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As a foreigner living and working in Germany for a number a years, reading succinct explanations of German grammar is actually quite refreshing. Personally, gr

As a foreigner living and working in Germany for a number a years, reading succinct explanations of German grammar is actually quite refreshing. Personally, grammatical concepts in English for me are quite challenging. Now try and learn a language that has complex grammar rules when you don't _actually_ know your own rules is quite imitating.

org3432 8y ago
I found I understood English grammar better after learning German since it's explicit about the cases, syntax, nouns etc. It sort of revealed what the underlining mechanism was that in English was invisible.
- ozzmotik 8y ago
  seconded; before learning another language that made it explicit rather than implicit, i sorta just took the linguistic structures of English for granted. it wasn't until I studied German that I even really began to truly understand the nature of grammar. I knew it well enough to use proper grammar but not explicitly enough to actually explain why something that was proper (or improper) was what it was
noonespecial 8y ago
Same here. German always follows the rules. You might not like the rules, but it always follows the rules!
- louisswiss 8y ago
  Until it doesn't. Is it das Nutella or die Nutella?
  - LolNoGenerics 8y ago
    When is it ever die nutella?
    - stesch 8y ago
      When you have a stomach ache from eating too much of it.
  - wolfgke 8y ago
    > Is it das Nutella or die Nutella? > https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nutella&oldid=181164035#Genus_%E2%80%93_der,_die_oder_das_Nutella https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nutella&oldid=181...
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
  - _Microft 8y ago
    The Duden [0] wrote [1]: Kein Geheimnis dagegen ist, dass das Genus für den Marken- bzw. Produktnamen nicht festgelegt ist. Häufig wird die weibliche Form die Nutella verwendet, wohl abgeleitet von der aus dem Italienischen stammenden femininen Endung -ella. Es tritt aber auch die sächliche Form das Nutella auf. Das Neutrum wird häufig auch bei Fremdwörtern gewählt, wenn es keine starken Gründe für das Maskulinum oder das Femininum gibt. Seltener kommt der Nutella vor. It translates to: It's not a secret that the gender of brand and product names is not defined. Often, the female form of "die Nutella" is used, most likely derived from the italian female ending "-ella". The neuter gender ("das Nutella") also appears. The neuter gender is often chosen for borrowed words when there's no strong reason for masculine or feminine. "Der Nutella" is rarely used. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duden [1] https://www.duden.de/aktuelle_meldungen/Alles-Gute-zum-Geburtstag https://www.duden.de/aktuelle_meldungen/Alles-Gute-zum-Gebur...

org3432 8y ago

I found I understood English grammar better after learning German since it's explicit about the cases, syntax, nouns etc. It sort of revealed what the underlining mechanism was that in English was invisible.

ozzmotik 8y ago
seconded; before learning another language that made it explicit rather than implicit, i sorta just took the linguistic structures of English for granted. it wasn't until I studied German that I even really began to truly understand the nature of grammar. I knew it well enough to use proper grammar but not explicitly enough to actually explain why something that was proper (or improper) was what it was

noonespecial 8y ago

Same here. German always follows the rules. You might not like the rules, but it always follows the rules!

louisswiss 8y ago
Until it doesn't. Is it das Nutella or die Nutella?
- LolNoGenerics 8y ago
  When is it ever die nutella?
  - stesch 8y ago
    When you have a stomach ache from eating too much of it.
- wolfgke 8y ago
  > Is it das Nutella or die Nutella? > https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nutella&oldid=181164035#Genus_%E2%80%93_der,_die_oder_das_Nutella https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nutella&oldid=181...
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- _Microft 8y ago
  The Duden [0] wrote [1]: Kein Geheimnis dagegen ist, dass das Genus für den Marken- bzw. Produktnamen nicht festgelegt ist. Häufig wird die weibliche Form die Nutella verwendet, wohl abgeleitet von der aus dem Italienischen stammenden femininen Endung -ella. Es tritt aber auch die sächliche Form das Nutella auf. Das Neutrum wird häufig auch bei Fremdwörtern gewählt, wenn es keine starken Gründe für das Maskulinum oder das Femininum gibt. Seltener kommt der Nutella vor. It translates to: It's not a secret that the gender of brand and product names is not defined. Often, the female form of "die Nutella" is used, most likely derived from the italian female ending "-ella". The neuter gender ("das Nutella") also appears. The neuter gender is often chosen for borrowed words when there's no strong reason for masculine or feminine. "Der Nutella" is rarely used. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duden [1] https://www.duden.de/aktuelle_meldungen/Alles-Gute-zum-Geburtstag https://www.duden.de/aktuelle_meldungen/Alles-Gute-zum-Gebur...