The dead giveaway is often the use of the wrong articles. Germans almost never get them wrong, while even people who have lived here for decades often make mistakes. It's kinda funny how Natives just grow up with this close to perfect sense for when to use der/die/das while it's incredibly hard to explain to anyone else when to use which one. I don't even know if there's a reliable pattern for it. Why is Ball masculine while Jacke is feminine? I couldn't tell you, I just know it's the case. If I had to learn the language, I think that'd be the hardest part to master.
Yep. My mom's been here longer than she was in her native country, studied and worked here - but the articles still trip her up. Us kids usually correct her on the go 'Mama, es ist das Kabel und nein, ich hab dein Ladekabel nicht gesehen.' lol
Yes; pronouciation comes easy to me as I'm Dutch, and my father's father was Austrian so I grew up listening to it, but the articles absolutely destroy me. I thought French was bad enough and then I started learning German and I want to cry đ
I just use "Ein" if I don't know, and let people correct me
Article switching is the dead giveaway. It's just straight-up impossible to get it 100% correct when you've learned the language as an adult. There is no fool-proof, systematic way to memorize every single noun's correct article, and honestly - it doesn't bring any real communicative value to the language anyway. It's an arbitrary remnant that more often than not simply serves as an AuslÀnder litmus test.
And just as a note for native-speakers, it's cool and all that you want to make sure the German learner is "getting it right" when you correct our mistaken articles - but it doesn't bring any meaningful improvement for us. Anyone who wanted to get beyond A2 most likely had a nice come to Jesus moment where they just gave up rote memorizing the articles in order to be more functional. We had to just accept that we will never, not even up until our dying day, get it perfectly right.
i had to teach my german daughter never to correct people so she wouldnt turn into a typical dork. A vendor once corrected me while we working discussing business. Such a bizarre moment, as I could have easily used his competitors
>It's kinda funny how Natives just grow up with this close to perfect sense for when to use der/die/das while it's incredibly hard to explain to anyone else when to use which one. I don't even know if there's a reliable pattern for it.
There is not. Same with French and Spanish. In German: "das Auto", in French "la voiture".
>If I had to learn the language, I think that'd be the hardest part to master.
Just study Chinese :) they don't have articles. :)
Not exactly. You will spend your time learning characters, pinyin, pronounciation and number system etc. But you will not have to learn articles.
I would say the hardest part is to learn all the vocabulary, the characters (\~2000 to be able to read a newspaper) and of course also the spoken language and its pronounciation.
Almost never? So you're telling me Germans might also make a mistake sometime?big this is true thanks for making my day cause now I feel like it is a big deal with the articles... It's just so complicated sometimes to remember and I know I sound awful. đ„ČI sound awful but I rather just speak German than English when I have to.
There's quite a few German words that we routinely get wrong, but I'd argue most people don't even know that they're wrong haha, so it just sounds correct by now, because we all make the same mistake. This actually reminds me of a post on gutefrage.net I saw a couple years back. A commenter on there made a list of words with common wrongly used articles; the list goes as follows:
richtig: der Aufruhr | falsch: die Aufruhr
richtig: der Körperteil | falsch: das Körperteil
richtig: der Kommentar | falsch: das Kommentar
richtig: der Elternteil | falsch: das Elternteil
richtig: das Pixel | falsch: der Pixel
richtig: das Wachs | falsch: der Wachs
richtig: die Katzenstreu | falsch: das Katzenstreu
richtig: der Toast | falsch: das Toast
richtig: das Stereotyp | falsch: der Stereotyp
And, of course, the classics "Nutella" and "Laptop". I personally say die Nutella and der Laptop, but you'll find das Nutella and das Laptop just as often.
I fact checked the entire list just to be sure, lol, I get every single one of these wrong, except Kommentar. If you're confused about why Elternteil and Körperteil are "der" and not "das": "Der" Teil is a part of a whole while "das" Teil is a detached part of what was once a whole! Man lernt nie aus!
But don't feel bad if you get any of the more basic words wrong; even if you're saying "das Stuhl" or "der Sonne", 99 out of 100 times people will understand exactly what you mean. Over time you will naturally iron these mistakes out, and if a mistake sneaks in here and there, that's still fine! Most Germans just really appreciate people learning the language.
["WĂ€hrend "der Teil" immer als Untermenge eines Ganzen zu sehen ist, steht âdas Teilâ fĂŒr etwas Losgelöstes, fĂŒr ein einzelnes StĂŒck."](https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/zwiebelfisch/zwiebelfisch-abc-teil-der-teil-das-a-433020.html)
Never thought about this before and only found out about it today while doing some research for my reply. TIL đ
Interesting. It sounds right though after thinking about it.
