German Sounds
Some letters in German make a different sound than in English. Let’s go over a couple of them!
Wasser, wir, Wein, as in “vine/van”
Junge, ja, as in “yes”
ich, Mädchen, leicht, nicht, schlecht as in "humid", but stronger
With the ch sound, you should be able to feel air if you hold your hand in front of your mouth, and it kind of sounds like a cat hissing!
später, sprechen，s sounds like sh
Schnee, Englisch，as in “shop”
Tschüss, Deutsch，as in “cheese”
Pferd, Apfel, as in “capful”
Vogel, verstehen, as in “fun”
I’m zo zorry
Careful, some letters change their pronunciation in certain situations! Before a vowel, the letter s makes the sound of an English z!
sauber, süß, Saft as in “zoo”
Bach
Earlier, we practiced how to say that soft ch sound (like in humid).
When a ch comes after an a or u, the sound is harsher and farther back in the throat, almost like the sound some people make before spitting.
schwach, Nacht, Buch like “leicht”, but even harsher
Another sound made in the back of the throat is the German r at the beginning of words. It’s similar to gargling or a cat purring.
ruhig, rund, Reis like gargling
Umlauts
Umlauts are letters (more specifically vowels) that have two dots above them and appear in some German words like "Mädchen."
Literally, "Umlaut" means "around the sound," because its function is to change how the vowel sounds.
no umlaut
umlaut
a
ä(ae)
o
ö(oe)
u
ĂĽ(ue)
The umlaut changes the sound of the vowel a bit!
Wasser, Mann, as in “father”
Mädchen, Männer, as in “bed”
An umlaut can sometimes indicate the plural of a word. For example, the plural of "Mutter" (mother) is "MĂĽtter."
Ăź(ss)
German has a special letter called the Eszett, which looks like Ăź. It sounds like s as in say!
heißen, ich heiße as in “say”
g2g
fertig, traurig, lustig as in “humid”, but stronger
In German, the ‑ig at the end of a word sounds the same as
ich
gesund, gut, Gemüse as in “good”
Note that in German, g never has the j sound like in the English word gym.
The letter e
The letter e sounds different depending on where it is in a word!
Berg, Stern, lernen as in “air”
leben, sehen, gehen as in “lay”
Sonne, Bäume,Erde, relaxed uh sound, as in “support”
o
Practice the difference so you don’t say the wrong word! schon, as in “home” schön, similar to “hurt” For the ö sound, try saying a (as in father), then round your lips like you’re drinking from a straw!
Zeug
The word Zeug has two great sounds for us to practice!
Zeug, Zeitung, zu as in “cats”
Zeug, Deutsch, euer (as in “boy”)
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