German alphabet. how many words in german how many words does german have

How difficult is the German language? How long can it take to learn? How many words do you need to know in order to read newspapers, for example? and got the best answer

Answer from Primavera[guru]
I agree with the opinion that German grammar is more difficult than English, but reading German is easier 🙂 I learned a couple of rules and that's it, not like in English, where "Manchester" is written, but "Liverpool" is read.
Well, how fast you learn German is up to you. Of course, the best way is language courses in Germany, although they tend to be more communicative in nature (that is, you will be taught speaking in the first place, and not reading and grammar). Well, of course, you can study here too 🙂
As for the necessary vocabulary, you know, there is an opinion that in order to calmly communicate in a foreign language on, say, everyday topics, it is enough to know only 900 basic words and expressions 🙂

Answer from ELEN[guru]
I've been learning it since 2nd grade! Grammar is more difficult of course than in English, but you can live!! It seems to me not difficult at all, everything is easy to remember !!

Answer from Katya m[newbie]
The easiest way is to live in Germany, where you can learn in six months. Now there are many student exchange programs and academic semesters. It will cost about the same as what you would spend on a year of tutoring.

Answer from LOVEHUNTER[guru]
More difficult than English is exactly 4 cases, complex past tenses and future tenses, unlike Russian, the strict arrangement of parts of speech in a sentence, etc. I am silent about the pronunciation of umlauts - vowels with two dots above ....)))

Answer from Anastasia Lady[guru]
The German language is not as difficult as it seems, but it has its own peculiarities. Up to level A1 (simple colloquial speech) can be learned in a month of everyday classes, up to level B1 can be learned in six months or less. It all depends on the desire, abilities, opportunities, availability of free time. The grammar is similar in some respects to the Russian language. In order to read newspapers, B1 level and a dictionary at hand will be enough. Minimum vocabulary... it's too relative.

Answer from Origami Killer[guru]
I have been living in Germany for 2 years. During this time, I learned to understand German, but speaking is difficult. It's all about grammar. It is necessary to put the verb in the wrong place in the sentence, as a German person will already misunderstand you. It also depends on the pronunciation of the letters. The case that happened to me: "I'm buying an E-Plus network payment card for a mobile phone, Well, I pronounce [Ye Plus]. I see that the saleswoman is not catching up with something. I repeated several times until she guessed and said how to say: [E Plus]... It seems to be a trifle, but it can get in the way.
P.S. I learned to understand German ABSOLUTELY without courses.

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

Hey! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: How difficult is the German language? How long can it take to learn? How many words do you need to know in order to read newspapers, for example?

As a rule, learning foreign languages is a good idea to start from the very basics, i.e. with alphabet and reading rules. The German language is no exception. German alphabet, like English, is based on the Latin alphabet, but it also has some differences that you need to know.

So, german alphabet has 26 letters. Umlauts (vowels with dots, for example: Ä-ä, Ü-ü, Ö-ö) and the ß ligature are considered a distinctive feature. Visually it looks like this:

German alphabet pronunciation

Knowing just the alphabet is not enough, since in some combinations not all letters are read the way they are written. Here are some solid rules for reading German:

