When learning Germanic and Romance languages, English speakers are fortunate to find many “friends” or true cognates. These make memorization certainly a much easier task.
On the other hand, there are also “false friends,” or words or expressions that look (and maybe sound) alike, but mean something else.
When the meanings are quite different, they can put you on a wrong track entirely. However, this very fact - once you realize your mistake - will also help you recall them better later on.
The “false friends” that sound alike in German as in English (even if spelled somewhat differently) pose a particular problem during conversations. You don't have much time to figure out their meaning from the context. When you read a text, on the other hand, you can look up the meaning at your leisure.
If you're traveling to Germany or meeting up with German-speaking friends or business partners, a quick look through the list beforehand may prevent some misunderstandings. There are quite a number of inexpensive “false friends” books on Amazon, just in case you'd like to discover more.
Here are twenty common German words and their English counterparts:
Identical Spelling – Different meaning
You'll notice that some words are pronounced exactly, or nearly, the same in English and in German - gift, mist, handy, spot, chef, rock - while others are spelled the same, but are pronounced differently - taste, rat, bad, etc.
das Gift (poison) - gift (das Geschenk) Die Polizei fand Gift im Wandschrank. (The police found poison in the wall cupboard.)
der Mist (dung, junk) - mist (der Nebel) Räum doch gefälligst deinen Mist auf. (If you don't mind, clean up your junk.)
das Handy (cell phone) - handy (adj, praktisch) Hast du mein Handy gesehen? (Have you seen my cell phone?)
der Spot (TV ad, spotlight) - spot (der Fleck, der Ort) Hast du den neuen Spot von Apple gesehen? (Did you see the new Apple TV ad?)
der Chef (boss) - chef (der Küchenchef) Heute war unser Chef gar nicht im Büro. (Today our boss wasn't in the office.)
der Rock (skirt) - rock (der Fels) Meine Tochter hat sich einen neuen Rock gekauft. (My daughter bought a new skirt for herself.)
die Taste (key [piano/computer]) - taste (der Geschmack) Du musst diese Taste drücken. (You have to hit this key.)
der Rat (advice, council) - rat (die Ratte) Ich brauche deinen Rat. (I need your advice.)
die Wand (wall) - wand (der Zauberstab) Stell doch den Stuhl gegen die Wand.) (Go ahead and put the chair against the wall.)
das Bad (bath) - bad (schlecht) ein Zimmer mit Bad (a room with bath)
der Stock (stick, floor level) - stock (der Vorrat) Ich wohne im vierten Stock. (I live on the fourth level.)
herb (dry, tart) - herb (das Kraut) Das ist ein richtig herber Wein! (That's a really dry wine!)
Modified Spelling – Changed Meaning
Even with different spelling, but similar sound, some German words can put you on the wrong track. The first one (“eventuell”) has definitely tripped up plenty of English and German speakers alike and caused confusion and misunderstandings.
And if you are trying to practice your best German by asking: “Das Menü, bitte,” you may just wonder why the waiter suddenly brings you the daily special and not the menu!
eventuell (maybe) - eventually (endlich) Ja gut, das werden wir eventuell machen. (Fine, maybe we'll do that.)
das Menü (daily special) - menu (die Speisekarte, das Menü [computer]) Zweimal das Menü, bitte. (Two daily specials, please.)
aktuell (current, topical) - actual (wirklich) aktuelle Nachrichten (current news)
groß (big, tall) – gross (ekelhaft, grob) Die Frau dort drüben ist sehr groß! (The woman over there is very tall)
brav (well-behaved) - brave (tapfer) Die Kinder waren heute sehr brav. (The children were very well-behaved today.)
das Lokal (pub, bistro) - local (einheimisch) Warst du schon mal in dem Lokal dort drüben? (Have you been to that pub over there?)
das Gymnasium (high school) - gym (die Turnhalle) Mein Sohn geht ins Gymnasium. (My son attends high school.) die Rente (pension) - rent (die Miete) Mein Vater geht in Rente. (My dad's retiring.)
