Patterns of language are usually perceived, learned and used as meaningful chunks that are processed as a whole, resulting in a reduced learning burden and increased fluency. The ability to comprehend and produce lexical chunks or groups of words which are commonly found together is an important part of language acquisition. This paper…

Describes how the difficulty of German has been exaggerated and discusses certain supposed problems facing English speakers in the mastering of German vocabulary. The idea that technical vocabulary of native German origin presents a serious obstacle to native English speakers arises from an erroneous view of German as a "pure" Germanic…