Countries, Nationalities & Languages
देश, राष्ट्रीयता और भाषाएँ
German nationality words split into a noun form (der Deutsche, "a German person") and an adjective form (deutsch, "German") — and unlike English, languages and nationality-adjectives are never capitalized.
Grammar Comparison
व्याकरण तुलना
Nationality adjectives are lowercase — Devanagari doesn't even have this distinction
Ich bin deutsch. / die deutsche Sprache
मैं जर्मन हूँ। / जर्मन भाषा
Devanagari has no upper/lowercase distinction at all, so this whole concept is genuinely new for Hindi speakers — neither the bad habit English speakers have to unlearn (capitalizing out of reflex), nor any prior intuition either. German only capitalizes a person's or a language's name when it's used as a noun (Deutsch, der Deutsche) — the adjective form is always lowercase (deutsch, deutsche Sprache). Since you have no old habit to fight here, it should be easy to learn this rule correctly from the start.
Most country names take no article — a few exceptions
Ich komme aus Deutschland. / Ich komme aus der Schweiz. / Ich komme aus den USA.
मैं जर्मनी से आता हूँ। / मैं स्विट्ज़रलैंड से आता हूँ। / मैं अमेरिका (USA) से आता हूँ।
Like Hindi, most German country names are used without any article (Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien). But a few countries are grammatically feminine, masculine, or plural and do take an article: die Schweiz (Switzerland), der Iran, die USA (plural) — and after aus, the article changes with the case just like any other noun (aus der Schweiz, aus den USA). These irregular countries just have to be memorized individually.
Vocabulary
शब्दावली
| German | Pronunciation | Hindi | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deutschland | DOYTSH-lahnt | जर्मनीjarmanī | Germany |
| Österreich | ER-ster-ryhk | ऑस्ट्रियाosṭriyā | Austria |
| die Schweiz | dee shvyts | स्विट्ज़रलैंडsviṭzarlainḍ | Switzerland |
| England | ENG-lahnt | इंग्लैंडiṅglaiṅḍ | England |
| die USA | dee oo-es-AH | अमेरिका (USA)amerikā | the USA |
| deutsch | doytsh | जर्मन (विशेषण, छोटे अक्षर)jarman | German (adjective, lowercase) |
| der Deutsche / die Deutsche | dair DOY-cheh / dee DOY-cheh | जर्मन व्यक्ति (पुरुष/स्त्री)jarman vyakti | the German (male/female person) |
| Englisch | ENG-lish | अंग्रेज़ी (भाषा)aṅgrezī | English (the language) |
| Ich bin Amerikaner/Amerikanerin. | ikh bin ah-may-ri-KAH-ner / ah-may-ri-KAH-ner-in | मैं अमेरिकी हूँ। (पुरुष/स्त्री)maiñ amerikī hūñ | I am American. (male/female) |
| Welche Sprachen sprichst du? | VEL-kheh SHPRAH-khen shprikhst doo | तुम कौन-सी भाषाएँ बोलते हो?tum kaun-sī bhāṣāeñ bolte ho? | Which languages do you speak? |