When you're taking part in a conversation, language seems to race by at high speed. German, especially, poses a challenge because of its word order. You're often waiting for the verb at the end of a sentence to make sense of what was just said.
(With German double-digit numbers, you also have to wait, and listen for the second digit before you know what the number is.)
In a stream of words, familiar-sounding ones always provide momentary relief. However, when a word has a vastly different meaning from what you think, then what follows may not make much sense at all.
English and German have plenty more false friends (also called “false cognates”) than the ones listed above. With time you'll get to know many of them.
A good strategy is to always pay attention to the context. You may identify a word as a false friend, if it just doesn't seem to fit the context at all. And don't hesitate to ask for the meaning of a word, when it doesn't make sense to you!
True Cognates
German and English also share a large number of “true cognates” - words that are similar in form and meaning and have the same root.
When you google “English German cognates,” you'll find lists with hundreds of items. Even when there's been a sound shift, cognates are easy to recognize, such as: • “das “Brot” (bread) • “der Kuss” (kiss) • “das Netz” (net) • “das Papier” (paper) • “der Stuhl” (stool, chair) • “das Haus” (house),
Plus most of the numbers, and many more. Paying attention to both true and false cognates can provide you with an easy tool for memorizing German vocabulary.
You Want to Practice Your German?
Our games and travel-story based courses are also a great way to practice your German.
With our German 1 and 2 courses you'll learn and practice German for FREE - with stories of a young man traveling through Germany and - its sequel - solving a "Blüten"-mystery in Berlin. "The Story" and easy games will let you forget that you are actually learning German!
And you can also listen to both Stories by clicking on German 1 or German 2 on our Podcast page
A recent YouTube video by Tom Scott “Why Can't Adults Learn Language Like Children?” had me also look at that question again. Tom gives a engaging quick overview of the various language learning theories that are popular today.
He uses the example of how difficult it is for English-speaking adults to distinguish between a “p” and a “ph” sound. Hindi language speakers apparently learn this distinction as children.
Tom concludes that “categorical perception” may be one explanation for the difficulties that adults have in learning a second language. Categorical perception (CP) was actually a new concept for me and I wanted to understand it a little better. Here is what I have learned so far about CP.
Categorical Perception
R.Goldstone and A. Hendrickson, in a 2009 paper, define “categorical perception" as “the phenomenon by which the categories possessed by an observer influences the observers perception.”
The highly technical paper notes that “cross-cultural evidence suggests that the learning of a particular language influences the pattern of discriminability between speech sounds.” In other words:
Once you have learned your native language(s) (yes, many children learn more than one), then the sound categories you have acquired as a child make it difficult for you to hear (and learn) the sound differences of other languages as an adult.
In the YouTube video linked above, Tom Scott cites the example of the “p/ph” sound difference that English speakers can barely hear. Similarly, speakers of Chinese and Japanese have difficulty hearing and pronouncing the difference between the “l” and “r” sounds.
Practically all foreign languages have certain sounds that do not exist in one's native language. Some we may be able to recognize and reproduce easily.Others we may never learn completely.
Color categories are another famous example. Which shades will look alike to you, or which you will perceive and name as different colors, depends on the language you speak and in which culture you have grown up.
The concept of CP suggests that as adults we have already categorized the world around us. And CP may therefore provide ONE explanation, why adults have more difficulty in learning a second language than children.
Listening and Speaking
The examples cited above relate to listening. Once we have acquired the sounds of our native language (and “categorized” them) as children, we seem to start tuning out the sounds of other languages.
Let's not forget though that it takes children more or less the first 2 years of their life with constant listening and practicing to remember and internalize these sounds. It takes them additional time before they can speak in full sentences.
Speaking requires children to both listen and imitate the sounds they hear. Once we have learned to produce the sounds of our native language as children, we find it harder as adults to reproduce the sounds of other languages.
The ability to discern different sounds and reproduce them automatically diminishes with children between the age of 8 to 10 years. Apparently, by the time they are teenagers that automatic ability all but disappears.
