Dumb American Tries To Learn German in 20 Min ..

Indexado: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Next story we got Learning German as an American. Now, what I tell y'all with this, all right?

[00:00:13]I have the most versatile channel of all time, all right? You would never guess.

[00:00:18]You would think I'm about to sit up here and learn German. You would never think you would you You never guess that. All right, but we here today, all right?

[00:00:25]I'm a versatile guy, all right? I'm a I like this, I like that, I like you.

[00:00:30]You feel me?

[00:00:31]So, shout out to Rob Words. We're going to see if we can learn some German. Now, I will document my whole process of me learning German, but it won't be on YouTube. I will save it exclusively for my members-only. Um so, if you want to know if you want to help me out and watch me um learn German and stuff like that, so my members-only.

[00:00:53]Link in the description.

[00:00:54]But, we're going to see they say this I can learn it easily starting with this. So, we're going to check it out.

[00:01:02]Hit the like button. Hit that sub button.

[00:01:05]This one's for lovers of English as much as lovers of German. German is hard.

[00:01:12]Learning it means studying an array of rules, mastering three grammatical genders, and knowing whether you're using the nominative, accusative, genitive, or dative. [music] But in this video, we're ignoring all of that.

[00:01:26]>> [music] >> I'm going to give you some simple tricks that are going to help your chances of understanding the German words written in front of [music] you, whether they're on a billboard, a menu, or in a movie.

[00:01:37]By the end, we'll be able to decipher this gibberish to [music] the untrained eye into something that any English speaker will be able to understand. All right.

[00:01:48]>> No prior German knowledge required.

[00:01:50][music] Even if you don't want to learn German, do keep watching though, because the reasons why these tricks work [music] tell us a lot about our own language.

[00:02:00]German and English have history. Los geht's.

[00:02:04]Let's go. Los geht's. So, let's get that mystery document back up. The key to decoding this is mainly going to lie in swapping letters in and out to make these words look more like English. I go into exactly why it's possible and what it's got to do with all of these guys later, but the key point is that English and German are part of the same language family. They share a common ancestor that they both developed from and by retracing that development, you can find consistencies in how they differ. So, for example, where English developed a th sound in certain words, German went off in a slightly different direction and ended up with a d sound instead. So, where English has three, German has drei. Where English has thunder, German has >> [clears throat] >> Donner. English thing is German Ding and where English has the, German has seemingly endless numbers of words of various genders and cases, all of which basically mean the and begin with D. And while we're here actually, German has du and dein, which are two words that have the same ancestry as the age-old English words thou and thine. So, there's our first trick, swapping the D in a German word for th can very often get you closer to the English equivalent.

[00:03:36]Now, linguistically speaking, the d sound is very similar to the t sound.

[00:03:41]The processes in our mouths to produce these sounds are extremely similar. Just a tiny tweak makes a t a d and that's why you can also often swap a German t sound with th as well, particularly in the middle or at the end of words like Mutter, which is mother, and Wert, which is worth.

[00:04:03]This similarity between t and d sounds also opens up another letter swap opportunity, this time between the two languages. German t's can often be swapped for English d's. Take a look at these pairs. Dream, daughter, and deer all have German equivalents beginning with t. Tier is actually the German word for animal, but that is precisely what a deer originally meant in English before we decided to make it mean one animal in particular. In fact, the Dutch word for animal is still deer.

[00:04:39]Very often provides a satisfying midpoint between German and English.

[00:04:43]A bit like it does geographically, I suppose. Now, back to German. The d swap works elsewhere in some words, too.

