The Awful German Language (version 2)

"The Awful German Language (version 2)" is a satirical essay written by Mark Twain, which serves as an appendix to his travel novel, A Tramp Abroad. In this essay, Twain humorously criticizes and suggests improvements for various aspects of the German language. He highlights the complexity of the language, such as the use of separable verbs, where the first part is placed at the beginning and the second part at the end of a clause or sentence. He also mocks the excessive length of compound nouns, created by combining multiple words without hyphens. Additionally, Twain pokes fun at the numerous noun and verb forms that need to be memorized to use German cases correctly. Throughout the essay, Twain includes entertaining passages in his own comically bad German. Despite the humor, the essay remains easily understandable, even for readers unfamiliar with the German language.