English vs. other West Germanic languages

How many of you native English speakers (who don't speak German or Dutch) are able to understand a sizeable part of Dutch or German? For me at least, I can understand a lot more French in written or spoken form than I can Dutch or German, even though these are suppossed to be my sister languages. Perhaps this is because of my "intermediate" fluency of Spanish.

Real basic vocabulary usually seems to be very similar between English and Dutch/German. Things like the number system, primitive words, and basic formalities. But advanced vocabulary is very distant between English and Dutch/German, and in that case, English almost resembles French more.

Well, try it yourself, I mean you're a native English speaker who doesn't speak German or Dutch right?

A simple one, with a lot of cognates.
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Wat zullen we drinken, zeven dagen lang?
Wat zullen we drinken? Wat een dorst.

Er is genoeg voor iedereen, dus drinken we samen,
sla het vat maar aan.
Ja, drinken we samen, niet alleen.

Dan zullen we werken, zeven dagen lang.
dan zullen we werken, voor elkaar.

Dan is er werk voor iedereen, dus werken we samen,
zeven dagen lang.
Dus werken we samen, niet alleen.

Eerst moeten we vechten, niemand weet hoelang.
Eerst moeten we vechten, voor ons belang.

Voor het geluk van iedereen, dus vechten we samen,
samen staan we sterk.
Dus vechten we samen, niet alleen.
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Just a wild stab at this.

What should we drink, seven days long?
What should we drink, what a thirst.

There is enough for everyone, thus we drink together,
sla het vat maar ann << can't work this one out.>>
Yea, we drink together, not alone.

Then should we work, seven days long.
then should we work, for each other.

Then is there work for everyone, thus we work together,
seven days long.
Thus we work together, not alleen.

First must we fight, no-one <weet> how long.
First must we fight, for our belonging

For it is lucky for everyone, thus we fight together,
together we stand strong.
Thus we fight together, not alone.

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I know nothing of Dutch grammar and sentence structure. Are any of the cognates false friends perhaps?

<<For me at least, I can understand a lot more French in written or spoken form than I can Dutch or German>>

You can understand more spoken French than German or Dutch? Me personally I find written French easier to work out than spoken French. I can't make head nor tail of French when spoken.

Very good,

(Comparative translation, not accurate only cognates)
Wat zullen we drinken, zeven dagen lang?
*What shall we drink, seven days long*
Wat zullen we drinken? Wat een dorst.
*What shall we drink? What a thirst*

Er is genoeg voor iedereen, dus drinken we samen,
*There is enough for everyone, thus drink we together*
sla het vat maar aan.
* / *
Ja, drinken we samen, niet alleen.
*Yes drink we together, not alone*

Dan zullen we werken, zeven dagen lang.
* Then shall we work, seven days long*
dan zullen we werken, voor elkaar.
*then shall we work, for eachother*

Dan is er werk voor iedereen, dus werken we samen,
*Then is there work for everyone, thus work we together
zeven dagen lang.
*seven days long*
Dus werken we samen, niet alleen.
*Thus work we together, not alone*

Eerst moeten we vechten, niemand weet hoelang.
*First must we fight, nobody knowns how long*
Eerst moeten we vechten, voor ons belang.
*First must we fight, for our interest*

Voor het geluk van iedereen, dus vechten we samen,
*For the luck of everyone, thus fight we together*
samen staan we sterk.
*Together stand we strong*
Dus vechten we samen, niet alleen.
*Thus fight we together, not alone.*

Accurate translation:

Wat zullen we drinken, zeven dagen lang?
*What will we drink, for seven days?*
Wat zullen we drinken? Wat een dorst.
*What will we drink? What a thirst*

Er is genoeg voor iedereen, dus drinken we samen,
*There's enough for everyone, so we drink together*
sla het vat maar aan.
*Open up the barrel (with beer)*
Ja, drinken we samen, niet alleen.
*Yeah we'll drink together, not alone.*

Dan zullen we werken, zeven dagen lang.
*Then we'll work for seven days*
dan zullen we werken, voor elkaar.
*We'll work for eachother*
Dan is er werk voor iedereen, dus werken we samen,
zeven dagen lang.
*Then there'll be work for everyone, so we work together, for seven days.*
Dus werken we samen, niet alleen.
*So we'll work together, not alone.

