training perhaps. You still can't speak or understand though. With Spanish I can read french but not speak or understand it. And with German I can read english, Dutch and Afrikaans as well as some other languages but not hear/speak it.

[@p_quruta1726]

In less than a week?! Bro quit drinking, not even people talented at learning languages could to that

[@mirandahotspring4019]

Not really, because of the cases the word order does not always imply the meaning, sometimes it's the opposite! For example "Dem Hund gibt der Mann Essen." Which translates as: "The man gives the dog food." The use of "dem" (dative case) means the dog is the indirect object of the verb, not the subject of the verb.

[@p_quruta1726]

@@mirandahotspring4019 I'm german & your german sentence makes no sense. It's not "den", it's "dem"

[@Lampe2020]

As a native German speaker I find this video very interesting, as it also works the other way around. To the "ß": it was originally actually "sz" (which looked like "ſʒ" in the way the letters looked back then) but got later replaced with "ss".

[@anterich3752]

Two origins: ſz in Fraktur, ſs in Antiqua.

[@davidstenton5181]

When I was 10 or so, someone gave me an old Chambers Etymological Dictionary. A one-page appendix taught me about Grimm's Law. I've been fascinated by linguistics ever since. (Over 60 years.) Thanks for a fascinating video.

[@saba1030]

@@meadow-maker The word "Welsh" is an Saxon word as well and has the meaning "the other ones, the ones from abroad, the strangers". The Saxons were calling all tribes to the west of their territory "de Welschen/the Welsh". Btw, when one is moving into another village over here in the North of Germany, you're "de Welschen". Greetings from Bremen

[@garybranigan1928]

Absolutely fabulous.. I will follow this man for more fascinating insights.

[@Eclips3_NightYT]

Robwords is so underrated 0=normally rated 10=Underrated 1vigintillion/10

[@MarcusH...]

Knowing English and Swedish fluently, most of the menu was pretty easy to understand. Tagesmenü - Dagsmeny or Dagens Meny - Days Menu or The Days Menu (in English more like Menu of the (Current) Day) Cremige - Krämig - Creamy Karottensuppe - English Carrot and Soup - Swedish Soppa. In Swedish carrot is morot, apparently from low German and proto-Germanic murhǭ Und Brot - Och Bröd - And Bread Kalbsschnitzel mit Pfeffersauce - Kalvschnitzel med pepparsås Apfelkuchen had me confused. Apfel is obviously Äpple, Apple. But with Kuchen i was probably too distracted by it looking like Kuken, meaning The C*ck in Swedish lol. Should probably have been obviouswhat it was though, as it was obviously a dessert and in the end fairly similar to the English word cake. Kaffee - Kaffe - Coffee Wasser - Vatten - Water Oder was kinda confusing to me, looked like "Coffee Other Water" which makes no sense. In Swedish it would be Kaffe Eller Vatten

[@a.b.w.h.3151]

In German it's not only Karotte, it's also Möhre (short for Mohrrübe) or gelbe Rübe. Depends on where you are.

[@bigscarysteve]

I'm studying Finnish. Every time I think I spot a German loanword, it turns out to be a Swedish loanword instead. That's not really surprising given the history of Finland, but I was told there are some German loanwords in the language. I haven't spotted one yet!

[@ragnkja]

@@bigscarysteve Perhaps they arrived via Swedish?

[@ditnooitweer]

I learned old Swedish by watching the crusader miniseries. The 3rd time I understood it all without the subtitles

[@yad-thaddag]

