What are characteristics of German that are unique or different from English and/or other languages?
1. Unlike English, German is a highly declensional language, based on a system with a multitude of inflections and cases. For each word in each word class—noun, verb, or adjective—there is a substantial set of possible inflections. This makes stemming considerably more complicated compared to English. 2. It is possible in German to build compounds by joining two or more words, e.g., “Haustür” (front door) or “Schulbusfahrer” (school bus driver). In theory, any number of combinations—noun+noun, adjective+adjective, adjective+noun, adjective+verb, verb+noun, etc.—is conceivable. A popular example is the word “Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitän”—captain commanding a steamboat on the Danube. How do these characteristics make it important to use properly qualified, professional translators? Given the complex system of endings, it is not surprising that even native speakers of German with an average education occasionally get things wrong. Infamous trouble spots are the weak vs. strong declension
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