Growing up, I only heard German spoken in anger in American war movies. It was only when I travelled to Switzerland as an adult when I heard it spoken in a normal calm tone. I glad young North Americans have access to RUclips videos like this to get a more balanced view of other languages and cultures.
There is a German joke about the Swiss dialect that relies on it being harsher than other German. The joke is that Swiss is not a language; it's a throat disease.
I'm Swiss and never heard that joke. but Swedish people say the say about Danish. I met more Germans who said they can speak Swiss German, and all they did was adding -li to the German words.
There's a Russian joke going around about a Russian guy and a German guy having a conversation. The Russian tells the German that the German language is so harsh and difficult and uses the word "Sehenswürdigkeiten" as an example. The German then asks "oh yeah? then what does this word sound like in Russian"? For which the Russian answers: "Why, it's very short and simple! *DO-STO-PREE-ME-CHA-TEL-NOS-TEE* !!"
Portuguese 🇵🇹: *_freqüentemente_* Spanish 🇪🇸 : *_frecuentemente_* Italian 🇮🇹 : *_frequentemente_* English (England) 🇬🇧 : *_often_* German 🇩🇪 : *_oft_* And you still think that german is *_HARDCORE_* ? 🌚
That example of the word Schmetterling sounding harsh and not appropriate always reminds me of one of my favorite bedtime storys when i was a child. The beautiful story written by the author Michael Ende "Der Lindwurm und der Schmetterling". The Lindwurm, a fearsome dragon and the Schmetterling, a male butterfly feel unhappy with their names. The dragon find the Namepart "Lind-" meaning "soft" unsuitable for a fearsome creature like him. On the other hand the butterfly being soft and nice to everyone dosn't like the part "Schmetter-" in his name meaning "to crash something". When they both met, they agreed to switch the first part of their names, becoming "Der Lindling und der Schmetterwurm". One of the most beautiful storys i have ever heard :)
Azzura I didn't know that, but I like Michael Ende. Especialy "Jim Knopf". Ps. SCHMETTERWURM!!!!! ("crashing worm") that sounds so ridiculusly epic and dangerous. Like a trash-movie monster.
Ehrenamtlicher Dudenbeauftragter hat sie am anfang eh gesagt nur sie zeigt dass es auch wenn es sich hart auch was anderes dahintersteht. Und eins musst du auch zugeben die deutsche sprache ist im gegensatz zu manschen anderen wirklich sehr hart.
schon, wobei statistisch gesehen mehr Konsonanten in der deutschen Sprache verwendet werden als andere europäische Sprachen, soweit ich weiß (hatte sie auch im video gesagt). Denke die Konsonanten machen einiges aus, vom gefühl her. ^^
Fun fact about Schildkröte! While the german word is made based on the word for toad, the persian words are actually vice versa. Toad or frog are called in Persian "Ghourbaghe", the first part of which (ghour) is supposed to be the sound of the frog (quaken in German). But the second part (baghe) is actually a transformed pronunciation of the old persian word "Bakhe" which means turtle. So while German calls a turtle "the shielded toad", in Persian the frog is called "the quaking turtle". Amazing, isn't it? :)
If you see an enlarged photograph of the head of one of these creatures, the English word makes a lot more sense. We call the smaller kind of dragonfly that folds its wings along its body at rest a Damselfly, which sounds a bit more like die Libelle.
Ich finde es nur immer interessant das ausgerechnet Deutsch so hervorgehoben wird. Es gibt so viele andere Sprachen die sich, auch für deutsche Ohren, harsch anhören. z.B. Arabisch, Russisch oder Japanisch(meist in männlicher Variante)
Als Deutscher vielleicht sieht man das ein bischen anders, aber ich würde niemals Russisch oder Japanisch als harsche Sprachen bezeichnen. Japanisch hat keine harten Klänge und klingt eher weich und angenehm, meiner Meinung nach. Russisch gefällt mir auch. Dagegen stimme ich dir zu, wenn du Arabisch darin eingestufst, sozusagen.
I lost it so hard when you came up with new name ideas for “Krankenhaus“... There are some reasons we would never call it “Heilhaus“ within the next 1000 years :D
"Schmetterling" comes from the Bohemian Czech word "smetana", which means "cream", and replaced the original German word, "Falter". It was thought that the reason for milk failing to churn into butter was witches taking the shape of butterflies and stealing the cream from the butter churn. And that, I believe, is also the derivation of the word "butterfly".
And, in addition, there is the german word "Schmetten" for cream that turned sour. It is said that butterflies like to eat cream, which directly turns into the word "Schmetterling". So, "Schmetten" derives from "Smetana" in the first place. In the end both, the german "Schmetterling" and the english "butterfly" do have the same origin.
German is a perfect language to write poetry. Because of the cases in German, the language is very flexible. Initially, this flexibility can be confusing and even intimidating but when you get used to it and if you have a penchant for poetry, you can write poems much more easily than in English. You can play with the sentence in German. Now that I learn German I find the language sublime just like Urdu, the language in which I generally write poems. I thought earlier that no other language can compete with Urdu when it comes to poetry but German changed by opinion. It is truly a very versatile language.
I'm curious about what you say. From what you say the cases are a must for poetry writing, namely, nominativ, akkusativ, dativ, and genitiv (which is technically dissapearing). But latin has two more cases: vocative and ablative. Why Urdu?
You never needed to change my mind about German, lovely language when you get to know it. Some of my favourite words "schadenfreude" , "ausgezeichnet" and "schlagfest". Looking forward to more of your videos. :-D
That word has such a ring to it. Schlagfest I would use for a fight. The Americans changed it to slugfest which to me is just as good.@@danieldavid3160
Gehirnwäsche läuft immer noch. mach dich mal frei von der Vergangenheit,die kann man nicht ändern. Oder ich geb dir in Zukunft für alles Vergangene die Schuld. Ich schreib dir wenn du wieder was versaut hast
schmetter ist das, was sich früher beim Butter machen oben abgesetzt hat. das haben die Schmetterlinge gegessen. im englischen sagt man butterfly, weil diese auch die "Butter" aus dem Fass gegessen haben.
I live in the southern part of the USA. The average American I talk to says German sounds "evil, mean, harsh, or scary." I think this is just a bias that is holding on ever since WWII, which is very unfair. My dad studied German in high school in the '60s and there were many people who remembered WWII and did not like the idea of their kids studying "The language of the enemy." Again, another unfair and cruel bias. That being said, I think German is beautiful and very romantic.
@Abc Xyz Not always tho.^^ The actors of "Supernatural" in season 11 did quite a good job at speaking German. Of course, they spoke with an accend which naturally does sound kinda harsh but that's not their fault. Most of them probably spoke German for the first time in their life.
2:45 Reminds me of the running pun my professor in university often told: (in German) "Die Wissenschaft ist eine Leidenschaft, die durch Leiden Wissen schafft" (the pun gets lost in translation: "Science is a passion that creates knowledge through suffering").
It makes sense, depending on how you interprete it. One of my professors for example once said that we should like masochism because we would suffer a lot in her course because we had to read very, very much. So we had to suffer to gain new knowledge.
I've been studying German for almost a year now and I'm really in love with it. Your videos make me believe I've made the right language choice. Dankeschön ^^
Elchi King Und als Steirer, Bayer, was weiß ich hat man immer das Problem, dass es sich hart anhört und dich im schlimmsten Fall niemand versteht. :D Like: as KRONKENHAUS oder da BUSCHENSCHONK.
der große unterschied ist einfach das sehr viele wörter aus dem englischem, französischem etc ihre wurzeln im latein haben. aber da wir uns immer gegen die römer gewehrt haben, haben natürlich auch nicht ihre sprache angenommen. dazu kommt noch das die deutschen selbstbeschreibende worte haben. nuff said ;)
Patric Hausammann I think SAUSIDE just meant that most people who are doing the "German sounds aggressive" videos compare German, which is a Germanic language, to Romance languages. And that's like comparing horses to pigs. Both are animals but completely different types.
I love my language, I think that Portuguese is a beatiful language but I've always wanted to learn how to speak German because I think it's beatifulas well :)
From an American point of view, your arguments seemed largely be boil down to "the German version is way more metal than the other versions", which was basically already my impression of German (that it's just more metal of a language than other languages). Aggressive doesn't always imply ugly, unwelcome, or unbeautiful. And I really loved your argument for the air mattress. With you 100% on that.
No need to justify why German language sounds harsh. It sounds harsh to the ears that are not familiar to this language. German is weird no doubt but it is a beautiful language. I am Bengali. Butterfly is Projapoti in my language. It would sound strange and even horrible to some who does not know Bengali. But to us it sounds just as cute. German is not harsh. It is the non German speakers that need to adapt to this language and once one adapts, everything sounds just great and sweet.
Exactly. Most people aren't exposed to a lot of German. Except the historical films of Chancellor Hitler growling and shrieking through a speech. But I fell in love with German by watching a TV show from New York hosted by a lovely young lady (sort of like Trixie) who made German sound very mellifluous.