But with deliberate practice adults can still make progress. Attention to “mouth mechanics” can be very helpful, as we point out in a recent post. When we understand and practice how to produce a “foreign” sound, we can often get pretty close to native pronunciation. With time, we also begin to hear the differences.
Second-Language Acquisition
When looking into the various theories of second-language acquisition, I found that they fall into either a linguistic or a psychological camp. Just check out this Amazon page and you'll see many well-known names in those fields.
While these books make interesting reading for the language aficionado, they probably help you little in learning a second language faster.There does not seem to be any general agreement on the best method by which adults can learn a second language.
And, because of the changes our brain goes through as we grow up - think CP - there is NO method that lets adults learn exactly like a child, whether it's languages, mathematics, science or anything else for that matter.
What is helpful, however, are descriptions by people who themselves have successfully learned foreign languages, as adults. Opera singer and polyglot Gabriel Wyner's “Fluent Forever”, for example, combines useful learning tips with explanations of how our memory works. It's an engaging and worthwhile read for serious learners.
Interestingly enough, Wyner does not seem convinced that the children's language “learning machine” disappears in adults.
He traces a child's learning advantage over an adult to his or her longer exposure to language in their early years. Adults can typically commit only limited hours when learning a second language.
Benny Lewis, "the Irish Polyglot", in Fluent in 3 Months Premium describes his own strategies and experiences in learning a dozen languages or so after he turned 21. His tips and techniques to become fluent are fun to watch and listen to. They are also a great motivator for many committed learners.
Common to both books is this: Using various strategies, methods and techniques can accelerate your learning quite a lot. Key is using them often and consistently, always remembering the Nike tag line: JUST DO IT!
The Good News for Adults
Even if we, as adults, cannot commit the same amount of time to language learning as children, we have other advantages: We can already read and write our native language, we can devise learning strategies, use various learning resources, see grammar patterns etc.
And if we accept findings that CP will make listening and producing new sounds more difficult, we also know that we can learn to overcome such shortcomings.
A personal experience can illustrate how important it is to listen a lot to a foreign language. When I started to learn Italian a few years ago, (even after having completed all 90 lessons of the three (3) Italian Pimsleur courses), I only seemed to hear gibberish when listening to fast-talking Italian radio or TV programs.
But after a couple of weeks of daily listening, I started to discern distinct sound clusters and words. After a while, I began to understand some of the words, then entire sentences. The same happened recently again with Spanish.
No question, Spanish and Italian sounds are easier for English speakers than those of Asian languages, but the point holds: We can learn to distinguish foreign sounds with practice and effort.
So yes: Learning a second language for adults requires time and effort. However, with the right tools and strategies, adults can make good progress and achieve a high level of understanding, and - with enough conversation practice - even fluency.
Bio: Peter Rettig is the co-founder of Gamesforlanguage.com. He is a lifelong language learner, growing up in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and leave any comments with contact or below.
Some time ago we wrote a post about "Mouth Mechanics" and how simple lip and tongue adjustments can help both German and English speakers.
French pronunciation - for example of "bienvenue" - can be hard for English speakers because the language contains sound combinations that are quite different from English.
Yes, there are the nasal sounds (such as in "bien") that were especially embarrassing when you had to practice them in front of your classmates. And the French “r” and “u” and various “e” sounds can often be a challenge.
But it's not that English speakers can't produce these sounds once they are aware of some basic "mouth mechanics." Here are five French pronunciation steps that will help. You can practice them with the games below.
1. The FRENCH "r"
French "r" is everywhere and very different from the American "r." Getting the French "r" right (or even just closer to "right") will give your pronunciation a big boost. Just try pronouncing“France” the French and the English way and you should hear the difference.
Tip: The sound of the French "r" resembles the "ch" in Loch Ness.
The American "r" is pronounced in the middle of your mouth and you need your tongue to produce it.
The French "r" is pronounced in your throat. It's the same place where you produce a hard "g" (as in "go.")
You do not use your tongue. Just do a slight scratching sound in your throat.
