някои прилики и разлики между английски и немски език, които

някои прилики и разлики между английски и немски език, които

НАУЧНИ ТРУДОВЕ
ТОМ LX
“ХРАНИТЕЛНА НАУКА, ТЕХНИКА И
ТЕХНОЛОГИИ – 2013“
18-19 октомври 2013, Пловдив
SCIENTIFIC WORKS
VOLUME LX
„FOOD SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY 2013“
18-19 October 2013, Plovdiv
НЯКОИ ПРИЛИКИ И РАЗЛИКИ МЕЖДУ АНГЛИЙСКИ И НЕМСКИ
ЕЗИК, КОИТО УЛЕСНЯВАТ ИЛИ ЗАТРУДНЯВАТ ИЗУЧАВАНЕТО НА
НЕМСКИ ОТ АНГЛОГОВОРЯЩИ СТУДЕНТИ
Иванка Маринова, Таня Великова
Университет по хранителни технологии – Пловдив
SOME SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ENGLISH AND
GERMAN WHICH HELP OR HINDER THE STUDY OF GERMAN BY
ENGLISH SPEAKING STUDENTS
Ivanka Marinova, Tania Velikova
University of Food Technology – Plovdiv
Abstract
Modern English and German derive from the West Germanic languages and as such have a lot of similarities which
help English speaking students learn German. The paper explores the similarities in detail and shows how sometimes
these two languages are mutually intelligible. However, there are some differences on lexical and syntactic level which
can confuse the students and hinder the learning process. These differences have also been represented here. Finally a
short text has been constructed to demonstrate how English speakers could grasp the meaning fairly well without
necessarily knowing the German words.
Keywords: origin, Germanic languages, similarities, differences, English speakers
Introduction
English and German derive from the West
Germanic languages which constitute the largest of
the three traditional branches of the Germanic family
of languages. Historically, English originated from
the fusion of closely related dialects, now
collectively termed Old English which were brought
to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic
settlers by the 5th century with the word English
being derived from their name Angles and ultimately
from their ancestral region Angeln (in what is now
Schleswig-Holstein – the extreme northern part of
Germany). The West Germanic languages of the Old
period were close enough to have been mutually
intelligible [8]. Today modern English and German
have a number of similarities on lexical,
morphological and syntactic level which are due to
their origin and which could help the study of
German by English speakers.
Materials and Methods
A number of English and German textbooks,
dictionaries and grammar books have been used in
this attempt at comparative analysis of the two
languages which is based on personal experience of
studying German and which has established certain
similarities in the spelling and meaning of many
words (nouns, verbs and adjectives), in grammatical
constructions and phraseology. In some cases a
whole German sentence can be comprehended by
English speakers without any knowledge of German.
However, some differences have been noticed which
can confuse English speaking students while they
study German. The similarities have been divided
into three sections (vocabulary, expressions and
phraseology, and grammar) and the differences, if
present, have been placed at the end of each section.
Results and Discussion
Section 1 Vocabulary. There are similarities in
the writing and pronunciation of many words:
1. As far as verbs are concerned the root is
usually the same in both languages with
German verbs taking the ending -en.
Sometimes the spelling of the roots is not
identical due to the difference in the writing
of some sounds (sh-sch, w-v, c-k, ch-tsch,
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18-19 октомври 2013, Пловдив
etc.) but the meaning is clear to English
speakers [1,5,6,7]:
beginnen – begin, bringen – bring, senden –send,
singen –sing, finden – find, warnen – warn, sparen spare, wandern – wander, landen – land, enden –
end, blinken – blink, fallen – fall, binden – bind,
rollen – roll, springen – spring, stinken – stink,
ringen – ring, spinnen – spin, schwimmen – swim,
kann – can, kommen – come, lernen – learn,
waschen – wash, sehen – see, trinken –drink, grinsen
– grin, schwellen – swell, adoptieren – adopt,
akzeptieren – accept, imitieren – imitate, starren –
stare, bilden – build, resignieren – resign, reparieren
– repair, vermissen – miss, sinken – sink, danken –
thank, renovieren – renovate, fliehen – flee,
faszinieren – fascinate, buchen –book, muss – must,
backen – bake, sitzen – sit, hängen – hang, gewinnen
– win, wispern – wisper, wringen – wring, wundern
– wonder
2. As far as nouns and adjectives are
concerned some of them are identical in
writing and pronunciation, some have the
same spelling with different pronunciation
and others are similar in writing and
articulation but all are identical in meaning
[1,5,6,7]:
Hand – hand, Finger – finger, Wind – wind, Ring –
ring, Hunger – hunger, Hobby – hobby, Helm –
