As an English speaker learning German, I face endless confusion and frustration with many of the short question words that are “False Friends”

Such as:

Wer (where) - Actually means who.

Wo (Who) - Actually means where.

Wie (We) - Actually means how.

Was (was) - Actually means what.

Also (also) - Actually means so.

Will (will) - Actually means to want.

And the completely arbitrary gender assignments!

For example.

The year is: Das Jahr, a neuter word.

The month is: Der Monat, a masculine word.

And the week is: Die Woche, a feminine word.

And then there’s directly counter-intuitive examples of words that seem like they Should be a gender other than what they are, such as:

The little girl - Das Mädchen (Neuter, not feminine)

Breasts - Der Busen (Masculine! Boobs is masculine!)

Person - Die Person (Feminine! Why isn’t this word neuter?!"

    • Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      Interesting, didn’t know that.
      I learned British English at school, yet all the learning materials focused on using the am/pm style.
      Perhaps because we already know the 24h format well in Germany, as it is also routinely used here.

      • Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        I guess in speech we tend to say something like 'eight thirty" rather than “twenty thirty” but certainly in witten communication its always 24 hour.

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
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          2 months ago

          This is how it works in German as well. 16 o’clock is called “um 4” in a typical conversational situation.