do english speakers understand german and dutch? well, I believe this idea, because according to the definition english is a german language or something like that, I can't remember very well my class (2024)

FAQs

Can you understand German if you know English? ›

Given that German and English share the same language family, there is quite a bit of vocabulary that is shared between the two languages. English speakers with no training in German can certainly pick out and understand a few words here and there.

Most English speakers cannot, although it's relatively easy for English speakers to learn Dutch, and to a lesser extent, German.

For example, the shared historic roots mean that many words in both languages are very similar, either in their spelling or pronunciation or both. This means that while it can be hard to understand one another, speakers often still can catch the topic of a conversation by picking up a few words.

While speakers of each language may not readily understand the others, their common roots make them easier to learn. Someone who speaks only English may catch on to German or Dutch easily, while Danish speakers may find Norwegian simple to pick up!

English speakers are at a great advantage when they learn German, as the languages are both members of the Germanic language family. This means that a lot of basic vocabulary is the same in English and German: for example, the English words 'arm', 'hand' and 'finger' correspond to German Arm,Hand and Finger.

English is not mutually intelligible with any continental Germanic language, differing in vocabulary, syntax, and phonology, although some of these, such as Dutch or Frisian, do show strong affinities with English, especially with its earlier stages.

Dutch, another West-Germanic language, is undoubtedly one of the easiest languages to learn for German speakers.

Culturally, the Dutch have a long tradition of foreign language learning. The focus of modern foreign language (MFL) learning in school lies on English, German and/or French. Despite an ever stronger focus on English, learning two or even three foreign languages is still not unusual.

Dutch is the closest major language to English

With 22 million native speakers and an additional six million who speak it as a second language, Dutch is the third most widely spoken Germanic language in the world (after English and German).

But are German speakers actually able to understand Danish — and vice versa? The short answer is: no, not really. However close they seem at first, there are major differences between the languages. But that's not to say they're so far apart on the language family tree.

Which German dialect is closest to Dutch? ›

Plautdietsch, a Germanic language related to Dutch and Frisian, spoken in Siberia: Mercator European Research Centre.

The border between Germany and the Netherlands is 567 kilometres long and even though opinions vary about the exact course of the line around the Ems River and its sunken coast, the two countries are very friendly.

Although English is a Germanic language, it has significant Latin influences. Its grammar and core vocabulary are inherited from Proto-Germanic, but a significant portion of the English vocabulary comes from Romance and Latinate sources.

English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, whose speakers, called Anglophones, originated in early medieval England on the island of Great Britain. The namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to Britain.

It shouldn't take long to become fluent in German. Actually, after 6-8 months of studying in intense courses (about twenty hours every week) you will be able to gain proficiency of your German language to navigate your daily life. It is possible to gain professional proficiency within a mere year!

Fifty-six percent of people in Germany speak English, and some businesses have even adopted it as their primary language. If you're an English speaker aspiring to move to Germany on a digital nomad visa but don't speak the lingo (yet), check out this list of the seven best cities in Germany for English speakers.

If you are interested in working in Germany, you will be pleased to know that you don't need to be a German speaker to get a job. It can help if you know a little bit of German, but if you are still working on your language skills, you could be able to find a job that does not require you to speak any German.

Cold-approaching a random German person and launching straight into “DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH???” is unlikely to win you any friends, but make an effort with “Entschuldigung, sprechen Sie Englisch?” or even simply “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” and you'll probably find someone who can do so and is happy to try to help you.