Alright… after our “easy in” getting to know the letters of the German alphabet, it's time to shift up gears a little. So here's your comprehensive overview of the German alphabet's pronunciation:
Phew…
But that's not all, I'm afraid! In addition, there are a number of special letter combinations (such as diphthongs) that have their own distinct pronunciation:
A particularly tricky pronunciation for many foreigners is that of “ch” when it follows an “a”, “o” or “u”. It is a sound often associated with languages in the Middle East, such as the “h” in the Arabic word “Allah”. (For linguists and other pro learners, the IPA symbol you're looking for is [χ].) Example: “Nacht” (night – the opposite of day)
Like in English, double consonants (such as “gg”) always shorten the syllables they connect, and there is no stop in between. Example: “Hammer” (hammer – a tool)
Double vowels and vowels followed by an “h” are always elongated. Examples: “Saat” (seeds – grains to grow plants from); “Stahl” (steel – an alloy)
As shown in the first table in this post, the letter “e” has three slightly different pronunciations, depending on the context. No worries though: it's fairly consistent. Whenever the “e” is located in an unstressed syllable such as in “Wasser” (water – i.e., liquid H2O), it is not fully pronounced but instead “swallowed”, pretty much like in English “water” or like the “u” in Japanese “mizu” (IPA, however: [ə]). In a stressed syllable though, the pronunciation depends on whether the syllable is short – then it's like the “e” in “bet” – or long – then it's like the “e” in “men”, but longer.
So, for example, the German verb “leben” (to live): In German, usually the first or stem syllable (“leb-”) is the stressed one. So the second one here (“-en”) is unstressed. Since there is nothing that would indicate that the first syllable is shortened (such as a double consonant), in German, we can safely assume it is a long syllable. Thus, we have figured out how to pronounce that word.
So… “leben” – did you get it right? Actually, there is a terrific online resource with which you can test yourself on all the examples I have provided in this post!
Follow this link:
http://www.dict.cc/?s=leben
… to get to an English-German online dictionary that contains spoken audio samples of most if not all entries. Simply click on the speaker buttons in the side columns of each entry to play them. (The samples might take a few seconds to load though. So please be patient, should they not play back instantly.)
HAPPY PRACTICING! =)
Got any questions or comments? Feel free to post them!
One way to practice the German “R"