Common words/phrases with "r":
• "très bien" (very well) • "merci" (thanks) • "je parle" (I speak) • "pas de problème" (no problem) • "américain(e)" (American) • "parents" (parents).
Note: Verb infinitives with an "-er" ending are an exception. For the "-er" ending say the English "day" or "say," but don't extend the "y" sound. Examples or words with "-er" ending:
• "manger" (to eat) • "acheter" (to buy) • "payer" (to pay) • "chercher" (to look for) • "déjeuner" (to have lunch) • "tutoyer" (to say "tu"/use the informal form of address).
But: Verb infinitives ending in "-ir", "-re" and also "-r" (without an "e" before) DO have the French "r" sound. Examples of words with "r":
French "u" is a sound that does not exist in English. But you'll hear and need to say it a lot since it comes up in a number of frequently used conversational words.
Tip: The sound of French "u" lies between the English "oo" (too) and "ee" (tee).
So, to find the mouth position for "u", first say "too," then pull your lips apart slightly to start saying "tee." Half way there, you have the French "u" sound.
Common words/phrases with "u":
If you have French friends, you'll be using "tu" with each other. There's even a French word for that: "tutoyer." But there are lots of other little daily words that you'll need to say too. Examples of words with "u":
• the ubiquitous "du" (some, masc. sing.) as in "je veux du café" (I want [some] coffee) • "une" (one/a, feminine) • "jus" (juice) • "plus" (more) • "la rue" (the street) • "sur" (on) • "salut" (hi)
Note: There is an exception. If French "u" is followed by an "n" or an "m," it is nasalized and has a different sound, unless "n" or "m" are followed by another vowel as in "un/une," as further explained below.
When vowels are followed by an "n" or an "m," the vowel has a nasal sound, and the letters "m" or "n" are not themselves pronounced.
Tip: To pronounce nasal vowels, let air pass through the nose, as well as the mouth.
One way to practice the difference, is with the minimal pair "un/une." • In the first word - "un" - the vowel "u" is nasal, and you do not pronounce the "n." • In the second word - "une" - the vowel "u" is not nasal and you DO pronounce the "n."
Common words/phrases with "nasal vowels":
A lot of short words (as well as longer ones, of course) have a nasal vowel. Examples of words with a nasal vowel :
Linguists call this sound a "schwa." In French it's known as "e-muet" or "e-caduc."
Tip: In English the same sound exists in unstressed "a" or "e": a book (uh book), the man (thuh man), etc. The phonetic symbol for the latter is an inverted "e"
Common words/phrases with the weak, unstressed "e":
It's a matter of knowing when to use the unstressed "e." It helps to frequently listen to French, and to repeat not just individual words, but full sentences after a French speaker.
The unstressed "e" or schwa sound gives a French sentence its particular rhythm. Easiest to remember is that an (unaccented) "e" at the end of a syllable or at the end of a word is unstressed. It can be pronounced as a schwa or even dropped completely. You'll find it in verb forms, nouns, feminine adjectives, etc.
Examples of unstressed "e" that is commonly dropped:
• "appeler" (to call - the first "e" is unstressed) • "il admire" (he admires - ) • "il passe" (he spends) • "il note" (he writes down) • "la banque" (the bank)
In addition, many of the short common words contain the schwa sound. Here it is pronounced.
An accent on a letter changes its pronunciation and sometimes the meaning of a word. Often, the accent tells you which pronunciation to use.
In some cases, the accent is used to distinguish between words that are otherwise spelled identically.
The acute accent ("l'accent aigu") appears only on the letter "e" - as such: "é."
Tip: The sound of "é" (e-acute) is similar to the vowel sound of "say." The letter "é" can appear at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.
Common words with "é":
• "une école" (a school) • "le séjour" (the stay) • "le crédit" (the credit) • "la clé" (the key) • "il a parlé" (he spoke) • "il a réservé (he reserved).
The grave accent ("l'accent grave") appears on "a", "e" or "u."