P Banerjee oh no you're wrong. I really think that german is a harsh language and I'm a native german speaker. My brother and I always compare german words to other languages like portuguese or english. In my opinion I really don't understand how portuguese or english speakers can think that german is a pretty language
Harshness or softness are relative terms. I do not find Portuguese or English soft on ears. I have lived with Punjabi language for 7 years which I find not only rather harsh but also a rude language. In comparison German is a much more elegant and soft language. German is a staccato language. The words do not glue to each other. It makes distinguishing words easy for me, unlike French where the entire sentence is a swirling blob which makes it difficult for me to figure out what the hell the speaker said. But yes, my familiarity with German culture and history makes me like the language and that might be the reason why I do not find it harsh.
Germany: 9.999.999.999.999,00 9 Billionen 999 Milliarden 999 Millionen 999 Tausend 999 Neun Billionen neunhundertneunundneunzig Milliarden neunhundertneunundneunzig Millionen neunhundertneunundneunzigtausendneunhundertneunundneunzig US: 9,999,999,999,999.00 9 trillion 999 billion 999 million 999 thousand 999 Nine trillion nine hundred ninety-nine billion nine hundred and ninety-nine million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine
The germanic roots are often really useful for learning non-latin-derived words, for example Schildkroet is good for remembering Skoldpadda in Swedish, whereas Turtle, tortuga, etc... are not helpful. Even though I'm a native english speaker, I actually find listening to German very appealing. In fact I convinced some of my friends of this by showing naturally-speaking german people and they agree that in normal conversation, it's a pleasant language. It's just that when shouted and accentuated, it can be made to sound harsh. Compare that to french, which is very difficult to make it sound harsh. I personally think that the different expressiveness of the language is one of the reasons why german people are so polite, because it is very easy to harshen the tone of german. Compare this to supposedly softer languages, and the speakers can often tend to be very abrupt and rude partially because you don't sound as "aggressive" as your words would suggest. Just a stray thought.
Ich komme aus Ägypten und gehe auf eine deutsche Schule (in Ägypten). 99% der Schüler hassen deutsch, weil sie glauben es höre sich aggressiv anhört. Meine Schule sollte jeden Morgen vor allen Schülern dieses Video spielen hahahha
Wie lange gehst du schon auf diese Schule? Deutsch soll ja für Nicht-Muttersprachler sehr schwer zu lernen sein, aber du schreibst zumindest ziemlich gut. Oder bist du zweisprachig aufgewachsen?
Angela Ascot ich bin auf ein deutsches Kindergarten gegangen und lerne mein ganzes Leben lang deutsch, aber meine Muttersprache ist Arabisch und ich muss Deutsch, Arabisch, Englisch und Französisch in der Schule lernen
Liebe Trixie! Ich bin froh, dass Sie selbst haben Ihre Meinung über die Deutsche Sprache verändert :) Ich finde die ganz rationell, logisch und schön auf seine Art und Weise! Freundlichen Grüßen aus der Ukraine!) P.S. Entschuldigung für die Fehler)
Danke, das freut mich! :) Und ich mag, wie Deutsch kann verschiede Sachen beschreiben, im Vergleich mit anderen Sprachen, z.B. Beinahesleidenschaftgegenstand ;)
This video is so funny! Trixie you are so right about the English speakers overexaggeration of the accent & the sometimes harshness of certain sounds in the German Language. Love the videos so much! Thanks for making them!
In german it were "Siechenhaus" and was for the black death infested before millitary medical research envolved and medical help for injured civilans not only by war could be better treatened and then there were industrie and transportation and so there were injurie and infections if not properly help had been seeked or even was available.
Trixie, in Spanish the letter "g" isn't pronounced like in English, it sounds more like the letter "h". So the word imaginación is pronounced "imaHenación".
I guess that was one of the first things being mentioned in my Spanish class when I was a kid. In Germany we have to learn two foreign languages and I loved Spanish. Just glad I took it as my 2nd foreign language. Most of my friend took French and they hated it :D
+No ahora por favor :v The g in ge in English is a soft g, pronounced just like an English j. So "gerra" and "jerra" would be pronounced the same in English. Consider the words "generator", "genius" and "generic". That is the only time g is pronounced as j, which is why "gif" is not pronounced jif, regardless of what RUclips pedants may say.
Interestingly, Mark Twain complains in his essay "The Awful German Language" (1880) that German words are often too *soft* compared with their English counterparts He gives the example of the German words for thunderstorm ("Gewitter") and explosion ("Ausbruch") with the remark "Our word Toothbrush is more powerful than that." An excerpt from the essay: _"I think that a description of any loud, stirring, tumultuous episode must be tamer in German than in English. Our descriptive words of this character have such a deep, strong, resonant sound, while their German equivalents do seem so thin and mild and energyless. Boom, burst, crash, roar, storm, bellow, blow, thunder, explosion; howl, cry, shout, yell, groan; battle, hell. These are magnificent words; the have a force and magnitude of sound befitting the things which they describe. But their German equivalents would be ever so nice to sing the children to sleep with, or else my awe-inspiring ears were made for display and not for superior usefulness in analyzing sounds. Would any man want to die in a battle which was called by so tame a term as a _*_Schlacht_*_ ? Or would not a consumptive feel too much bundled up, who was about to go out, in a shirt-collar and a seal-ring, into a storm which the bird-song word _*_Gewitter_*_ was employed to describe? And observe the strongest of the several German equivalents for explosion -- _*_Ausbruch_*_ . Our word Toothbrush is more powerful than that. It seems to me that the Germans could do worse than import it into their language to describe particularly tremendous explosions with. The German word for hell -- _*_Hölle_*_ -- sounds more like helly than anything else; therefore, how necessary chipper, frivolous, and unimpressive it is. If a man were told in German to go there, could he really rise to thee dignity of feeling insulted?"_ --Mark Twain You can read the full essay here: www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/awfgrmlg.html
Oh man. I highly respect Mark Twain as an author, but I think he didn't understood the concept of a mother language. Of course, all these english words sound like the perfect representation to him, because he grew up with them! Take a German kid and ask it what sounds more like crying, "cry" or "heulen". The "battle"/"Schlacht" comparison is completely incomprehensible to me. Schlacht sounds like clashing swords, splashing blood, loud screams (to me), while battle sounds like a nickname for Betty. Kinda cute. Massive thanks for sharing this essay. Very interesting! I do believe that most of the stuff that German allegedly sounds so harsh comes from the Hitler speeches, where Hitler raped the German language.
I do not like Mark Twain a bit, nonetheless, I'm not going to be biased with my comment because of that, rather just complement his apparently poor german vocabulary. Storm can be translated into Sturm ( that truly is a powerful word ), Gewitter or Ungewitter ( Ungewitter reveals a rather terrifying nature, not just an ordinary storm ). Each word he listed ( boom, burst, crash, etc ) sound like being straight out of comics, they have a very cartoony character, whereas the german equivalents have something sublime, heavenly and poetic. it's not surprising that Germany spawned countless poets that are among the best if not the best, and that surely is due to the powerful german language. Btw.: I regard german poets as the best, followed by russian poets ( Puschkin, Dostojewski, Tolstoi, Gogol, Tschechow, Gorki, Solschenizyn, to mention a few ) way better than english counterparts. If I'm not mistaken, Shakespeare admired the german language it's just like with classical music, Germany ( including german speaking countries like Austria ) is the best, without a doubt, in this field.
Zogg from Betelgeuse Schlacht is a terrible word. It sounds like blood splattering, like somebody being impaled! It’s harsh and disgusting: “SHLOKT”… Which makes it perfect! Battles *are* terrible! They *are* harsh and disgusting! The word “battle” sounds like a stoned frog. Another example, take the word “war.” It sounds like boar. Bore. Boor. Pour. Pouring usually comes *after* the war. In German, one would say *KAMPF!!!* It sounds just as rough and abrasive as it should be!
My statement to this essay is probably biased, as I am german, but when looked from the emotional side, which the essays author apearently does (it appears to me that he did so), I have to disagree. Of course coming from the emotional side, there is no way to argue about this, because the emotion in question here is taste. And we cannot argue taste (Or can we? ... Nope!). So yes, seen from an emotional side, I think that many english words are not so much fuzzy, but fluid, gliding into each other, not in a pleasent way, but in a tongue twisting, kinda slimy gross way (yes, no one will be offended by that, great writing me (not!)). English is a great language, it allows for many different words and descriptions, yet, in my opinion, it always lacks that clear crispness of german. And I mean thios only from a sound perspective, as language with different backgrounds will most likely bear words that have only a single meaning, while other language contain this specific meaning and other meanings in one word and vise verca because of cultural differences (this is the good kind of divercity). There is another key difference here, one that Mr. Twain actually describes quite acuratly I think, and that is the matter of articulation. Now bare in mind that this is most likely heavily biased, but english, to me, always feels more lively, spoken from deeper witin the body, with mroe tone, even probably more emotions. More shorter words, that are far easier and faster said, less syllables and such, which of course gives the impression that the word itself is more powerfull, becaus it resonates more in the body of the speaker, appearing louder and thus more imposing. However, the more calm and descriptive german words have a different quality to them. A colder one. Watching from another persepective, german words just describe something, not with feelings or how it feels (we also have those words, don't get me wrong, but they too have these destintive german characteristics of being more observative and describtive then emotional) but with the cold harsh reality of what it is. Fighting a *battle* may be a deeply emotional thing, but a *Schlacht* is a cruel event where people fight against each other with the intent to harm, maim and kill each other over certain things. This does not exclude emotions, but it puts the reality of what happens first. This is not what you were quoting Mark Twain here for, but I could not help and jump on the bandwagon of others derailing your train of thought here. Also I actually would never go into an argument with someone and debating from a reasonable standpoint which of the two languages were the factual better language, because such a discussion would be one of the most epic exercises in futility ever.
