Learn German A1: 11 Pronunciation ways in German Lesson 29. The Language introduced in this free course is centered around realistic everyday situations. you can find ways to pronounce in German in following lesson.

Drei – zwei – eins – los! (3 – 2 – 1 – go!)

The pronunciation of “ch” and “sch“

You might have wondered about the strange sounds and spellings of “ch” and “sch“. Here, we’ll take a closer look at them.

sch: The German “sch” is pronounced like the “sh” in “sheep”.

For Example:

Schnitzel (breaded meat) ; Schnaps (liqueur) ; Schmidt ; Entschuldigung ; Tschüss ;

Next up: “ch”! The “ch” is the quintessential German sound – it is what gives the language its supposed brutality. It sounds a bit like a hissing cat and it’s hard to learn.

Ich ; Mich (me) ; schlecht (bad) ;

Learn German A1: Developing Fluency (15 Points) Lesson 27

The pronunciation of “v” and “w“

Die Weißwurst ist gut! (The white sausage is good!)

Germany loves sausages. Every region has its own sausage – there are about 1500 different kinds of them. While, The “Weißwurst” (white sausage) is from Munich.

“W” in German is pronounced like a “v” in English.

Wie heißt du? (What’s your name?)

Wo?

Wer?

Wie geht’s? (How’s it going?)

Auf Wiedersehen! (Goodbye!)

Woher kommst du? (Where are you from?)

On to “v”!

In words of German origin, “v” is pronounced like an f, as in “vier” (four).

The “v” in “vier” and the “f” in “fünf” are pronounced the same way.

Der Vater ist müde. (The father is tired.)

Every rule has an exception…

German has imported lots of words from Latin, like November, Video, Virus. In these words, “v” is also pronounced like the English “v”. We’ll learn more words like these later in the course!

Ok, so let’s sum up what we’ve learned:

“W” is pronounced like an English v, like in Wurst (sausage), wie (how)

“V” is pronounced like f in words of German origin, like in Vater (father), vier (four)

“V” is pronounced like an English v in words of Latin origin, like in November, Video, Virus

The Pronunciation of Umlauts

Do you know the famous umlauts?

The German alphabet has three wonderful extra letters, the so-called umlauts: meet ä, ö and ü.

Their pronunciation differs slightly from their dot-less cousins a, o and u. You’ll get the hang of it!

Tip: The key to mastering the umlauts is simply to repeat what you hear, multiple times!

The Umlaut “ä” is pronounced like “a” But, when you say “ä“, your tongue must be arched towards the roof of your mouth.

“Ä” is pronounced similarly to the “e” in “bet” or “end” in English.

Vater – Väter; (father – fathers)

“Ü” has no equivalent in English. It is pronounced like the “ie” in the German word “vier“. While saying the sound, round your lips as if you were whistling, with them almost completely closed.

Mutter – Mütter; (mother – mothers)

Here are some words we learned containing “ü“:

Mütter (mothers)

Tschüss! (Bye!)

müde (tired)

Türkisch (Turkish)

Ö: Say the German vowel “e” and then round the lips as for “o“.

Tochter – Töchter ; (daughter – daughters)

We’ve learned these words containing “ö“:

zwölf (twelve)

Schönen Tag! (Have a nice day!)

Töchter (daughters)

Französisch (French)

Words begin with sp- & st-

If a word begins with sp- or st-, we pronounce the s like a sh. i.e.

Ich spreche Spanisch. (I speak Spanish.) We write Spanisch, but we say “Shpanisch”.

There are more same examples:

We write Straße, but we say “Shtraße”.

Sport ist Mord. (I hate sports!). We write Sport, but we say “Shport”.

Words begin with z:

The z in German is pronounced like ts. It’s important to think of this “hidden t“, or else you could get misunderstood.

We write zwei, but we say “tswei”.

While, We write zehn, but we say “tsehn”.

Any z is pronounced like ts, as in zwei, zehn, and zahlen.

Pronunciation for ”ei” & ”ie”

So, ”ei” in German is pronounced like the English letter i:

heißen , Wein

While, ” ie” is pronounced like the English letter e:

Sie, Wien

Wie geht’s? (How’s it going?)

So, How would you pronounce following sentences?

Ich trinke Wein in Wien! (I drink wine in Vienna!)

