USE OF ADJECTIVES IN GERMAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES

As it is known, German and English languages are close to each other. German belongs to the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family, along with English, Frisian, and Dutch (Netherlandic, Flemish)[1]. German belongs to the western group of Germanic languages and is currently used as the mother tongue of the peoples living in the following countries. In particular, in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Luxembourg. More than 80 million people in the Federal Republic of Germany, 7 million in Austria, 1 million in the eastern regions of France, and 400,000 in Luxembourg speak German. German speakers can also be found in Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, the United States, Brazil, and Argentina. Thus, German is the second most widely spoken German language after English.

English is the language of today’s world. It is impossible to get a good job without knowing it, to go on a trip and communicate without it. This language deserves special respect in each country. By studying it carefully, one can discover a new technological world for yourself and you will have a lot of interesting information in this world. The history of the birth of the English language goes back to Germany. The history of the English language began in the Anglo-Saxon kings of England and in the area of southeastern Scotland, but was later under the control of the Kingdom of Northern Nembriya. It was in this area that English emerged. From the 18th century onwards, through the British Empire and the influence of the United States from the mid-20th century onwards, it spread throughout the world and became the leading language of international relations in many regions.

Let`s look at the similarities and differences with the help of the following examples:

• There are three levels of adjectives in both German and English language:

1. Der Positiv – The positive degree;
2. Der Komparativ – The comparative degree;
3. Der Superlativ – The superlative degree.

• The positive degree means that the quality of an object is at the same norm. In both languages, this adjective degree is expressed in the form of a single root word. For example: schӧn - beautiful, hoch – tall, bedrohlich - ugly and so on.
• Comparative adjectives are used to compare one word to another word. In this case, only two objects are compared. In German language adjectives can form the comparative by adding –er. In English language adjectives can form the comparative either by adding –er or with the word more For example: billiger - cheaper, grӧßer – bigger, leichter – easier, teurer – more expensive, more beautiful - schӧn etc. In the above-given examples we can see that in English language adjectives with three or more syllables form the comparative by putting more in front of the adjective. However, in German language we cannot see such kind of words in front of adjectives with three or more syllables.
• In English language when we use a comparative adjective to compare two things or people, in front of comparative adjectives comes the word than. In German language this expression is given with the word als. For example: Es ist heißer heute als gestern – It is hotter today than yesterday.
• The superlative degree is formed by adding the suffix -est to the positive degree of an adjective, which means the extreme or highest level of something. The definite article is applied before the adjective of superlative degree. We use a superlative adjective to describe the extreme quality of one thing in a group of things. In English there are two ways to form a superlative adjective: we add –est to two-syllable adjectives; we add the word most to adjectives of more than two syllables; we also usually add 'the' in front of the adjectives. There are two different ways to build a comparative degree in German: adjective + –(e)st and adjective + -(e)sten to the word; we also add 'am' at the beginning. In this case, the adjectives in the sentence can be either an attribute or subject. For example: Der Mount Everest ist der höchste Berg der Welt - Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, Wir finden Abkurzungen im Außeneinsatz am besten – We find it best to use shorthand when in the field.

As we have seen, there are similarities as well as differences in the grammar of English and German. An in-depth study of the similarities and differences between languages ​​is essential for a good understanding of those languages.

References:

1. https://www.britannica.com/topic
2. R.Murphy. “English grammar in use” third edition. Cambridge University Press, 2004
3. Jin Friederike. Grammatik Aktiv (A1-B1). Deutschland, 2013