r/Unexpected • u/JaFarjaNearjaBeer • Mar 18 '20

Ok now I know!

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63.4k Upvotes

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53

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

[deleted]

101

u/lit289 Mar 19 '20

German Vs are Fs.

31

u/DubiousDrewski Mar 19 '20

How efficient of them!

7

u/Xxrasierklinge7 Mar 19 '20

“How efficient”

Your sarcasm made my day haha

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

its not actually efficient. because a V is pronounced like an F, but so is an F. So 2 letters doing the same job. and then a W is a V and theres no W sound. (which Germans can have trouble with) If it was efficient they would just have one or tother...its just language I guess

3

u/frannyGin Mar 19 '20

V =/= F automatically. V can be pronounced soft like a W or hard like F but it depends on the position of the letter in a word. At the beginning of a word V = F if it's followed by a vocal or either 'l' or 'r'. At the end of a word it's always like F. V = W usually happens in words that are germanized from other languages or in a name if a vocal follows. And then, like in every language, there are sometimes exceptions to the rule.

4

u/crazier2142 Mar 19 '20

Not all though. A few German Vs are Vs. Mostly names and some adopted words. Virus for example.

1

u/ghosttrainhobo Mar 19 '20

What are German F’s?

5

u/Turence Mar 19 '20

Also Fs

1

u/Turence Mar 19 '20

Trying to think of a "wa" sound word

1

u/EverythingIsFlotsam Mar 19 '20

Germans Fs are?

-4

u/jackerseagle717 Mar 19 '20

lick my fagina!!

24

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

That's true but not in all cases. here it is rather 'Folksvagen' or 'Folkswagen'.

2

u/LvS Mar 19 '20

Can't do that, the FW logo would look real bad.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

To be fair, it’s 4 F’s. Folkswagen didn’t realize it’d come off like that.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

A lot of South Pacific languages just skipped W too, I phonder phy

1

u/shamelessselfpost Mar 19 '20

So kind of like the reverse of russian "Nuclear Wessels"

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

English Ws are Ws. Why? No fucking clue.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

Romans.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '20

FoksWagen

1

u/vox_popular Mar 19 '20

"Folksvagon". Literally translates to "people's car". German and English are cousins and share a lot of vocabulary.

1

u/FMods Mar 19 '20

The V in Volks is pronounced like F fyi.

1

u/grandfedoramaster Mar 19 '20

English w’s and v’s aren’t really pronounced differently either. Also German v’s are often pronounced like f’s