2 A Super Quick Guide to German Pronunciation
Here (hyperlinked) is a video covering most of the material in this section.
Basic rules for reading German:
1) The Umlauts:
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ä (if long) = as in English ‘name’
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e.g. Käse, zählen |
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ä (if short) = as in English ‘get’ or ‘set’ |
e.g. Ärmel |
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ö (if long) = as in English ‘burn’ |
e.g. hören, Möhre |
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ö (if short) = same but shorter |
e.g. möchten |
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ü (if long) = similar to ‘ew’ in ‘pew’; more like ‘ue’ in French ‘rue’ |
e.g. Tür, kühl, müde |
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ü (if short) = same but shorter |
e.g. müssen, dünn |
2) 2 + letters = one sound:
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ch after ‚i‘ und ‚e‘, + umlauts = [x‘] |
e.g. ich, möchten, China, herrlich, Bücher, Dächer |
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ch after other vowels = [x] |
e.g. ach, Buch, kochen, Sache, Bauch |
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sch = [sh] |
e.g. schwimmen, Schiff, Fisch, Schnee, schnell |
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chs = [ks] |
e.g. wachsen, sechs, Achsel, Sachsen |
3) Long vs short vowels
Long:
Double vowel: aa, ee = [a:], [e:] e.g. Haar, Paar, Meer
When followed by ‘h‘: eh, uh, ah, oh etc. = [e:], [u:], [a:], [o:] e.g. stehlen, stehen, fahren, Kuh, Wohnung
‘i‘ before ‘e’: ie = [i:] e.g. Bier, Liebe, viel, sieben
A vowel followed by one consonant: e.g. Peter, groß, Meter, Sklave.
Short:
Vowels followed by two consonants: e.g. danke, alle, kommen, Suppe
4) Stop, Sport
Only in the beginning of a word:
st, sp = [sht], [shp] e.g. stop, Stein, verstehen, Sport, Profisport, Straße, Hauptstraße
But not if ‘s’ and ‘p’ belong to different words/syllables:
e.g. Wes|pe, Donner|s|tag, Lis|te
5) Suschi, Sandra, etc.
If a word starts with an „s“ followed by a vowel, it is pronounced as „z“:
Sa, se, su etc. = [za], [ze],[zu]e.g. Sascha, sagen, sehen, Seele, Suzie
6) Diphtongs:
ei = [ai], eu = [oi], au = [au] e.g. mein neues Haus, eigentlich, Euro, auch
7) ß
ß = [s], must be written after diphtongs and long vowels e.g. Straße, weiß, dass, Fass
Capital ß = SS
8) Unlike in English:
j = [y]as in „yes“ e.g. Yoga, Yogurt, Jan, Jessica, Jahr, Jura
v = [f]e.g. Vater, verkaufen, Verbot
w = [v] e.g. Weg, werden, wegwerfen
z = [ts] as in “bats“ e.g. zwei, Ziel, Herz, zwölf, Zimmer
the final –e = always pronounce: e.g. Heine, finde, glaube, freundliche, manche, Wespe, Liste
9) Suffixes:
-ig = ich e.g. Teppig, König, zwanzig, Honig
– tion = [tsion] e.g. Information, Nation
10) Stress:
Suffixes of French origin are always stressed: e.g. -tät, -tion, -ei: Qualität, Emigration, Bäckerei
11) Things you do not pronounce:
d in ‘dt’ = [t] e.g. Stadt,
h in ‘th’ = [t] e.g. Theater, Theorie
c in ‘ck’ = [k] e.g. backen
h in ‘ph’ = [f] e.g. Alphabet