Learn English From German for Free at PBC Languages
German speakers pick up English vocabulary fast but trip on false friends and word order. Practice with native teachers and native speakers at PBC Languages.
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German and English share so much vocabulary that reading is often the easy part: Haus/house, Wasser/water, Garten/garden, Buch/book all click almost instantly. The trouble starts with the false friends hiding among those cognates. A German speaker says 'I become a coffee' because bekommen means to get, not become. Or writes 'the actual situation' meaning the current one, because aktuell got dragged along in translation. Gift, chef, handy, sensible, rat: all of these look like words you already know and mean something else entirely in English.
Pronunciation has its own short list of repeat offenders. The 'th' in think or this doesn't exist in German, so it comes out as an s, z or d. The English 'w' is a soft glide, not the German 'v' sound, so 'we were' turns into 've vere' if nobody corrects it early. Word stress shifts too: German tends to load meaning onto the first syllable, English is less predictable, and words like 'develop' or 'record' get stressed on the wrong half.
Grammar is where things slow down. English needs 'do' to ask questions and make negatives, something German doesn't do: 'Do you like it?' instead of a literal 'Like you it?'. German also allows a much freer word order thanks to its case system, so English's stricter subject-verb-object pattern needs to become automatic, not just understood. The upside is that once do-support and the false friends are under control, German speakers often move faster than other learners because so much of the base vocabulary is already sitting there, just spelled differently.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| become | bekommen | become means to turn into something (she became a doctor); bekommen means to receive or get, so 'I become a coffee' is a classic mistake |
| gift | Gift | gift is a present you give someone; Gift in German means poison, so this one is worth double-checking before you use it in a sentence |
| actual | aktuell | actual means real or genuine; aktuell means current or up to date, so 'the actual news' doesn't mean what it sounds like |
| eventually | eventuell | eventually means in the end, after some time; eventuell means possibly or maybe, two very different ideas |
| chef | Chef | in English a chef is someone who cooks professionally; in German Chef just means boss, no kitchen involved |
| handy | Handy | handy in English means useful or convenient; Handy in German is a mobile phone, a word English speakers won't recognize at all |
| sensible | sensibel | sensible means reasonable and practical; sensibel in German means emotionally sensitive, closer to the English word sensitive |
| house | Haus | same word, same meaning, spelled almost identically; a useful anchor when pronunciation feels shaky elsewhere |
| water | Wasser | another close cognate that helps rather than tricks, useful for getting comfortable with the shifted vowel sounds early on |
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Questions about this
How long does it take a German speaker to get comfortable in English?
It depends on how much English you've already absorbed passively, which is usually a lot given how present it is in German media and education. Most people notice a real jump in confidence after a few months of regular one-to-one exchanges, mainly because speaking out loud forces you to fix the do-support and false-friend habits that reading alone never catches.
Is the one-to-one exchange really free?
Yes. You trade half an hour of English practice for half an hour helping someone with their German, so nobody pays for the conversation itself. The only cost is your time and consistency.
What level do I need to join?
For the one-to-one exchanges, a basic conversational level is enough since your partner adjusts to you, the same way you'll adjust when it's their turn to practice German. The small group classes with native teachers are organized by level, so absolute beginners and advanced speakers aren't mixed together.
How is the half hour and half hour actually split?
You agree on it with your partner before starting, usually switching languages at the midpoint so both people get equal practice. Some pairs alternate weekly instead, doing a full session in English one week and German the next, whatever keeps both sides motivated.
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