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real real
is ist
that das
hard hart -> schwer
learned -> gelernt
in in
the den
and und
student Student
university Universität
has hat
had hatte
years jahre
lessions lektion
Lamp lamp Light licht Arm arm Hand hand Finger finger
Often words that are spelt weirdly in english (compared to how they're pronounced) make sense when you know the way they're pronounced in German e.g. eight (acht).
The only real complications are to do with declensions (nominative, accusative, genitive, etc.), subject-verb-object syntax, and composed words. But any programmer who can work in different programming languages will find those rather easy to learn.
On the plus side, German has no sounds English speakers should find difficult to pronounce, nicely regular word order and a fondness for compound words which are as simple to remember as they are long, but by the standards of European language groups the vocabulary really isn't that similar.
I I
learn learn
English Englisch