English -> Carrot German -> Karotte Swedish -> Morot Norwegian -> Gulrot Danish -> Gulerod Dutch -> Wortel Frisian -> Woartel Search for carrot: "common name of plants of the genus Daucus, cultivated from ancient times for their large, tapering, edible root, c. 1500, karette, from French carrotte, from Latin carota, from Greek karōton "carrot," probably from PIE *kre-, from root *ker- (1) "horn; head," and so called for its horn-like shape." - Online Etymology Dictionary Search for root: ""underground, downward-growing part of a plant," late Old English rōt and in part from a Scandinavian cognate akin to Old Norse rot "root," figuratively "cause, origin," from Proto-Germanic *wrot (source also of Old English wyrt "root, herb, plant," Old High German wurz, German Wurz "a plant," Gothic waurts "a root," with characteristic Scandinavian loss of -w- before -r-), from PIE root *wrād- "branch, root" (source of wort and radical). The usual Old English words for "root" were wyrttruma and wyrtwala." - Online Etymology Dictionary So after a bit of deduction: Wortel and woartel (and German wurzel and Old English wyrtwala) just means root. Carrot and karotte originally meant horn-shaped root. Gulrot and gulerod makes me think of the Scandinavian word for yellow (gul), so it means yellow root? Morot? I don't know... Maybe related to the other German word for carrot (Möhre)? But I've procrastinated enough for today. Back to work... 😆

[@Errr717]

I took 4 years of German in high school but I could never pronounce the words with umlaut letters because the teacher had false teeth and it would fall out every time we asked him to repeat the word. 🤣🤣

[@jewelsbarbie]

LoL! 😂

[@carle5538]

Oh my God !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@jamiecurran3544]

Lol!😂, at my English secondary school we had a German lady trying to teach us French n she could hardly even speak English properly bless her!😂😁✌️

[@FlorenciaAcosta-ob1bv]

THIS HELPED ME SO MUCH YOU'VE MADE MY WEEK THANK YOU SO SO MUCH

[@denisdang5376]

Bloody hell I needed this so much xD, thx bunch mate, keep it up :D

[@benjaminb5889]

I am a native French and German was the first foreign language I learned. Learning English was quite easy for me (except for the pronunciation) after knowing French and German . very interesting video Rob 🙂

[@tinfoilhomer909]

There is a great video on English pronunciation called "Why these English phonetic symbols are all WRONG" by Dr Geoff Lindsey.

[@herzschlagerhoht5637]

From Elsass?

[@Bjowolf2]

@@meadow-maker More likely by the French speaking elites ( incl. the court & nobles ) - the great vowel shift took place before you had a few rulers of German descent.

[@Bjowolf2]

@@meadow-maker Basically it was like a great real live version of the hilarious BBC comedy series " 'Allo, 'Allo", where lots of French speaking upper class people in England all of a sudden had to learn to speak English after the Black Death (1348) and the following centuries - with all sorts of weird accents and constantly getting their vowels completely wrong in the process 😂 For over 300 years after 1066 English was hardly spoken at all in England by these rulling elites - it was a 3rd rate language in its own country after French & Latin, only spoken by the insignificant lower classes ( peasants, workers, fishermen etc. ). Check out Melvyn Bragg's great TV series "The Adventure of English" ( 8 episodes á c. 55 minutes ) here on KZbin.

[@Alex-dh2cx]

French and German covers so much of English vocabulary so I'm not surprised

[@jumpingjacks64]

I learnt German on my own 39 years ago. I found it easy, because everything seemed quite familiar to me. When I tell people that I found it easy, they don't understand why. I couldn't explain it, but now it's a bit clearer.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

I just clicked with you. Learned any other languages since? Maybe you're just really good with languages. And german is usually considered the hardest germanic language to learn for native english speakers. So much that it often has it's own difficulty category between the other germanic languages and the romance languages (but not french, because english has many french loanwords)

[@acejax4808]

Würdest du noch Deutsch sprechen können?

[@jumpingjacks64]

@@acejax4808 was willst du?

[@jumpingjacks64]

@@HappyBeezerStudios Oui bien sûr, j'apprend le francais aussi. Je ne suis pas parfait, mais je le parle assez bien pour une conversation. Quand même, je ne crois pas que les langues sont mon truc ! What about you?

[@acejax4808]

@@jumpingjacks64 nur eine Antwort! Ich glaube, dass du noch sprechen können?

[@JMThought]

This is incredible. Thank you so much. This is a breakthrough for me.

[@kiterkun1606]

Just wanted to say, I really enjoy hearing your voice and this video was great.

[@HYPNOTOAD291]

My father came from Waldwisse,a small town on the French/German border. When we were growing up, German was used when the adults didn't want the kids to know what they were discussing. When we started understanding German, they would switch to Luxembourgish. I miss hearing German being spoken at the dinner table, after dinner.