Tip: Connect the sound with an English word: "à" - father; "è" - fair (without the English "r"); "ù" - similar to "too".
Common words with "à": You'll most frequently see and say "à" meaning "at," "to" or "in." (The unaccented word "a" is pronounced the same way, but it means "has.")
• "à" (at, to, in) • "voilà" (here is, there is) • "là" (there, versus "la" meaning "the") • "là-bas" (over there) • "déjà" (already)
As with the word "à," the accent grave on "ù" only serves to distinguish between words otherwise spelled identically. In fact there is only one word you need to remember, but the difference is important:
"où" means "where" (while "ou," written without the accent, means "or."
The circumflex accent is used on top of any of the vowels (â, ê, î, ô, û).
Most commonly, it indicates that historically a letter had fallen away, most often a missing "s." In many cases the circumflex accent minimally affects the pronunciation of a word.
This blog post just touches on five points of French pronunciation. The list is by no means complete. If you want to review all the French sounds and letters take a look at this TalkinFrench post.
By paying attention to your mouth mechanics and practicing aloud, as you can do with our games, you can improve your pronunciation substantially. And finally, listen as much as you can to French podcasts and radio programs (like TuneIn, for example), watch films and videos, talk with native speakers.
After all: Is getting closer to sounding like a native French speaker not one of your goals?
Starting to learn a foreign language as an adult can be somewhat difficult, and sometimes boring. Over the years, I've used various methods from books to CDs and have more recently added apps and online courses.
I've always found the early stages of learning a language somewhat frustrating. You mostly just plow through basic vocabulary and grammar.
However, once you've mastered the essentials of a language, continuing to learn becomes much more enjoyable. Things start to click. You begin to see patterns, get grammar points, understand idioms.
You can start reading articles and stories, listen to podcasts, watch videos and movies. In real life, you start having conversations that work.
As I described in a previous post, I am currently learning Dutch (from scratch) with Duolingo, while continuing with my (intermediate) Spanish with a Babbel course. This presents me with an excellent opportunity to look at and compare the two programs.
There are other reviews of both programs. The Economist did one in 2013, which - due to to the improvements of both sites - is already somewhat dated.
Another one by Angel Armstead for Fluent earlier this year, describes well both programs' different approaches, but Fluent's Kerstin Hammes was also quite critical of Duolingo in her subsequent March 2015 post.
Duolingo's Structure
I started Dutch with Duolingo just a few months ago. Also, I had used Duolingo for several months for continuing with my Spanish.
With Duolingo, you follow a nicely laid-out lesson sequence with various categories or topics: Basics, Phrases, Food, Animals, Clothing, Plurals, Possessives, Adjectives, Indefinite & Definite Pronouns, etc.
You do one lesson after another. That means, you can “unlock” the next lesson only after you've completed the previous one.
One way to move faster is to “test out” of all the lessons in a category or topic. That's only possible if you already know the words, of course. (Note that during a test, you “can't peek” at the translation.)
Duolingo's set lesson sequence has several advantages: • Beginners can build up their skills slowly but surely. • Lessons build on each other. Earlier words show up again and again to be recombined.• You don't have to make any choices about what to study until you've finished your “skill tree.”
The Duolingo Method
With the Duolingo system, you learn mostly new words by first correlating them to pictures. Some of the more abstract words, you'll guess from the context of a sentence. If you're not sure, you can always check the translation by tapping/clicking on the English.
New words are the practiced in various ways. For me, it's the variety of tasks which makes the learning engaging. There's plenty of hit or miss involved. But hey, making mistakes is all part of the learning process.
You translate the words you just learned back to English, together with other familiar words. You write what you hear and learn spelling as you do it. You fill in missing words in a sentence, or select the correct translation from three options.
There's also a sort of pronunciation check, which seems to respond more to the cadence and intonation of your voice than to correct pronunciation. (I once used the wrong language but still my voice was accepted.)
A recently added feature to the app asks you to “tap the pairs,” which are simple correlations of English and foreign words.
