Pronunciation - Aussprache

A German Pronunciation Guide
With DANGERS to Avoid!

In this third part of our German Pronunciation Guide, we offer more tips and point out some hidden dangers caused by interference from English.

Letter Sounds in Words
Previously, we showed you how to pronounce the letters of the alphabet and certain letter combinations in German. Now we want to concentrate on how to pronounce other letters and letter combinations found within German words. For instance, a "d" at the end of a German word usually has a hard "t" sound in German, not the soft "d" sound of English. That is just one example of the many possible pitfalls found in the chart below.

Similar Words
In addition, the fact that English and German words are often identical or very similar in spelling can lead to pronunciation errors. We'll show you some mistakes you can avoid in the second chart below, but here are two "dangerous" examples: bomb/Bombe and pizza/Pizza. The German word for bomb is pronounced BOM-bah (the "b" is not silent and the final "e" is sounded). A German pizza sounds like PITS-uh, not PEET-sa!

Here are some more examples of German pronunciation pitfalls:

Letters in Words
Spelling	Aussprache Pronunciation	Beispiele / Examples
final b	p	Lob (LOHP)
final d	t	Freund (FROYNT), Wald (VALT)
final g	k	genug (guh-NOOK)
silent h	-	gehen (GAY-en), sehen (ZAY-en)
When h follows a vowel, it is silent. When it precedes a vowel (Hund), the h is pronounced.
German th	t	Theorie (TAY-oh-ree)
German v	f	Vater (FAHT-er)
In some foreign, non-Germanic words with v, the v is pronounced as in English: Vase (VAH-suh), Villa (VILL-ah)
German w	v	Wunder (VOON-der)
German z	ts	Zeit (TSITE), like ts in "cats"; never like an English soft z (as in "zoo")

Similar Words Pronunciation Pitfalls
Wort Word	Aussprache Pronunciation	Comments
Bombe bomb	BOM-buh	The m, b, and e are all heard
Genie genius	zhuh-NEE	The g is soft, like the s sound in "leisure"
Nation nation	NAHT-see-ohn	The German -tion suffix is pronounced TSEE-ohn
Papier paper	pah-PEER	Stress on the last syllable
Pizza pizza	PITS-uh	The i is a short vowel because of the double z

A German Pronunciation Guide

Diphthongs and Consonant Pairs

German is a much more phonetically consistent language than English. This means that German words almost always sound the way they are spelled—with consistent sounds for any given spelling. (e.g., the German ei - as in nein - spelling is always sounded EYE, whereas German ie - as in Sie - always has the EEE sound.) No need to learn exceptions like English "i before e, except after c." In German, the rare exceptions are usually foreign words from English, French, or other languages. Any student of German should learn the sounds associated with certain spellings as soon as possible. Knowing them, you will be able to correctly pronounce even German words you have never seen before!

Diphthongs
A diphthong (Greek di, two + phthongos, sound, voice) is a combination of two vowels that blend and are sounded together. Instead of being pronounced separately, the two letters have one sound or pronunciation. An example would be the au combination. The diphthong au in German always has the sound OW, as in English "ouch" (the "ou" being an English diphthong; the au is also part of the German word autsch, which is pronounced almost the same as "ouch" in English!) Obviously, this kind of information is very useful to know when you are trying to pronounce German. In the chart below, we present more examples of German diphthongs.

Grouped or Paired Consonants
While diphthongs are always vowel pairs, German also has many common grouped or paired consonants that have a consistent pronunciation as well. An example of this would be st, a very common combination of the consonants s and t, found in many German words. In standard German, the st combination at the beginning of a word is always pronounced like SCHT and not like the st found in English "stay" or "stone." So a German word such as Stein (stone, rock) is pronounced SCHTINE, with an initial SCH-sound, as in "show." You'll find more examples of paired consonants in the chart below.