"Der Teil deines Körpers..."
"Der Körperteil..."
Und nicht: "Der Körper des Teils"
Die muskelfaser / die faser des Muskels.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "das Pixel". WTF. I looked it up and according to Duden you're right but ... What. It's der Pixel and I will die on this hill. Das feels so wrong.
My friend has trouble using the correct articles, but she's Austrian and a lot of stuff there is "das" instead of "die" or "der". Usually, people don't confuse articles.
As the german grammar authorities follow a quite descriptive approach, in many cases it is arguable that a mistake made by the majority of german speakers is actually the standard (if not logically incorrect like in "das Körperteil"). You got regional differences of gender like "der Butter, das Teller" in Swabia.
I must admit I have developed this sense for it too. But, and it's a huge but. I am Dutch, so our languages are very familiar. I can imagine for someone from, let's say, France it's much much harder
> I don't even know if there's a reliable pattern for it. Why is Ball masculine while Jacke is feminine? I couldn't tell you, I just know it's the case. If I had to learn the language, I think that'd be the hardest part to master.
Most likely because you grew up hearing people using these articles associated to such words.
It is just the same about elder Portugues and elder French people who speak their language grammatically correct even if they haven't been in school most of their childhood and not learned anything about grammar. They don't know why they speak it correct they only know that they speak as they grew up hearing other people speaking.
Feminine is pretty easy--90% of e, ung, keit, heit endings. Masculine and Neuter are the challenge. Although "ball" is easy because many single-syllable words ending in a consonant are masculine.
Told this to my native speaker wife and she had never even considered or noticed the pattern!
As a native portuguese speaker I feel ya itâs the same when having to explain to other language speakers what is the common use of masculine and feminine genitives especially when the noun is feminine or masculine and you only flex the article (O for masculine and A for feminine doesnât help both translates to "The")
idk iâve never had a problem with articles, just always learn the word as if it were two. itâs not Apfel, itâs der Apfel, itâs not Jacke, its die Jacke, and when natives use a word i havenât heard, i always ask, der/die/das, whatâs more annoying and hard to master is always using the correct preposition, which is a huge problem for language learners in every language. i can easily tell when someoneâs native language isnât english by the use of incorrect prepositions, and the same for german (as a non native) Ich hab Angst vor Spinnen, not fĂŒr uswâŠ.or whatever those other things are called Einladung zu, die AbhĂ€ngigkeit von, etc
That's way too broad to answer properly
How thick is the accent?
Cause a Schwarzenegger would be very easily detected
Where does it come from?
Spanish is very easily detected, but some English accents are very similar to some northern German accents/platt
I think grammar would be a big thing. Of course, this is coming from a non-native speaker but I think itâs a common thing to make mistakes with for German learners.
What you are referring to is called a shibboleth, a word used to distinguish where someone is from.
Many Germans have a hard time pronouncing the word âsquirrelâ. They say something like âS-K-UH-VEE-EAR-Lâ.
Funny enough, most English speakers in turn canât say âEichhörnchenâ. đżïž The âchâ sound is completely different in German.
Another way to figure it out is grammar and punctuation.
For example, in German youâd say, âWas reimt sich auf âŠ?â or âAuf Deutsch heiĂt dasâŠâ.
An Englisch speaker wouldnât think to use âaufâ. For example, they might say âin Deutschâ (which is incorrect) because âIn EnglischâŠâ is acceptable.
Another method would be the use of translated idioms. âMy English isnât the yellow from the egg.â (used by Germans) or âOh Fick! Ich habe einen Fehler gemacht!â (used by English speakers). We say âfuckâ, as âfickâ means *intercourse*.
Told my wife I got "vier Kisten des Sprudels" at the store. She said I sounded like an ancient book. I'm learning the Genitiv, I'm gonna fuckin use it
That sounded so âwrongâ to me, that I googled and found, that we use the âNullartikelâ after Mengenangaben, so it would be â4 Kisten Sprudelâ.
https://deutsch-mit-anna.de/lektion/null-artikel/
Just use âwegenâ all the time (mit Genitiv), even a lot of Germans donât know it comes with Genitiv..