[@oldtechie6834]

When children switch to a language that parents cannot understand it is called a conspiracy.

[@nodramalama9531]

lmao luxemburgish is basically just german tho

[@chrisklammer3713]

@@nodramalama9531 Well .. a German does not understand Luxembourgish. it's like dutch. similar but different

[@Icetea-2000]

@@chrisklammer3713 very similar, a lot more than dutch

[@chrisklammer3713]

@@Icetea-2000 also ich verstehe die holländer besser.

[@lukemasonmoney2657]

I am English with no prior knowledge of German and when I watched All Quiet On The Western Front in German I was amazed by the amount of dialogue I somehow was able to recognize and understand. I was surprised and a little confused as to why I was picking it up, but this video helps explain why.

[@mikehunt3420]

What did you thing of the movie

[@BearsTrains]

I learned about wasser thanks to the fire buckets on Hogans Heroes

[@RaptorJesus]

If you want to *really* blow your mind, try looking through some Old Norse stuff. There's plenty there that's confusing, but there's also plenty that's almost identical to our modern language.

[@lukemasonmoney2657]

@@mikehunt3420 The movie was great. I enjoyed it in German, the acting was phenomenal, the action was cool and some parts were really heavy hitting. Would highly recommend to watch

[@mikehunt3420]

@@lukemasonmoney2657 im glad you enjoyed it. I hope it encourages you to read the book.

[@austintschirhart6412]

Thank you for these tips!

[@lpschaf8943]

Danke Rob. Sehr schönes Video.

[@marinarehren7076]

A really clever way of presenting the changes of the consonants ! Thank you for this lovely presentation.

[@five-toedslothbear4051]

“When the English P, the Germans F.” OK, you got me laughing out loud there. By the way, armchair linguist here, and I love your videos. I’m beginning to study Japanese, and coincidentally, Japanese ふfu and ぷ pu are spelled with the same hiragana, just with a handakuten (looks like a circle) on the pu.

[@bigscarysteve]

I wonder if this is the one that tripped up someone I read about. He wanted to get a tattoo of the Japanese for "wind god," but he messed it up somehow and ended up getting a tattoo that reads "lady."

[@razor6552]

I like the German Switching of the consonants P for H, oh yeah!

[@maxberan3897]

It's much the same in Hebrew too - just a central dot between the two.

[@thejoin4687]

If you're studying Japanese, I'm sure you're having fun with the numerous German loanwords and their odd pronunciations. Interestingly, many feature in medical contexts: rezeputo (from rezept), uirusu (virus), enerugi (energie), karute (karte), gipusu (gips), hisuteri (hysterie), noiroze (neurose), rentogen (rontgen). But you'll probably be most familiar with arubaito (or baito). My favourite German loanword in Japan is Shupurehikoru Can any German speaker tell what it is? Answer: Sprechchor

[@MichaelWerneburg]

@@bigscarysteve The difference between those two words is not a consonant but the duration of the 'u' in fuujin （ふうじん）vs fujin　（ふじん）. It's unlikely that anyone would get those words tattooed in hiragana though, so the difference in the normally-written words would have been 風神 vs 婦人. The second kanji in each word is 'god' and 'woman' respectively.

[@kirstenjones5331]

Thank you for this!!

[@Zugfaehrtdurch]

It's also very funny is that in southern dialects like in Austria or Bavaria some things moved in a similar directions like in English. Some examples: The phrase "this is my friend" which is "das ist mein Freund" in German is "des is mei freind" in Viennese, which sounds nearly identical to English. Also "I go" is "i geh" (the h is not pronounced). And while mouse and louse sounds nearly exactly like the German "Maus" and "Laus", the German plural is "Mäuse" and "Läuse" but in Vienna it is "Meis" and "Leis", which sounds nearly like English, only the vocal is softer. And also in many Austrian or Bavarian dialects the phrase "daunagehn" is used which means "go down" (-stairs, etc.) and "daun" is pronounced like "down" .

