I often get asked whether learning German is easier because I know French and English already.

The answer is NO.

And the best example is possessive pronouns (my, your, their, etc.)

See, in French, you choose which possessive based on the object. “Mère” is feminine, so it’s always with the feminine possessive (ma mère, ta mère, sa mère). Similarly with “père”: mon père, ton père, son père.

In English, possessives are based on the person doing the owning. My mom, my dad. Your mom, your dad. So you need to worry about the 3rd person: he, she, it. His mom, his dad. Her mom, her dad.

In GERMAN, it’s based on both who’s doing the owning and what’s being owned: the pronoun you choose is based on the subject, the ending is based on the object. Thus, “ihrE Mutter, ihR Vater”; “seinE Mutter, seiN Vater”.

And that’s just for the nominative case. Don’t get me started on all the cases.