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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