Zogg from Betelgeuse explosion means exsactly the same in german , Ausbruch is just a noun for breaking out(it means somebody or somthing is breaking out of somewhere)
Interesting video and it was really enjoyable to hear the different words compared. I never thought of German as an aggressive language, just an exact one. I am inspired to learn it now.
Schmetterling is actually very similar to the english word! Butterflies are attracted by butter and "Schmette" is an old German word for butter-like milk ("Buttermichl").
I find the ligthing in that setting to be much better than in the old one. Good job! I've taken German at school for 7 years, and never thought it to be aggressive (well, my grand-mother was born in Trier, so it might be a bit genetic). But to me, German always sounded precise, accurate, sharp, thanks to agglutination. To me, German is the language of modern philosophy, and I immediately know when a text has been translated from German, cause it's impossible to translate German without having very heavy sentences with too much details, while it just flows naturally in German. I didn't knew about Vorstellungshaft, but I find it to be a wonderful word, much better than imagination. Imagination sounds not serious, almost childish: in a grown adults, you'd rather talk about creativity. In German, just the word Vorstellung is awesome: it's literally the fact to put/bring something in front of you ("vor", like "fore" of "forefront" in English, and "stellen"), so literally both to bring something out of you, but also to figure it out, to see it with your mind just as it was something you were seeing with your eyes. So Vorstellungshaft is the ability to bring things out and/or to figure them out, to make them real in some way. And it's not just things from inside of you, it can be anything, even the most difficult concepts and ideas. Vorstellungshaft is you sitting on a chair in front of a table, ringing a bell, and the thing you have in mind, just anything, starts appearing on the table, and as it's materializing, you can touch it, turn it around, flip it up and down, break it down, see what it's made of, try to fit it with other things, smell it, taste it, feel if it's warm or cold, heavy or light, pleasant or disgusting, generous or selfish, cheap or expensive, fair or unjust, real or fake, etc, because it's just there in front of you, waiting to be assessed in mind, and you were able to "summon" it. That's what Vorstellungshaft is to me, all in one word. Awesome!
Oh. My bad... I think I meant Vorstellungkraft, I don't know how I mixed things up, since at one point I was precisely saying to myself: "Vorstellungshaft? I would have said Vorstellungkraft. But oh well, I won't pretend I know better". I wonder what Vorstellungshaft would mean exactly, but it sure is a word you can hardly translate in other languages without using multiple words.
MadNumForce the suffix -haft means some kind of ability and you use it to change a noun into an adjective, one example: ekelhaft (=disgusting) contains der Ekel (=disgust) and -haft. So vorstellungshaft would literally mean something like "made of imagination" or "like imagination". We don't officially have this word but you could use it and everyone would understand it because everyone knows how the suffix -haft works :)
Vorstellungshaft sounds a little like an imprisonment in your imagination haha :* MadNumForce, your comment is awesome. I agree 100%, and I think you are a natural poetic ;-)
Many years ago I flew from Paris to Tel Aviv. All the announcements were in English, French and Hebrew in that order. The English sounded normal to me. The French was read by a woman with a beautiful voice and sounded like a seduction. (I don't understand French.) Then a guy made the same announcement in Hebrew. I thought someone was choking a bullfrog.
Ive started in German language just a few weeks and Im loving it! Im from Brazil so I speak Portuguese already! I do speak English and soon I Will be speaking German!
From an etymological perspective 'Schmetterling' is nearly the same as butterfly. 'Schmetter' does not relate to 'schmettern', but to czech 'smetana' (cream), which was used in Saxony as 'Schmetten' (and sour cream is in German also known as 'Schmand' or 'Schmant', which has the same origin). Some butterflies like to sit at milk pots (and devouring the minerals at the drying rim), so they are 'cream birds' or 'creamy beings' - Schmetterlinge. Many well-known German words are such loanwords - like Mauer, Fenster, ..., Germany being at the center of nearly all European migrations - whether out of, into or simply through the country.
The thing is, German sounds a bit different from the rest of the examples because German is not a Latin based language, unlike English, Spanish, French or the other one.
I feel like a lot of these words are intentionally said loudly with aggressiveness, and if done that way, it does indeed sound hilarious and harsh. However if spoken normally in day-to-day conversation, it sounds very cool and normal. Also, I like the word Schmetterling. It sounds adorable to call someone that. For example, to a child, "My dear Schmetterling". :)
I love your videos, I am not learning German or English, but it is true that one rarely thinks about where words come from and it is so much fun finding out where those words came from and you are very eloquent and I am happy that you are representing the German language :)
I think that languages have a certain sound and cadence to them that unravels when you understand what they mean. I'm a native English speaker and languages like German and Russian sound harsher than say, Spanish or Portuguese. Now that I understand Spanish and Russian - I hear the meaning and my earlier prejudices about the sound sort of disappears. I had a very strange experience on an airplane once. I couldn't identify the language I was overhearing - but it seemed to be full of a lot hissing and whispering. To my great surprised, I realized it was English - I was just so tired and trying so hard to identify what I thought was a foreign language that I completely missed the meaning! Is that what all the "s", "sh", "f", and "th" in English sound like to non-English speakers - a bit like a snake? :-) The more I watch this channel - the more German sounds 'precise' to me - rather than harsh. :-)
absolutely stunning! Your presentation is simply beautiful in its description. I was born in Hanover in 1958 and immigrated to Australia in 1960, I have lost all of my German languish skills and wish I could revive them!
JayTemple, in an essence that is partially true for me since I am reading a bunch of WW2 books nowadays. I also found that they spelled Luftwaffe wrong in there when in had the correct spelling in the next sentance. How America, how!
german words are beautiful.. i love that language. i hear german as a sharp and shiny language with an admirable well structured and original gramatics .. not creamy sbumble like english or french. regards!
I just want to say thank you very much for making these videos. I seen your videos before I but I was never really much for watching them oh, but I just recently started learning more German using Duolingo on my cell phone. The video. Zeppelin going to be coming in a lot more handy now.
I'm a German and at first I want to say that your Videos are really cool. And when you said something like Schmetterlling I thought yes it's a little bit harsh. I hope my english is correct
To me, the video makes fun of those who believe German language looks like english or any other Roman language. It is very very different. It also sounds very different :)
It also makes no sense to me to compare German with Romance languages and English only, I think it would be better to include some other Germanic languages like Dutch and, the Nordic languages and also completely others like the Slavic languages for example.
Blue x thats true....but wait. Arent the anglic languages named so couse of the Angelsaxons? Angelland...England. Where they came from? right...they where nordics. So imho those angelic Languages are more of an mixture between nordic and latin. but i could be wrong. Normans are of nordic origin too by the way 😆
i really hate how nazis destroyed so much of german language because HEIL isnt a bad word at all ist the slang for the word heile and means heal and heil also means whole..so the word is actually the opposite of evil
It's always entertaining to watch people acting like the Germans were THE evil side of the war. War is war. Both sides did terrible things and I've never seen Russians or Americans being so obsessed with their past.
It's so funny watching this as a Swede because I feel it makes A LOT more sense to me since almost all of them basically are spelled the same way, probably because the Swedish language mostly derives from German (is derive the right word?).
It's true. My lifelong impression of German language was closely associated with old war movies and a TV sitcom called "Hogan's Heroes". Thanks to the internet and having met a cool German or two, I've been able to shake this distorted impression to a large degree and to see it for what it is. Today I can enjoy hearing German and appreciate its beauty alongside other foreign languages. Thanks for a really fun video, Tixie.
omg, you really make the german language sounds beautiful and attracting. Like how is that working? I never came up with the thougt to explain the beauty of a language with a word like "Vorstellungskraft", which is honestly an amazing word when you think about it!