Early on with Duolingo you could only make 3 mistakes before you had to replay the lesson. But now, both in the app and on the PC, a mistake just sets you back a little. You can continue until you complete 20 items correctly.
At the end of the lesson, you're awarded 10 points and you can then continue to the next one. Once you've completed all the lessons of your “skill tree,” you can go back to any category or topic to “strengthen your skills.” Apparently, you can do this until you've reached Level 25!
My Frustrations with the Nonsense
While I like Duolingo very much, I often get annoyed when I have to learn Dutch words such as “schildpadden” (turtles), “eenden” (ducks), “konijnen” (rabbits) etc., all words that I'm unlikely to use in a conversation in the foreseeable future.
And while the lessons get a little more interesting as your vocabulary expands, the ducks and turtles reappear in different variations. The often nonsensical sentences – try: “the ducks are reading the newspapers” - may sometimes be funny and teach you some grammatical points, but I find them mostly frustrating.
No doubt, the simplicity of the Duolingo approach, with its variety of tasks, keeps you engaged and on your toes. I just wish that the program would replace the random and often nonsensical sentences that I have to read, pronounce, translate, and write, with real-life dialogs or at least with more useful sentences.
Duolingo's Gamification and Metrics
The various “gamification” features of the program do provide some incentive. For example, points are added to your total with each completed lesson, and you receive “lingots” to redeem in the “lingot store.”
I find the daily “streak reminder” to be a good motivator to keep learning. I'm adamant about not breaking my ever growing streak (which currently stands at day 184).
For Spanish, which I did earlier, I see a Fluency Score (currently 47%), based on the 5900 points, and Level 13 completed to date. For Dutch, with 2,625 points and level 10, there is no Fluency level yet.
I think that I'm making progress. I've reached level 10 in Dutch so far and I continue to do 2-3 lessons every day.
Babbel's Structure
Babbel's courses are structured differently from Duolingo's. You see immediately that you're not required to proceed in sequence through all the lessons. At any point, you can choose with which lesson to begin or at what lesson to continue.
In the Spanish program, there are 6 Beginner's Courses (each with 18-22 lessons); 4 Intermediate Courses (with 19-20 lessons each); 6 Grammar Courses (with 12-21 lessons each); and 6 Listening and Speaking Lessons (with 8-10 lessons each). There are also plenty of lessons in other sections such as, Reading and Writing, Countries and Traditions, Specials (where you find such topics as False friends, True Friends, Numbers, Spanish idioms). And, the “Words and Sentences” section covers over 30 different topics.
The Babbel Method
Lesson 1 of the Beginner Course 1, called “¡Mucho gusto!Part 1,” starts with four basics: Hello!, yes, thank you, Bye!
You first hear and see both the English and the Spanish Word and a picture that expresses its meaning. You then find the Spanish translation by spelling each of the words with letters that are provided.
The next step is to practice these four words again, this time as part of a simple dialogue, which includes phrases that you'll learn in the next lesson.
As I already knew some Spanish, I jumped right to the Refresher Course 1 (called, Upper Beginner's Level). The lessons have a similar structure to those in the Beginner's Course. You're taught four words or phrases in each lesson.
At this stage, a basic knowledge of the language is required. Spelling becomes harder, as you have to use the keyboard without any hint of which letters to use. Plus, exercises for word order and specific grammar points are added.
At the end of a Refresher Course lesson, you typically insert the newly-learned Spanish words into phrases that are part of a short dialog or story around a specific topic, e.g. “At the shop,” “Daily Routine,” “Vacation,” “Leisure activities” etc.
Babbel also has a voice recognition feature. But I don't use itvery often because it's hard to get the pronunciation exactly the way it's required.
If you are indeed a beginner, you can choose to follow the sequence of the lessons and move from the “Beginner's Courses,” to the “Refresher Courses” and then on to the “Intermediate (in-depth) courses.”
Babbel's Other Options
After my Refresher Course, I stopped with Spanish for a few weeks, but then started up again. I redid a few previous lessons and tried out some other sections, for example “Other Verb Forms,” such as the “pretérito perfecto.”