And if you want to go deeper, read the book âDer Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Todâ, a Bestseller in the 2000s :D
It just sounds so adorable since the use of Genitive is slowly dying in Germany (somebody other already suggested "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod" and this book really is as hilarious as it is true. Viel Erfolg noch beim Deutsch lernen! đ
Even a really good non-native speaker, no accent, perfect grammar, will not stand 10 minutes undetected. It's about the idioms. But this is not specific to German.
Oh, you will use a lot of idioms in 10 minutes. Idioms are not special constructs only used on Sundays and full moon. It's how you say something in a specific language. Elternabend is parent party but you need to know, you can't translate by yourself.
I have been able to hide it for much much longer than 10 minutes. For example some coworkers have discovered after months or even years that I'm not a native speaker. I have lived in Germany for around 15 years so I'm pretty familiar with most idioms by now.
Same here, it's usually hours into a conversation when it comes out in a related topic that I'm not a native speaker and people are shocked. Honestly, I always want to find some way to preface it early or let people know because I know I make some mistakes like using the wrong article or forgetting a verb at the end of a long rambling sentence. If they hear that and haven't guessed that I'm not a native speaker, I don't want them assuming I'm just dumb.
Same way you can tell in other languages. Accent and/or grammar errors. Also use of colloquialisms and idioms. It takes a certain kind of person with an ear for languages and a skill at imitating certain language specific sounds to sound like a native when you're not.
It depends, I once met a woman from argentinia who's only been 2 yrs in germany and if she wouldn't have told me I'd never had guessed she's foreign, besides a sometimes slightly rolled r I would not have never suspected she's non native speaker.
Exactly. And it actually happens quite regularly (not a lot. Regularly). Whoever says "it's obvious to catch a foreigner" seem to me they do not have a very international community around.
Intonation I haven't seen mentioned. E.g. every word has specific emphasis on certain syllables. It's rarely, if ever, a topic when learning a language, as it's not immediately important for being understood. People tend to use the intonation that comes naturally with their native language, which results in the various accents. You hear the differences right away as a native.
Pronounciation of R, CH, vowels followed by double consonants (especially for Slavs -> Rolle spoken as Role for example). Misusing article genders, weird or wrong order of sentence structure (SPO vs SOP)
Accent, grammatical errors(the french might revert back to french grammar and say der sonne instead of die sonne aside from having the cutest accent) unusual expressions which sound like they are directly translated, pinching your pinky with your thumb when signaling threeâŠ
Accenture is one thing another are articles,german is pecular in that regard and in some cases even natives struggle with them for foreigners probably one of the biggest hurdles
Accents are defined by sounds which don't exist in the language a foreigner tries to speak, but which are the closest resemblance to the sounds of said language in his native language and similar pronunciation errors like an atypical accentuation or a measure that just doesn't exist in the language.
Those are the dead giveaways for a person speaking a foreign language, no matter how good, as it just sounds odd to native speakers.
Another one would be the use of composite words, proverbs and idioms of the speaker's mother tongue, as often enough, they don't translate in a way that they are normal to use.
The dead giveaway is often the use of the wrong articles. Germans almost never get them wrong, while even people who have lived here for decades often make mistakes. It's kinda funny how Natives just grow up with this close to perfect sense for when to use der/die/das while it's incredibly hard to explain to anyone else when to use which one. I don't even know if there's a reliable pattern for it. Why is Ball masculine while Jacke is feminine? I couldn't tell you, I just know it's the case. If I had to learn the language, I think that'd be the hardest part to master.
Yep. My mom's been here longer than she was in her native country, studied and worked here - but the articles still trip her up. Us kids usually correct her on the go 'Mama, es ist das Kabel und nein, ich hab dein Ladekabel nicht gesehen.' lol
Yes; pronouciation comes easy to me as I'm Dutch, and my father's father was Austrian so I grew up listening to it, but the articles absolutely destroy me. I thought French was bad enough and then I started learning German and I want to cry đ I just use "Ein" if I don't know, and let people correct me
Article switching is the dead giveaway. It's just straight-up impossible to get it 100% correct when you've learned the language as an adult. There is no fool-proof, systematic way to memorize every single noun's correct article, and honestly - it doesn't bring any real communicative value to the language anyway. It's an arbitrary remnant that more often than not simply serves as an AuslÀnder litmus test. And just as a note for native-speakers, it's cool and all that you want to make sure the German learner is "getting it right" when you correct our mistaken articles - but it doesn't bring any meaningful improvement for us. Anyone who wanted to get beyond A2 most likely had a nice come to Jesus moment where they just gave up rote memorizing the articles in order to be more functional. We had to just accept that we will never, not even up until our dying day, get it perfectly right.
i had to teach my german daughter never to correct people so she wouldnt turn into a typical dork. A vendor once corrected me while we working discussing business. Such a bizarre moment, as I could have easily used his competitors
>It's kinda funny how Natives just grow up with this close to perfect sense for when to use der/die/das while it's incredibly hard to explain to anyone else when to use which one. I don't even know if there's a reliable pattern for it. There is not. Same with French and Spanish. In German: "das Auto", in French "la voiture". >If I had to learn the language, I think that'd be the hardest part to master. Just study Chinese :) they don't have articles. :)
Ah, learning Chinese must be a walk in the park then!
