GERMAN WORDS IN ENGLISH SOUND HOW TO

“ ehr ” sound in the standard British pronunciation of words like “d ir t” and “h ur t” “ u ” sound in the ride service “ U ber,” only with the mouth held in a tight pucker, as if preparing to whistle, and held slightly longer

GERMAN WORDS IN ENGLISH SOUND HOW TO

Unlike any sound in English, this video explains in detail how to pronounce ö. “ ir ” sound made when the word “b ir d” is spoken in some South African, New Zealand, & Welsh accents. “ eh ” sound in “f e z” or “b e d,” only held slightly longer Like unaccented vowels, the three German vowels with umlauts have both “long” and “short” pronunciations. Only three German letters can use an umlaut: ä, ö, and ü. They’re essential and are used to spell and pronounce many words correctly. In German, umlauts aren’t mere decorations. You’ve probably seen the double dots of umlauts adorning the names of rock bands like Spın̈al Tap, Mötley Crüe, and Möngöl Hörde.

“ oo ” sound in “c oo k,” “b oo k,” or “fors oo k” Tighter version of the “ o ” sound in “ ou ght” Short “ ih ” sound at the beginning of words like “ i nside” or “ i mpact” The “ uh ” sound at the beginning of words like “ a gain” “ eh ” sound in words like “r e d,” “l e d,” “ e ver,” & “ e lse” Tight “ oo ” sound in “gl ue ” or “tr ue ” Long “ o ” sound in “m o j o ,” “ph o t o ,” or “c o ne” Long “e” sound in words like “s ee n” or “gr ee n” “ay” sound in words like “m ay ,” “w ay ,” & “st ay ” “ah” sound in words like “b ah ” or “r ah ” or “ ah -h ah ”

Let’s look at the basic German vowels and compare them to similar sounds in familiar English words, along with examples of some common German words : Long german vowels In most cases, accidentally using the “long” vowel when you should use the “short” one (or vice versa) won’t prevent you from being understood.

The vowel is an -e at the very end of a word, like Glaub e (faith) or Freund e (friends).

The vowel is followed by a doubled consonant, as in ha ll o (hello) or Mä nn er (men).

The vowel is followed by more than one consonant, as in schmeckt (tastes).

The vowel is doubled, as in M ee r (sea).

An -h directly follows the vowel, as in S oh n (son).

The vowel is followed by only one consonant, as in ma g (like).

Vowels in German can either be pronounced “long” or “short.” The essential difference is how long you hold or stress the vowel sound. For example, the words “cash” and “cache” in English are written as / kæʃ / in the International Phonetic Alphabet.įor simplicity’s sake, we’ll also use some common English words to give us an idea of the German pronunciations. The advantage of the IPA is that you can see when sounds that are normally spelled differently are pronounced the same way. Each IPA symbol matches one single sound in a word, even if that sound is written with two or more letters in the regular alphabet. The most precise way to describe German vowel sounds would be with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), so we’ll include the IPA symbol for each sound. However, the sounds of German vowels are somewhat different. German shares all the English vowels - at least in writing. We’ll start with one of the areas that can be particularly challenging for German learners: German vowels. Unlike English, though, German doesn’t confuse you with silent letters! German uses the same alphabet as English, with the addition of three accented vowels and one unique consonant.

Ready to start going native with your German pronunciation? Los geht’s! (Let’s go!). You’ll feel more confident speaking German, more likely to enjoy it, and you’ll improve your German learning level. Not only will you be better understood by other German speakers, but you’ll have an easier time understanding the German you hear. We’ll get the scoop on common vowel and consonant combinations in standard German. Wherever you see an example word in German, we’ll link to sound clips with native pronunciations of that word. I n this article, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to pronouncing all 30 letters of the German alphabet - even that funny little “double s ” letter that looks like a “ B”.

German words in english sound