German Pronunciation Notes

Consonant Sounds In German… J (sounds like) Y examples: Ja, Jahre, Juli S at the beginning of a word Z examples: Seite (page), September, sind (are) VF examples: vier (four), viel (much) WV examples: Willkommen, Wiedersehen Z “tst” examples: zwei (two), zehn (ten) SCH together makes a “sh” sound.

β=ss The beta symbol, or as it is called in German, the “Eszett” represents a double “s.” Many times, the use of β or “ss” is interchangeable. The β is not used in Switzerland or Liechtenstein.

The “ie” and “ei” combo When an “i” and an “e” go a’walkin’, the second one does the talkin’! Wiedersehen, Wie geht’s? Ich heisse, zwei

Two combos that make “oy” The two vowels “eu” together make a sound like “oy” in English. Neu: new Freund: friend The two vowels “äu” also make a sound like “oy” in English. Bäume: trees Träume: dreams

Vowels with dots Sometimes, you will see two dots above an a,o, or u in German. This is called an umlaut. ä long “a” sound like in later or today Instead of apple or Guten Tag ü makes the “u” oooo-y-er (über) ö this is always a really difficult sound for Americans to duplicate. The closest thing we’ve got to compare it to is “oo” sound like in book An “o” without an umlaut will make a long “o” sound

Scheu (shy) Fräulein (Miss) Schwarz (black) Jäger (hunter) Can you pronounce the following German words based on what you just learned? Scheu (shy) Fräulein (Miss) Schwarz (black) Jäger (hunter) Verrückt (crazy) Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften  (insurance companies providing legal protection)

Deutsch 2 Schwierig Weichei Fremdschämen Bezirksschornsteinfegermeister