Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As a German native speaker, I can read and understand Dutch to a certain extent. It is probably even easier for Germans who live near the Dutch border and speak a local dialect because some accents from these border regions might share a few linguistical similiarities with Dutch.
It also depends on the person you are talking with, some Dutchmen speak more clearly and slowly than others. Dutch basically reminds me of some "sailor language", e.g. many comprehensible words sound so "cute", "simplified" and "colloquial" for German speakers. I hope other German speakers on here know what I'm trying to say.
It's a bit different for the Scandinavian languages, though.
Spoken Danish basically sounds to me as if a German village idiot is speaking with a hot potato in his mouth (no offence!). Everytime I hear Danish, I really think that I understand many words and phrases at first but at the end of the day it's really more "gibberish". Written Danish can be "deciphered" by us more easily, but not to the same extent as Dutch.
Swedish sounds very exotic, pleasant and interesting (very different from Danish) but for the most part I can't understand anything except some lone words or expressions. Written Swedish looks kind of familiar though.
I'm not too familiar with Norwegian, it seems like a mix between Danish (written) and Swedish (spoken) to me. However, none of the numerous German immigrants/expats in Norway seems to struggle with the language, so it might be still very easy to learn.
The English vocabulary is very large, but most French words are the 'fancy words' that we only use to sound intelligent or describe something specific.
Absolutely untrue. Most French words in English are everyday words that you don't even perceive as originally French, such as "car", "garden", "very", "chance", "rent", "lesson", "table", "neat", "cry", and many more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hobbesdj
French words tend to 'stick out' more in English because the spelling is less altered or not altered at all from the French version, while the spelling of the original Germanic words in English, German, Dutch, etc have become more varied over the centuries.
Absolutely untrue. Most French words in English are everyday words that you don't even perceive as originally French, such as "car", "garden", "very", "chance", "rent", "lesson", "table", "neat", "cry", and many more.
Even if Swedish and Norwegian are quite similar - and selective sentences have been picked out earlier in this thread to prove it - there are enough differences to be confused. Particularly for those without connections on the other side of the border. On TV there is subtext for a reason when shows are aired from each country. Some words off the top of my head:
ENG --------------- NOR ---------------- SWE
city ---------------- by ------------------ stad
town/village -------- sted ---------------- by
laugh --------------- le ------------------ skratta
smile --------------- smile (smee-leh) ---- le
weird -------------- rar ------------------ konstig
friendly ------------ vennlig -------------- rar (in some cases)
ice cream ---------- is ------------------- glass
hot dog ------------ pølse --------------- korv
soda --------------- brus ---------------- läsk
vacation ------------ ferie ---------------- semester
mushroom ---------- sopp --------------- svamp
destiny ------------- skjebne ------------- öde
funny --------------- morsom ------------- rolig
calm --------------- rolig ----------------- lugn
butterfly ------------ sommerfugl --------- fjäril
girl ----------------- jente ---------------- flicka
boy ----------------- gutt ---------------- pojk
cottage ------------- hytte ---------------- stuga
window ------------ vindu ---------------- fönster
ability -------------- evne -----------------förmåga
common ------------ felles --------------- gemensam
neighbour ----------- nabo --------------- granne
ugly ----------------- stygg --------------- ful
evil ----------------- ondskapsfull -------- elak
naughty ------------- slem ---------------- stygg
to be lucky --------- være heldig ---------- ha tur
fog ------------------ tåke ---------------- dimma
cocky -------------- kjepphøy ------------ kaxig
pillow -------------- pute ----------------- kudde
pretty --------------- pen ------------------ snygg
wallet --------------- lommebok ---------- plånbok
pavement ----------- fortau --------------- trottoar
to blush ------------- rødme --------------- rodna
newspaper ---------- avis ------------------ tidning
boring --------------- kjedelig ------------- tråkig
garden --------------- hage --------------- trädgård
soap ---------------- såpe ----------------- tvål
week --------------- uke ------------------ vecka
to cover up ---------- skjule --------------- dölja
to wash ------------- vaske ----------------- tvätta
suit (clothing) -------- dress ---------------- kostym
(ball) gown ---------- kjole ---------------- klänning
envy ---------------- misunnelse ----------- avund
to vacuum clean ------ støvsuge ------------ dammsuga
vehicle --------------- kjøretøy -------------- fordon
Absolutely untrue. Most French words in English are everyday words that you don't even perceive as originally French, such as "car", "garden", "very", "chance", "rent", "lesson", "table", "neat", "cry", and many more.
Hello Suomi Reader, I am quite aware of words of French origin. Not only am I native English speaker who speaks French, but I also have lived in a French speaking country and have taken graduate level classes on the history of the French language.
Yes, there are many French words used in day to day English. But most words of French origin are simply not used in regular speech by English speakers. But most words in English, regardless of origin, are rarely if ever used by English speakers. So when someone argues that "English is 28% French" (or in this case, 40% French), it must be pointed out that most of these words making up that 28% are not regularly used by the common English speaker. In practical terms, we can observe an American or Englishman on the street, and see that we tend to stick to Germanic words. When writing a college paper, the words of Latin origin become much more prevalent. Nonetheless, most words of Latin origin that exist in our language remain on the back-burner, as do the vast majority of words in the English language regardless of origin.