Ich liebe Wein. (I love wine.) While, In this sentence you hear the sound ‘ie‘ before the sound ‘ei‘.

Learn German A1: Yes/No Questions Lesson 19

Pronunciation of ” r ” Sounds

It can take time to get the different types of German “r” right. That’s okay!

Meine Mutter ist nett. (My mother is nice.)

You can hardly hear the “r” at the end of “Mutter“. It sounds like an “a”, but you write “er“.

Ich spreche Deutsch. (I speak German.)

To say the “r” in “spreche”, make an “r” sound, then pretend you are gurgling while you do it.

There are different types of German “r“, formed in different places in the mouth and throat:

“r” in the middle or at the start of a word sounds like gurgling with water.	ruhig, Sprache, sprechen
“r” at the end of a word sounds like “a“.	Mutter, Vater

Note:

“r” in the middle or at the start of a word sounds like gurgling. “r” at the end sounds like “a“.

For Example:

1): Mein Vater spricht Englisch. (My father speaks English.)

The “r” in “Vater” sounds like an “a“, the “r” in “spricht” comes from the back of your throat.

2): Mein Bruder und mein Vater sind sehr sympathisch. (My brother and my father are very likeable.)

The “r” at the end of “Bruder” and “Vater” sounds like an “a“.

3): Ich spreche ein bisschen Spanisch. (I speak a little Spanish.)

The “r” in “spreche” sounds like you’re gurgling water in the back of your throat.

Pronunciation of ” h ”

Hallo. Hi. Hey.

Hello. Hi. Hey.

At the beginning of a word, “h” is pronounced just like the English “h” in “heart“.

To pronounce a word beginning with “h“, you need to let some air stream out of your mouth.

Just like when you breathe on your hands to warm them up.

Hallo! (Hello!)

Ich heiße Hans. (I’m Hans.)

Wie heißt du? (What’s your name?)

When you say “h” at the beginning of a word, the vocal cords are not making sound, there is just air passing through them.

Lots of German names start with “h“.

Another example:

Er wohnt in Berlin. (He lives in Berlin.)

You can’t hear the “h” after a vowel, but instead we say a long vowel sound.

So, We can say:

You can’t hear the “h” after vowels (a, e, i, o, u), but it makes the vowel long.

Wir wohnen in Hamburg. (We live in Hamburg.)

You can’t hear the “h” in “wohnen” but it indicates that the “o” is long.

Wie geht’s? (How are you?)

You can’t hear the “h” after a vowel (here: “e”) but it makes it longer.

Conclusion:

An initial “h” is pronounced. After a vowel, “h” isn’t pronounced, it just lengthens the vowel.

Pronunciation of ”ck”

Ich bin glücklich. (I am happy.)

The German letters “ck” are pronounced in the same way as the letter “k“.

The vowel preceding “ck” is always short.

Be careful not to mix up “ch” and “ck“. Because, The “ch” sound in German is often mispronounced as a hard “ck” sound.

Nackt (naked) vs. Nacht (night)!

Pronunciation of ” ß ”

The German letter “ß” is called “Eszett” or “scharfes s” (sharp s). It sounds just like how you’d pronounce the English “s” in “see” or “sail”.

Ich heiße Ali. (I’m Ali.)

“Ich heiße…” contains a special letter, “ß“, pronounced like an English ”s” (as in “snow”).

The Eszett (ß) always makes a sharp s sound, whether it comes in the middle of the word or at the end. It never appears at the beginning of a word.

Switzerland and Liechtenstein are the two German-speaking countries that have no Eszett. The “ß” is never used there, only “ss“. Both sound the same!

Liechtenstein and Switzerland always write “ss” instead of “ß“.

Pronunciation of ” J ”

A German “j” most commonly appears at the start of words, especially names, but never appears at the end of a word.

Ja (Yes)

The German “j” sounds like the English “y” in “yes”.

Jahr, Joghurt : Here, “j” is pronounced like the “y” in “yes”.

Exceptions! A few German words with a “j” that were taken from English and French still retain their original sound.

from English: Job ? , Jeans ? , joggen ???? (job, jeans, jogging)

from French: Journalist ??? , Journal ? (journalist, journal)

Gute Arbeit! (Great job!) Now you can pronounce many German words!

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