• Sheepy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    73·
    6 months ago

    This is so painfully close to being Loss. There’s got to be a way to juggle those squares around just right.

  • Skullgrid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    55·
    6 months ago

    Fuck gender and fuck german for letting “the” get THIS fucking out of control.

    I studied this fucker for 5 years in secondary school, got a B , but fuck it.

    I’m learning/speaking Spanish now, it’s still got gender and el/la/al but it’s not this bad.

    My first language of Turkish doesn’t even have “the” for fucks sake.

    • Laser@feddit.orgEnglish
      6·
      6 months ago

      Spanish is a rather easy language

      German on the other hand not so much. On the other hand, it’s usually very precise and information-dense, which is reflected in how fast it rather slow it’s spoken, especially compared to Spanish.

      • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Talking speed differs greatly by region though. Slowest speakers are probably Swiss and fastest being citizens of Frankfurt.

    • exocortex@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      Maybe you know it but if not read Mark Twain’s Essay “The Aweful German Language”. It’s a fantastic and bellyachingly funny thing to read. I am a native speaker and have to admit Mark makes so many brilliant points.

  • saltnotsugar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    6 months ago

    I’d like to start a petition to replace all these bad boys with “deez.” For example: Deez Frau ist mit deez Hut…uhhhh…getanzt.

    • kopasz7@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      6 months ago

      This actually makes more sense than the arbitrary grammatical genders. (Sure, english has it simpler with, “from where”, “where” and “where to”)

      • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Until you introduce whom (and, occasionally, whose) and native speakers’ brains explode. It’s soooo easy: Whose brain was exploded by whom? His brain was exploded by her, not He brain was exploded by she. Native English speakers do understand cases, they just don’t know that they understand.

        • idiomaddict@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          Yup, I’m a native English speaker who teaches German to mostly native English speakers, and it’s always a fun moment when someone in class realizes that we have cases in English, too (don’t worry, I do tell them, if nobody speaks up, I just give them the chance to figure it out themselves first).

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Thither and thence/hither and hence/whither and whence are also counterparts to there/here/where, for older and/or more literary English

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      I’m a nonnative German teacher and holy fuck is this helpful. I learned each of these separately and at different times with great effort, but I will be sharing this with my students, because it’s way easier to remember with this visualization. Thank you!!

  • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    7·
    6 months ago

    English: We have one definitive article: “The”.

    Me: OK, that’s nice and simple.

    Scots Gaelic: Our’s is a little more complicated. We have “An”, which becomes “Am” for words beginning with B and P, for words starting with an h as the second letter (Th, Bh, Mh…) we use "A’ ", and for plurals we “na”, oh and if the first word in a word is a vowel, you slap “h-” onto it.

    Me: OK, a we bit more complex but I can vibe with it, German what’s your Definitive articles?

    German:

    • yetAnotherUser@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      and if the first word in a word is a vowel

      Damn, that sounds a bit complex /j (Thanks for the insight on how Gaelic definitive articles work btw)

    • Laser@feddit.orgEnglish
      6·
      6 months ago

      Though it’d be maybe even more helpful if you’re and columns were named; from my understanding, the columns are “male | female | neuter | plural” and the rows “Nominativ | Akkusativ | Dativ | Genitiv”

  • dandelion (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    6·
    6 months ago

    in order of masculine, feminine, neuter, plural

    • nominative: der, die, das, die
    • accusative: den, die, das, die
    • dative: dem, der, dem, den
    • genititive: des, der, des, der

    which becomes:

    • RESE
    • NESE
    • MRMN
    • SRSR

    in high school I pronounced this mnemonic as:

    • resee
    • nesee
    • Mormon
    • sir sir

    My teacher didn’t like the “Mormon” bit, he wanted me to say “merman” but I found it easier to remember “Mormon” and his discomfort only made it stick better, lol.