{"id":93107,"date":"2023-10-24T17:56:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T21:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/similarities-between-german-and-english\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T03:54:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T08:54:34","slug":"similarities-between-german-and-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/german\/similarities-between-german-and-english\/","title":{"rendered":"5 German and English Similarities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The relationship between English and German is all but ancient history\u2014<strong>the two languages are long-lost linguistic siblings.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because the two languages were once the same, the grammar of English and German is quite similar, even if we don&#8217;t always recognize it so easily in English. Everything that we find difficult in modern German, from cases to gender to movable sentence structure, these all once existed in English.<\/p>\n<p>While they may have fallen out of common usage, there are still remainders to be found in somewhat unexpected places today. Your brain has already been exposed to more of the German language&#8217;s key elements than you may have realized.<\/p>\n<p>[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2>1. Similarities in common vocabulary<\/h2>\n<p>Much\u00a0of our modern English vocabulary comes from Latin.<\/p>\n<p>The French-speaking Normans invaded England in 1066 led by William the Conqueror, bringing a slew of French and Latin words with them to England.<\/p>\n<p>However, England was already full of Germanic tribes who were speaking a kind of Old English, using words like <em>ich, finde, Hand <\/em>and\u00a0many others that are still used in German today.<\/p>\n<p>This original English language that was infiltrated by French and Latin, called <strong>Anglo-Saxon<\/strong>, gets its name from the Germanic tribes who migrated there around 500-800 A.D. That&#8217;s right, Germanic. Can you see where this is going?<\/p>\n<p>These Germanic tribes had been speaking their own version of English before the Normans came and continued to speak it after the Normans came to England. Norman and Latin words didn&#8217;t displace much vocabulary, or subtract anything, but rather they added to this early language.<\/p>\n<p>Even today, 80 of the 100 most common words in English are Germanic in origin. These\u00a0most basic, most frequently spoken words in English and German are from the same roots, making them all extremely similar. Give or take a few spelling and pronunciation differences, they&#8217;re practically the same. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have \u2013 <em>Ich habe<\/em><\/li>\n<li>It is long \u2013 <em> Es ist lang<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Where is that \u2013 <em>Wo ist das<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When starting to learn German, concentrate on the basics and remember that they&#8217;re almost the same as their English counterparts. The words with the strongest similarities are often simple, functional words, like\u00a0<em>the, be,\u00a0<\/em><em>my<\/em>\u00a0and <em>would\u00a0<\/em>which are used for almost 50% of all spoken English. When you encounter familiar words in English, use the similarities to help you remember them better!<\/p>\n<h2>2. Sentence structure and word order<\/h2>\n<p>The strange grammar and sentence structure put a lot of people off Shakespeare in school. It&#8217;s as if he couldn&#8217;t decide what he was actually saying, throwing words anywhere he wanted. Well actually, that&#8217;s the case!<\/p>\n<p>At the time, the English language was going through a change from <strong>Middle English<\/strong> to<strong> Modern English<\/strong>. A lot of these old Germanic rules were being shed and much of our modern vocabulary was being created. (<a href=\"http:\/\/mentalfloss.com\/article\/48657\/20-words-we-owe-william-shakespeare\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shakespeare himself invented over 2,200 words<\/a>\u00a0writing all those plays and sonnets!)<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a good example of Shakespeare&#8217;s English, from Hamlet:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>See how the first part ends in &#8220;a lender be,&#8221; with the verb &#8220;be&#8221; at the end? Looks similar to German word order, no? This short phrase also employs a semi-colon and two commas, reminiscent of the strict punctuation of modern German.<\/p>\n<p>Back in Willie&#8217;s day, word order was a lot freer than it is now. The verb, noun or adjective could be moved around to stress its importance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/german\/german-sentence-structure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>exactly<\/em> like German does today.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>3. Pronunciation<\/h2>\n<p>Words from German and English are often incredibly similar in their pronunciations. There were periods where consonant sounds changed slightly between German and English. A good example is the German letter <em>P,<\/em> which changed to <em>F<\/em> 1500 years ago (<em>Ship<\/em> turned became\u00a0<em>Schiff,<\/em> for example) but has remained the same ever since.