[00:04:51]Check out under and leader becoming Unter and Leiter. Incidentally, Leiter also means ladder. So, d's and t's again. Now, while we're throwing t's around, that reminds me of another good swap. This time, instead of taking the t's out, we got to slip them in in the place of the s sound made by either one or two s's. Check out how neatly German Wasser becomes English water. The German word for what is was, and if you apply two of our tricks to German das, you get its English equivalent, that. And that, incidentally, in Old English, like das does in German, was the neuter version of the. So, it works then, as well. And another word for I do want to I do want to write to a video about the Old English as well. We still try to learn a history of life, okay? Um so I guess it was English before the English that we use in America. So I do want to react to that. If y'all have a video, let me know in the comments.

[00:05:56]Um I want to react to that video as well.

[00:05:58]There are actually some German dialects that use "vat" and "dat" with a T at the end instead of an S, as does our friend from the low countries, Dutch. Oh, and let's bring in that most dramatic of characters, this fat, wiggly fellow, the S set. Although its name literally means S Z or S Z, it actually replaces a double S. So, if you see it, sub in a double S, then try swapping it with a T. For example, German "Fuss" becomes English "Foot" with a bit of imagination. When I say "Fussball", I think I've seen that before. the vowels. Now let's link some more T's around because adding a T can also help us solve all of these words.

[00:06:42]By subbing it in for the "ts" sound, usually expressed in German with a Z, we can get much closer to the English "two", "two", this time the number, and "tongue".

[00:06:57]And there are plenty of others.

[00:06:58]Right, more of these to come, but I realize it's a lot to take in with all of these consonants flying around. I've become somewhat consonant incontinent, haven't I? So, let's take a break to understand why these tricks work when they do, which I admit is not 100% of the time, but the hit rate is really good. We'll get to the cool reason just as soon as I've introduced you to this video's sponsor, Squarespace.

[00:07:22]Squarespace is where I say enough to say what did I should I swap the D in the middle of "Bruder" in German? The S is that they're all fairy tales featured in the collections of Germany's famous Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Jacob. By the way, "Brother" is another word that our tricks work on because you can just swap the D in the middle of Bruder in German for a th and you basically get brother. Anyway, Jacob here is our hero because as well as working with Gebrüder to bring together and reimagine European fairy tales, he was also a prolific linguist. So, I mentioned earlier how English and German are from the same language family, the Germanic languages.

[00:08:04]In fact, more specifically, they're both Western Germanic languages. And Jacob Grimm was one of the driving forces behind an ingenious theory about how Germanic languages developed together, known as Grimm's Law. Long, long ago, probably in the first millennium BC, the Germanic languages went through a consonant shift that moved their consonant sounds away from those of Proto-Indo-European.

[00:08:30]That's the ancient ancestor Germanic languages share with other language families like the Romance languages, the Celtic languages, Slavic languages, and others like Sanskrit, for example.

[00:08:40]But, the language that became modern High German, which is the most widely spoken form of German and the one we're talking about, went through an extra consonant shift that other Germanic languages, like English, did not. That left German with different consonant sounds to English, but those differences are remarkably consistent. And that's why we can often swap them in and out and get from one language to the other.

[00:09:09]Now you know the theory, let's get on to some more tricks. Another way that English and German diverge >> that languages can go through like different things and stuff. Cuz like if you think about just going back to just in general, you know, how a language is even made, I don't even know how a language is even made, number one, okay?

[00:09:28]So, you go back to all the way to the beginning of languages, then within the language, languages have their own history.

[00:09:36]Then, on top of that, the languages can like change different soundings, and it's just crazy. I ain't going to lie, life is so This is why I'm glad I made this channel, cuz like this life is just so broad and like it's just so much things to learn. Like you would just never not be able to learn everything on planet Earth, right?

[00:09:57]Cuz there's still stuff that you're not even into. You know, like me personally, I don't care about languages. I don't wake up and I think about languages all day, you know? So, I wouldn't even think about how a language was even made. I wouldn't think about how a language went through different periods of times where it sounded different and then it changed to how it is today and different constants. I would never thought of that.

[00:10:19]That's crazy.

[00:10:20]is with the sounds p and f. And it means that a lot of f sounds in German, written with an f, a double f, or pf for f can be swapped with a p to get you closer to the English. For example, German "Pfeffer" is English "pepper".