Eerst moeten we vechten, niemand weet hoelang.
*First we'll have to fight, no one knows how long*
Eerst moeten we vechten, voor ons belang.
* First we'll have to fight for our interests.*

Voor het geluk van iedereen, dus vechten we samen,
samen staan we sterk.
* For the hapiness of everyone, so we'll fight together, together we stand strong.*
Dus vechten we samen, niet alleen.
*So we'll fight together, not alone.*



This originally was a Dutch sailors song, originating during the Anglo-Dutch wars. In the eighties it was performed again, by a pop band.

What's "*What a thirst"? You mean: such thirst.

*Open up the barrel (with beer)*
That should be: open a beer barrel/open a barrel of beer.

The first line seems to be an error. However this:

>>That should be: open a beer barrel/open a barrel of beer. <<

Will never do as a translation of "Sla het vat maar aan". Even if my own hasty translation is insufficient as well.

So it doesn't mean to open a barrel that contains beer?

Not exactly no, that's more of a description rather than an accurate translation.

"You can understand more spoken French than German or Dutch? Me personally I find written French easier to work out than spoken French. I can't make head nor tail of French when spoken."

Yeah, believe it or not, I can. I also speak Spanish, although not fluently, so that might have something to do with it.

German and Dutch just sound so alien to me. Basic vocabulary is incredibly similar, like the number system, fire, water, heat, sit, house, etc. But more advanced vocabulary is where English drifts apart, as most of the advanced words in English are actually French loan words, and are not Germanic in origin.

And believe it or not, I find pronouncing French much easier than pronouncing German or Dutch. Spanish and Italian are even easier.

Sla het vat maar aan = schlag das Fass mal/aber an??? = but do hit the barrel???

It's really embarrassing how little I know of other Germanic languages. I can get a point across to Portuguese/Brazilians, to Italians, and even to French people, but I speak like a caveman in German or Dutch.

Today, there was some cute girls at the hotel, who were speaking German.

"Ein, Swei, Drei" Nien, Ja! etc.

So I asked them if they were from Germany?

Forgive my butchery of German spelling but I said:

"Sprechen zie Englisch?"

They didn't. So I asked them if they were from Germany:

I pointed at them, and with a questioning intonation in my voice, I said, "Deutschland?"

They said "ja".

Then I attempted to ask what city they were from. So, I reverted back to my caveman language.

I said with a questioning tone to my voice, "Berlin, Dortmund, Frankfurt,..?"

They realized what I was trying to say and said, "Bonn". In other words, they were from Bonn, Germany.

Then I tried to ask them how old they were. I know German numbers, but I don't know how to ask how old somebody is. So, I pointed at myself and said, "sechzehn".

And then I pointed at them and said, "und zie?"

They still didn't get it, so I started nameing off numbers, "elf, swolf, driezehn, etc.

Then she finally got it.

It turns out she was checking out later on today, so my caveman communication was a fruitless endeavor. My knowledge of other Germanic languages is pathetic. That just shows how distant English is from her sisters.

And she was cute too.... Doh!!!

« elf, swolf, driezehn »

These were the ages you were thinking she might be, then you mention her attractiveness and describe your communication with her as a 'fruitless endeavour? Ach, du meine Güte! LOL.

In my opinion, the things that mostly sounds and look so germanic in english, despite the fact that all the basic vocabulary seem "alien" for a romance speaker, is the high and strong presence of very unusual letters and groups of letters, often at the final, which for me give to the words a very "germanic feel".
Such as :
W..., Wh..., th..., ...ght, sh..., ...tch, ...tsh, oo, ee, ...ing, ..gh, ..ng, ...ften, ..ill, ...all, th... ,etc.
The high frequency of sounds like "I", very comon in german
There is a lot of vocabulary of french/latin or Greek origin whitch helps to catch a lot of more things than in German for exemple - but mainly in the written form. This vocabulary is "germanized" (or more precisely "anglo-saxonized"), especially in speech.
On the other way knowing english helped me to say/understand basic things in German or Dutch.

Generally I would say that english is easier for us to understand the writing form, because of the higher presence of latinate words. That Said I think that it is also possible to catch some cognates in a German or other germanic languages, latin or Greek origins mainly.