German is often seen as a difficult language by most people and starting out learning German can seem frightening at first. Yes, German vocabulary is gendered. Yes, there are some really long words to learn. The grammar isn’t always intuitive. And Yes, pronouncing letters you’ve never even heard of, can feel daunting!

But in reality, there is also plenty about German that is easy too. We don’t want to sugarcoat things here. German does offer unique challenges to foreign language learners. Learning a new language can be challenging. Especially when we try to learn them in a fast-paced world, maybe before or after work, or even in-between other tasks.

But so does every new language! Is there something special about German that should send you shrieking in the other direction?

No, of course not…

The hardest parts of learning German can simply be conquered with the right study techniques. So, let’s answer the question “is German hard to learn?” once and for all. We will take a look at some reasons on how German is difficult to learn.

Here are some of the reasons why the German language is often considered as hard to learn:

When you come face-to-face with a word like “viertausendeinhundertsiebenunddreißig”, it’s a terrifying sight. That’s because German uses “compound words”. It adds different words together to express a new idea, and this often leads to grotesquely long words. No hyphens or spaces.

Let’s take the German word for a fridge as an example: “der Kühlschrank”. “kühl” means cool, “schrank” is closet. A refrigerator is a cool closet. So, you put the two together to describe a new idea.

English speakers have the luxury of not having genders. But, German does. German has three genders, which makes it even more difficult to master. It’s probably the reason why the Foreign Service Institute deemed it harder than French, which only has two genders.

German has masculine (der), feminine (die), and neutral (das) gender. While some genders are self-explanatory (der Mann – the man), others are less logical (das Mädchen). And these articles in front of Genders change depending on the cases. So, the grammar of German genders doesn’t do you any favors either.

German sentence structure is much more liberal than English. English is a clear SVO (subject-verb-object) language. Meanwhile, German is often SVO, but sometimes it becomes SOV. Especially if there’s a conjunction. Let’s take a look at some examples to make it clear:

Mary eats an apple. – Mary isst einen Apfel.

“Mary” is the subject, “eats” is the verb, and “an apple” is the object. In German, the same parts of the sentence follow each other. That’s because it’s a simple sentence. But, let’s look at a more complicated sentence, with conjunction:

I can’t go to the cinema, if I have no money. – Ich kann nicht am Kino gehen, wann ich kein Geld habe.

“I” (ich) is the subject, “can” (kann) or “have” (habe) are the verbs, “cinema” (Kino) and “money” (Geld) are the objects, and “if” (wann) is the conjunction. As you can see, the object comes before the verb in both of these sentences. That’s because the German sentence structure is much more flexible. But, if you did it the other way around, it would sound kind of strange.

German uses two forms of the word “you.” When addressing co-workers, professionals, and strangers, it’s proper to use the formal, “Sie.” It is also used by younger people to address older individuals. “Du” is more informal and used to address friends and peers in most situations.

Recently, however, the influence of an increasing spread of casual business culture has started creating a shift away from the formal “sie” opting for “du” instead. If you’re ever in doubt, stick with “sie”

A false cognate is a word with the same or similar spelling in the target language as your native language. An example of this would be “gift” in German. Many English speakers would think that giving someone a “gift” in German would be a pleasant thing, but they would be wrong. “Gift” means poison in German.

There are several more examples like these. And because German and English are quite similar, it can be equally frustrating to think you know a word only to find out that you’re wrong. However, they are often shockingly different than what you’d think they would be, so you’ll be quick to learn from your mistakes.

It might seem hard, but actually, it is not too hard to learn German. You only need the right language learning methods to succeed. A course that nourishes your knowledge, and lets you have fun. In our next blog, we will discuss how you can learn German easily on your own. Happy Learning!