"The Awful German Language"

By Mark Twain. A humorous look at the German language.

Some long German words.

In 1880, Mark Twain wrote the novel A Tramp Abroad, a humorous account of his experiences traveling through central and southern Europe. In preparing for his travels, Twain started studying German. As an appendix to the book, he wrote the essay “The Awful German Language,” which comically explores the difficulties and troubles of the German language for anyone trying to learn it.

Twain pokes fun at, among other things, the way the German language uses gender and the length of some German words.

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