A Guide To German Pronunciation

What I really like about German is the fact that it is a phonetic language i.e. you pronounce the words as they`re spelt and there aren`t any letters or syllables that are silent (like French!). There are a few guidelines that you have to follow, however. For example:

`ie` is pronounced like `ee`, `ei` is pronounced like `i`, `z` is pronounced like `ts`, `w` is pronounced like `v`, `s` at the beginning of a word is pronounced like `z`, `v` at the beginning of a word is pronounced like `f`, `ch` is often pronounced like the `ch` in the Scottish word `loch`, `eu` is pronounced like `oy`, `au` is pronounced like `ow` (as in `Ow! That hurts.`).

Let me give you some examples.

`Wie...?` (how) is pronounced like `vee`, `drei` (three) is pronounced like `dri` or `dry`, `zwei` (two) is pronounced like `tsvi`, `sieben` (seven) is pronounced like `zeeben`, `vergessen` (forgotten) is pronounced like `fergessen`, `neun` (nine) is pronounced like `noyn`, `Haus` (house) is pronounced just like `house`, `Maus` (mouse) is pronounced just like `mouse`.

Another thing that will help with the pronunciation of German (and French) words is opening your mouth more than you do in English. When we speak English, we don`t usually need to move our mouths very much - our pronunciation is quite lazy - but if you want to pronounce German words properly, you will have to use your mouth more and open it wider than you`re used to in English. The letter `o`, for example, in English has quite a round sound. The sound in German is a longer sound and that means we have to become less lazy in our pronunciation. If students are having a little difficulty pronouncing a word, I find that doing some mouth `aerobics` with them - getting them to move their mouths in all directions - often solves the problem. This can be a fun thing to do and students are often surprised to find that just opening their mouths a little more is all it takes to produce a nice, authentic sound!

Enjoy coming across new combination of sounds when you learn a foreign language. A word may sound strange to our ears and cause us to laugh, but so much the better! That intrigues us and challenges us and expands our `sound` memory. All languages have their own rhythm and music and it is a fascinating part of language learning to come across these new rhythms and sounds.