# How good is Prince Philip’s German here? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230 "2021-05-16T18:10:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/1 "2021-05-16T18:10:15Z")
Speaking here The comments suggest it was ok, but what’s the straight dope. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YtpmyDbmm8k/maxresdefault.jpg "Prince Philip speaks fluently german / Prinz Philip spricht fließend deutsch (1985 Senegal)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtpmyDbmm8k) ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/2 "2021-05-16T19:15:28Z")
It’s fluent. The accent is perfect and if there are grammatical mistakes or non-native weirdisms, I can’t spot them. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/3 "2021-05-16T22:25:10Z")
Native German here. Almost fluent, but there are some instances of confusing the proper definite article and inserting English terms for German ones (manatees instead of Seekühe, for example). There’s also a noticeable English accent, but a slight one. You wouldn’t take him for a native speaker, but one who knew German since a long time, as it actually was the case. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/4 "2021-05-16T23:36:48Z")
Not native, but lived there for 10 years, and I found it impressive as hell. Unlike @EinsteinsHund, I would not have guessed he wasn’t native if I didn’t know better. On a side note: > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > inserting English terms for German ones (manatees instead of Seekühe, for example). I just thought he was impersonating Falco. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/5 "2021-05-17T11:21:24Z")
Wow, that is quite impressive. I had no idea he was that good. **EinsteinsHund** is right, the words he uses are a bit off sometimes (e.g., right at the beginning, when he talks about growing up in the countryside), but as a Southerner I would not have identified the accent as English, but rather vaguely Northern German. The way he pronounces “Jagd” as “Jacht”, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/6 "2021-05-17T15:44:15Z")
Interesting. Sea cow is sometimes used for manatee even in English. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/7 "2021-05-17T15:58:41Z")
Non-native, but aren’t initial-s words like ‘sind’ supposed to be pronounced more like (as we’d spell in English) ‘zind’? That’s where I keep hearing his accent. Very well done though, certainly better than me. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2021, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/8 "2021-05-17T19:09:19Z")
I know these speech patterns from my American friends who, like Philip, spent a year of their childhood in Germany. Even without knowing who he is, I’d have recognized him as an Anglophone pretty soon. I don’t hear anything in his pronunciation of _sind_ though. He’s saying it with a lenis-_s_ which isn’t necessarily voiced. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2021, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-good-is-prince-philip-s-german-here/942230/9 "2021-05-19T01:58:10Z")
I understand he was also fluent in French.