For example, a recent Harvard study headed by Jean Baptiste-Michel estimates that there are over 1 million words in the English language, and over 170,000 excluding inflections and regional terms. But still, the vast majority of these words are rarely if ever used. Native English speakers have a working knowledge of at best only around 20,000-40,000 thousand of those words thought his or her lifetime. As you can see in the Harvard study, of the 100 most used words, 97% are of Germanic origin while only 3% are of Latin origin, and as we delve into those that are less commonly used, the percentage of words of Latin origin dramatically increase. And as you can also see, the 100 most used words make up about 50% of our daily vocabulary and the 1000 most used words make up about 90% of our daily vocabulary. Even if someone only knows the 2,000 most used words in the English language, they will comprehend about 95% of our speech! And as already asserted, the majority of these 2,000 most used words are of Germanic origin.
So while in a dictionary it appears that English is 28% French and 28% Latin, the reality in practical terms is that common English vocabulary is very Germanic. If by chance you have a subscription to the peer-reviewed journals of Science Magazine, the study can be found here, if not a brief overview can be found here.
As a German native speaker, I can read and understand Dutch to a certain extent. It is probably even easier for Germans who live near the Dutch border and speak a local dialect because some accents from these border regions might share a few linguistical similiarities with Dutch.
It also depends on the person you are talking with, some Dutchmen speak more clearly and slowly than others. Dutch basically reminds me of some "sailor language", e.g. many comprehensible words sound so "cute", "simplified" and "colloquial" for German speakers. I hope other German speakers on here know what I'm trying to say.
It's a bit different for the Scandinavian languages, though.
Spoken Danish basically sounds to me as if a German village idiot is speaking with a hot potato in his mouth (no offence!). Everytime I hear Danish, I really think that I understand many words and phrases at first but at the end of the day it's really more "gibberish". Written Danish can be "deciphered" by us more easily, but not to the same extent as Dutch.
^
This. This is a good parallel to describe a Russian speaker vs Ukrainian speaker and the sea of other dialects out there - Belorussian, and so on. One language sounds as academically-refined version of them all, with a purpose of being used for literature and science, while the others are nice to use somewhere in the village, while singing folk songs and stuff.
Even if Swedish and Norwegian are quite similar - and selective sentences have been picked out earlier in this thread to prove it - there are enough differences to be confused. Particularly for those without connections on the other side of the border. On TV there is subtext for a reason when shows are aired from each country. Some words off the top of my head:
ENG --------------- NOR ---------------- SWE
city ---------------- by ------------------ stad
town/village -------- sted ---------------- by
laugh --------------- le ------------------ skratta
smile --------------- smile (smee-leh) ---- le
weird -------------- rar ------------------ konstig
friendly ------------ vennlig -------------- rar (in some cases)
ice cream ---------- is ------------------- glass
hot dog ------------ pølse --------------- korv
soda --------------- brus ---------------- läsk
vacation ------------ ferie ---------------- semester
mushroom ---------- sopp --------------- svamp
destiny ------------- skjebne ------------- öde
funny --------------- morsom ------------- rolig
calm --------------- rolig ----------------- lugn
butterfly ------------ sommerfugl --------- fjäril
girl ----------------- jente ---------------- flicka
boy ----------------- gutt ---------------- pojk
cottage ------------- hytte ---------------- stuga
window ------------ vindu ---------------- fönster
ability -------------- evne -----------------förmåga
common ------------ felles --------------- gemensam
neighbour ----------- nabo --------------- granne
ugly ----------------- stygg --------------- ful
evil ----------------- ondskapsfull -------- elak
naughty ------------- slem ---------------- stygg
to be lucky --------- være heldig ---------- ha tur
fog ------------------ tåke ---------------- dimma
cocky -------------- kjepphøy ------------ kaxig
pillow -------------- pute ----------------- kudde
pretty --------------- pen ------------------ snygg
wallet --------------- lommebok ---------- plånbok
pavement ----------- fortau --------------- trottoar
to blush ------------- rødme --------------- rodna
newspaper ---------- avis ------------------ tidning
boring --------------- kjedelig ------------- tråkig
garden --------------- hage --------------- trädgård
soap ---------------- såpe ----------------- tvål
week --------------- uke ------------------ vecka
to cover up ---------- skjule --------------- dölja
to wash ------------- vaske ----------------- tvätta
suit (clothing) -------- dress ---------------- kostym
(ball) gown ---------- kjole ---------------- klänning
envy ---------------- misunnelse ----------- avund
to vacuum clean ------ støvsuge ------------ dammsuga
vehicle --------------- kjøretøy -------------- fordon
But if you know German, it's easy to understand the Swedish variants, and to remember them. Norwegian has more old Germanic words, where Swedish has replaced those with modern German-derived words. Danish shows some of that process, as well, though I can't recall any specific examples, offhand. But it's closer to Germany, so it makes sense that it would pick up some German vocab.
Absolutely untrue. Most French words in English are everyday words that you don't even perceive as originally French, such as "car", "garden", "very", "chance", "rent", "lesson", "table", "neat", "cry", and many more.
Really? Doesn't "garden" come from Germanic "gård" ? "Very" -- "veldig".
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
However, none of the numerous German immigrants/expats in Norway seems to struggle with the language, so it might be still very easy to learn.
