Sage-Tips

Is German spelling easy?

First of all, the German word for “spelling” is Rechtschreibung. In fancy linguistic terms, this is known as shallow orthography. Languages with shallow orthography, such as Spanish and German, are easy to read and spell. Deep orthography languages, such as French and English, are a bit harder.

Does English have spelling rules?

Words in English are not always spelled as they are pronounced. Spelling in English follows some basic rules and the majority of English words (around 75\%) follow these rules. You can learn the rules but there are always exceptions to the rules that need to be learned too.

Is English taken from German?

English has its roots in the Germanic languages, from which German and Dutch also developed, as well as having many influences from romance languages such as French. (Romance languages are so called because they are derived from Latin which was the language spoken in ancient Rome.)

Why is German spelling so different from English?

One reason why English spelling can be so tricky is that we often have different letters that lead to the same spoken sounds (compare “vain,” “vein” and “vane”) or letter combinations that lead to different spoken sounds in different contexts (compare “vein,” “weird” and “atheist”). German has a lot less of this.

When did the new spelling rules come into effect in Germany?

But despite the controversy, and even a Sept. 27, 1998 vote against the reforms in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, the new spelling rules have been judged valid in recent court rulings. The new rules officially went into effect on Aug. 1, 1998, for all government agencies and schools.

Are the spelling changes in Germany nicht gut?

A huge 70 percent rated the spelling changes as nicht gut . But despite the controversy, and even a Sept. 27, 1998 vote against the reforms in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, the new spelling rules have been judged valid in recent court rulings.

How can i Improve my German spelling?

One way to see how German spelling matches the words you hear is by watching expertly captioned, native-speaker media—like the kind you’ll find on FluentU. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons .