Which is harder? French or German?

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I always found french easier...I don't know why. But, it all comes down to enjoyment, I never really liked German, mainly because of the way it sounds, so I am biased!

Reply 21

Pharm Boy

I think French is harder to speak but German's harder to spell/write.

Reply 22

hobnob

Original post by Daniel-Ballingall

I think French is harder to speak but German's harder to spell/write.

Seriously? :s-smilie:

But German spelling's so much more phonetic. The vast majority or words are written exactly as they are pronounced.

Reply 23

Pharm Boy

Original post by hobnob

Seriously? :s-smilie:

But German spelling's so much more phonetic. The vast majority or words are written exactly as they are pronounced.

Well when I think of german I think of lots of SCH and Z's and lots of letters that look like they shouldn't be next to each other :tongue:

Reply 24

hobnob

Original post by Daniel-Ballingall

Well when I think of german I think of lots of SCH and Z's and lots of letters that look like they shouldn't be next to each other :tongue:

Oh, there's definitely that, but nevertheless German spelling's really very logical, as kerily said. Once you've got the hang of how the sounds correspond to the letters on the page, you'll make very few mistakes.

Reply 25

SpiritedAway

I study both and German is far easier. French grammar is not as difficult, but it still has its difficulties - just in a different way to German. I personally find German far easier to learn, and it's such a logical language.

Reply 26

yokabasha

OP don't listen to the people who say german is easier cos it's "similar" to english.

I find German harder by an absolute mile, I've done both at A-Level, and french is a breeze compared to German, but choose the one you most enjoy.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 27

HolyFuzazzle

German I found to be closer to English, and although I would pick French any day (didn't actually pick French, picked Spanish, but wish I carred on with French as well as Spanish), German was incredibly easy in the year I did it. So I would say German is easier, but I only studied it for a year. So maybe I'm not the best to comment but yeah do the one you like best.

Reply 28

fudgesundae

german is a bitch. french is sooooooo piss easy. I don't know why people say french grammar is hard because it definitely isn't. With German there are so many different adjective endings and word order rules its crazy.

Reply 29

Cicerao

Original post by yokabasha

Lol, does this make you somehow qualified to objectively state which is easier and not to listen to anyone else? I did both and German will always be easier to me.

Reply 30

yokabasha

Original post by Cicerao

Lol, does this make you somehow qualified to objectively state which is easier and not to listen to anyone else? I did both and German will always be easier to me.

Nh c'mon, I didn't want the OP to base a judgement on some small piece of knowledge on the german language. And I put 'I' find it harder not 'it' is harder, so others may disagree with it like yourself.

Reply 31

Elliealderman

Hey, bit late but trust me when I say this- German is a LOT harder, I'm doing both as my degree (as well as Italian) at University of Reading. I did both for GCSE and both for A Level. Yes, at first German was "easier" than French, due to the words learnt in year 7-9 being similar to English, and yes the pronunciation is "easier" at first, but once you get to GCSE German starts to fall apart and you learn the cases and word order. A Level was a different matter- the words become less like English and it just becomes a lot harder with all the word order and cases and grammar- for those who said German and english grammar are the same, they're not. French and English grammar are a lot more similar than German!! So yes German may seem easier in the short term but if you're looking for a language to study for many years, believe me when I say French is easier! Don't get me wrong I love German, I'm all for languages as you can see by my degree choice, and doing a language is valuable enough! For your question on which is more useful, both languages are sooo valuable to have! Hope this helps slightly more :smile:

Reply 32

Leanne1455

German is a lot harder than French. The basis to any language is grammatical structure. Vocab is easy to learn as is pronunciation. German has a more complex grammar system than French with the case system, adjectival endings etc.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 33

Octopus_Garden

The easier language is the one you want to learn. I am doing GCSE French in a year ab initio alongside A2 German, and I find French quite difficult at the moment. Perhaps this is because I like German, therefore I just knuckled down and learnt the cases prior to/at the beginning of GCSE at home, with a proper textbook. (Oh, and I'd previously self-taught myself a language with six cases to AS-standard. Being able to work out what you might not be covering with the friendly classroom textbook is a big advantage that no school-pupil can be expected to already have.) My biggest problems with German are: making careless mistakes, inability to speak and comprehend at native speed, and trying to write German that sounds natural.

German's great, if you learn or are taught the basics first. No-one should be learning intrinsic grammar 2-6 years after the commencement of their studies. Unlearning mistakes is incredibly demotivating. But this, as previous posts demonstrate, is the present state of affairs.

If you want to actually learn either language, not just get through the GCSE exams, get some thorough grammar books for use at home. And use them! A lot of specifications for various GCSE subjects have over-simplifications or odd structuring that impair further studies in that subject, to be honest. This isn't a problem confined to languages, but now I'm getting off-topic.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 34

tehFrance

Original post by amelia0601

Dear all,
I was wondering which course should I choose, Franch or German? Which is harder, by the way, which is more useful? Please dive me some advise, thanks!!!

French is harder, German is piss easy... especially if you are English. As for which is more useful, it depends on what you want... business wise German is, diplomatically French is.

Reply 35

Doglamlico

Original post by amelia0601

Dear all,
I was wondering which course should I choose, Franch or German? Which is harder, by the way, which is more useful? Please dive me some advise, thanks!!!

After English, German is the most widely spoken language in Europe, with 27% of the EU population speaking it.
(French has more native speakers, but only just, whereas German also has loads of second language speakers in Switzerland, Hungary etc.)

As for the difficulty, it depends entirely on the person - whether you prefer the more 'precise, logical' German, or the more flowery French - some people find German grammar incredibly complex, and even at A-level there were those who had to really work hard to learn cases/tenses, compared to others who found it straightforward due to being able to understand the similarities with English. Others find French pronunciation and fluency impossible to master.

I personally found German super easy, as like English the 'difficulty' lies in correct use of tenses and cases rather than the endings. e.g. French will be joue, jouerais, jouer, joué in different situations, but German often boils down to just two or three forms which can be manipulated to produce complex structures. As for the genders, they are a pain in both languages :tongue:

Others find French easier though, so it depends on the individual as I said.

German is a compound language, where word stems lead into tonnes of other words, e.g. "gehen" can be expanded into begehen, vorgehen, ausgehen etc. To learn all of these takes a long time, especially as they mean completely different things. If your mind works the right way, though, you can develop a sixth sense for what they 'sort of mean', which is near impossible to explain but just works most of the time.

As you strive towards fluency, it's all down to your brain working the right way.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 36

Prettygeek

I personally adore French, but am biased, seeing as I didn't take German!

However, I have a friend who is fluent in Portuguese, and is studying French and German A-Level, and he continually laments over how hard German is, even though he is a natural whizz at languages, and finds French a breeze!

German is also harsher on the ear, and not as fun to speak (in my humble opinion) as romantic languages such as French and Spanish :biggrin:

Reply 37

TheLightBulb

Not on personal experience but many of the linguistic teachers at my school all say that German words are a lot harder to pronounce....little things i suppose!

Reply 38

Lizzie232

I'd say French was harder, German is a sister language with English...add and 'en' and you're fine :tongue:

Reply 39

AryanK

If it's possible, go for another language altogether. For example, Spanish is much easier (to my understanding) and way more useful than German or French right now. Arabic, Chinese, Russian, are also great alternatives. The languages you're vacillating between are both under rapid decline right now, so in terms of usability, you might wanna consider a different language.

Between those two though, I'd go for French. More useful than German globally (though German does have more speakers in Europe), but French could be harder for a native English speaker. :smile:

(edited 11 years ago)