It is widely rumored to be a difficult language to learn and it is also known for its long, complex and difficult to pronounce words. Do these regulations really apply to the German language? Here are the fun facts about Goethe’s language.
„One of the most difficult languages in the world,“ „difficult to pronounce and write,“ „contains the longest words“ and other phrases and sentences that those accused of learning the German language may often hear, is it really so?
Here are some facts about Goethe’s language:
How many German speakers are there?
At least 130 million people speak German as a native or second language. German linguist Ulrich Ammons estimated in a 2019 study that the number of people who have learned German in some form worldwide is 289 million, of which 103 million are native speakers. In the list of most spoken languages year-round, the German language ranks eleventh.
How many people take German classes?
In the current year 2020, the number of people learning German reached 15.4 million worldwide, according to a survey by the Federal Foreign Office in cooperation with the Goethe Institute and the Deutsche Welle Media Foundation.
Where do most people learning German come from?
Most people learning German come from Europe. But in recent years, Africa has caught up, with the number of people learning German on the continent increasing by 50 percent, especially in Egypt, the Ivory Coast and Algeria. Interest in learning German is also growing in China. The situation is very different in the United States of America, where the number of people learning German has fallen by 15 percent.
What is the longest German word?
The German language is known for its long words that consist of several words at the same time. These words are often used, especially in technical and administrative language. Here are the five longest German words in the Duden German dictionary:
Beef Labeling Monitoring Task Transfer Act
This German word has 63 letters and means „Law on the transfer of control functions on beef labels.“
Land Transfer Approval Competence Transfer Ordinance
Ordinance on the transfer of powers to approve land movements
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Rhine-Main-Danube Large Shipping Route
Shipping route for large ships on the Danube, Main and Rhine
Motor vehicle liability insurance
Motor vehicle liability insurance
What are the most commonly used letters in the German language?
The letter „e“ is the most commonly used letter in the German language. When you type in German, you will notice that you often tap the „E“ key on your computer keyboard. This is due to the phonetic peculiarities of the German language. In many languages, the pronunciation sounds melodic, unlike German, which has the advantage of depressing parts of the word and weighting the tone.
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Due to these phonetic gradations, the vowel „e“ became increasingly important in High German, while the other vowels disappeared in the remaining syllables, one reason why German is sharper and more difficult than Old High German.
What is the most beautiful German word?
The word „Gemütlichkeit“, which means „comfort“ in Arabic, was voted the most beautiful German word of 2019. This result was reached after a vote by the monthly magazine for German teaching „Deutsch Perfekt“ among German learners aged 48 and over in countries all over the world. The words „Schmetterling“ and „Eichhörnchen“, which mean „butterfly“ and „squirrel“ in Arabic, came in second and third place. In 2004, the German Language Committee launched the „Most Beautiful German Word“ competition, for which more than 22,000 suggestions were submitted from 111 countries. Here are the winning words:
1. Habseligkeit
The meaning of this word is „goods“ or „possessions of little value“.
2. Gesicherheit
It means „safe“ or „calm“.
3. lieben
In Arabic it corresponds to the verb „liebe“ or „lieben“.
4. Augenblick
It means „a moment“ or „a moment“
5. Rhubarb jam
In Arabic it means „rhubarb jam“.
But the children’s jury chose the word „Libelle“ in first place, which means „dragonfly“.
How many words are there in the German language?
What German learners don’t know: 18 million words are waiting for them. Around 1900, Johann Christoph Adelong wrote the first standard German dictionary, which contained almost 60,000 German terms. The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm also added up to 450,000 more terms to their dictionary, which they began writing in 1838 and completed 123 years after their deaths.
The current version of the Duden dictionary contains 148,000 words. The Duden Corpus Collection, a large-scale digital text collection of all German-language texts since 1994, will contain 18 million words in spring 2020, including many rare terms such as the compound words mentioned above.