I also tried “Countries and Traditions” where I selected “Spanish for Everyday Life.” This section has several short lessons, such as “Ir de compras” (shopping), “En el restaurante” (in the restaurant), etc. These lessons contain a combination of exercises. You complete sentences with missing words followed by vocabulary and word order exercises all related to a specific topic.
The many lessons in “Grammar” (at this time, 92), “Listening and Speaking” (46), “Countries and Traditions” (53), and the over 500 lessons in the sections “Specials” and “Word and Sentences” give learners loads of options.
Besides, you can review the vocabulary covered in the lessons at any time, either with Flashcards of by writing or speaking them. (in the case of my Refresher Course, these were mostly sentences.)
Babbel's Gamification and Metrics
Babbel's gamification features are straightforward. There are no badges or “lingots” as with Duolingo. You have a progress bar at the top, and your score pops up at the end of the lesson, let's say, 22 out of 29.
You have the option to review and correct the errors you made. Even if you do, the guilty sentences get added to your personal vocabulary list. You can review them then at you leisure.
In the app and on the PC you can see the current total count of the vocabulary list and the count of those still to review. (On the PC you can also see how many times you reviewed each.) It's a good way to keep track of what you're learning.
Duolingo and Babbel: A Comparison
I like the simplicity of the Duolingo approach. However, I keep getting annoyed that new words often appear and are recombined in random, unrelated, nonsensical sentences.
In contrast, new words with Babbel are typically taught as part of a useful dialogue or short scenario. The words make sense in the context in which they are set and this helps me to remember many phrases and sentences.
Once you've become familiar with the Duolingo system, you know exactly what to expect.
You also know that you'll be using quite a bit of English when you translate from the foreign language. If you type or spell quickly, you can be penalized for typos in English.
For each lesson, Babbel typically introduces +/-4 new words, which you then practice. Once you've learned the words, you'll hear them as part of a dialog or brief story and write them into the provided blank spaces. You always hear the full sentence that includes the new word(s).
Most importantly, in Babbel there is no writing or spelling in English.
Both courses don't require you to use the accents (for accented letters). Duolingo allows slight misspellings of foreign words, while Babbel only accepts correct spellings.
Both Duolingo and Babbel give you the correct answer after you've made a wrong entry and both tell you where you've made the mistake.
Duolingo allows you to set goals for yourself, ranging from the “casual” learner with 10 points or 1 lesson per day, to the “insane” with 50 points or 5 lessons per day. Such daily reminders to maintain one's streak have been a good incentive for me!
There are no specific goals or targets with Babbel, but you can ask for daily reminders in Settings.
Final Thoughts
A daily Dulingo lesson or two can easily become a daily habit, especially if you care about not breaking your learning streak. Once you get going with Babbel - and pay attention to the daily reminder - the same can happen.
My frustrations with Duolingo - its nonsensical sentences, words I could do without, and lots of English sentences to type - these I don't experience with Babbel.
In fact, I like Babbel's dialogues. I enjoy the little scenes that incorporate the new words, the many Spanish sentences you hear and read, especially when you are reviewing your mistakes again.
Its many lessons, topic categories, and options make it an excellent course for learning a language.
Still, Duolingo's simplicity, also the fact that it's completely free for unlimited time, makes it a compelling choice for many learners. They may also overlook some of its shortcomings as I do.
No question, I'm continuing with Dutch on Duolingo for now, but may still subscribe to Babbel's Dutch course. I've got a Dutch family reunion to go to in the fall.Disclosure: Gamesforlanguage.com has no business relationship with Babbel.com other than for its founders having purchased a 1-year subscription to the Spanish course and a 3-month subscription to the Dutch course. No business relationship exists either with Duolingo, except GamesforLanguage's founders are learning several languages with its free courses. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for further details.
When learning Germanic and Romance languages, English speakers are fortunate to find many “friends” or true cognates. These make memorization certainly a much easier task. 
the difference.
known as "e-muet" or "e-caduc."