[00:10:40]"Pfeife" is "pipe". They're both double whammies.

[00:10:43]But German "auf" has the same linguistic root as English "up". And German "Hoffnung" is English "hope". There are so many of these as well. "Schiff" and "ship", "Apfel" and "apple".

[00:10:55]This one really does work. So, remember, when you see English p, the German's f. Okay.

[00:11:03]>> Now, the next swap is a piece of cake.

[00:11:05]Or in German, "ein Stück Kuchen". You can often swap this ch in a German word for a k and get closer to the English. Like "Kuchen" and "cake".

[00:11:18]Also, German "machen" is English "make", although it also means "do" as well.

[00:11:23]"Suchen" is related to English "seek".

[00:11:26]And a German "Buch" is an English "book".

[00:11:30]See, see that's what I am missing. I am missing like the the the the accent. He has the accent.

[00:11:37]You know, cuz I like can't pronounce the word right. I'm trying to pronounce it, but he has like even the das like that's the that's the German accent right there the das.

[00:11:45]Duf.

[00:11:47]You know.

[00:11:49]Buch.

[00:11:50]Buck. Yeah. Do these have that? You basically get to the Dutch version of these words. Check out maken. So, Dutch viewers do feel free to use these cheats with your own language to German. Ich becomes Dutch ik, both of which mean I and incidentally Old English for I as in as in me was ich or something like it. My pronunciation of Old English is always dreadful. Anyway, that's all a Dutch distraction because I was just going to point out that German words that begin with a K often have an English equivalent beginning with C. Cake is a good example of that one as well. A German Kuh is a cow, Kreuz is a cross, and lots of others are really obvious like Kultur and culture. You're unlikely to struggle with ones like that.

[00:12:38]Now, any more for any more? Yes.

[00:12:42]Hanging out I thought the I thought the T's were Oh, no, wait.

[00:12:45]I don't know. The T's are Wait, are T's Wait, I thought Wait, I thought our T's was a S. Oh.

[00:12:54]Now, any more for any more? Yes.

[00:12:57]Hanging out at the end of the alphabet are W and Y. And they hold the key to another couple of handy switcher-roos you can do. We're going to try swapping them in for German G's. Let's take the German word Tag. So, we already know what to do with the T. We're swapping it for a D, aren't we? Remember dream and daughter?

[00:13:20]And now, let's try as I just suggested removing the G and putting in a Y.

[00:13:26]We end up with Na. day.

[00:13:29]What's the German for day?

[00:13:31]It's Tag.

[00:13:32]Another fascinating historical fact, the Old English word for day was this.

[00:13:37]daeg Notice anything? It has a G at the end, although it was actually pronounced more like a Y. It was something like daig.

[00:13:46]Again, my Old English is dreadful.

[00:13:47]Anyway, some more G and Y swaps. German Weg is English way. German sagen is English say. And if the Y doesn't work, just give a W a go.

[00:14:00]German bogen is English bow. bogen Oh, and I've just thought of another good one. Actually, a lot of Bs in German are Vs in English.

[00:14:10]Take a look at the German words for live and indeed for liver, also to give, which is geben, and to stick things together is kleben, which is a relative of English cleave. Cleave is a fascinating word because it can both mean to separate and to put together.

[00:14:28]Have you ever noticed that? Little doggie.

[00:14:32]Um had enough of these yet? Well, don't make me stop before I get to my triple letter score trick with C H T.

[00:14:40]German words containing C H T often have a similar English word with G H T instead. I give you light, both in the sense of the shiny stuff and the stuff that's easy to lift.

[00:14:55]I also give you night, eight, and sight. And there are others.

[00:15:01]One to watch out for though, nicht means not rather than night. And you would be blamed for thinking a knecht was a knight, but it isn't. A knecht is a servant, but in my defense, the words are related. The English knights saw themselves as servants to their sovereign.

