Although
there are a few sounds in German which will be unfamiliar to you as a
native speaker of English, on the whole English speakers find German
easier to pronounce than French. Since the main thing is to be
understood, don't worry if your pronunciation is less than perfect.
German
alphabet
The
German alphabet contains all the 26 letters, small and capital, of
the English alphabet. In addition, three of the vowel letters - a/A,
o/O, u /U - also appear in the forms ä / Ä
, ö / Ö , ü / Ü , which represent
entirely different sounds from the same letters without the 'Umlaut'
symbol ( ¨ ) above.
Here
are the letters of the alphabet with their names given in our
imitated pronunciation.
A ah J yot S es
B b
eh K k ah T t eh
C ts
eh L el U oo
D d
eh M em V fow
E eh N en W v
eh
F ef O oh X iks
G g
eh P p eh Y uepsilon ( uep /
si / lon)
H h
ah Q k oo Z tset
I ee R e er
Vowels
& Vowel Combinations
Although
there are only eight vowel letters in German (the five of the English
alphabet, plus ä, ö, ü ), there are potentially
16. In practice 15 vowel sounds, because each vowel letter has two
pronunciations, a long and a short one, It is vital to note and
produce this distinction, as the long-short contrast is accompanied
by a difference in the nature of the sound. The
spelling is sometimes an aid to knowing whether a vowel is long or
short:
A
vowel is long if
- The vowel letter is doubled: Beet, Saat, Boot
- The vowel letter is followed by h : Bahn, Huhn, Lohn
- The vowel i is followed by e : fies, mies, Grie ß
- The vowel letter is followed by ß , which is in turn immediately followed by a vowel letter in the same word: Füße, Blöße, Maße
A
vowel is short if
- The vowel letter is followed by a doubled consonant letter or by ck : H ütte, Affe, Zweck
- The vowel letter is followed by ss , which is in turn immediately followed by a vowel letter in the same word: Flüsse, wissen, Masse
- The vowel letter is followed by ng : Rang, jung, ging
German
Spelling & Pronunciation
There
is a far greater consistency between spelling and pronunciation in
German than exists in English. However, some letters consistently
require a pronunciation different from the same letters in English,
and some letters appear in combinations unfamiliar in English. All
names begin with capital letters. The pronoun Sie ,
the formal word for 'you' and related words (e.g. Ihr 'your')
always begins with capitals.