Deutsch ist eine tolle Sprache: na ja nicht immer einfach, aber welche Sprache ist einfach? Italienisch ist auch harsch ab und zu!! Oh by the way deine Aussprache mit dem Italienischen war echt toll, nicht 100% korrekt, aber sehr cool... ohne Spaß
German does sound harsh and aggressive. I like your fan theories about the language though, they are pretty nice. On the other hand we have a lot of fun making foreigners pronounce German words such as "Streichholzstächtelchen" (tiny match box). And there are good sketches about it, you might know the Ser Giacomo sketch... Anyway, greetings from- wait for it- ASCHAFFENBURG which sounds both very brutal And very funny considering it sounds like Arsch-Affen-Burg.
I don't speak the German language, however, the language does sound harsh to me. But I like it and this video was very entertaining to me. I loved hearing you go through the languages and then pronouncing the word in German, cracked me up. Thank you ! :)Whenever you speak English with a strong German accent, I enjoy that too. By the way, my perception is that you speak English, with a slight British accent and I sometimes hear you speak a word, that is totally not the way to pronounce it. I enjoy this whole thing, that you do with the languages, and I really respect you for it.
Thank you for this Trixie. I just found your videos tonight, and have already learned much about my heritage. I am an American, but long ago my family came from Germany. I have seen the videos you reference, and while funny, I know that the German language is not quite as harsh as they make it sound. But now, I know the meaning behind those words, and they are all the more awesome for it. How could a language that has words like, kummerspeck, be bad.
Growing up, I only heard German spoken in anger in American war movies. It was only when I travelled to Switzerland as an adult when I heard it spoken in a normal calm tone. I glad young North Americans have access to RUclips videos like this to get a more balanced view of other languages and cultures.
I have always liked J.R.R Tolkien's word 'Flutterby'.
There is a German joke about the Swiss dialect that relies on it being harsher than other German. The joke is that Swiss is not a language; it's a throat disease.
I'm Swiss and never heard that joke. but Swedish people say the say about Danish. I met more Germans who said they can speak Swiss German, and all they did was adding -li to the German words.
Especially the Mexican part of North America.
Another reason is that the German is usually spoken by non-native speakers and pronounced wrong. Also the grammar is usally very bad.
Francais: Fille
Italiano: Femmina
Deutsch: Mädchen
English: *GURLLL*
It sounds like a dying slug.
General Grievous I’m sorry to correct you but the more accurate way saying girl in Italian is: ragazza.
Español: NIÑA! xd
@@danielvargas1455 No hablo Español! ;)
@@mr.nicevantroll6556 Estás hablando español JAJJAKA ;)
Francais: légumes; Italiano: verdura; Deutsch: Gemüse; English: VETCH'T'BL!
There's a Russian joke going around about a Russian guy and a German guy having a conversation. The Russian tells the German that the German language is so harsh and difficult and uses the word "Sehenswürdigkeiten" as an example. The German then asks "oh yeah? then what does this word sound like in Russian"? For which the Russian answers: "Why, it's very short and simple! *DO-STO-PREE-ME-CHA-TEL-NOS-TEE* !!"
xonxt
Portuguese 🇵🇹: *_freqüentemente_*
Spanish 🇪🇸 : *_frecuentemente_*
Italian 🇮🇹 : *_frequentemente_*
English (England) 🇬🇧 : *_often_*
German 🇩🇪 : *_oft_*
And you still think that german is *_HARDCORE_* ? 🌚
Wouldn't the English version just be "frequently"
And shouldn't the german be häufig?
@@wasnt.here.3853 id say oft is a little "less" than häufig.
@@sf3731 Sure, but the point is that häufig is the equivalent of frequently, ,,oft" is the equivalent of often
English mushroom
Spanish champiñon
French champignon
German Pilz
"THE DRAGONFLY" in german "Die Libelle"
Na?
Why does libelle sound like a random persons name
That example of the word Schmetterling sounding harsh and not appropriate always reminds me of one of my favorite bedtime storys when i was a child. The beautiful story written by the author Michael Ende "Der Lindwurm und der Schmetterling". The Lindwurm, a fearsome dragon and the Schmetterling, a male butterfly feel unhappy with their names. The dragon find the Namepart "Lind-" meaning "soft" unsuitable for a fearsome creature like him. On the other hand the butterfly being soft and nice to everyone dosn't like the part "Schmetter-" in his name meaning "to crash something". When they both met, they agreed to switch the first part of their names, becoming "Der Lindling und der Schmetterwurm".
One of the most beautiful storys i have ever heard :)
Yeah I love that one! :D "Und Hand in Hand verließ den Turm, ein Lindling und ein Schmetterwurm"
+Azzura Schön, daß sich noch jemand daran erinnert! :-)
Azzura I didn't know that, but I like Michael Ende. Especialy "Jim Knopf".
Ps. SCHMETTERWURM!!!!! ("crashing worm") that sounds so ridiculusly epic and dangerous. Like a trash-movie monster.
Azzura I actually like this one! Nice Comment
Damn.... I laughing very hard.....
Ich finde, man kann alle Wörter so übrrtrieben aussprechen, also auch die aus den anderen Sprachen
Ehrenamtlicher Dudenbeauftragter hat sie am anfang eh gesagt nur sie zeigt dass es auch wenn es sich hart auch was anderes dahintersteht. Und eins musst du auch zugeben die deutsche sprache ist im gegensatz zu manschen anderen wirklich sehr hart.
René Fencl das stimmt schon, nur man könnte manche Wörter viel weicher aussprechen, wo sie trotzdem hart klingten.
Ehrenamtlicher Dudenbeauftragter müsse wir allerdings davon ausgehen dass die deutschsprache harsch klingt
schon, wobei statistisch gesehen mehr Konsonanten in der deutschen Sprache verwendet werden als andere europäische Sprachen, soweit ich weiß (hatte sie auch im video gesagt). Denke die Konsonanten machen einiges aus, vom gefühl her. ^^
ΜrCookie ganz genau
Fun fact about Schildkröte!
While the german word is made based on the word for toad, the persian words are actually vice versa. Toad or frog are called in Persian "Ghourbaghe", the first part of which (ghour) is supposed to be the sound of the frog (quaken in German). But the second part (baghe) is actually a transformed pronunciation of the old persian word "Bakhe" which means turtle.
So while German calls a turtle "the shielded toad", in Persian the frog is called "the quaking turtle". Amazing, isn't it? :)
It really is amazing
I love how all the language geeks come together on Trixie's channel!
Justin K :-D that's the idea :-D
That's so cool!
It's funny to watch your videos if you are german XD
It triggers me very much; Kennst du das Video mit dem Typen der alles normal sagt und Deutsch dann schreit?
haha me
Wer Wissen schafft, macht Wissenschaft.
Jadevima Wissenschaftler = einer, der Wissen schafft
Wissenschaft ist was wissen schafft
Ramstein joke
Ich seh hier nur das Wort Schaft
Awwww I like this one so much
Libelle, libéllule, livella, libéllula, DRAGONFLY!
If you see an enlarged photograph of the head of one of these creatures, the English word makes a lot more sense.
We call the smaller kind of dragonfly that folds its wings along its body at rest a Damselfly, which sounds a bit more like die Libelle.
Yes, the visualized image of a dragonfly reminds me to a "fly seized dragon". But there is an another German term for "Libelle" too.🤭 It is "Schillebold"! Word play alert!!! (Greetings from Leonard 🤫) In German, this word has the meaning "Wasserjungfer", which means literally translated to English "watermaid", >> it seems to have a link to Arielle the little "Mermaid". But the most correct translation today is as mentioned above "dragonfly".🤣
🦅🌟🌞✨🕊
👩🏻💻 © by P. Hausammann 🦄🌛🏰 🌜🦁
Dragonfly? Really? A dragon and a fly? I'm so happy about that somehow! 😇
DRACHENFLIEGEN
Dragonfly sound F*CKING AWSOME 😂😂😂
Ich finde es nur immer interessant das ausgerechnet Deutsch so
hervorgehoben wird. Es gibt so viele andere Sprachen die sich, auch für
deutsche Ohren, harsch anhören.
z.B. Arabisch, Russisch oder Japanisch(meist in männlicher Variante)
MrsDelinn Bin total deiner Meinung, aber chinesisch fehlt
MrsDelinn ja, das stimmt.
Als Deutscher vielleicht sieht man das ein bischen anders, aber ich würde niemals Russisch oder Japanisch als harsche Sprachen bezeichnen. Japanisch hat keine harten Klänge und klingt eher weich und angenehm, meiner Meinung nach. Russisch gefällt mir auch. Dagegen stimme ich dir zu, wenn du Arabisch darin eingestufst, sozusagen.
Ja, Arabisch klingt nach einer Mischung aus tiefstem Bairisch mit Russisch.
ABC XYZ Was??? Alles andere als bayrisch, rede selbst bayrisch! Und das ist was ganz anderes. Denk mal nach!
I am a simple guy. I came here for german words. I subscribe.
Are u sure that you are only here because of the german words?
Don't Trust TheRabi1234
Cris Yorke well done for saying what we're all thinking. you sir, are a legend
dont trust the rabi ..... if you would be german youd be thinking twice before writing this ^^
Halfpunk XD oh ja.. xdd
100% of the comments
80% "I'm German. NOTICE MEEEHH!!!"