<\/p>\n<p>There are more examples of this type of change, usually involving everyday words like\u00a0<em>Father<\/em> and <em>Vater,<\/em>\u00a0<em>Water<\/em> and <em>Wasser,<\/em>\u00a0<em>Apple\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Apfel<\/em>\u2014you get the idea. Both in meaning and pronunciation, these are practically the same.<em>\u00a0<\/em>Compare this to French, where every final letter is silent and pronouncing the letter <em>R<\/em> sounds like somebody choking on a large piece of <em>fromage.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Even the umlaut in German doesn&#8217;t introduce any sounds that we don&#8217;t have in English, but rather it clarifies them so that we don&#8217;t get too confused when trying to pronounce something!<\/p>\n<p>German pronunciation, because it&#8217;s close to English and so logical in structure, isn&#8217;t difficult <em>zu lernen\u00a0<\/em>(to learn). Listen to some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/german\/blog\/best-learn-german-language-podcasts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">podcasts<\/a> or audiobooks and once that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/german\/how-to-pronounce-german-words\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">accent<\/a> is in your head, you&#8217;ll never forget it. It also helps to consume other forms of native German content, such as the media clips found on the FluentU program.<p><strong>FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<p>You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/fluentu-learn-language-videos\/id917892175\">the iOS app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.fluentflix.fluentu&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=US\">Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><i><a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/try\/april-sale-3331\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)<\/a><\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\r\n  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/NativeAd-German.jpg\" alt=\"FluentU Ad\" \/>\r\n  <p style=\"text-align: center\">\r\n    <button class=\"btn-blue\" style=\"border: none;font-size: 18px;text-align: center;padding: 0.75rem 1.5rem;cursor: pointer\">\r\n      Try FluentU for FREE!\r\n    <\/button>\r\n  <\/p>\r\n<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\n<p>Accent training can be tedious, but having the proper pronunciation will make it a lot easier for those around you to understand what you mean.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Inflection<\/h2>\n<p>Sometimes it seems like the biggest gulf between German and English is caused by those darn articles and word endings. We don&#8217;t have anything so arbitrary and complicated like that in English, do we? Well, actually&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Historically, all European languages had inflections in some shape or form, yet most have been gotten rid of as languages modernized.<\/p>\n<p>There are plenty of exceptions to this, though. English still has the Genitive and Nominative cases. German is a unique animal in that it&#8217;s one of the few languages that has retained <em>most<\/em> of its inflections. This means that German words change depending on gender, number, order and tense.<\/p>\n<p>As English has no gender and a strict sentence structure, we have pretty simple\u00a0inflections.\u00a0<em>Girl <\/em>becomes <em>girls<\/em>. Makes sense, right? You&#8217;ll just add an &#8220;s&#8221; or &#8220;es&#8221; to pluralize most of the time. <em>Dog\u00a0<\/em>becomes\u00a0<em>dogs,\u00a0<\/em>got it.\u00a0<em>Man <\/em>becomes&#8230;<em>men.\u00a0<\/em>Oh wait, that doesn&#8217;t follow the rule. Let&#8217;s try again.\u00a0<em>Goose<\/em>\u00a0becomes&#8230;<em>geese?\u00a0<\/em>What&#8217;s going on here?<\/p>\n<p>These are Old English inflections, remnants of the old language, where the stem of the word is modified. Many of our most widely used words change like this, just as strong verbs change in German. Therefore, don&#8217;t let German inflections scare you. Our language is not so far removed from this. Think of strong German verbs as\u00a0equivalent to\u00a0English\u00a0irregular\u00a0verbs.<\/p>\n<h2>5. Shared outside influences<\/h2>\n<p>The Normans, as you know, brought a lot of new words into the English language.\u00a0However, they weren&#8217;t the only ones.<\/p>\n<p>When Germanic people arrived in the British Isles, their language and culture were influenced by the Celtic-speaking people who had previously settled there.<\/p>\n<p>The Vikings, when they weren&#8217;t busy pillaging, scaring monks and the like, also settled in the British Isles, trading and living alongside Anglo-Saxons. The Vikings and Celts were spread all over Europe, including in what is now Germany, and their languages also influenced German.<\/p>\n<p>These same Latin, Celtic and Norse words have been transferred and shared between English and German, creating a lot of nice <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Appendix:List_of_German_cognates_with_English\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cognates<\/a> for us to easily understand.<\/p>\n<p><em>Direct\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Direkt\u00a0<\/em>come from the Latin\u00a0<em>Directus, <\/em>likewise do\u00a0<em>Active\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>Aktif\u00a0<\/em>come from\u00a0<em>Activo.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/german.about.com\/library\/bllatein01.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Here&#8217;s a handy list<\/a> with more Latin-derived words.