French or German?

Original post by Student403

True >.> Why not "Die Maedchene" or something :C

OR Die Girl

much simpler ja? ;~)

Reply 41

Original post by Inexorably

OR Die Girl

much simpler ja? ;~)

I overthink things way too much :lol:

I don't like the look of "Das baby" though.. Not German looking at all >.>

Reply 42

Original post by Student403

I overthink things way too much :lol:

I don't like the look of "Das baby" though.. Not German looking at all >.>

I am quite often like that with any German word that looks English. If I see something like "das Computer", I'm like "no.. I want a GERMAN looking word!" (der Rechner is one but I'm uncertain how oft it is used).

das Baby
die Babys lmao

I'm not sure how it's pronounced though - if the Y is pronounced like in English it's 99.99% probably going to be a loanword :tongue:

Reply 43

JD742

12

Kid, I'm only gonna say this once only.
Study French instead of German, French is spoken in many countries abroad, while German is only spoken in Germany, German is a dying language that will die like latin.
French is the 4th largest language after Manderin, English, Spanish

Reply 44

Original post by Inexorably

I am quite often like that with any German word that looks English. If I see something like "das Computer", I'm like "no.. I want a GERMAN looking word!" (der Rechner is one but I'm uncertain how oft it is used).

das Baby
die Babys lmao

I'm not sure how it's pronounced though - if the Y is pronounced like in English it's 99.99% probably going to be a loanword :tongue:

YES

I tried extending the "a" to "bar-bee" and yeah that sounded stupid. I get you. Perhaps "Komputer" would be better. Definitely indiscreet with their "borrowing", those pesky linguists :smile:

Reply 45

Original post by JD742

Kid, I'm only gonna say this once only.
Study French instead of German, French is spoken in many countries abroad, while German is only spoken in Germany, German is a dying language that will die like latin.
French is the 4th largest language after Manderin, English, Spanish

Reply 46

Original post by Student403

YES

I tried extending the "a" to "bar-bee" and yeah that sounded stupid. I get you. Perhaps "Komputer" would be better. Definitely indiscreet with their "borrowing", those pesky linguists :smile:

Most of the borrowing I notice is always with technology, e.g. das(?) Scanner/das Computer/das Smartphone, which I guess is partially understandable. However I do wish they would pronounce it in a German way - it's irritating trying to figure out whether a loanword is said like the language it was borrowed from or in German.

I honestly thought Jeans was Yeh-ah-ns until i found out it was just the same :s-smilie:

Reply 47

Original post by Inexorably

Most of the borrowing I notice is always with technology, e.g. das(?) Scanner/das Computer/das Smartphone, which I guess is partially understandable. However I do wish they would pronounce it in a German way - it's irritating trying to figure out whether a loanword is said like the language it was borrowed from or in German.

I honestly thought Jeans was Yeh-ah-ns until i found out it was just the same :s-smilie:

Yeh-ah-ns

That's brill

Reply 48

TSRian123454321

7

Original post by Student403

YES

I tried extending the "a" to "bar-bee" and yeah that sounded stupid. I get you. Perhaps "Komputer" would be better. Definitely indiscreet with their "borrowing", those pesky linguists :smile:

I think you pronounce it like "beir-by", where the "beir" is like weird (not "wierd" but a long e sound)

then again, I might be making all this up

Reply 49

Original post by JD742

German is only spoken in Germany, German is a dying language that will die like latin.

Germany
Switzerland
Luxembourg
Austria
Liechenstein

off the top of my head. It's around 120+ million speakers ~ that is nowhere near a ''dying language''.

And considering Germany's crusade to try and get as many immigrants into their country as possible :tongue:

I would imagine adding a couple of thousand more to that list.

Reply 50

Original post by TSRian123454321

I think you pronounce it like "beir-by", where the "beir" is like weird (not "wierd" but a long e sound)

then again, I might be making all this up

Hmm that sounds better than the English "baby" and the Student403 stupid "barbie"

Reply 51

TSRian123454321

7

Original post by Inexorably

Germany
Switzerland
Luxembourg
Austria
Liechenstein

off the top of my head. It's around 120+ million speakers ~ that is nowhere near a ''dying language''.

And considering Germany's crusade to try and get as many immigrants into their country as possible :tongue:

I would imagine adding a couple of thousand more to that list.

can't forget Belgium :tongue:

(some do speak German, right?)

Reply 52

TSRian123454321

7

Original post by Student403

Hmm that sounds better than the English "baby" and the Student403 stupid "barbie"

don't worry, I found your version very... interesting :biggrin:

Reply 53

1jonam16

10

DO FRENCH!!! So much easier and a lot more fun.

Reply 54

Raskolnikov.

5

People don't realise that despite being a Germanic language, most of the vocabulary of modern English is French, Latin or Greek in origin.

While English is Germanic, it has acquired much of its vocabulary from other sources, notably Latin and French.As Watkins explains: “Although English is a member of the Germanic branch of Indo-European and retains much of the basic structure of its origin, it has an exceptionally mixed lexicon. During the 1400 years of its documented history, it has borrowed extensively and systematically from its Germanic and Romance neighbors and from Latin and Greek, as well as more sporadically from other languages".

Where exactly does our modern vocabulary come from? The website AskOxford cites a computerized analysis of the roughly 80,000 words in the old third edition of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary.The study, published in 1973, offered this breakdown of sources: Latin, 28.34 percent; French, 28.3 percent (that's 56%!); Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Dutch, 25 percent; Greek 5.32 percent; no etymology given, 4.03 percent; derived from proper names, 3.28 percent; all other languages, less than 1 percent.

Reply 55

Original post by TSRian123454321

can't forget Belgium :tongue:

(some do speak German, right?)

Woops yes, that's the other major one.

I'm sure I've read there are parts of Italy and the Netherlands which do have German speaking communities, but not that major I imagine.

Reply 56

etudixnt

5

Personally I would say stick with French. I did both French and Spanish at GCSE, which I found extremely similar and consequently complementary. During my controlled assessments I would often combine similar structures and ideologies due to their resemblance. Even in exams I noticed that certain French words were similar to Spanish words so I was able to determine their meanings, making the exam process so much more easier! Similarly I think that French is much more widely used nowadays (although I may be wrong) because it is used as a one of the universal languages in United Nations conferences and governments often communicate through the medium of French. Therefore qualifications in French are extremely useful! Although French structures are sometimes complex and I believe that due to your previous experience with the language it would more than likely be much easier than taking up German.

However at the end of the day it's completely your choice! I'm currently doing Spanish A level and I love it so much! If you ever need any help with French or Spanish (whatever you decide to do) please feel free to PM me! I will be happy to help :smile:

Reply 57

JD742

12

Original post by Inexorably

Germany
Switzerland
Luxembourg
Austria
Liechenstein

off the top of my head. It's around 120+ million speakers ~ that is nowhere near a ''dying language''.

And considering Germany's crusade to try and get as many immigrants into their country as possible :tongue:

I would imagine adding a couple of thousand more to that list.

If you want to get all political so be it....
FACT the German population is dying out as German ppl are having very few children.

Fair enough about the 120 million speakers but 3x more people speak French across the whole world. Whilst German is only confined to Europe and the countries it surrounds.

Another thing is that countries you listed above have a common history with Germany.
Anyone remember the Holy Roman Empire (*cough, cough*) well those countries above were apart of it, research it if you don't believe. Thats why they share a common language.
Until you can convience me otherwise that German is not a dying language, I will stand by my point.
German hasn't spread to other countries outside Europe unlike French, Spanish, English and Arabic.

Reply 58