10% "German is a cool language, but hard to learn..."
10% "That's wrong lol"
No tits comments? im out buddy ty
I lost it so hard when you came up with new name ideas for “Krankenhaus“... There are some reasons we would never call it “Heilhaus“ within the next 1000 years :D
Hahahahahaha ab ins heilhaus
We tried that with mental hospitals, but "Nervenheilanstalt" has gotten to be a pretty uncomfortable word
"Schmetterling" comes from the Bohemian Czech word "smetana", which means "cream", and replaced the original German word, "Falter". It was thought that the reason for milk failing to churn into butter was witches taking the shape of butterflies and stealing the cream from the butter churn. And that, I believe, is also the derivation of the word "butterfly".
Wow I actually didn't know that. Thanks for sharing this!
+1 that.
That's an amazing piece of not terribly useful knowledge I will probably never forget again. I love it!
And, in addition, there is the german word "Schmetten" for cream that turned sour. It is said that butterflies like to eat cream, which directly turns into the word "Schmetterling". So, "Schmetten" derives from "Smetana" in the first place. In the end both, the german "Schmetterling" and the english "butterfly" do have the same origin.
@Zackabier Thanks for the additional information. I wasn't aware of "Schmetten".
You're welcome. I wasn't aware of the witches, so, thanks for that!
I call them flutterbyes.
In german I say Letterschming
I love that!
I just call them fancy moths
Schletterming
Flutter-by is a much better name, I tried to get my daughter to call them that
German is a perfect language to write poetry. Because of the cases in German, the language is very flexible. Initially, this flexibility can be confusing and even intimidating but when you get used to it and if you have a penchant for poetry, you can write poems much more easily than in English. You can play with the sentence in German. Now that I learn German I find the language sublime just like Urdu, the language in which I generally write poems. I thought earlier that no other language can compete with Urdu when it comes to poetry but German changed by opinion. It is truly a very versatile language.
P Banerjee thank you!
P Banerjee there are a Lot of german rappers for example Who just make so nice Texts
Johann the Strauß
At every time I hear "German is flexible" I think of the word "eating" which is a noun, a verb and a city. xD
bruh this story was dope, btw ostrich jerky is really good
I'm curious about what you say. From what you say the cases are a must for poetry writing, namely, nominativ, akkusativ, dativ, and genitiv (which is technically dissapearing). But latin has two more cases: vocative and ablative. Why Urdu?
You never needed to change my mind about German, lovely language when you get to know it. Some of my favourite words "schadenfreude" , "ausgezeichnet" and "schlagfest". Looking forward to more of your videos. :-D
I love your comment. Did you know, that `Schadenfreude´ is the very first word in The Concise Oxford Dictionary that begins with sch?
That word has such a ring to it. Schlagfest I would use for a fight. The Americans changed it to slugfest which to me is just as good.@@danieldavid3160
"Heilhaus"? Nicht mit unserer Vergangenheit .. :D
OH HAHA dies ist ein guter witz,er gefällt mir sehr.Haha ich mag diesen *KOMMENTAR*
Gehirnwäsche läuft immer noch.
mach dich mal frei von der Vergangenheit,die kann man nicht ändern.
Oder ich geb dir in Zukunft für alles Vergangene die Schuld.
Ich schreib dir wenn du wieder was versaut hast
:D
mir auch direkt aufgefallen ;-)
Er weiss nicht mal dass er nichts weiss.
Armer Tropf.
schmetter ist das, was sich früher beim Butter machen oben abgesetzt hat. das haben die Schmetterlinge gegessen. im englischen sagt man butterfly, weil diese auch die "Butter" aus dem Fass gegessen haben.
Eva Rippel danke ^_^
I don’t understand. But classmated used to joke about «flying butter».
The "Schmetter" in Schmetterling come from Schmetten, which come from Smetana (czech) and mean milk cream
12Tanuha
OMG LOOK A FLYING SMETANA!
(I laughed oops)
Ich kenne das nur als Schmand.
hm.. Schmandling. xD
The German word "Kackwurst" is so pretty, the first part "Kack-" is really snatchy and the "-wurst" part gives it a soft and smooth ending.
kur0tsu gosh laughing so hard xD
kur0tsu XD I LOVE YOU
kur0tsu i really hope you know what that word means my friend....
kur0tsu kackwurst is realy the best part of speaking german
kur0tsu hahahaha
I live in the southern part of the USA. The average American I talk to says German sounds "evil, mean, harsh, or scary." I think this is just a bias that is holding on ever since WWII, which is very unfair. My dad studied German in high school in the '60s and there were many people who remembered WWII and did not like the idea of their kids studying "The language of the enemy." Again, another unfair and cruel bias. That being said, I think German is beautiful and very romantic.
It's from those hitler speech play backs too that are shown in schools that make people assume that Germans yell and throw fits constantly
@Abc Xyz Not always tho.^^ The actors of "Supernatural" in season 11 did quite a good job at speaking German. Of course, they spoke with an accend which naturally does sound kinda harsh but that's not their fault. Most of them probably spoke German for the first time in their life.
The way she makes it dramatic is really awesome.
I fell in love with it
Aww, her attempt at sounding harsh and aggressive is so adorable and cute 😊😙
4:56 Nein Trixi, das ist das Führerhauptquartier
Shadow25720 😂😂
Shadow25720
Hast recht🤔😂
Sven Tillmann Ja, das war lautmalerisch. Wenn ich "Heilhaus" geschrieben hätte, wäre der ganze Effekt verlorengegangen :)
Genau daran hab ich auch gedacht 😂
Shadow25720 hat sie ADHS
2:45 Reminds me of the running pun my professor in university often told: (in German) "Die Wissenschaft ist eine Leidenschaft, die durch Leiden Wissen schafft" (the pun gets lost in translation: "Science is a passion that creates knowledge through suffering").
It's the same with this saying: "Eifersucht ist eine Leidenschaft, die mit Eifer sucht, was Leiden schafft."
Yep. I would say the "Eifersucht"-version is more common. Havent heard of the other pun because it doesnt really make much sense with "Wissenschaft".
It makes sense, depending on how you interprete it. One of my professors for example once said that we should like masochism because we would suffer a lot in her course because we had to read very, very much. So we had to suffer to gain new knowledge.
Oh my god, I didn't know this pun before, but it's actually very deep and sad. I instantly thought about the Mengele-Expirements. :/
+Blue x If reading and learning new things is suffering to you, maybe science is the wrong field.
I always thought that german is very beautiful language~
so are you
Am I detecting a trend here of *no* *more* *apologizing* *for* *being* *German !?!!*
*_AUSGEZEICHNET !!!_*
It's about time!
Gizmo Goose-Second that...
Die sprache der liebe!
ist französisch
I've been studying German for almost a year now and I'm really in love with it. Your videos make me believe I've made the right language choice. Dankeschön ^^
the most german says Fantasie💕 to Vorstellungskraft
trust me im a germany😂❤
I will never trust you again
ist beein nine berliner
Fantasie ist ein entliehenes Fremdwort und bedeutet in allen Sprachen etwas Anderes.
What's your problem?
Tja, als Franke hat man das Problem der Schärfe nicht wirklich. Da gibt es dann das Grangenhaus, den Schmedderling oder die Lufdmadradse...
Elchi King oda die Labbla :D
achh Frägsch is scho schee, na Frale
Elchi King oder als sachse
Elchi King i muss scho saga des mit dr harda sproch ko i ned glauba
Da mit dr härta Ussprach, chani ous Schwitzer, ou kum gloube. 🤣🤣🤣
Elchi King
Und als Steirer, Bayer, was weiß ich hat man immer das Problem, dass es sich hart anhört und dich im schlimmsten Fall niemand versteht. :D
Like: as KRONKENHAUS oder da BUSCHENSCHONK.
meh germany does not sound harsh when you come from germany
Foxy MK *Sans* probably not but i would assume every other language must sound ultra feminine.
erm..nope... liebe Grüße dennoch xD
der große unterschied ist einfach das sehr viele wörter aus dem englischem, französischem etc ihre wurzeln im latein haben. aber da wir uns immer gegen die römer gewehrt haben, haben natürlich auch nicht ihre sprache angenommen. dazu kommt noch das die deutschen selbstbeschreibende worte haben. nuff said ;)
genau das selbe hab ich auch gedacht
aber das basic-vokabular im englischen ist germanisch... also die ganzen "I, you, me, and," usw
Rom_troy: Yes, I agree they derrive from the Proto-Indo-European language root! And by the way, it is not only the German language, which describes their meanings in its words, like SAUSIDE proposed. Ok, German seems very adequat, but Latin does that too! But modern Latin based languages have their own way, to interprete and express the old Latin logics. > "For the Damaged Coda" 😅 Aah aah aha ahh hah haa ... 🤣🤣🤣
🦅🌟🌞✨🕊
👩🏻💻 © by P. Hausammann 🦄🌛🏰 🌜🦁
SAUFSIDE Englisch ist auch eine germanische Sprache.^^
Patric Hausammann I think SAUSIDE just meant that most people who are doing the "German sounds aggressive" videos compare German, which is a Germanic language, to Romance languages. And that's like comparing horses to pigs. Both are animals but completely different types.