Diphthongs
Diphthong Double Vowels	Aussprache Pronunciation	Beispiele / Examples
ai / ei	eye	bei (at, near), das Ei (egg), der Mai (May)
au	ow	auch (also), das Auge (eye), aus (out of)
eu / äu	oy	Häuser (houses), Europa (Europe), neu (new)
ie	eeh	bieten (offer), nie (never), Sie (you)

Grouped Consonants
Buchstabe Consonant	Aussprache Pronunciation	Beispiele / Examples
ck	k	dick (fat, thick), der Schock (shock)
ch	>>	After a, o, u and au, pronounced like the guttural ch in Scottish "loch" - das Buch (book), auch (also). Otherwise it is a palatal sound as in: mich (me), welche (which), wirklich (really). TIP: If no air is passing over your tongue when you say a ch-sound, you aren't saying it correctly. No true equivalent in English. - Although ch doesn't usually have a hard k sound, there are exceptions: Chor, Christoph, Chaos, Orchester, Wachs (wax)
pf	pf	Both letters are (quickly) pronounced as a combined puff-sound: das Pferd (horse), der Pfennig. If this is difficult for you, an f sound will work, but try to do it!
ph	f	das Alphabet, phonetisch - Some words formerly spelled with ph are now spelled with f: das Telefon, das Foto
qu	kv	die Qual (anguish, torture), die Quittung (receipt)
sch	sh	schön (pretty), die Schule (school) - The German sch combination is never split, whereas sh usually is (Grashalme, Gras/Halme; but die Show, a foreign word).
sp / st	shp / sht	At the start of a word, the s in sp/st has a sch sound as in English "show, she." sprechen (speak), stehen (stand)
th	t	das Theater (tay-AHTER), das Thema (TAY-muh), topic - Always sounds like a t (TAY). NEVER has the English th sound!

Das Alphabet

das Alphabet The German Alphabet and Its Sounds
Buchstabe Letter	Aussprache Pronunciation	Beispiele / Examples
A a	ah	ab (from), der Apparat (appliance, phone)
Ä ä	ay	der Äther (ether), die Fähre (ferry)
B b	bay	bei (at, near), das Buch (book)
C c	say	die City (downtown), der Computer
D d	day	durch (through), dunkel (dark)
E e	ay	elf (eleven), wer (who), er (he)
F f	eff	faul (lazy), der Feind (enemy)
G g	gay	das Gehirn (brain), gleich (same, equal)
H h	haa	die Hand (hand), halb (half)
I i	eeh	der Igel (hedgehog), immer (always)
J j	yot	das Jahr (year), jung (young)
K k	kah	der Kalender (calendar), kennen (know)
L l	ell	langsam (slow, slowly), die Leute (people)
M m	emm	mein (my), der Mann (man)
N n	enn	die Nacht (night), nein (no), nicht (not)
O o	oh	das Ohr (ear), die Oper (opera)
Ö ö	ooh	Österreich (Austria), öfters (once in a while)
P p	pay	das Papier (paper), positiv (positive)
Q q	koo	die Quelle (source), quer (crossways)
R r	err	das Rathaus (city hall), rechts (right)
S s	ess	die Sache (matter), das Salz (salt), seit (since)
ß	ess-zett (s-z ligature)	Lower case only. Replaces "ss" in some words. Not used in Swiss German. groß (big, great), die Straße (street) BUT: das Wasser (water), dass (that), muss (must)
T t	tay	der Tag (day), das Tier (animal)
U u	ooh	die U-Bahn (subway, metro), unter (below)
Ü ü	uyuh	über (over, about), die Tür (door)
V v	fow	der Vater (father), vier (four)
W w	vay	wenn (if, whenever), die Woche (week)
X x	ixx	x-mal (umpteen), das Xylofon
Y y	oop-see- lohn	der Yen (yen), der Typ (type)
Z z	zett	zahlen (pay), die Pizza, zu (to, too)
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