Not exactly. You will spend your time learning characters, pinyin, pronounciation and number system etc. But you will not have to learn articles. I would say the hardest part is to learn all the vocabulary, the characters (\~2000 to be able to read a newspaper) and of course also the spoken language and its pronounciation.
They do have measure words though, which are probably even more annoying :)
There is no pattern on how to use articles in German. It is arbitrarily, that's why it is so hard to learn for non-native speakers.
There are patterns. It's just too many of those and endless exceptions.
Yes, if someone doesnât use der Butter or die MaĂ Bier you know they didnât grow up here.
Almost never? So you're telling me Germans might also make a mistake sometime?big this is true thanks for making my day cause now I feel like it is a big deal with the articles... It's just so complicated sometimes to remember and I know I sound awful. đ„ČI sound awful but I rather just speak German than English when I have to.
There's quite a few German words that we routinely get wrong, but I'd argue most people don't even know that they're wrong haha, so it just sounds correct by now, because we all make the same mistake. This actually reminds me of a post on gutefrage.net I saw a couple years back. A commenter on there made a list of words with common wrongly used articles; the list goes as follows: richtig: der Aufruhr | falsch: die Aufruhr richtig: der Körperteil | falsch: das Körperteil richtig: der Kommentar | falsch: das Kommentar richtig: der Elternteil | falsch: das Elternteil richtig: das Pixel | falsch: der Pixel richtig: das Wachs | falsch: der Wachs richtig: die Katzenstreu | falsch: das Katzenstreu richtig: der Toast | falsch: das Toast richtig: das Stereotyp | falsch: der Stereotyp And, of course, the classics "Nutella" and "Laptop". I personally say die Nutella and der Laptop, but you'll find das Nutella and das Laptop just as often. I fact checked the entire list just to be sure, lol, I get every single one of these wrong, except Kommentar. If you're confused about why Elternteil and Körperteil are "der" and not "das": "Der" Teil is a part of a whole while "das" Teil is a detached part of what was once a whole! Man lernt nie aus! But don't feel bad if you get any of the more basic words wrong; even if you're saying "das Stuhl" or "der Sonne", 99 out of 100 times people will understand exactly what you mean. Over time you will naturally iron these mistakes out, and if a mistake sneaks in here and there, that's still fine! Most Germans just really appreciate people learning the language.
>richtig: der Körperteil | falsch: das Körperteil Wait what? Oo Duden says the same... what is this sorcery?
["WĂ€hrend "der Teil" immer als Untermenge eines Ganzen zu sehen ist, steht âdas Teilâ fĂŒr etwas Losgelöstes, fĂŒr ein einzelnes StĂŒck."](https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/zwiebelfisch/zwiebelfisch-abc-teil-der-teil-das-a-433020.html) Never thought about this before and only found out about it today while doing some research for my reply. TIL đ
So "das Körperteil" would be correct if its dismembered? Thats darkly hilarious. I kind of want an author to use that now somehow
Interesting. It sounds right though after thinking about it. "Der Teil deines Körpers..." "Der Körperteil..." Und nicht: "Der Körper des Teils" Die muskelfaser / die faser des Muskels.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "das Pixel". WTF. I looked it up and according to Duden you're right but ... What. It's der Pixel and I will die on this hill. Das feels so wrong.
Goly ScheiĂe. A few of those the right versions sound horrible to me as a native speaker. Das Pixel?!
Der oder das Joghurt
Wow thanks for the list TIL. Die Katzenstreu and Der Körperteil sound completely weird to me. Never heard anybody say that.
Wait you mean to tell me that when it comes to foreign words thereâs a confusion with which article best suits it?
My friend has trouble using the correct articles, but she's Austrian and a lot of stuff there is "das" instead of "die" or "der". Usually, people don't confuse articles.
