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  • The Awful German Language

  • By: Mark Twain
  • Narrated by: Cathy Dobson
  • Length: 49 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)
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The Awful German Language cover art

The Awful German Language

By: Mark Twain
Narrated by: Cathy Dobson
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Summary

Mark Twain's classic satire on the German language. A must listen for anybody learning German or living in a German-speaking country.

"The Germans have another kind of parenthesis, which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the other half at the end of it. Can anyone conceive of anything more confusing than that?

These things are called 'separable verbs'. The German grammar is blistered all over with separable verbs; and the wider the two portions of one of them are spread apart, the better the author of the crime is pleased with his performance."
Public Domain (P)2013 Red Door Audiobooks
German
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Profile Image for Paula Dalglish

An amusing little book

Anyone who has ever attempted to learn to string together a tangible German sentence will, I'm sure, sympathise with the observations in this book. Just don't take it too seriously.

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Profile Image for Sheridan Le Fanu

Must read für students of German

This is a brilliant essay but read by a very annoying narrator who goes up in tone at the end of every phrase.

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    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Ian1956

Is it worth the cost?

You judge. The full book (of which this is just one of the apprendices) is called a Tramp Abroad and is available on Audible for not much more and with a narration that sounds like Mark Twain!

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1 person found this helpful