German Pronunciation

How to pronounce German

     

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German Pronunciation

German Vowels		English Pronunciation
[i]	viel	meet, eat
[y]	kühl	ee rounded / long vowel
[ɪ]	Tisch	mitt, it
[ʏ]	hübsch	ih rounded / short vowel
[e]	Tee	mate, wait
[ø]	schön	ay rounded / long vowel
[ɛ]	Bett	met, wet
[œ]	zwölf	eh rounded / short vowel
[a]	Mann	mop, not
[ɑ]	kam	ah / longer vowel than [a]
[u]	gut	boot, suit
[ʊ]	muss	put, soot
[o]	Sohn	coat, goat
[ɔ]	Stock	caught, bought
[ə]	bitte	cut, what
[ɐ]	Wetter	uhr / also short vowel like [ə]

Notice that words spelled with ö and ü can be pronounced with a long or short vowel, so determining the pronunciation based on the spelling is not possible. The other umlauted letter, ä, is generally pronounced as [e], though it can be pronounced as [ɛ] in some dialects. A general rule for pronunciation, however, states that the short vowels / ɪ ʏ ʊ ɛ ɔ / must be followed by a consonant, whereas the long vowels / i y u e ø o / can occur at the end of the syllable or word.

German Diphthongs		English Pronunciation
[aɪ]	ein, mein	eye, buy, why
[aʊ]	auf, kaufen	cow, now, how
[ɔɪ]	neu, Gebäude	toy, boy, foil

German Consonants

There are a few German consonants that do not exist in English, and some consonant combinations that are not common in English. Notice that the pronunciation of the German r changes according to the location in the countries that speak German, i.e. [R] in northern Germany and [r] in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Spelling	IPA	Sample words	How to pronounce:
ch (with vowels e and i)	[ç]	Chemie, mich, nicht	Make yuh sound voiceless (no vibration of vocal cords)
ch (with vowels a, o, u)	[x]	Buch, lachen, kochen	Make kuh sound a fricative (continuous airflow)
pf	[pf]	Apfel, Pferd, Pfanne	Pronounce together as one sound
z	[ts]	Zeit, Zug, Tanz	Pronounce together as one sound
j	[j]	ja, Januar, Junge	yuh
qu	[kv]	Quote, Quiz, Quitte	kv
st / sp (at beginning of syllable)	[ʃt] / [ʃp]	Stadt, sprechen	sht / shp
sch	[ʃ]	schenken, schlafen	sh
th	[t]	Theater, Thron	t
v	[f]	Vater, verboten	f
w	[v]	Wasser, warm	v
ß	[s]	Straße, groß	s
s (before vowel)	[z]	Salz, seit, Sitz	z

In addition, the sounds [b], [d], and [g] lose their voicing at the end of a syllable, so they are pronounced as their voiceless counterparts [p], [t], and [k], respectively. However, the spelling does not reflect the pronunciation.

Stress

Stress generally falls on the first syllable of the word, except in words borrowed from other languages, where the stress falls on the last syllable (especially with French words.)

 

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