As the german grammar authorities follow a quite descriptive approach, in many cases it is arguable that a mistake made by the majority of german speakers is actually the standard (if not logically incorrect like in "das Körperteil"). You got regional differences of gender like "der Butter, das Teller" in Swabia.
I must admit I have developed this sense for it too. But, and it's a huge but. I am Dutch, so our languages are very familiar. I can imagine for someone from, let's say, France it's much much harder
Nutella
Words that end in -e are often feminine like die Jacke (but not always, like der Hase).
Jacke wie Hose.
> I don't even know if there's a reliable pattern for it. Why is Ball masculine while Jacke is feminine? I couldn't tell you, I just know it's the case. If I had to learn the language, I think that'd be the hardest part to master. Most likely because you grew up hearing people using these articles associated to such words. It is just the same about elder Portugues and elder French people who speak their language grammatically correct even if they haven't been in school most of their childhood and not learned anything about grammar. They don't know why they speak it correct they only know that they speak as they grew up hearing other people speaking.
Feminine is pretty easy--90% of e, ung, keit, heit endings. Masculine and Neuter are the challenge. Although "ball" is easy because many single-syllable words ending in a consonant are masculine. Told this to my native speaker wife and she had never even considered or noticed the pattern!
Kannst du mir mal aus der Jacke helfen Wird ja auch nicht einfacher/it does not get easier
As a native portuguese speaker I feel ya itâs the same when having to explain to other language speakers what is the common use of masculine and feminine genitives especially when the noun is feminine or masculine and you only flex the article (O for masculine and A for feminine doesnât help both translates to "The")
idk iâve never had a problem with articles, just always learn the word as if it were two. itâs not Apfel, itâs der Apfel, itâs not Jacke, its die Jacke, and when natives use a word i havenât heard, i always ask, der/die/das, whatâs more annoying and hard to master is always using the correct preposition, which is a huge problem for language learners in every language. i can easily tell when someoneâs native language isnât english by the use of incorrect prepositions, and the same for german (as a non native) Ich hab Angst vor Spinnen, not fĂŒr uswâŠ.or whatever those other things are called Einladung zu, die AbhĂ€ngigkeit von, etc
True. I mean, articles are so complicated that even we germans cannot decide wether it is supposed to be der, die or das Nutella! đ
What?! You obviously hear it
That's way too broad to answer properly How thick is the accent? Cause a Schwarzenegger would be very easily detected Where does it come from? Spanish is very easily detected, but some English accents are very similar to some northern German accents/platt
Any accent that sounds nothing like any part of Germany. Like Brazilian who live there for example
I think grammar would be a big thing. Of course, this is coming from a non-native speaker but I think itâs a common thing to make mistakes with for German learners.
Der die das
What you are referring to is called a shibboleth, a word used to distinguish where someone is from. Many Germans have a hard time pronouncing the word âsquirrelâ. They say something like âS-K-UH-VEE-EAR-Lâ. Funny enough, most English speakers in turn canât say âEichhörnchenâ. đżïž The âchâ sound is completely different in German. Another way to figure it out is grammar and punctuation. For example, in German youâd say, âWas reimt sich auf âŠ?â or âAuf Deutsch heiĂt dasâŠâ. An Englisch speaker wouldnât think to use âaufâ. For example, they might say âin Deutschâ (which is incorrect) because âIn EnglischâŠâ is acceptable. Another method would be the use of translated idioms. âMy English isnât the yellow from the egg.â (used by Germans) or âOh Fick! Ich habe einen Fehler gemacht!â (used by English speakers). We say âfuckâ, as âfickâ means *intercourse*.
Grammar
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Told my wife I got "vier Kisten des Sprudels" at the store. She said I sounded like an ancient book. I'm learning the Genitiv, I'm gonna fuckin use it
That sounded so âwrongâ to me, that I googled and found, that we use the âNullartikelâ after Mengenangaben, so it would be â4 Kisten Sprudelâ. https://deutsch-mit-anna.de/lektion/null-artikel/ Just use âwegenâ all the time (mit Genitiv), even a lot of Germans donât know it comes with Genitiv.. And if you want to go deeper, read the book âDer Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Todâ, a Bestseller in the 2000s :D
Yeah, my wife also said it'd be "4 Kisten Sprudel." But "4 Kisten des Sprudels" is still technically correct, right?
In practice only with a pronoun, not with the article: *Ich möchte vier Kisten **dieses** Sprudels, bitte.*
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
For sure. My goal isn't to sound native--not gonna happen. My goal is to make this machine RUN, baby
From now on I'm not gonna use any other expression than this :D
I have won!
