German and EnglishCousin German and Cousin EnglishGerman – not that different after all

German and English: not just related through the Royals

German and English: Like Albert and Victoria

Learning a language isn't only about learning vocabulary and grammar.

It's also about understanding where it comes from, because languages are organic and always on the move.

Language exists within a national, political and cultural context.

It is spoken by people, after all!

So what about German?

English and German are both part of the “West Germanic Languages” branch.

This might be all Greek to you, but what it means is that these two languages are actually pretty closely related – a bit like Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, if you like...

If English and German are closely related, we should be looking out for similarities...

For example:

Hand

Any guesses what this could be....?

Yes.

Hand.

Pretty easy...

What about:

Schule

?

Not too difficult:

Schule means “school”.

Schule = school

Hand = hand

But what about:

Schiff

?

It's “ship”.

And

Tür

?

It's “door”.

Schiff = ship

Die Tür = door

Not so similar anymore...

So what's happened here?

How come some words are nearly identical and others only vaguely similar?

The

“High German consonant shift”

or

“Second Germanic consonant shift”

is what happened.

Doesn't mean anything to you?

Not surprising. This is pretty specialised linguistic stuff.

Nevertheless, if we have a quick look at what this “consonant shift” is about, it will help you keep an eye open for German words you might be able to understand through deduction.

So, to make a mole hill out of a mountain, this is what this “consonant shift” is about*:

At some point between the 3rd and 5th century, the consonants in some words of the German language “shifted”, that is to say, changed into other consonants.

These shifts didn't happen in the English language. This “consonant shift” is one of the major stages where English and German branched off from each other.

*please keep in mind that this a very simplified explanation!

For example, p in German became an f:

Schiff

In English however, this shift did not take place, so the p stayed a p:

That's why we still have:

ship

In German, the t became an s:

was

In English, the t stayed a t:

what

And a final example, in German, the d became a t:

rot

Tür

which mean

red

door

hand – Hand

school - Schule

ship - Schiff p> f

door - Tür d>t

red – rot d>t

what – was t>s

There are plenty of words which will look similar, and now that you know what signs to look out for, you might be able to guess what some of them mean on your own!