In this video people pronounce words in French, English, Italian, Spanish and German to illustrate the contrast between the languages. A word like butterfly sounds whimsical and lovely in almost any language. Whether it’s “papillion” in French or “farfalla” in Italian, the word has nice, soft sounds that make you imagine a delicate little butterfly fluttering its wings over a field of flowers. Except in German. In German it’s “schmetterling” which sounds more like a mean little troll that’s going to kick you in the shin and spit in your eye.


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14 Comments

  1. Ich_liebe_Deutschland

    I speak German, and you should learn how to pronounce the words correctly before you make fun of the language. And, FYI, English is a Germanic language.

  2. Stef

    your reaction is very German..remember to smile once in a while..is good for you…I’m Italian and some of the Italian words were not pronounced perfectly but you can’t argue that Germans sound like dogs barking compared to people speaking other languages..sorry.

  3. Stephan

    I’m german as well, but I’ve had good laughs! Thanks for that vid.

  4. Vanita

    You could do that with every language.

  5. Onkological fever

    The guy is as german as Sauerkraut, what are you talking about?

  6. Christine Levesque

    :-)

  7. Christine Levesque

    I dont know for you guys, but it doesn’t make me want sex lol

  8. Not -German

    This is stupid. You can make any language sound harsh if you shout like a Nazi in a WW2 movie.

  9. Heiko

    haha i am german and this is funny. Would be the same in english, french,… You only need to pronounce like a tv-nazi :-)))

  10. Comparatist Dave

    Oh come on. BRUSTWARZE!! You can not do THAT in every language. Plus, Aschenputtel is downright hilarious. Of course Germanic languages will sound very different from Romance ones, but “speed limit” in German is hilarious compared to Swedish and Japanese as well. Good fun.

  11. Also not a German

    In general the German language sounds more poetic, correct and beautiful than many other languages!

  12. Elfriede

    Sorry, I´m german, I had a good laugh but what you said is not true. In germany most people speak normally.Also, in the south near france they speak german softly.

    PD:Don´t judge befor knowing. No to stereotypes!

  13. German Native Speaker

    Sex is simply ‘sex’ in German, too. Geschlechtsverkehr means sexual intercourse and is used only in a scientific context. Speaking of science, Naturwissenschaften means natural sciences — ‘science’ is ‘Wissenschaft’.

  14. Lauryll

    I’m German too and I laughed real hard about this. It’s easy to forget how harsh the German language sounds if you use it on a day to day basic. Thanks for the videos :)