I'm not sure "das Heilhaus" would be a good word in Germany
Why? Translated it would be something like "The Healhouse"
MSK 061 oh...
Es gibt ja schon Nervenheilanstalt.
No, definitely not. It implies that you actually get healed in a Krankenhaus (hospital), which often enough is not the case...
I am NOT meaning to be rude, but the word "Heil" attached to anything reminds people of my generation of WWII.
I love my language, I think that Portuguese is a beatiful language but I've always wanted to learn how to speak German because I think it's beatifulas well :)
almost spat out my water when trixie was trying to make the word "bubble" sound harsh! haha, it's really true, you can't make it sound harsh!
silpheedTandy Other words like that would be Fluffy and Boobies.
"It`s so fluffy I'm gonna die!"
iatsd The words 'boobies' and 'penis' can never not sound funny to me, no matter how loud you say them.
What about a witches voice? "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble!"
It makes you feel like boils are erupting from your skin by their black magic.
I bet Till Lindemann could pull it off.
From an American point of view, your arguments seemed largely be boil down to "the German version is way more metal than the other versions", which was basically already my impression of German (that it's just more metal of a language than other languages). Aggressive doesn't always imply ugly, unwelcome, or unbeautiful.
And I really loved your argument for the air mattress. With you 100% on that.
No need to justify why German language sounds harsh. It sounds harsh to the ears that are not familiar to this language. German is weird no doubt but it is a beautiful language. I am Bengali. Butterfly is Projapoti in my language. It would sound strange and even horrible to some who does not know Bengali. But to us it sounds just as cute. German is not harsh. It is the non German speakers that need to adapt to this language and once one adapts, everything sounds just great and sweet.
they think its harsh because most of the people just watch hitler speeches
Exactly. Most people aren't exposed to a lot of German. Except the historical films of Chancellor Hitler growling and shrieking through a speech. But I fell in love with German by watching a TV show from New York hosted by a lovely young lady (sort of like Trixie) who made German sound very mellifluous.
What show was that? :D
P Banerjee oh no you're wrong. I really think that german is a harsh language and I'm a native german speaker. My brother and I always compare german words to other languages like portuguese or english. In my opinion I really don't understand how portuguese or english speakers can think that german is a pretty language
Harshness or softness are relative terms. I do not find Portuguese or English soft on ears. I have lived with Punjabi language for 7 years which I find not only rather harsh but also a rude language. In comparison German is a much more elegant and soft language. German is a staccato language. The words do not glue to each other. It makes distinguishing words easy for me, unlike French where the entire sentence is a swirling blob which makes it difficult for me to figure out what the hell the speaker said. But yes, my familiarity with German culture and history makes me like the language and that might be the reason why I do not find it harsh.
You got me at warrior toad, made my day :'D
How to speak German:
Repeat this really quickly.
9999999999999
NEUN NEUN NEUN NEUN
Germany:
9.999.999.999.999,00
9 Billionen 999 Milliarden 999 Millionen 999 Tausend 999
Neun Billionen neunhundertneunundneunzig Milliarden neunhundertneunundneunzig Millionen neunhundertneunundneunzigtausendneunhundertneunundneunzig
US:
9,999,999,999,999.00
9 trillion 999 billion 999 million 999 thousand 999
Nine trillion nine hundred ninety-nine billion nine hundred and ninety-nine million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine
True
The germanic roots are often really useful for learning non-latin-derived words, for example Schildkroet is good for remembering Skoldpadda in Swedish, whereas Turtle, tortuga, etc... are not helpful.
Even though I'm a native english speaker, I actually find listening to German very appealing. In fact I convinced some of my friends of this by showing naturally-speaking german people and they agree that in normal conversation, it's a pleasant language. It's just that when shouted and accentuated, it can be made to sound harsh. Compare that to french, which is very difficult to make it sound harsh. I personally think that the different expressiveness of the language is one of the reasons why german people are so polite, because it is very easy to harshen the tone of german. Compare this to supposedly softer languages, and the speakers can often tend to be very abrupt and rude partially because you don't sound as "aggressive" as your words would suggest.
Just a stray thought.
Ich komme aus Ägypten und gehe auf eine deutsche Schule (in Ägypten).
99% der Schüler hassen deutsch, weil sie glauben es höre sich aggressiv anhört.
Meine Schule sollte jeden Morgen vor allen Schülern dieses Video spielen hahahha
is it popular in egypt to send the kids to a german school or is it a privilege?
Wie lange gehst du schon auf diese Schule? Deutsch soll ja für Nicht-Muttersprachler sehr schwer zu lernen sein, aber du schreibst zumindest ziemlich gut. Oder bist du zweisprachig aufgewachsen?
Ernst Lukas it's mostly a privilege
Angela Ascot ich bin auf ein deutsches Kindergarten gegangen und lerne mein ganzes Leben lang deutsch, aber meine Muttersprache ist Arabisch und ich muss Deutsch, Arabisch, Englisch und Französisch in der Schule lernen
*es höre sich agressiv an
Liebe Trixie! Ich bin froh, dass Sie selbst haben Ihre Meinung über die Deutsche Sprache verändert :) Ich finde die ganz rationell, logisch und schön auf seine Art und Weise! Freundlichen Grüßen aus der Ukraine!) P.S. Entschuldigung für die Fehler)
Danke, das freut mich! :) Und ich mag, wie Deutsch kann verschiede Sachen beschreiben, im Vergleich mit anderen Sprachen, z.B. Beinahesleidenschaftgegenstand ;)
Kiki Kaum Bei aller Liebe, aber "kein einziger Fehler"? Die Fehler sind klein, aber sie sind vorhanden ^^
Julia Barvinch *Ich bin froh, dass Sie ihre Meinung über die deutsche Sprache verändert haben!
Kiki Kaum gut so. wie kannst du es wagen, so einen fehler zu machen?! schlimm, diese Jugend von heute :'D
I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse. That says it all, my dear.
This video is so funny! Trixie you are so right about the English speakers overexaggeration of the accent & the sometimes harshness of certain sounds in the German Language. Love the videos so much! Thanks for making them!
German is not the only language calling the hospital "sick house": Dutch: ziekenhuis, Swedisch: sjukhus, ...
Frank Heyder It can also be because the languages come from the Germanic?
Even in English the military have "sick bays"
In german it were "Siechenhaus" and was for the black death infested before millitary medical research envolved and medical help for injured civilans not only by war could be better treatened and then there were industrie and transportation and so there were injurie and infections if not properly help had been seeked or even was available.
Frank Heyder das kommt daher, dass die Sprachen die gleiche Sprachfamilie haben.
XhumanityX Das habe ich doch gesagt :D
Trixie, in Spanish the letter "g" isn't pronounced like in English, it sounds more like the letter "h". So the word imaginación is pronounced "imaHenación".
I guess that was one of the first things being mentioned in my Spanish class when I was a kid. In Germany we have to learn two foreign languages and I loved Spanish. Just glad I took it as my 2nd foreign language. Most of my friend took French and they hated it :D
A German would pronounce it right if he says " Imachinassiónn" Wobei das ch nicht wie in China gesprochen wird.
She really butchered that word omg :D
+No ahora por favor :v The g in ge in English is a soft g, pronounced just like an English j. So "gerra" and "jerra" would be pronounced the same in English. Consider the words "generator", "genius" and "generic". That is the only time g is pronounced as j, which is why "gif" is not pronounced jif, regardless of what RUclips pedants may say.
What about gin then?
(Don't mind if I do! *slurp*)
Interestingly, Mark Twain complains in his essay "The Awful German Language" (1880) that German words are often too *soft* compared with their English counterparts He gives the example of the German words for thunderstorm ("Gewitter") and explosion ("Ausbruch") with the remark "Our word Toothbrush is more powerful than that." An excerpt from the essay:
_"I think that a description of any loud, stirring, tumultuous episode must be tamer in German than in English. Our descriptive words of this character have such a deep, strong, resonant sound, while their German equivalents do seem so thin and mild and energyless. Boom, burst, crash, roar, storm, bellow, blow, thunder, explosion; howl, cry, shout, yell, groan; battle, hell. These are magnificent words; the have a force and magnitude of sound befitting the things which they describe. But their German equivalents would be ever so nice to sing the children to sleep with, or else my awe-inspiring ears were made for display and not for superior usefulness in analyzing sounds. Would any man want to die in a battle which was called by so tame a term as a _*_Schlacht_*_ ? Or would not a consumptive feel too much bundled up, who was about to go out, in a shirt-collar and a seal-ring, into a storm which the bird-song word _*_Gewitter_*_ was employed to describe? And observe the strongest of the several German equivalents for explosion -- _*_Ausbruch_*_ . Our word Toothbrush is more powerful than that. It seems to me that the Germans could do worse than import it into their language to describe particularly tremendous explosions with. The German word for hell -- _*_Hölle_*_ -- sounds more like helly than anything else; therefore, how necessary chipper, frivolous, and unimpressive it is. If a man were told in German to go there, could he really rise to thee dignity of feeling insulted?"_
--Mark Twain
You can read the full essay here: www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/awfgrmlg.html
Oh man. I highly respect Mark Twain as an author, but I think he didn't understood the concept of a mother language. Of course, all these english words sound like the perfect representation to him, because he grew up with them! Take a German kid and ask it what sounds more like crying, "cry" or "heulen". The "battle"/"Schlacht" comparison is completely incomprehensible to me. Schlacht sounds like clashing swords, splashing blood, loud screams (to me), while battle sounds like a nickname for Betty. Kinda cute.