[00:15:20]Right, or should that be recht?

[00:15:22]Actually, a German judge is a Richter and they oversee the administration of Recht, so I think that one sort of counts.

[00:15:29]>> what I first thing I want to do is learn the accent.

[00:15:33]Learn how to say the words.

[00:15:36]You know, versus like learning like what words are. Like I feel like learning what words are might be a little hard to do.

[00:15:43]But if I learn how to if I learn how to say like letters, then I'll learn how to say it in a word, right? I have to I have to start very, very, very basic before I can before I can go up. Anyway, right.

[00:16:00]Those are all the tools you need to be a consonant trickster. So, let's put them to the test and bring back this from earlier. And if you hadn't already worked out what this is, it does tell you at the top. Tagesmenü.

[00:16:15]Let's work our magic on the T and swap it for a D, and the G for a Y, and we get something very close to Tagesmenü.

[00:16:23]This is a menu of the day's specials.

[00:16:27]So, what's for starters? Cremiger Karottensuppe. Well, already we see that we can do another G and Y swap in the first word, and we get much closer to the English word creamy. Right. And then we can swap the K at the start of the next word with a C, although I suspect you'd already worked that one out. This is creamy carrot soup. Und is just German for and, and if you need any help with the last word, swap the T at the end for a D, and you can work out that that's bread.

[00:16:59]The next word is a bit tricky. You probably already know what a Schnitzel is, a delicious breaded cutlet. But what about the start of the word though?

[00:17:10]Well, swap the K with a C and the B with a V, and you get calves. Does that look like any English word to you?

[00:17:18]>> Calf.

[00:17:18]How about calves?

[00:17:21]Kalb is the German for veal, the meat of a young cow. Huh? A calf. Meat is just the German word. Now, we came across Pfeffer earlier. It's our double-whammy P swap giving us pepper. And sauce is conveniently the English spelling. There is a German word for sauce that is extremely similar, but the English, or rather French, spelling is also used.

[00:17:45]On to our dessert. It's apple cake. The PF again swapped for a P gives us an apple. Then swapping the K for a C and the CH for a K gets us close enough to cake to work it out like we did earlier on. And then finally to the drink, you actually have a choice of coffee Wasser.

[00:18:05]or water. It's the same as coffee but with a C and that double S for a T.

[00:18:09]Although I'm sure the waiter will let you have both if you ask nicely enough.

[00:18:12]So that's the full menu and there we have it. What I've basically given you there is a lesson on Germanic consonant shift dressed up as some top tips for translating German, but they really do >> I'm definitely not going to learn German in 18 minutes, but that was actually very good though, okay? This This right here is a guide I'm going to try to use going forward.

[00:18:35]Um it's still kind of confusing though, like knowing like which ones to use cuz sometimes you can plug it in, but sometimes it doesn't plug in at the same time. You know, I think it's also too it's the same with English. English is very hard to learn after I had seen people break down English cuz like certain words sound like other words, but then they're spelled like other words and if you try to spell like this word, it's going to sound different because it's a different word. So I know it's different it might be somewhat similar to English. Um but I'm definitely not going to learn it in 18 minutes, but >> double S for T. Although I'm sure the waiter will let you have both if you ask nicely enough. So that's the full menu and there we have it. What I've basically given you there is a lesson on Germanic consonant shift dressed up as some top tips for translating German, but they really do work a lot of the time. If you've enjoyed this, I've done Wow.

[00:19:31]We got French. Okay. Hey, let me know in the comments any other videos I should react to when it comes to learning German. All right, guys, so we will document it on my members only.

[00:19:43]We might make a couple videos and post them on like for public on YouTube. But when I really get into hardcore learning German, we're going to we're going to it's going to be on members only.

[00:19:54]But if I got any more videos y'all want me to react to, hit the like button, hit that sub button. I love y'all. I love y'all.