German is mostly pronounced in the way that it's written, with just a few rules to remember.
The German alphabet is the same as English alphabet, with the addition of four special letters; the letter ẞ (eszett) and vowels that appear with an umlaut (the two dots above the vowels a, o and u): ä, ö, and ü.
Play the video below to listen to the correct pronunciation of the letters. You can also hear and learn some examples of words for each letter.
German words are generally pronounced as they are spelled. In most cases, each German letter represents one particular sound; be careful, many of the familiar English letters are actually pronounced differently.
Once you've familiarized yourself with the German alphabet, the pronunciation gets easier.
- ß is just a sharp "s" sound. It is also shown as ss after a short vowel, but remains unchanged after a long vowel or dipthong.
- The s sounds like “z” if placed before or between vowels, like “sh” before p and t and sounds like the normal “s” English for the rest of the words.
- The ch sounds like a cat hiss or the h in the word huge.
- The r (at the beginning of the word) sounds like a gurgling r.
- The r (at the end of the word) sounds like “uh” (i.e. der : read as dey-uh and not der)
- j sounds like the English "y".
- w sounds like the English "v".
- v sounds like the English "f" (generally, the letter "v" is pronounced like the English letter "f". However, for some words, "v" is pronounced like the letter "w", frequently the case with foreign words.)
German V and F
Original German words with the letter "v" are pronounced like the English "f".
Foreign words that are incorporated in the German language that have a letter "v" sound the same as the English "v".
But take note, the "v" in vier and the "f" in fünf are pronounced the same way.
Vier - four
Fünf - five
November
Video
der Sport - sport
die Straße - street
zehn - ten
zwei - two
zahlen - to pay up
If a word begins with st- or sp-, we pronounce the s like sh.
der Sport is pronounced as der Shport.
die Straße is pronounced as die Shtraße.
The z in German is not pronounced like the English z but pronounced like ts-.
zehn is pronounced as tsehn.
zwei is pronounced as tsvei. (Remember: the ei is pronounced like the y in "my")
- ä as ae
- ö as oe
- ü as ue.
ä is pronounced similarly as the "e" in "bet" and "end" or like the “ae” in "aero".
ü umlaut does not really have an equivalent in English. It is pronounced like the English "ee" but you round your lips (like whistling) while saying it. You really must practice this. It sounds like the “u” in dude. Many find the ü to be the most difficult to pronounce in words.
ö umlaut is pronounced like the German vowel "e" then round the lips as if for "o". Ö sounds like the “i” in girl.
Practice saying the umlauts with their vowel counterparts:
Vater - Väter (father - fathers)
Mutter - Mütter (mother - mothers)
Tochter - Töchter (daughter - daughters)
Sohn - Söhne (son - sons)
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