Massive thanks for sharing this essay. Very interesting! I do believe that most of the stuff that German allegedly sounds so harsh comes from the Hitler speeches, where Hitler raped the German language.
I do not like Mark Twain a bit, nonetheless, I'm not going to be biased with my comment because of that, rather just complement his apparently poor german vocabulary.
Storm can be translated into Sturm ( that truly is a powerful word ), Gewitter or Ungewitter ( Ungewitter reveals a rather terrifying nature, not just an ordinary storm ).
Each word he listed ( boom, burst, crash, etc ) sound like being straight out of comics, they have a very cartoony character, whereas the german equivalents have something sublime, heavenly and poetic.
it's not surprising that Germany spawned countless poets that are among the best if not the best, and that surely is due to the powerful german language.
Btw.: I regard german poets as the best, followed by russian poets ( Puschkin, Dostojewski, Tolstoi, Gogol, Tschechow, Gorki, Solschenizyn, to mention a few ) way better than english counterparts.
If I'm not mistaken, Shakespeare admired the german language
it's just like with classical music, Germany ( including german speaking countries like Austria ) is the best, without a doubt, in this field.
Zogg from Betelgeuse Schlacht is a terrible word. It sounds like blood splattering, like somebody being impaled! It’s harsh and disgusting: “SHLOKT”…
Which makes it perfect! Battles *are* terrible! They *are* harsh and disgusting! The word “battle” sounds like a stoned frog. Another example, take the word “war.” It sounds like boar. Bore. Boor. Pour. Pouring usually comes *after* the war. In German, one would say *KAMPF!!!* It sounds just as rough and abrasive as it should be!
My statement to this essay is probably biased, as I am german, but when looked from the emotional side, which the essays author apearently does (it appears to me that he did so), I have to disagree. Of course coming from the emotional side, there is no way to argue about this, because the emotion in question here is taste. And we cannot argue taste (Or can we? ... Nope!).
So yes, seen from an emotional side, I think that many english words are not so much fuzzy, but fluid, gliding into each other, not in a pleasent way, but in a tongue twisting, kinda slimy gross way (yes, no one will be offended by that, great writing me (not!)). English is a great language, it allows for many different words and descriptions, yet, in my opinion, it always lacks that clear crispness of german. And I mean thios only from a sound perspective, as language with different backgrounds will most likely bear words that have only a single meaning, while other language contain this specific meaning and other meanings in one word and vise verca because of cultural differences (this is the good kind of divercity).
There is another key difference here, one that Mr. Twain actually describes quite acuratly I think, and that is the matter of articulation. Now bare in mind that this is most likely heavily biased, but english, to me, always feels more lively, spoken from deeper witin the body, with mroe tone, even probably more emotions. More shorter words, that are far easier and faster said, less syllables and such, which of course gives the impression that the word itself is more powerfull, becaus it resonates more in the body of the speaker, appearing louder and thus more imposing. However, the more calm and descriptive german words have a different quality to them. A colder one. Watching from another persepective, german words just describe something, not with feelings or how it feels (we also have those words, don't get me wrong, but they too have these destintive german characteristics of being more observative and describtive then emotional) but with the cold harsh reality of what it is. Fighting a *battle* may be a deeply emotional thing, but a *Schlacht* is a cruel event where people fight against each other with the intent to harm, maim and kill each other over certain things. This does not exclude emotions, but it puts the reality of what happens first.
This is not what you were quoting Mark Twain here for, but I could not help and jump on the bandwagon of others derailing your train of thought here.
Also I actually would never go into an argument with someone and debating from a reasonable standpoint which of the two languages were the factual better language, because such a discussion would be one of the most epic exercises in futility ever.
Zogg from Betelgeuse explosion means exsactly the same in german , Ausbruch is just a noun for breaking out(it means somebody or somthing is breaking out of somewhere)
"Burn English, Burn!" I totally agree.
Interesting video and it was really enjoyable to hear the different words compared. I never thought of German as an aggressive language, just an exact one. I am inspired to learn it now.
Schmetterling is actually very similar to the english word! Butterflies are attracted by butter and "Schmette" is an old German word for butter-like milk ("Buttermichl").
I find the ligthing in that setting to be much better than in the old one. Good job!
I've taken German at school for 7 years, and never thought it to be aggressive (well, my grand-mother was born in Trier, so it might be a bit genetic). But to me, German always sounded precise, accurate, sharp, thanks to agglutination. To me, German is the language of modern philosophy, and I immediately know when a text has been translated from German, cause it's impossible to translate German without having very heavy sentences with too much details, while it just flows naturally in German.
I didn't knew about Vorstellungshaft, but I find it to be a wonderful word, much better than imagination. Imagination sounds not serious, almost childish: in a grown adults, you'd rather talk about creativity. In German, just the word Vorstellung is awesome: it's literally the fact to put/bring something in front of you ("vor", like "fore" of "forefront" in English, and "stellen"), so literally both to bring something out of you, but also to figure it out, to see it with your mind just as it was something you were seeing with your eyes. So Vorstellungshaft is the ability to bring things out and/or to figure them out, to make them real in some way.
And it's not just things from inside of you, it can be anything, even the most difficult concepts and ideas. Vorstellungshaft is you sitting on a chair in front of a table, ringing a bell, and the thing you have in mind, just anything, starts appearing on the table, and as it's materializing, you can touch it, turn it around, flip it up and down, break it down, see what it's made of, try to fit it with other things, smell it, taste it, feel if it's warm or cold, heavy or light, pleasant or disgusting, generous or selfish, cheap or expensive, fair or unjust, real or fake, etc, because it's just there in front of you, waiting to be assessed in mind, and you were able to "summon" it. That's what Vorstellungshaft is to me, all in one word. Awesome!
MadNumForce very nice description! but it's VorstellungsKRaft ;)
Oh. My bad... I think I meant Vorstellungkraft, I don't know how I mixed things up, since at one point I was precisely saying to myself: "Vorstellungshaft? I would have said Vorstellungkraft. But oh well, I won't pretend I know better". I wonder what Vorstellungshaft would mean exactly, but it sure is a word you can hardly translate in other languages without using multiple words.
MadNumForce the suffix -haft means some kind of ability and you use it to change a noun into an adjective, one example: ekelhaft (=disgusting) contains der Ekel (=disgust) and -haft.
So vorstellungshaft would literally mean something like "made of imagination" or "like imagination". We don't officially have this word but you could use it and everyone would understand it because everyone knows how the suffix -haft works :)
Vorstellungshaft sounds a little like an imprisonment in your imagination haha :*
MadNumForce, your comment is awesome. I agree 100%, and I think you are a natural poetic ;-)
Many years ago I flew from Paris to Tel Aviv. All the announcements were in English, French and Hebrew in that order. The English sounded normal to me. The French was read by a woman with a beautiful voice and sounded like a seduction. (I don't understand French.) Then a guy made the same announcement in Hebrew. I thought someone was choking a bullfrog.
Ive started in German language just a few weeks and Im loving it! Im from Brazil so I speak Portuguese already! I do speak English and soon I Will be speaking German!
From an etymological perspective 'Schmetterling' is nearly the same as butterfly. 'Schmetter' does not relate to 'schmettern', but to czech 'smetana' (cream), which was used in Saxony as 'Schmetten' (and sour cream is in German also known as 'Schmand' or 'Schmant', which has the same origin). Some butterflies like to sit at milk pots (and devouring the minerals at the drying rim), so they are 'cream birds' or 'creamy beings' - Schmetterlinge. Many well-known German words are such loanwords - like Mauer, Fenster, ..., Germany being at the center of nearly all European migrations - whether out of, into or simply through the country.
Krankenhaus just sounds weird and strange because of 'krank.' Which sounds like that medieval torture device.
Aaron Krank means sick
Which torture thingy?
@@bredket3334 true
"Sozialversicherungsfachangestellter". You're the king at every scrabble-match with this. You're welcome.
Got a better one ,,Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz,, and jea its an actuall german word
The thing is, German sounds a bit different from the rest of the examples because German is not a Latin based language, unlike English, Spanish, French or the other one.
