Hallo, darf ich mich vorstellen. Ich bin Clark.
Mein deutsch ist nicght gut aber ich learnen.
I'm studying German, one question i have is, why does words in German have to be so bloody long. Some words have 20 or so letters, this makes it very confusing to understand the meaning.
check this word out:
Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenskajuetenklinenputzergehilfe
yup that is one single word.
Is there an easy way to break up the words?
Thats a special ability of Germanic languages (which English has completely lost)
Though German doesnt have the longest Germanic words,Dutch has,your right about it being confusing,the best solution is to just look for words you recognise and try to separate them.
Sander, nah, you can still do the same thing in English. The matter just is that in English you normally separate compound word components with spaces or dashes, which you don't normally do in German, Dutch, or the North Germanic languages. Of course, though, that's fundamentally just an orthographic matter, and has little to do with the underlying language in question itself.
Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenskajuetenklinenputzergehilfe
in Norwegian:
Donaudampskipsselskapskapteinskahyttvaskehjelp!
But so long words are just as rare in Norwegian as in German. Both we and the germans would rather say:
Cleaner for captainĀ“s quarter on a ship belonging to the Danube Steam Shipping Company.
randjongerenhangplekkenbeleidsambtenarensalarisbesprekingsafspraken
=
(the agreements for the negotiations concerning the salary of public servants who decide on the policy for areas where unemployed youth is allowed to hang out)
See ,those long words actually make space!
I just love your exampel Sander!
how do you know when to break up a word though?
I did managed to get the hang of numbers :)
zweihundretauchunddreisig = 238
vierthousantfunfhunfreteinundsectsig = 4561
kampioenwaatlemoenkonfytmakertententoonstellingtoegangskaartjieknipper ;)
randjongerenhangplekkenbeleidsambtenarensalarisbesprekingsafspraken
Those are just aggregations of a whole bunch of words ( You won't find them in the dictionary , let alone a book or so ! I assure you ! )
How long have you been studing German?
=>Those are just aggregations of a whole bunch of words ( You won't find them in the dictionary , let alone a book or so ! I assure you ! )<=
?! Did anyone mention you could?
i've only been at it for 1 month on my own. Mostly on the internet and some CD's i bought on ebay.
I really love the language. But its so difficult.
the thread is called long words and those you mentioned aren't even words !