<em>\u00a0<\/em>Other common words\u00a0like <i>Physics and Physik, Anarchy\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0<em>Anarchie\u00a0<\/em>have shared Greek roots. There&#8217;s more to the German and English language relationship than the original Proto-Germanic language. The influence of other languages through trade, migration and colonization have created two languages that are similar in some ways and so different in others.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Keine Angst\u00a0<\/em>(no fear), right?<\/p>\n<p>Go ahead and make your German learning anxiety a thing of the past!<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h2>And One More Thing\u2026<\/h2>\r\n<p>\r\nIf you\u2019re like me and prefer learning German on your own time, from the comfort of your smart device, I\u2019ve got something you\u2019ll love.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nWith <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FluentU<\/a>\u2019s Chrome Extension, you can turn any YouTube or Netflix video with subtitles into an interactive language lesson. That means you can <strong>learn German from real-world content<\/strong>, just as native speakers actually use it. \r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nYou can even import your favorite YouTube videos into your FluentU account. If you\u2019re not sure where to start, check out our <strong>curated library of videos<\/strong> that are handpicked for beginners and intermediate learners, as you can see here:\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n<a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/try\/april-sale-3331\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/FluentU-German-video-library-1.jpg\" alt=\"fluentu-german-video-library\" width=\"320\" height=\"569\" \/><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nFluentU brings native German videos within reach. With <strong>interactive captions<\/strong>, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, pronunciation, and useful examples.\r\n<\/p><p>\r\n<a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/try\/april-sale-3331\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/FluentU-German-video-with-interactive-subtitles-web.jpg\" alt=\"learn-german-with-interactive-subtitled-videos\" width=\"600\" height=\"390\" \/><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nYou can even see other videos where the word is used in a different context. For example, if I tap on the word <i>\"Kind,\"<\/i> this is what pops up:\r\n<\/p><p>\r\n<a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/try\/april-sale-3331\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/FluentU-German-vocab-kind.jpg\" alt=\"learn-new-words-with-interactive-subtitles\" width=\"320\" height=\"569\" \/><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nWant to make sure you really remember what you've learned? We\u2019ve got you covered. <strong>Practice and reinforce the vocab from each video<\/strong> with learn mode. Swipe to see more examples of the word you\u2019re learning, and play mini-games with our dynamic flashcards.\r\n<\/p><p>\r\n<a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/try\/april-sale-3331\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/FluentU-German-vocab-quiz-web.jpg\" alt=\"fluentu-german-vocab-quiz\" width=\"600\" height=\"390\" \/><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nThe best part? FluentU tracks everything you\u2019re learning and uses that to create <strong>a personalized experience just for you<\/strong>. You\u2019ll get extra practice with tricky words and even be reminded when it\u2019s time to review\u2014so nothing slips through the cracks.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n\tStart using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download our app from the <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/fluentu-learn-language-videos\/id917892175\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App Store<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.fluentflix.fluentu&amp;hl=en&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Play<\/a>.<\/p><p><a data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/try\/april-sale-3331\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The relationship between English and German is all but ancient history\u2014the two languages are long-lost linguistic siblings. Because the two languages were once the same, the grammar of English and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":252490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"5 German and English Similarities | FluentU German Blog","description":"English and German are way more similar than you might think! Read this guide to find out about 5 of the main German and English similarities in sentence structure, vocabulary and more. These common elements can help boost your German language skills!"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[525,533],"tags":[],"coauthors":[486],"class_list":["post-93107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-german","category-how-to-learn-german"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93107"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245570,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93107\/revisions\/245570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93107"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=93107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}