English ist not a latin based language. Actually, it is german based.
Franz Hose yeah. Englisch is german and french based, while german is a nordic and latin based language :)
I heard once that English is what happens when German people try to speak French.
williobillio …
You mean Italian?
Anonymouslydone How about Romanian?
I keep trying to explain this when people say German sounds angry, but now I have backup. Thank You!
I speak french and english and right now i'm learning german and I have to say that deutsch ist eine sehr schöne sprache
I feel like a lot of these words are intentionally said loudly with aggressiveness, and if done that way, it does indeed sound hilarious and harsh. However if spoken normally in day-to-day conversation, it sounds very cool and normal. Also, I like the word Schmetterling. It sounds adorable to call someone that. For example, to a child, "My dear Schmetterling". :)
Lachflash des Tages 😂😂😂 Einfach alles so übertrieben ausgesprochen.
Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce to you the new embassador for the german language.
The persistent reason I love German is the sheer depth of descriptive words for any subject that don't even exist in English.
I love your videos, I am not learning German or English, but it is true that one rarely thinks about where words come from and it is so much fun finding out where those words came from and you are very eloquent and I am happy that you are representing the German language :)
1:14 had me DYING!!! XDDD OMG YOU'RE HILARIOUS
Raise a Glass to Freedom, same! BUTTERFLAAAA!
I think that languages have a certain sound and cadence to them that unravels when you understand what they mean. I'm a native English speaker and languages like German and Russian sound harsher than say, Spanish or Portuguese. Now that I understand Spanish and Russian - I hear the meaning and my earlier prejudices about the sound sort of disappears.
I had a very strange experience on an airplane once. I couldn't identify the language I was overhearing - but it seemed to be full of a lot hissing and whispering. To my great surprised, I realized it was English - I was just so tired and trying so hard to identify what I thought was a foreign language that I completely missed the meaning! Is that what all the "s", "sh", "f", and "th" in English sound like to non-English speakers - a bit like a snake? :-)
The more I watch this channel - the more German sounds 'precise' to me - rather than harsh. :-)
@david white almost every language has de rolled "R" you stupid, italian, german, russian, dutch, greek, portuguese, except french and english.
One more lovely video from the lovely Trixi. Like it a lot! T-🐇
absolutely stunning!
Your presentation is simply beautiful in its description.
I was born in Hanover in 1958 and immigrated to Australia in 1960, I have lost all of my German languish skills and wish I could revive them!
Lol I really enjoyed this video. I was showing my 6 year old daughter videos what German sounds like since that is our heritage. We had a good laugh
Over 300 comments and nobody has mentioned that you have color matched your clothes to your eyes.
halnywiatr becaus its not so important
I THOUGHT JUST THE SAME RIGHT NOW
KRAFT = POWER. Thus................Power Macaroni & Cheese.
:D
You made italian sound like french...
I loved this... I'm currently learning German. I find it hard sometimes, but I'm enjoying learning it. I think its a beautiful language
Der Schmetterling! That is a fun word to say. I was cracking up at the slow motion facial expressions also. 😂
THE BUTTERFLAAAH
When Americans hear "Luft-," they immediately think of Luftwaffe. That's why we think it sounds aggressive.
JayTemple, in an essence that is partially true for me since I am reading a bunch of WW2 books nowadays. I also found that they spelled Luftwaffe wrong in there when in had the correct spelling in the next sentance. How America, how!
Also, various kinds of vehicles that in German are called long names ending in "-wagen", remind of the Panzerkampfwagen :)
german words are beautiful.. i love that language. i hear german as a sharp and shiny language with an admirable well structured and original gramatics .. not creamy sbumble like english or french. regards!
I just want to say thank you very much for making these videos. I seen your videos before I but I was never really much for watching them oh, but I just recently started learning more German using Duolingo on my cell phone. The video. Zeppelin going to be coming in a lot more handy now.
I'm a German and at first I want to say that your Videos are really cool. And when you said something like Schmetterlling I thought yes it's a little bit harsh. I hope my english is correct
Dein Englisch ist gut!
To me, the video makes fun of those who believe German language looks like english or any other Roman language. It is very very different. It also sounds very different :)
It also makes no sense to me to compare German with Romance languages and English only, I think it would be better to include some other Germanic languages like Dutch and, the Nordic languages and also completely others like the Slavic languages for example.
Blue x thats true....but wait. Arent the anglic languages named so couse of the Angelsaxons? Angelland...England. Where they came from? right...they where nordics. So imho those angelic Languages are more of an mixture between nordic and latin. but i could be wrong. Normans are of nordic origin too by the way 😆
Alex Prado take 25% French, 25% Latin, 50% Nordic plus thousand year and we have modern English,
you really have to check out finnish, ist helarious. just go on Google translater and tipe in "I love you" this is so funny
Well, that's probably because German and English aren't Romance languages ...
4:57 Heil-haus.. yeahh.. no, let's not do that. it's better to think of sick people than to the 1940 situation in Germany
i really hate how nazis destroyed so much of german language because HEIL isnt a bad word at all ist the slang for the word heile and means heal and heil also means whole..so the word is actually the opposite of evil
What?
If I have an injury, I hopefully become HEIL again. That is a good word.
I guess a Heilpraktiker isn't good for you as well? Man, am i sick of this crap or what...
It's always entertaining to watch people acting like the Germans were THE evil side of the war. War is war. Both sides did terrible things and I've never seen Russians or Americans being so obsessed with their past.
I think butterfly sounds better than Schmetterling, I'm german xD
From a Spanish speaker, schmetterling sounds better. Bit there's no way you can defend Krankenhaus, or Luftmatratze.
It's so funny watching this as a Swede because I feel it makes A LOT more sense to me since almost all of them basically are spelled the same way, probably because the Swedish language mostly derives from German (is derive the right word?).
It's true. My lifelong impression of German language was closely associated with old war movies and a TV sitcom called "Hogan's Heroes". Thanks to the internet and having met a cool German or two, I've been able to shake this distorted impression to a large degree and to see it for what it is. Today I can enjoy hearing German and appreciate its beauty alongside other foreign languages. Thanks for a really fun video, Tixie.
Féileacán : Butterfly in Irish
Pili-pala : Butterfly in welsh
The last one looks like "Pillepalle / pillepalle", which is German slang for sth. like "easy-peasy" or "iffy".^^
"but it doesn't mean you can not kick ass" 😂😂😂😂
When she pronounces some of the words with 'r's it just reminds me of how bad my pronunciation of German is, I have to cheat my 'r's 😂
The "Vorstellung-" part associates with a sky full of stars for me
And "Schmetterling" sounds delicate
this is the best vid you have made!! thank you as a half german from the other side of the world
Actually in Italian it's _l'ospedale_, and not *_il ospedale_!
Sapevo che qualcuno l'avrebbe scritto xD
Linguista in erba to begin with she's not even Italian 🙄
trixi, you're a beatiful girl - fesche katz bist :)
1:43 Oh, you'd be surprised... "Bubbles, muthaf_
I must say you have absolutely blown my mind with Wissenschaft, to the point in which I have now even considered tattooing that word
omg, you really make the german language sounds beautiful and attracting. Like how is that working? I never came up with the thougt to explain the beauty of a language with a word like "Vorstellungskraft", which is honestly an amazing word when you think about it!
I think we don't need something called "Heilhaus" in germany... ^^
I thing so too
Deutsch ist eine tolle Sprache: na ja nicht immer einfach, aber welche Sprache ist einfach? Italienisch ist auch harsch ab und zu!! Oh by the way deine Aussprache mit dem Italienischen war echt toll, nicht 100% korrekt, aber sehr cool... ohne Spaß
German does sound harsh and aggressive.
I like your fan theories about the language though,
they are pretty nice.
On the other hand we have a lot of fun making
foreigners pronounce German words such as
"Streichholzstächtelchen" (tiny match box).
And there are good sketches about it,
you might know the Ser Giacomo sketch...
Anyway, greetings from- wait for it-
ASCHAFFENBURG which sounds both very brutal
And very funny considering it sounds like
Arsch-Affen-Burg.
But nobody uses these words in germany
I don't speak the German language, however, the language does sound harsh to me. But I like it and this video was very entertaining to me. I loved hearing you go through the languages and then pronouncing the word in German, cracked me up. Thank you ! :)Whenever you speak English with a strong German accent, I enjoy that too. By the way, my perception is that you speak English, with a slight British accent and I sometimes hear you speak a word, that is totally not the way to pronounce it. I enjoy this whole thing, that you do with the languages, and I really respect you for it.
Thank you for this Trixie. I just found your videos tonight, and have already learned much about my heritage. I am an American, but long ago my family came from Germany. I have seen the videos you reference, and while funny, I know that the German language is not quite as harsh as they make it sound. But now, I know the meaning behind those words, and they are all the more awesome for it. How could a language that has words like, kummerspeck, be bad.