16 The sound of German: Aufgaben / Exercises

Note: Do these exercises a few weeks into the course, after you pick up some German. 

Aufgabe 1. In this video, you will hear 10 words in German. Write them down in German as best as you can, it doesn’t matter if you get them wrong. The point is to try spelling these words and seeing how German spelling is different from spelling in English. Keep mind that each word you will hear is preceded by “Wort Nummer eins/zwei/drei/vier” etc. 

1. _______________________________
2. _______________________________
3. _______________________________
4. _______________________________
5. _______________________________
6. _______________________________
7. _______________________________
8. _______________________________
9. _______________________________
10. _______________________________

Aufgabe 2. Listen to the instructor spelling words in German and write down what you hear. By the end of this exercise, the words you spelled will form a message! Start this video to complete the exercise.

1. _______________________________
2. _______________________________
3. _______________________________
4. _______________________________
5. _______________________________
6. _______________________________
7. _______________________________
8. _______________________________
9. _______________________________
10. _______________________________

Aufgabe 3. Fill in the blanks in the following English sentences with single German letters from “das Alphabet”. The letters should sound like the missing English words! For example: When I go to the dentist, I always have to open up and say _a_ (because it’s called “aaaah” in German)

1. It is such a beautiful _____________ outside! We should go swimming!
2. Canadians are famous for our favourite expression “How’s it going, _________?”
3. Nobody wants an __________ on their transcript! That would be brutal!
4. I never text “lol” – instead I text ____________!
5. My friend is super rich and loves big boats – I heard he got a brand new _____________!
6. There’s this guy that I’m super into lately – he’s totally _____________ (Before Anyone Else!)
7. The ____________ is super thick today – too much smog and humidity outside!
8. People say that ghosts make the sound “__________”, but I personally don’t think they could make a sound at all!

Aufgabe 4. Print out this page and fill in the following German keyboard with the missing phonetic spellings of the letters! If you are not sure, check section 1-1. We have filled out a few example letters for you.