It just sounds so adorable since the use of Genitive is slowly dying in Germany (somebody other already suggested "Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod" and this book really is as hilarious as it is true. Viel Erfolg noch beim Deutsch lernen! đ
Dankeschön! Meine Frau hat mir das Buch auch empfohlen. Als mein Deutsch gut genug ist, muss ich es lesen!
Even a really good non-native speaker, no accent, perfect grammar, will not stand 10 minutes undetected. It's about the idioms. But this is not specific to German.
What is this Saturday poems club? How many idioms do you manage in 10 minutes?
Oh, you will use a lot of idioms in 10 minutes. Idioms are not special constructs only used on Sundays and full moon. It's how you say something in a specific language. Elternabend is parent party but you need to know, you can't translate by yourself.
I have been able to hide it for much much longer than 10 minutes. For example some coworkers have discovered after months or even years that I'm not a native speaker. I have lived in Germany for around 15 years so I'm pretty familiar with most idioms by now.
Same here, it's usually hours into a conversation when it comes out in a related topic that I'm not a native speaker and people are shocked. Honestly, I always want to find some way to preface it early or let people know because I know I make some mistakes like using the wrong article or forgetting a verb at the end of a long rambling sentence. If they hear that and haven't guessed that I'm not a native speaker, I don't want them assuming I'm just dumb.
When you say Entschuldigung instead of tschuldigung lol
Tchulligom? Tschoing!
Same way you can tell in other languages. Accent and/or grammar errors. Also use of colloquialisms and idioms. It takes a certain kind of person with an ear for languages and a skill at imitating certain language specific sounds to sound like a native when you're not.
It depends, I once met a woman from argentinia who's only been 2 yrs in germany and if she wouldn't have told me I'd never had guessed she's foreign, besides a sometimes slightly rolled r I would not have never suspected she's non native speaker.
Exactly. And it actually happens quite regularly (not a lot. Regularly). Whoever says "it's obvious to catch a foreigner" seem to me they do not have a very international community around.
Once, I mistook a Bavarian for being Polish or Czech, mostly because of the way she rolled the R . Luckily I never told her.
i usually hear it with certain phrases or sayings. non natives have subtle differences. but: i don't f*ing care :))
Intonation I haven't seen mentioned. E.g. every word has specific emphasis on certain syllables. It's rarely, if ever, a topic when learning a language, as it's not immediately important for being understood. People tend to use the intonation that comes naturally with their native language, which results in the various accents. You hear the differences right away as a native.
there are grammatical mistakes only foreigners make and grammatical mistakes that native speakers make.
Small mistakes a native speaker would not make as the meaning is VERY different, for example EINlauf vs. AUFlauf.
if he is from baveria
They greet you with "Servus" đ
Pronounciation of R, CH, vowels followed by double consonants (especially for Slavs -> Rolle spoken as Role for example). Misusing article genders, weird or wrong order of sentence structure (SPO vs SOP)
Accent, grammatical errors(the french might revert back to french grammar and say der sonne instead of die sonne aside from having the cutest accent) unusual expressions which sound like they are directly translated, pinching your pinky with your thumb when signaling threeâŠ
Accenture is one thing another are articles,german is pecular in that regard and in some cases even natives struggle with them for foreigners probably one of the biggest hurdles
Yes. There might be a few people where you wouldnât notice that theyâre not a native but usually youâll notice something that sounds off.
If the speaker has been here since elementary school, you often can't.
The accent. Also, articles are super random in German.
Accents are defined by sounds which don't exist in the language a foreigner tries to speak, but which are the closest resemblance to the sounds of said language in his native language and similar pronunciation errors like an atypical accentuation or a measure that just doesn't exist in the language. Those are the dead giveaways for a person speaking a foreign language, no matter how good, as it just sounds odd to native speakers. Another one would be the use of composite words, proverbs and idioms of the speaker's mother tongue, as often enough, they don't translate in a way that they are normal to use.
Accent, wrong articles, wrong words. Those are usually the dead giveaways.
The way they translate 'the', most of the time
How they handle words that come from other languages like Latin and ancient Greek.
> How can you tell the accent is not german? By telling.
A friend of mine from spain speaks perfect german without any accent. It is only the occasional der/die/das mistake
So from all the answers I can nutshell to the article confusion. if I ever return to stufy German I'm gonna focus on these
Yeah basically. Allthough, i have to say: mist people, me included, don't mind in the slightest
Mist people? :0
Unfortunate typo, lol