[@rachelle10]

As a native Dutch speaker this is quite fun. We are really in between for all to the swaps, like 50/50 we use either sounds. For me in general it's already quite easy to read German, because it's just similar to Dutch, but the rules are quite handy sometimes to help figure it out.

[@mananself]

This is my favorite type of videos from your channel. The French one from a while ago and this. I wish I could master all major Romance and Germanic languages by swapping letters!

[@kimberlycasey5957]

@TrueFact That is currently selling for $171.99 on Amazon, and not available at my local library.

[@Ridcally]

@@kimberlycasey5957 there ya go kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4qroquZjbShj8k

[@SojaTech]

Thank you for this wonderful work 👏👏👏

[@thefellduck]

Wow... by the end of the video I was able to make good sense of the the menu. Brilliant tutorial.

[@Zizwizwee]

I follow a German streamer as an English speaker, and I think my favorite German word so far has to be Fleischkloß, which I broke down to Flesh Globe and means Meatball

[@Hp2jo]

Im native German speaker and i gotta say, this video showed me how hard it is for you guys to learn german.

[@wernerheisenberg1305]

Ich frage mich nur wieso mir das keiner früher im Englisch Unterricht gezeigt hat.

[@KekseKek]

@@wernerheisenberg1305 ist halt nicht immer anwendbar und dauert lange, zu übersetzen

[@wernerheisenberg1305]

@@KekseKek aber ich mein um mit der Sprache vertrauter zu werden. Erst mal die Gemeinsamkeiten zu sehen

[@Feligresa]

Unterricht ist eben dafür, dass es ordentlich beigebracht wird und am Ende mehr oder weniger flüssig Englisch gesprochen wird. So ein Trick würde den Start zwar eventuell interessanter machen, doch ist es auch wiederrum ein wenig Zeitverschwendung, da man hiervon weder Satzbildung noch Rechtschreibung lernt. Ich persönlich kann's schon von beiden Seiten etwas verstehen. Unter Umständen ist es einfach auch schwierig dies in den Unterricht einzubinden und dann auch zum Thema fortzuleiten.

[@bourbon2242]

@@KekseKek this video taught me that your name means “Apple. Cake”

[@CJ-ft9yo]

this is quite brilliant thank you 🙏

[@Davididan1]

Thanks for your efforts we really appreciate it and the way you explain and expressing it's very clear and clean , mismerising accent keep going please cordial greetings

[@ZariDim3012]

I can't believe how interesting you make linguistics!! I'm so fascinated and learn so much from your videos! Thanks, Rob :)

[@PeterLawton]

Rob is pretty awesome. I am impressed every time.

[@DunkinBiscuits]

I was honestly ready to make a joke and comment that "i was so confused i might now have forgotten how to speak English" right up until the end when i surprised myself and successfully guessed half of the german menu correctly. What an amazing video and very well presented. I just need to carry around with me the list of letter swaps until i can memorize them. I cant wait to try this out for real.

[@RaptorJesus]

If you've forgotten how to speak English, fret not. You are merely now an American, and we'll just make it up as we go along, as Americans are want to do.

[@cosmiclevi5274]

Not sure if the video mentioned this but "s" turning into a "sch" (pronounced like a "sh" sound) is also a pretty important one like in the word "schlafen"

[@danielzhang1916]

Yeah if you swap and ignore the German letters, you can kinda figure it out a bit, it's just the spelling that throws people off, I could follow along with the video

[@maine9319]

Wow your visual aids are remarkable 😍 thanks for the tips and tricks

[@rudythecat7320]

As someone who has always been interested in languages, I have to say that this was REALLY amazing!

[@Red_Eagle]

"when the english P, the german F" never died of laughter before

[@jaybingham3711]

And the feigned embarrassment immediately afterwards. He was totes proud.

[@haileybalmer9722]

Another good trick to know is that if a German menu says "wasser", that means water, yes, but they definitely mean sparkling water. If you want still water, you're going to have to specify that. That's more of a culture tip, but I thought I'd share it. I kept laughing at the idea of someone using these tricks, ordering, being very proud of themselves, and then wondering how they did it wrong when they get sparkling water. You did it right, friend! Germany is just obsessed with sparkling water!

