Languages similar to German

German is quite close to other Germanic languages such as Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. It is not so close to English, although both languages share some common vocabulary. Amongst important languages, Dutch is the closest.

Table of languages significantly similar to German
Similarity Statistics
Vocabulary Grammar Speakers Countries GDP
German 100% – 91 M 3 $2,850 bn
Dutch 75% 30 M 4 $713 bn
Swedish 60% 9 M 1 $300 bn
Danish 60% 5 M 1 $212 bn
Norwegian 60% 5 M 1 $221 bn
English 40% 618 M 12 $14,129 bn
Russian 10% 167 M 8 $548 bn
Total 925 M 30 $18973 bn

EXPLANATION

Similarity
VOCABULARY: Percentage of vocabulary that isvery similar in both languages.
GRAMMATICAL: Cactuses () indicate the relative difficulty of learning this language if you already speak German. The fewer cactuses/cacti, the easier.

Speakers
NUMBER: total number of native speakers of each language.
SHARE: number of speakers times % similar vocabulary (see above). This gives you an indication of the number of people you can reach indirectly by learning German.

Countries
NUMBER: Total number of countries where the language is an official language or widely spoken.
SHARE: The number of countries times % similar vocabulary (see above). This gives you an indication of the number of countries you can reach indirectly by learning German.

GDP
NUMBER: Combined total nominal GDP in US dollars for each language.
SHARE: Combined GDP times % similar vocabulary (see above). This gives you an indication of the economic importance of the language group you enter by learning German.

The purpose of this table is to list the most important languages similar to German and see how closely related they are. It helps you select the language you want to learn by appraising you on what significant other languages you could learn more easily on the basis of your future knowledge of German.

If you feel the figures listed in this table are not correct and you have learned one of the languages listed above, please feel free to contact me and let me know how this should be improved and why.