helm, Blinker – blinker, Sand – sand, Name – name,
Ball – ball, Wolf – wolf, Gold – gold, Maus –
mouse, Kanon – canon, Gras – grass, Garten –
garden, Glas – glass, Fisch – fish, Ende – end, Halle
– hall, Rebell – rebel, Knie – knee, Bett – bed, Liste
– list, Papier – paper, Kern – kernel, Wasser – water,
Wein – wine, Lippen – lips, Socken – socks, Haus –
house, Rucksack – rucksack, Streik – strike, Buch –
book, Pille – pill, Lunge – lung, Blut – blood, Haar
– hair, Nummer – number, Mann – man, Knoten –
knot, Lamm – lamb, Gott – God, Licht – light,
Willen – will, Schwan – swan, Konsequenz –
consequence, Lid – eyelid, Preis – price, Wetter –
weather, Schwarm – swarm, Paar – pair, Kreativität
– creativity, Wassermelone – watermelon,
Doppelkinn – double chin, warm – warm, blind –
blind, still – still, wild – wild, hart – hard, rund –
round, mild – mild, frei – free, hier – here, gut –
good, kalt – cold, modern – modern, laut – loud,
lang- long, dezent – decent, sauer – sour, historisch –
historic, populär – popular, braun – brown, jung –
SCIENTIFIC WORKS
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„FOOD SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND
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18-19 October 2013, Plovdiv
young, alt – old, schrill – shrill, hektisch – hectic,
frisch – fresh
3. There are also a small number of
prepositions and adverbs that are similar in
the two languages:
in – in, unter – under, hier – here, oft – often, bevor –
before, wenn – when, and – und, oder – or, Hand in
Hand – hand in hand, alles in allem – all in all
However, there are some words which are
identical or very close in writing but have a totally
different meaning in the two languages. These are as
follows:
arm in German means poor, bald is soon, bekommen
means receive, Gift (all nouns in German are written
with a capital letter) means poison not a present,
Sinn is a feeling, Handy is a mobile phone, Brief
means a letter, Hose are trousers, Rock means a
skirt, toll is fantastic/great, winken means wave not
wink, Rente means pension not rent, will means
want, vor is in front of not [for] as it is pronounced in
German, Teller is not a teller in the bank but a plate,
Gymnasium is a high-school, not a gym and Feier
means celebration, party not [fire] as the Germans
pronounce it
Section 2 Phraseology. There are some English
and German phrases and proverbs which mean the
same in both languages [3,4]:
- when you wish somebody luck in English you
say Break a leg and in German you say Hals-undBeinbruch which means Break a leg and a neck
- when you say your age in English you say for
example I am 10 years old and the same goes for
German – Ich bin 10 Jahre alt
- the German idiom das Kind mit dem Bade
ausschütten is exactly the same in English – to throw
out the baby with the bath water
- viele Köche verderben den Brei, means the same
– too many cooks spoil the broth. This saying is
different in Bulgarian for example where you say
approximately the following: too many grannies
spoil the child
- in Gelächter ausbrechen means break out in
laughter
- zwei Vögel mit einem Stein töten means to kill
two birds with one stone Unlike Bulgarian for
example where we kill two rabbits with one stone)
- in Sicht sein means the same – be in sight
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VOLUME LX
„FOOD SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND
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18-19 October 2013, Plovdiv
НАУЧНИ ТРУДОВЕ
ТОМ LX
“ХРАНИТЕЛНА НАУКА, ТЕХНИКА И
ТЕХНОЛОГИИ – 2013“
18-19 октомври 2013, Пловдив
- höchste Zeit sein is high time (in German the
superlative form is used but the adjective is the
same)
- auf eine Idee kommen means come up with an
Idea
Section 3 Grammar.
1. The comparative and superlative forms of
the adjectives in German just like in English
are formed with the suffixes –er and –est for
English and –er and –sten for German:
I must one of these tablets three times a day take.
4. Telling the time in German and English is
the same in the sense that you state the
minutes first and then the hour:
6:10 – zehn nach sechs (ten past six)
8:45 – Viertel vor neun (quarter to nine)
Telling the half time, however, can bring
confusion:
7:30 – halb acht which means half to eight.
jung – jünger – am jüngsten compared to young –
younger – the youngest
Confusion here may cause the longer adjectives
which in German have the same ending –er and –
sten whereas in English they take more and the most
in front of the adjective:
intelligent – intelligenter – am intelligentesten
compared to intelligent – more intelligent – the most
intelligent
2. The English impersonal it and its German
counterpart es have the same use in
expressions such as:
Es regnet. – It rains. Es schneit – It snows. Es ist
windig. – It is windy.
