Is Germam a difficult language, compared to En and Fr?

fifine   Sat May 08, 2010 3:19 am GMT
Please leave your reply below.
cnaeus   Sat May 08, 2010 3:39 am GMT
Yes, especially compared to English. German has been likened to "English on steroids".
fifine   Sat May 08, 2010 3:56 am GMT
Thanks for that platitude.
Cool   Sat May 08, 2010 9:42 am GMT
Depends how you look at it. In terms of morphological complexity, German is much more complex than English. It has grammatical gender, cases, declension and reasonably complex verb conjugation. However, from what I understand (I don't speak French), the verbal system in French is much more complex, although noun declension is far simpler. German also has various plural forms. So I would think in terms of morphology, German is a bit more complicated than French, and much more complicated than English.

However, once you learn all the rules governing the grammar in German, it becomes quite straightforward, as it is extremely systematic and logical. English, having far less of a formal structure, often just depends on what sounds right to native speakers, and so it is harder to pinpoint exactly why something sounds wrong. Also, the grammatical system it does have, is quite chaotic in some respects. The tense/aspect system is also much more difficult in English.
lelera   Mon May 10, 2010 3:53 am GMT
I would say

French
German
English (being the easiest)