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.

German Word Order – What's really going on. When it comes to the order of boxes in a German sentence, there aren't really rules. There are tendencies. Time info often comes before place, the dative object often comes before the accusative object, the subject often comes very early.

Estimated Hours Of Practice The FSI estimates that German takes approximately 30 weeks, or 750 classroom hours to learn. This study was conducted on a group of language students who spent 25 hours per week in class, and three hours daily on individual practice.

I feel knowing some German allows more opportunities than knowing no German, like reading signs and museum displays. More importantly, it allows me to speak with Germans who have been incredibly kind. True most of the more in depth conversations have been in English, but I feel by speaking German, I've broken the ice.