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Dutch & German - Just How Similar? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Derian Triglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5309 days ago 227 posts - 464 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 17 of 37 15 June 2010 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
This is your answer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fYB9s0Nyzk The interviewer apparanelt speaks Dutch, Charlize speaks Afrikaans. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| michi Nonaglot Newbie Austria Joined 5302 days ago 33 posts - 57 votes Speaks: Dutch*, German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese Studies: Turkish, Arabic (Written), Serbo-Croatian, Indonesian, Japanese | Message 18 of 37 15 June 2010 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Although sometimes some words in Afrikaans are not clear to Dutch people, in general they are mutual intelligible. Afrikaans is more or less a creole form of Dutch that was first spoken by people of mixed descendence in South Africa but finally taken over by the white settlers themselves. For a long time not Afrikaans but Dutch was the official language in South Africa next to English. In my Dutch highschool we were allowed to choose books in Afrikaans for the exams in Dutch literature.
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| t123 Diglot Senior Member South Africa https://github.com/t Joined 5612 days ago 139 posts - 226 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans | Message 19 of 37 15 June 2010 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think Afrikaans is easier for Dutch speakers than the other way around. Generally I can understand written text pretty well, and spoken is ok. Things like newsbroadcasts are usually fine, but normal conversations are harder. Mainly because they're quicker and the accent is quite different.
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| stout Senior Member Ireland Joined 5372 days ago 108 posts - 140 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 20 of 37 15 June 2010 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I imagine Dutch and German are similar but not the same.I hear that most Dutch people
can understand German very well because of the similarites of those languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5698 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 21 of 37 16 June 2010 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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And because we in Holland like in Belgium can watch since decades German television.
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| Romanist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5283 days ago 261 posts - 366 votes Studies: Italian | Message 22 of 37 17 June 2010 at 11:48am | IP Logged | ||
In my opinion, there is a danger that learners can get hung up about "cases". When I was first learning German, I remember wondering whether I could ever get this stuff cracked. But then the penny dropped, and I realized that "case" is really just the difference between "I, he, she" as opposed to "me, him, her" (Okay, this is simplifying things slightly!) But really the concept of "case" is - in a nutshell - shown by the changes in the pronouns between: "I shot him"...and..."he shot me". So "I" changes to "me" if you're on the receiving end of the action. Likewise "he" changes to "him", etc... Of course, in so called "case-languages" they don't just do this kind of thing with pronouns (I, me, etc.) Instead they do it with nouns, etc too. But the principle is exactly the same. "Der Sheriff hat den Banditen erschossen." (Here the sheriff gives a lethal slug and the bandit gratefully receives!) "Der Bandit hat den Sheriff erschossen." (Now it's the other way around: the lawman gets nailed by the bandit!) Easy right? Trust me, it's a whole lot easier than you think to master this stuff ;-) Edited by Romanist on 17 June 2010 at 4:27pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5449 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 23 of 37 19 June 2010 at 4:09am | IP Logged | ||
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How does the complexity of German measure up to some older Germanic languages, like Old Norse or Gothic?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5353 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 24 of 37 19 June 2010 at 7:11am | IP Logged | ||
With the grammar, I believe German is easier than Old Norse, though not 100% on that. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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