German VS English: 7 Differences Between German And English Grammar With Examples

You want to learn German as an English native speaker, and you’re just exploring the territory of the German language.

Of course, you’re interested in German vs English: the similarities and the differences between two languages. Language of Earth did a simple comparison between German vs English words on YouTube:

But this isn’t everything! There are at least 7 major differences between German vs English, and in this blog post, we’ll show you all things you have to look out for when learning any of these languages. And we’re bringing in lots of examples, so it’ll be easier to understand!

1. German vs English: the same language family

German and English are like cousins who grew up in different neighborhoods.

They come from the same language family, but they’ve changed over time.

English has been like a sponge, soaking up words from all over – Latin, French, and even Norse (the language of the Vikings!).

German, interestingly, has mostly kept to itself.

But here’s a fun fact you can consider: it’s a bit of an oversimplification but about one in four English words comes from German roots – this doesn’t mean that they directly come from German, but from Germanic roots.

Let’s look at some words that are super similar in both languages:

Cool, right?

When you’re learning German, these similarities can be like little helpers along the way – and you probably already understand these words in both languages, correct?

2. Noun genders in German vs English

Now, here’s where German gets a bit challenging, to be honest.

In German, every single thing has a gender: it’s either “male,” “female,” or “neutral.”

But the trick is that sometimes you can easily account the given article to a noun gender, and sometimes… it’s a bit more complicated.

It’s like everything in the German world is part of one big family!

In English, things are much simpler – objects are just objects, no gender assigned.

Let’s look at some examples:

When you’re learning German vocabulary, you always need to remember the gender for each word.

And just like we mentioned it, sometimes, it doesn’t make much sense – like why is “girl” neutral? It’s just one of those German mysteries!

By the way, we’re not really fans of the traditional vocabulary learning in German. Instead, use Conversation Based Chunking! It’s a method that focuses on lexical chunks – the natural building blocks of the language. If you’re interested, you can learn more about this revolutionary method by clicking this button here:

3. Articles in German and English

When you’re using and speaking English, you’re using “the” for everything. Simple.

German complicates things. The article changes not just according to gender but also according to how the word is used in a German sentence.

Is it an object? Is it a belonging? Time to change the article to something completely different!

Let’s look at some examples with the English translation illustrating what it exactly means:

In English, this would stay the same, no matter the use cases:

• the man (stays the same in all cases)
• the woman (stays the same in all cases)

And don’t forget about “a” and “an”! In German, these change too:

It’s a bit like a puzzle at first, but with practice, it becomes second nature!

4. Word order and sentence structure in German vs English

The English language usually puts words in this order: who, does what, to whom: “I eat pizza.”

German, as with everything else, likes to mix things up a bit.

Sometimes, the action word (verb) goes to the end of the sentence, especially in certain types of sentences.

Let’s look at more examples:

English: “I know that he likes pizza.”
German: “Ich weiß, dass er Pizza mag.” (which literally means “I know that he pizza likes.”)

English: “She said that she would come tomorrow.”
German: “Sie sagte, dass sie morgen kommen würde.” (literally: “She said that she tomorrow come would.”)

English: “Can you tell me where the station is?”
German: “Können Sie mir sagen, wo der Bahnhof ist?” (literally: “Can you me tell, where the station is?”)

And here’s another cool thing – you can move words to the front of the sentence to emphasize them:

• “Heute gehe ich ins Kino.” (Today I’m going to the cinema.)
• “Ins Kino gehe ich heute.” (To the cinema I’m going today.)

Both mean the same thing, but the emphasis is different. German is giving you freedom to play with your sentences just like you want to.

5. Pronunciation differences Between German and English

German words are usually said exactly as they’re spelled. It’s what you see is what you get!

English isn’t always like that – sometimes letters are silent or pronounced differently than you’d expect.

Time to explore some pronunciation differences:

• German: “Knecht” (servant) – you say every letter, including the ‘K’
• English: “Knight” – the ‘K’ and ‘gh’ are silent
• German: “Schule” (school) – you say every letter
• English: “School” – the ‘h’ is silent
• German: “Apfel” (apple) – the ‘pf’ is a distinct sound
• English: “Apple” – the ‘e’ is silent

German also has some sounds that English doesn’t have:

• The ‘ch in German‘ in “ich” (I) – it’s a bit like trying to hiss like a cat
• The ‘ü’ in “über” (over) – it’s like saying “ee” while your lips are rounded for “oo”

6. Capitalization difference between English and German

All nouns (things, places, ideas) in German start with a capital letter, no matter where they are in a sentence. We actually think this is a cool idea because you can quickly differentiate words just by looking at things.

In English, you’d only capitalize names and the first word of a sentence.

Let’s compare two sentences:

German: “Der Hund und die Katze spielen im Garten mit dem Ball.”
English: “The dog and the cat play in the garden with the ball.”

More examples in German:

This can actually be super helpful when you’re learning German – the language is giving you little clues about which words are important.

7. Formality in German vs formality in English

There are two ways to say you in German: du vs Sie. One is for friends and family, and another for people you don’t really know well or want to show respect to. 

In English, “you” is for everyone.

Let’s look at more examples:

Casual German (du) formality

Formal German (Sie) examples

But the formal “you” isn’t just for strangers.

You’d use it for your boss, your teacher, or even your friend’s parents. It’s a way of showing respect.

And here’s a tip: when in doubt, use the formal “Sie” – it’s better to be too polite than not polite enough! You can switch to duzen a little bit later.

Learn key difference between German language and English with Conversation Based Chunking

We already mentioned this great method that helped thousands of students to learn other languages. It’s called Conversation Based Chunking, and with this approach, you learn the language by fully immersing yourself in it, and observe how native speakers use it.

After this observation, you mimic what they say and do, and you incorporate the most common German phrases naturally in your dialogues. THis way, you won’t have to spend time on remembering the boring grammar rules, because you’ll internalize the correct usage either way.

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