Rules for reading individual letters:
s= [h]	Before vowels.	S ofa, s oh, S onne
s= [s]	At the end of a word/syllable.	W as, d as, H aus
ß = [s] short	Unreadable like the double "s" in the word "cash"!	gro ß , Fu ß ball, blo ß
h= [exhale]	At the beginning of a word or syllable, it is read as a light exhalation. After a vowel, it is not readable, but gives longitude to the vowel sound.	H anna, h aben, h elfen, wo h in S eh en, ih m, B ah n h of
y= ["soft" y]	Something between "u" and "u" as in the word m Yu if	t y pisch, G y mnastik
r= ["burry" p]	At the beginning of a word or syllable.	R enate, R egel, R epublik, ge r adeaus
r= [a]	At the end of a word or syllable.	wi r, mi r, ve r Gessen, Zimme r
x= [ks]		Te x t,bo x en
v= [f]	In most cases.	v iel, v erstehen, v or
v= [in]	in borrowings.	V erb, V ase
w=[in]		W oh, w ir, W ohnung, W inter
c= [s]	in borrowed words.	C ity
c=[k]	in borrowed words.	C afe, C computer
ä = [e]	As in the word " uh ra"	H ä nde, kl ä ren
ö ["soft" o]	As in the word "m yo d".	K ö nnen, K ö ln, Ö sterreich
ü ["soft" y]	As in the word "m Yu if".	m ü de, m ü ssen, f ü nf
Longitude and shortness of vowels:
a, e, i, o, u, ä, ö, ü= , , , , , [ ɛː ], [ øː ] [ yː] [: ] = longitudesound	In an open or conditionally closed syllable (i.e., when the form of the word changes, the syllable may again become open). Longitude and brevity of sound affect the meaning of the word!	m a len,l e Sen, Masch i ne, r o t, d u,g u t, sp ä t,b ö se, m ü de
ah,eh,ih,oh,uh, ah, öh, uh = [a:],[e:],[i:],[o:],[u:], [ɛː], [ øː] [ yː] [: ] = longitudesound		W Ah l, s eh en, ih n, w Oh nen, K uh, Z Ah ne, S oh ne, fr uh
aa, ee, oo= , , [: ] = longitudesound		S aal, S ee, B oo t
We read the following combinations like this:
ch= [hard "x"]		Bu ch, ma ch en, la ch en
ch= [xx]	Before "i" and "e".	Ich, m ich, r ech ts
sch= [w]		Sch ule, Ti sch, sch reiben
ck= [k]		le ck er, Sche ck,
chs= [ks]		se chs, wa chs en
ph= [f]		Ph oto, Ph ysik
qu= [kv]		Q adrat, Q elle
th= [t]		Th eater, Th ema
tsch= [h]		Tsch echien, deu tsch
tion= [qion]		Funk tion, Product tion
pf= [pf]		pf erd, pf ennig
sp= [wn]	At the beginning of words and syllables.	sp ort, sp rechen
st= [pcs]	At the beginning of words and syllables.	St unde, ver st ehen
ng= [nasal n]	The letter "g" is not readable, while the sound "n" is pronounced in the nose.	Ubu ng, bri ng en, si ng en
ig= [uh]		richt ig, wich ig
Rules for reading diphthongs (double vowels)
ei= [ai]		m ei n, s ei n, Arb ei t, Ei
ai= [ai]		M ai, M ai n
ie= [and] long		Br ie f, h ie r,
eu= [oh]		N eu, d eu tsch, Eu ro
au= [oh]		R au me, H au ser
au= [ay]		H au s, br au n

Well, we figured out a little with the rules of reading. I would also like to give advice on pronunciation in German. But this is in other articles on our site.

How difficult is the German language? How long can it take to learn? How many words do you need to know in order to read newspapers, for example? and got the best answer

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

If you have read the section “What to learn?”, then you already know that language competencies (lexical, grammatical and phonetic) are auxiliary, these are only additional mechanisms that we need at the beginning of the journey and which are then gradually dismantled as unnecessary. But they are not thrown away. They need to be constantly looked after, periodically checking, lubricating and carrying out preventive maintenance.

Million, million, million new words...

The basis of any foreign language competence is KNOWLEDGE.

How many words are in German? No answer. Big DUDEN contains 400,000 lexical items with independent meaning. But every year about 4,000 new words or meanings come into the German language.

How many words do you need to know in order to speak a foreign language well? And to read newspapers or texts in your specialty? How about understanding native speakers?

Our average compatriot uses 3-4 thousand words in his native language in everyday life, and in general he owns a lexicon of 7,000 to 10,000 words. It is curious in this regard to note that the 1000 most common words, as a rule, are enough to express 90% of what we want to say, the second thousand provide an additional 5% of our communication needs.

