Learning a language can sometimes become a real struggle: grammar, conjugation and structure are all that you can think of and you feel that your head is going to explode. Some languages are harder to learn than others and personally I found German pretty challenging… For all of you guys trying to make German your second language, time to take a break in your studies and discover some fun facts about this unique dialect.
- German and English are both sister languages: many German words are identical to their English counterparts.
- Be careful with some meanings: for example “gift” in German means “poison”, “mist” means “bird droppings”, “rat” means “advice”.
- German has 3 genders for its nouns: masculine (der), feminine (die) and neuter (das).
- Famous for long words:
“Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz” has 63 letters and means “beef labelling regulation and delegation of supervision law”
“Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften” has 39 letters and means “ legal protection insurance companies”
- German have some very funny proverbs:
Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei! – Everything has an end. Only the sausage has two.
Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof – It’s clear as mud to me. It’s Greek to me.
Das ist nicht dein Bier! – That is not your beer! (None of your business)
Last but not least, I discovered that German almost became the official language of the United States. Indeed, the Continental Congress, convened in Philadelphia during the Revolution, at one time considered adopting a new language for the future of the United States, with the aim of cutting off all ties with England. Among the languages suggested were German, Hebrew and French. When it finally came to a vote, English narrowly won – just by one vote!
Tschüss 🙂