[@JoshuaGraves113]

I learned this the hard way when I traveled to Munich for school for my German classes. lol

[@GoldenAura32]

Germany loves any beverage with carbonation...like me.

[@miwi7315]

Most servants ask how you want your water.

[@krisjustin3884]

And the German words for carbonated water (mit Gas) and still are very similar as well.

[@megapro125]

@@krisjustin3884 I have often heard that in Spain "con gas" but never ever heard a German say "mit Gas" to refer to sparkling water. It's usually either "Sprudel", "mit Kohlensäure" (carbonic acid) or "Selter" the latter being a brand name that became a common name for sparkling water even if it's from another brand.

[@ADaBaker95]

I grew up bilingually with English and German, so you never question the similarities. Only when I learned Swedish did I realize how close they all are. Nice video :)

[@ashtreighlia]

Absolutely love that video

[@dragoncurveenthusiast]

This is fun to watch as a native German speaker! You could do a similar set of tricks to go between standard German and Austrian dialect, though it would mostly affect the vowels, I think.

[@bigscarysteve]

I lived in Salzburg one summer, and I couldn't understand a single word anybody said to me! It sounded to me as if they were speaking a Slavic language rather than German.

[@hibernianwolf1711]

kzbin.infoqB3EolHnBMM?feature=share

[@nirfz]

@@bigscarysteve Even germans north of bavaria often have that problem ;-) But slavic languages use vowels way more scarce than we austrians do.

[@CyclingM1867]

I'm learning German and have heard it my entire life. I find that I can pick up new words fairly quickly, and, yes, so many words are basically the same in both English and German, with a few tweaks. What I struggle with are the German genders for some things and the grammar. I think I'm slowly catching on to the grammar, but, man, it's weird to me! I do love German, though, and am so very glad to finally be seriously studying it.

[@51pinn]

German is hard to learn language for Germans too. Most Germans do not use a correct grammar. But no one in Germany expects you to speak a correct German - so don`t worry, you are welcome.

[@ColonizersBlow]

Sounds like me. Grew up listening to it my entire life, since my mother & grandmother are German. Took it in high school & college, & did well…with help from my mother. When it was time for me to do my homework, my roommates would laugh because every time I’d call my mom for help, she’d get annoyed when I just couldn’t get all the grammar rules down…then I’d get annoyed too & we’d snip at each other, while my roommates snickered in the background 😂 Love my mom 😂😊 (I still don’t have it down 😅)

[@CyclingM1867]

@@ColonizersBlow aw! I'm glad you treasure your mom. I miss mine. But, anyway, that would be funny. haha I know a native German speaker who says that German grammar is weird, and it's his first language before English. haha

[@CyclingM1867]

@@51pinn thanks! :) :)

[@BeckBeckGo]

I spoke it (well a pidgin of German and English) as a small kid. That ended when I started school. When k picked it back up in adulthood, I was surprised at just how much of the language was stored in long term memory. But I still tend to speak like a toddler. I have to work on maturing my speaking or I’ll sound like an imbecile lol

[@kenneth2656]

Excellent Rob, very informative it all makes sense.

[@Ultra_Glueckspilz]

That was interesting, thank you for this Video!

[@KattMurr]

This is a fascinating video! I've been obsessed with the German language because of my love for the band Rammstein! I have always been intrigued by Germany and all things German all my life. I am American with my mother's parents coming from Ireland in the 1920s. My father's side is Irish too but also German. I also have an aunt from Germany who married my mother's brother. She's a interesting person....but learning these tricks are awesome! Thank you!!

[@ragnkja]

Rammstein not only helped me get a good feel for German grammar, especially when I was first starting to learn German, they also provided me with a basis for understanding more subtle parts of the language such as wordplay, common idioms and literary references. (Look up “Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug” by Heinrich Hoffmann; it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which Rammstein song it became. Next, “Erlkönig“ by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is thematically quite similar to another song from the album before the one the previous answer can be found on.)

