As an English speaker learning German, I face endless confusion and frustration with many of the short question words that are “False Friends”
Such as:
Wer (where) - Actually means who.
Wo (Who) - Actually means where.
Wie (We) - Actually means how.
Was (was) - Actually means what.
Also (also) - Actually means so.
Will (will) - Actually means to want.
And the completely arbitrary gender assignments!
For example.
The year is: Das Jahr, a neuter word.
The month is: Der Monat, a masculine word.
And the week is: Die Woche, a feminine word.
And then there’s directly counter-intuitive examples of words that seem like they Should be a gender other than what they are, such as:
The little girl - Das Mädchen (Neuter, not feminine)
Breasts - Der Busen (Masculine! Boobs is masculine!)
Person - Die Person (Feminine! Why isn’t this word neuter?!"
Dutch (probably applicable for a bunch of Germanic languages), the way a word at the end can modify the whole meaning of the sentence as I’ve already mentally parsed it.
I need a book Ik heb een boek nodig
So my brain has got to ‘boek’ and therefore already finished that part of the sentence as ‘I have a book’, only to have a new word thrown in. It feels like a kid saying “I like you… NOT”.
And time… Ugh… Half past seven = Half acht (eight) Twenty five past one = Vijf voor half twee (five before half two).
On the other hand, dutch swear words? Sublime. Gezellig? Amazing word. Swaffelen? Chef’s kiss.
Regarding the times:
Took ages until I was somewhat sure on how to use that am/pm thing in English. 🙃
At least in the UK we just use the 24 hour clock, am/pm isn’t used nearly as much
Interesting, didn’t know that.
I learned British English at school, yet all the learning materials focused on using the am/pm style.
Perhaps because we already know the 24h format well in Germany, as it is also routinely used here.
I guess in speech we tend to say something like 'eight thirty" rather than “twenty thirty” but certainly in witten communication its always 24 hour.
This is how it works in German as well. 16 o’clock is called “um 4” in a typical conversational situation.
I know some Dutch. God verdomme just beats any other swear word ever. So satisfying
My favourites (especially as a microbiologist) are the swearing ilnesses. Krijgt tyfus. Kanker op. Teringlijer etc ect.
Woaw, this sounds awesome! Ik moet mijn nederlands verbetern!
Yeah, it’s the same in German. You don’t say Seven-thirty. You say Half-eight. A bit tricky. And german is the same qith sentence structure. The second verb always comes at the end of the sentence. Makes it so you literally can’t know the purpose of the sentence until you hear the whole thing. Which, is kinda ingenious actually. Means you can’t interrupt people.
Could you tell me what time it is?
Could you tell me what time the train leaves?
Similar to Dutch in the sense that the important verb comes at the end.
There’s other stuff hinting about what to expect in the end of the sentence: Because there is the question word “Could?”, you know you need to wait until the needed verb arrives. You will of course already encounter a verb at “tell”, but it’s clear that something more is still to come.
In Dutch and German (but not in Scandinavian languages!) it works in a much less clear way: “I have a book” is a complete sentence. There’s nothing making it clear that there must be still more words coming. In your English phrase the sentence feels incomplete if you leave out the last word. But in Dutch they say “I have a book needed” when they want to say “I need a book”. A foreigner hears “I have a book” and then gets surprised by the “needed” still coming up. In English you get a clear warning that something is missing. In Dutch you don’t. You kind of don’t, that is.
Because actually you do: In spoken Dutch you will eventually learn to recognize the intonation pattern that tells whether the sentence is at its end or not. There is a certain melody and stress pattern that you can hear going on, and at the point of “I have a book” the sound of the phrase sounds such that your brain expects more to be coming up. And in written text your brain sees that the sentence still continues. So, in the end this is a beginner level problem. A person living in the Netherlands will quickly learn to subconsciously recognize the intonation and stress patterns. At least that’s what happened to me when I moved to Germany where they have the same “problem”.