2500 words is almost a guarantee of a good conversational level, and 8000 words ensures understanding of any non-specialized text. The vocabulary of an average translator is 14,000 words (data from the International Center for Psychology and Linguistics, 2008)

BUT what vocabulary did the great masters of the word have? very different:

I. Goethe - 80,000 words
W. Churchill - 60,000 words
A. Pushkin - 21,290 words
W. Shakespeare - 20,000 words
V. Hugo - 9,000 words
W. Thackeray - 5,000 words
(M. Muller)

What to do? Maybe sit down and learn the largest German-Russian dictionary? That's when I'll talk! Firstly, it is an illusion, and secondly

Advice: Don't learn new words from a dictionary. Reading a dictionary, replenishing your vocabulary, is an exciting activity, but only at the stage of improvement. Do not learn ALL the new words given to you by a teacher or a textbook lesson, in a row and "mechanically" - your memory may go on strike.

4.2. Want to know everything! Or how to master vocabulary, grammar, phonetics

Million, million, million new words...
I guessed!
Vocabulary or flashcards?
Receptions of mnemonics
And if you try "multimedia"?
It's all about the system
Need to learn this text
How much grammar does a person need?
Why do you need a rule?
deductive method
SOS Method
"search engine"
His pronunciation is like a German!
How to get rid of the accent?

Did you know that there are about 5.3 million words in the German language and the number is growing. This is about eight times more than in English. This is probably due to the fact that German has a lot of compound words. However, you should not be afraid, because the active vocabulary of the average German is from twelve to sixteen thousand words. Among them are about three and a half thousand foreign "guests". Approximately one third of the modern German vocabulary has appeared in the last hundred years.

In 1880, the first edition of a German spelling dictionary was published in Leipzig, called Duden in honor of its compiler Konrad Duden. The first edition had 27,000 words. The latter contains 135,000. This dictionary is often called the folk dictionary - Volkswörterbuch. Now there is, of course, an online version.

For a foreigner learning German, at first it is enough Good to know about 2000 words, and sometimes, for the simplest communication, even less. This page introduces a new group of phrases to add to your vocabulary.

Listening:
To test your knowledge and train your listening comprehension, you can hide German phrases and translations. If comments on German phrases bother you, you can disable them too:

Phrases in Russian	In German	Comments
It's always such a stress for me.	Es ist immer so stressig fur mich.
I don't believe it can work (function).	Ich glaube nicht, dass das funktionieren kann.
A fresh breeze is blowing (ok).	Frische Windweht.	Often used in a figurative sense, i.e. new trends.
You too can experience (try) it.	Du cannst es auch erleben.
Sooner or later he will return.	Früher oder später wird er zurück sein.
That's exactly what I mean.	Genau das meine ich.
That's it!	Na eben!
We need to be bolder!	Wir brauchen mehr Mut!	lit. We need more courage (courage).
Your experiment (attempt), unfortunately, is doomed to failure.	Dein Versuchleider zum Scheitern verurteilt.	verurteilt - sentenced
We don't need brainwashing (zombie).	Wir brauchen keine Gehirnwäsche.
What to do in Cologne?	Was kann man in Koln machen?
Taking off my hat! (take off your hat; hats off!)	Hut ab!
Your hat is hanging in the closet.	Dein Hut hangt im Schrank.
What's the difference between the flu and a cold?	Was ist der Unterschied zwischen Grippe und Erkältung?
These diseases are often confused.	Diese Krankheiten werden oft verwechselt.
Who needs to get the flu shot?	Wer sollte sich gegen grippe impfen lassen?
What are the possible side effects?	Welche Nebenwirkungen sind moglich?
We have survived the ups and downs.	Wir haben durchgehalten mit höhen und tiefen.
No matter what, you must not (should) let this happen.	Trotz allem darfst du es nicht zulassen.