German

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

German belongs to the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family, along with English, Frisian, and Dutch (Netherlandic, Flemish).

Technicalities

German is an inflected language with

• four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives

- (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative), three

• three genders

- masculine, feminine, neuter

• strong and weak verbs

High and Low German

Main difference between the two is in the sound system, especially in the conosonants. High German, the language of the southern highlands of Germany, is the official written language

High German (Hochdeutsch)

Modern standard High German is descended from the Middle High German dialects and is spoken in the central and southern highlands of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Standard High German is based on, but not identical with, the Middle German dialect used by Martin Luther in his 16th-century translation of the Bible.

The Perfekt (present perfect tense) is used to describe past events, especially in spoken German. It is the most common past tense in everyday conversation.