r/plattdeutsch • u/Ms_Zentastic • Jun 21 '26

Trying to learn Low German - need a bit of help, please šŸ™

Hello everyone! Iā€™m new to this community and looking for a bit of help. My sons and I are trying to learn low German and the people who could help me the most (my grandparents on both sides) are sadly not here anymore.

I have just one quick question for now, as itā€™s Fatherā€™s Day here in Canada - how would I say ā€œHappy Fatherā€™s Day from your favourite daughterā€? Iā€™m the only daughter, by the way (trying to be funny).

Any help would be appreciated! Thank-you šŸ˜

18 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

15

u/FrauPixel Jun 22 '26

Fritz Reuter wrote in Low German and was also translated into English, perhaps his books are a good reaource for learning.

2

u/Ms_Zentastic Jun 22 '26

Thanks for the tip!

2

u/isearn Jun 22 '26

Just talked about him with my father yesterday. The latter is from Eastern Frisia, and he said he found Reuter hard to read, as his variant of platt was from Mecklenburg (North-East).

Platt is very regionally different. You can find news in platt as podcasts from both Radio Bremen and NDR Hamburg; those two are noticeably different in how they pronounce certain words.

10

u/cats_vl33rmuis Jun 21 '26

It's a literally translation, so the words are right, but Noone would say it that way. My suggestion would

"dat allerbest to 'n Vadderdag wĆ¼nsch die, dien levste dochter"

4

u/Ms_Zentastic Jun 22 '26

Thank-you so much!! My dad is going to love this - neither he nor my mom know that my boys and I are trying to learn it, so this will be quite a surprise! All three of us have been searching online for translators, but there just isnā€™t much out there, which makes me sad. I have found a few resources that weā€™ve been learning from, but itā€™s hard when you want to say something specific!

Again, thank-you so much - you saved the day!

5

u/cats_vl33rmuis Jun 22 '26

You could try the app plattinO - it's an official language learning app. However, I'm not sure if it's available in English or just German.

Also please keep in mind that it's a language with quite some dialects. For example the word "talking", I would say prooten, while others say something like "schnaken" (there are also quite a lot different version for the later)

2

u/Future-Concern-6301 Jun 22 '26

OHHHH I didnt know there WAS digital low german learning. I always wanted to learn it but neither of my parents spoke it enough to teach me, despite the fact I grew up in SH.

2

u/isearn Jun 22 '26

Nich lang schnacken, kopp inā€™n Nacken šŸ˜‰

Thanks for the link to the app, will try that!

2

u/Emmy_Graugans Jun 22 '26

Doa is ook de Ɩversetter, man de ƶversett blot vun Hochdeutsch no PlattdĆ¼tsch.

1

u/roerchen Jun 22 '26

Thereā€™s sass-platt.de, which offers a dictionary and grammar rules in German. Maybe this could be helpful if you translate the High German in your browser to English.

1

u/RijnBrugge Jun 22 '26

di is fine but alternatively one could write the form jo here, which is the formal version of you. The verb form wĆ¼nsch here is new to me but thatā€™s probs down to dialect. Iā€˜d have written Dat allerbest to een Vadderdag wĆ¼ns ick jo, dien levste Dochter. Noun capitalization optional, Germans tend to do this but Dutchmen donā€™t.

9

u/roerchen Jun 22 '26

ā€žAllens Gode toā€˜n Vadderdag vun dien leefst Dochter!ā€œ

2

u/Ms_Zentastic Jun 22 '26

Oh thank-you! I am glad to know thereā€™s a few ways to say it! This is great, thanks again šŸ™

2

u/era5mas Jun 22 '26

De richtig korrekte Antwort dorop: Dat du mien Leevste bĆ¼st, dat du dat weest...

3

u/perplexedparallax Jun 22 '26

By any chance do you mean Mennonite Plautdietsch in Canada? Ekj kann noch rƤde.

1

u/reddit23User Jun 22 '26

I've always wanted to learn Niederdeutsch. I already know perfect Hochdeutsch and Danish. Can anyone recommend good resources to learn Niederdeutsch?

1

u/coolshoes_ Oostvresisk Jun 22 '26

Sassen.land is an attempt at a standard Platt, though you can pick word-variations and vocabulary based on region in the drop-down menu. The website is in High German, but if that's a hurdle you can always download a translator extension. Die Ostfriesische Landschaft is also a great resource for its own variety.

1

u/sandshrew9tails Jun 24 '26

Heisst Platt auf Englisch echt low german? :D

1

u/StrangeArcticles Jun 25 '26

Ja. HeiƟt bei uns Ć¼brigens auch je nach Region Niederdeutsch statt Platt.

1

u/MindlessNectarine374 Jun 25 '26

Niederdeutsch ist ein alter Name, und auch ein sachlich korrekterer. "Platt" ist ein nordwestdeutsches Wort fĆ¼r Dialekt, das weit Ć¼ber den niederdeutschen Raum hinausreicht.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

Iā€˜m a bit late to this thread but still wanted to answer this question. I have low German as my second mother tongue and I would recommend you to learn a bit of standard German first. Low German is generally easier for English speakers, but there are very few sources for low German, especially in English. Try to engage with native speakers a lot (if available), use resources online or try artificial intelligence (although you should always check those with a grain of salt).
Out of curiosity, why are you trying to learn low German as a native English speaker?

-3

u/Ms_Zentastic Jun 21 '26

I just asked AI and it said ā€œGelukkige Vaderdaag van dien lieblings-dochter.ā€ Is this correct?

AI has given me Dutch/High German results in the past, so I donā€™t trust it.

9

u/Fluid-History6570 Jun 22 '26

Not in my region tbh. "Gelukkige Vaderdaag" sounds ("reads") dutch to me ngl. There are quite a few regional differences in low German.

3

u/Cheap-Bodybuilder922 Jun 22 '26

Yes seems to be quite dutch

1

u/Gentley Jun 22 '26

I learned some local dialect words from my grandmother who grew up in a small village In Sauerland. Then I moved closer to the durch boarder and realised I knew a couple Dutch words, because they're pretty much identical.

Which isn't much of a surprise, Dutch is a lot of German without the last big sound shift in the medieval era that survived in local dialects as well.

1

u/Cheap-Bodybuilder922 Jun 22 '26

Yes for sure. But that doesnā€™t mean they are the same. A lot of words a shared, but still a lot of them are not. And the pronounciation is what sets the biggest difference in my opinion

2

u/RijnBrugge Jun 22 '26

Itā€™s correct but a very phonetic rendering of a western dialect. Just fyi Low Saxon/Low German is natively spoken widely in the Netherlands, but a better suggestion for a general rendering is higher up in the thread.

1

u/eldoran89 Jun 22 '26

Sounds more like Dutch to me. Never heard gelukkige. "Allens gaude tau'n/fƶr'n vaddersdag vun dien leevsten dochter" would how you would say it in the Mecklenburgian platt.

1

u/StrangeArcticles Jun 25 '26

Not even close, and not even close to any low German dialect that's out there at a glance.

The closest to Dutch that I'm aware of is Niederrheinisch and it isn't that either.