[@MelancholyMoondancer]

Check out Powerwolf as well! Most songs are in English but occasionally they do one in other languages. @kathi murray

[@bigscarysteve]

Being an American of both German and Irish extraction, I can tell you that if your ancestors came from either of those countries, the way your family has integrated into America is likely to be very different depending on whether they came before or after 1848. The potato famine in Ireland and the failed revolutions in Germany changed who was emigrating before and after that date. Those who came before 1848 are a lot more integrated than those who came after. I got sold on the idea that I should celebrate my roots by studying German, which I did in a big way. After spending some time in Germany, I realized that I have absolutely nothing in common with modern-day Germans. My ancestors all came to America in colonial times, so I'm thoroughly American--I have no cultural ties to any other country in the world. My experience did leave me with a lasting love of linguistics and polyglottism, however.

[@fonkbadonk5370]

Rammstein really is surprisingly lyrical when you can understand German. They tailor many of their songs to include some internationally konw (and often loaded) buzz words, catering to the "simple" fan, but the majority of their songs are inspired by fairly profound poems and such, but also changed up in a way that makes some have multiple interpretations as well. When you look beyond the obviously over the top presentations and their play with "Germanness" (both of which are really well done!), one can find some real depth and lingual craftsmanship.

[@hibernianwolf1711]

Never heard of them . Sounds like a German paramilitary unit From the war

[@raykloetstra8501]

Another notable consonantal shift that you mentioned and can be expanded upon is the German s to English t. I've noticed it in words like the following: German "esen" becomes "eten" in Dutch, "ite" in Frisian, and "eat" in English. Similarly, German "fressen" become "freten" in Dutch, "frete" in Frisian, and "fret" in English. "Fressen" mean "to eat" in German, Dutch, and Frisian; it's used with animals as the subject rather than people. In English, "fret" now means "to worry," as in "something is eating at you;" in the past English speakers would describe a dog as "worrying a bone" meaning to gnaw at a bone, which is a current meaning for "freten" in Dutch and "frete" in Frisian.

[@stephanberger3476]

Frisian is 'frette', not 'frete'.

[@raykloetstra8501]

@@stephanberger3476

[@Bjowolf2]

"æd(e)" [aið-e] in Danish, "ete" [eit-e] in Norwegian and "ät(a)" [ai-tA] in Swedish 😉

[@raykloetstra8501]

@@Bjowolf2 Thanks for the North Germanic cognates. By the way, do Danish, Norwegian and Swedish have a second verb for "to eat" that is usually applied to animals, similar to the German "fressen" or the Frisian "frette" ?? That would be very interesting.

[@mdkooter]

We don't say freten in dutch, we say vreten. And it just means to eat with less mannerism, more apetite basically. FYI :)

[@deesag1927]

This is Golden! Danke schön ❤

[@hannawolters875]

You are a great teacher! I will give this clever ideas to the students with problems to be good in English!

[@MrRevilo99]

Jetzt kann ich endlich die Speisekarte im Restaurant lesen! 24 Jahre lang war ich mir nie sicher was ich bestellen sollte, aber mit diesen Tricks geht es ganz einfach von der Hand! Ich, 24, geboren in Deutschland.

[@dangoldbach6570]

There is still a difference between English and German, and French for the same reason, English puts the descriptor before the verb and subject, French and German are opposite. In English, She is beautiful, in German or French, beautiful is she. Context matters!

[@Bjowolf2]

@@dangoldbach6570 You normally say this in the same order in German: "Sie ist schön" ( and in French as well, I think: "Elle est tres belle"). So I have no clue where you got that nonsense from 🙄

[@dangoldbach6570]

@@Bjowolf2 there is a very good chance I was a bad French student!

[@Bjowolf2]

@@dangoldbach6570 Welcome in the club 😂

[@marscaleb]

I took German for a few years in high school, and it was so fascinating to start learning the many similarities between these two languages. What I remember most vividly was when I started learning things about English that I never knew until I saw them happening in German. "When" and "Then" are only one letter different, and both refer to a point in time. I know its not a super strong example, but at the time it blew my mind, and I only noticed it when I saw that it was the same in German.

[@amesstarline5482]

It's like how in Latin, Where is Ubi and There is Ibi.

[@alonsoACR]

Curiously it happens almost across the board When? Then. Where? There. What? That. etc.