3. Modal verbs are followed by infinitive in
both languages making it easy for English
speakers to understand and learn:
Ich kann schwimmen. – I can swim.
Sie muss gehen. – She must go.
The only confusing part here is the word order in
German requiring the verb in infinitive to always be
located at the end of the sentence [2]:
In English such an expression is not possible.
Instead you say half past seven and so English
students would consider more natural to say halb
sieben.
5. In German just like in English there are
regular and irregular verbs. The forms of
many irregular German verbs are similar to
English making them easy to familiarize:
trinken – trank – getrunken (drink – drank – drunk);
schwimmen – schwamm – geschwommen (swim –
swam – swum), singen – sang – gesungen (sing –
sang – sung), ringen – rang – gerungen (ring –rangrung), sinken – sank – gesunken (sink – sank – sunk),
bringen – brachte – gebracht (bring – brought –
brought), schwellen – schwoll – geschwollen (swell –
swelled- swollen), etc.
6. In German there is a tense called Perfekt and
just like Present perfect in English is formed
with the auxiliary verb haben (have) and the
past participle of the main verb. However, in
German this tense can be used with time
expressions such as yesterday, last month
etc. which in English are exclusive for Past
simple tense. Thus the following sentence
could sound unnatural or wrong to English
speakers:
Ich habe ihn gestern gesehen.
Ich muss täglich dreimal eine von diesen Tabletten
nehmen.
This word order is not possible in English where
the infinitive is located directly after the modal verb:
The English version is grammatically incorrect:
I have seen him yesterday.
Conclusion
I must take one of these tablets three times a day.
It is grammatically incorrect to say:
To sum up a short text has been put up together to
show how close the two languages are and how
sometimes English speakers can understand whole
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SCIENTIFIC WORKS
VOLUME LX
„FOOD SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY 2013“
18-19 October 2013, Plovdiv
НАУЧНИ ТРУДОВЕ
ТОМ LX
“ХРАНИТЕЛНА НАУКА, ТЕХНИКА И
ТЕХНОЛОГИИ – 2013“
18-19 октомври 2013, Пловдив
sentences fairly well without actually knowing the
words:
Mein Name ist Thomas Barns. Ich bin 35 Jahre alt.
Ich komme aus England aber ich studiere Medizin in
Hamburg. Mein Hobby ist Surfen. Ich kann nicht
singen, aber ich kann gut schwimmen. Das ist mein
Haus. Im Sommer sitze ich in meinem Garten und
trinke Tee. Und das ist mein Cousin Peter. Wir sind
gute Freunde und gehen oft in die Disko. Und im
Winter gehen wir Ski fahren.
The English translation goes as follows:
My name is Thomas Barns. I am 35 years old. I come
from England but I study Medicine in Hamburg. My
hobby is surfing. I cannot sing but I can swim well.
This is my house. In summer I sit in my garden and
drink tea. And this is my cousin Peter. We are good
friends and we often go to the disco. And in winter
we go skiing.
In conclusion, German and English are two
different languages belonging to two different
nations but having a common background. Therefore
it would be easier for English speaking students to
learn German than French or Italian or Bulgarian
which belong to other language groups.
References
[1] Проф. Арнаудов Ян., Димова Анг., Минкова Г.,
Андреева Л., Наумова М., Минкова Е. София,
2007. Немско-български речник. ИК Емас.
[2] Dreyer-Schmitt, 2000. Lehr-und Übungsbuch der
deutschen Grammatik. Hueber, Lettera.
[3] Gulland Daphne M. and Hinds-Howell David G.,
1994. Dictionary of English Idioms. Penguin books.
[4] ManserMartin H., 1994. Dictionary of Idioms.
Chambers Cambridge.
[5] Orth-Chambah Jutta, Perlmann-Balme Michaela,
Schwalb Susanne, 2000. EM - Brückenkurs und
Abschlusskurs. Deutsch als Fremdsprache für die
Mittelstufe. Arbeitsbuch. Max Hueber Verlag.
[6] Perlmann-Balme Michaela, Schwalb Susanne, 2000.
EM – Hauptkurs. Deutsch als Fremdspracher für die
Mittelstufe. Arbeitsbuch. Hueber.
[7] Prowe Gunhild, Schneider Jill, 1999. Oxford-Duden
German Minidictionary, Second editition.
[8] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germanic_Languages
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