# Language {% file src="" %} Understand the basics of the German language {% endfile %} German is the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share is partly derived from [Latin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin) and [Greek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language), along with fewer words borrowed from [French](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language) and [Modern English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_English). {% hint style="info" %} Around 80-100 million native speakers. More than 80 million to 85 million individuals speak a second language. Third most taught foreign language (after English and French).\ \ Official German-speaking countries: \ Germany, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland\ \ Co-official / Minority language:\ Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Namibia, Romania, Russia, Slovakia {% endhint %} German is one of the major languages of the world. It is the most spoken native language within the European Union. German is also widely taught as a foreign language, especially in continental Europe, where it is the third most taught foreign language (after English and French), and the United States. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second-most commonly used scientific language and among the most widely used languages on websites. The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in the world being published in German. ### **Is German similar to English or French?** German is most similar to other languages within the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German, Luxembourgish, Scots, and Yiddish. It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group, such as Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language after English, which is also a West Germanic language. ### **Career Scope in Germany?** It is Europe’s largest economy, fourth-largest by nominal GDP globally, the world’s second-largest exporter, which makes it an essential language to study. They are world leaders in engineering. Berlin is the Silicon Valley of Europe. Largely IT Startups and product-based companies, based in Germany. Widely opening for STEM[^1] Employees and Skilled Labors. Fluency in the German language in India has opened up job possibilities in medicine and healthcare, education, logistics, automobile, power and utility, media, entertainment, tourism, information technology, financial services, outsourcing, etc. Germany's powerhouses like BMW, Volkswagen, Bosch, Daimler, Adidas, Allianz, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, SAP, BASF, and Lufthansa are all established around the world. Having German language skills on your CV can help your career in many of these International corporations. ### **Study in Germany?** The country offers various courses spread across multiple bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and post-doctoral programs. Mostly public universities are low fees or free of cost. If you are attempting to enrol in an **English-taught course**, fluency in German is not required. Even though you speak some basic **A1-A2 language levels**, that is more than enough. If you want to apply to the **German thought programs**, you must have a purely German level Goethe **B1 to C1 and The IELTS score of 6 to 7.5 and in English**. [^1]: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.nogerman.com/language.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.