[@hoppinggnomethe4154]

@@alonsoACR Hotel? Trivago

[@ottifant64]

@@alonsoACR The languages can also be very inconsistent with this. Only constant is "what". German wer - wie - was - wo English who - how - what - where Dutch wie - hoe (pronounced like "who") - wat - waar

[@elm100]

I really understand the point that you are making here. I am an English and German speaker but it was only when a German friend referred to her husband's 'Meisterstuck' (i.e. the piece that earned him his 'master' status - he is a master cabinet maker) and I mentally translated it into English that I realised just exactly what an English masterpiece is 🙂

[@sarkasmt2]

One of the most interesting videos of language I've seen!

[@mikenco]

I discovered this channel a week ago. It's amazing!

[@gavinfreedman4342]

If only we were taught languages (including English) like this in high school, I would have understood and enjoyed German, French and even my own language so much more. Thank you for this video.

[@keouine]

I taught German in the US. When it was cut from curriculum. The principal actually said out loud with more and more brown skinned students and fewer whites there was no point.

[@gavinfreedman4342]

@@keouine What an absolute disgrace. And how these people's mind justify what they're spewing out!

[@danielzhang1916]

They don't teach the connections to make it easier to learn, just the grammar and vocabulary stuff, so people just give up in the end, it's the wrong way to learn

[@IntoTheOrdinary]

Being Dutch my language really does suddenly feel like a bridge between the two. 🇬🇧🇳🇱🇩🇪 Liver -> Lever -> Leber... Day -> Dag -> Tag Calve -> Kalf -> Kalb Pepper -> Peper -> Pfeffer Good -> Goed -> Gut Sauce -> Saus -> Soße Apple -> Appel -> Apfel There's just so many 😅

[@joergfro7149]

Mein Name ist Wilhelm von Oranien ,Ich bin von deutschen Blut .....Mijn naam is Wilhelm von Oranien, ik kom uit het Duitse Bloed

[@joergfro7149]

De oude eerbiedwaardige Germaanse stam van de Nederlanders...Der alte Ehrwürdige Germanische Stamm der Niederländer

[@honkytonk4465]

same with low german

[@Chris-mf1rm]

@@joergfro7149 the English word for the Netherlanders is even a corruption of the German word for ‘German’.

[@niemandschuldet]

Well done! Gut gemacht. THANK YOU ... DANKE DIR!

[@haertie]

Hi, also so habe ich das noch nie betrachtet. Das war sehr interessant. Die Sprachen sind wirklich sehr verwandt. Tolles Video!

[@carle5538]

I speak three languages (English, Spanish and French), going on to my fourth (German). When I took German in college we learned the rules and vocabulary including prepositions, conjunctions, etc. which was challenging. Your video is very concise and gives an excellent introduction to the German language in an easy and fun way for sure. I like the idea of swapping letters. Beautiful. Thank you.

[@elysiavanovia115]

As a german I wish you good look! keep going 💪

[@seanbrown207]

I noticed these swaps after realizing that many German words are cognate with English. I studied German for 4/5 years and so can speak, read, and write it (I live in the States so don’t use German often). The similarities between English and German have most recently sparked an interest in Dutch, since they’re related and Dutch seems to be a midway point between the two.

[@hmvollbanane1259]

You might be interested in looking into Frisian (language spoken in Frisia which partially in the Netherlands and partially in Germany) as it is the closest related language to English

[@thetaekwondoe3887]

Go to Pennsylvania Dutch country a bit and you can practice your German. :)

[@sijenkai3928]

Bro if i learned german and could speak it i would speak all day in german. I wanna learn but dunno where, maybe youtube? XD

[@MatzeMumpitz]

@@sijenkai3928 Babbel? If you can afford it, go to germany or austria for 6 months, work there and don't speak your native language/english at all. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmHceJeEeryXpJI works with every language

[@lendrick]

Whenever I see Dutch, I always think maybe it's some kind of dialect of English and if I read it out loud I'll understand it (like I can with Scots). Doesn't work, though.

[@AD-zo5vp]

Amazing Rob, to watch your pleasure going about it is a joy in itself. Thanks for giving German some love

[@MercedesDiane]

OMG…This was wonderful. Thank you!!!