German pronunciation guide for English speakers

German pronunciation is easier than its reputation, because the spelling is regular: once you know how letters and letter groups sound, you can read almost any word aloud. The key points for English speakers are long and short vowels, the pairs ei (like eye) and ie (like ee), the consonants w, v, z and s, the hard sound of b, d and g at the end of a word, and stress on the first syllable of most words. The umlauts, the ch and the r need extra practice.

#Is German pronunciation hard for English speakers?

Not as hard as it looks. English spelling hides its sounds: think of "though", "through" and "tough". German is much more honest. The word Straße can only be said one way, and once you know the rules you will say it right the first time you see it.

Many sounds also exist in English already. What takes work is a short list: the umlauts ä, ö and ü, the two ch sounds, the r, and the habit of saying every vowel clearly instead of letting it slide. This guide covers the whole system; the tricky sounds have their own guides on umlauts and the ch and the r.

#How do you pronounce German vowels?

Every German vowel comes in a long and a short version, and the difference can change the meaning.

The spelling usually tells you which one you need. A vowel is long when it is doubled (Boot, Meer), followed by an h (wohnen, Fahrt) or, for i, written ie (Liebe). A vowel is usually short before a double consonant (Bett, kommen, Mutter). Stadt is one of the exceptions: its a is short.

Two more things make German sound German. First, an e at the end of a word is spoken, as a soft "uh": bitte has two syllables, Schule too. Second, the ending -er sounds like a short, open "uh" with no English r: Lehrer, besser, Wasser.

The vowel pairs

#Which German consonants sound different from English?

Most consonants are close to English. These are the ones that catch people out:

Note the sp and st rule: it applies at the start of a word or a word part (Stadt, Sport, verstehen, where stehen is the base), but not in the middle of a word, so Fenster and ist have a plain st.

An h after a vowel is silent and only makes the vowel long: gehen, fahren, Uhr. At the start of a word or syllable it is spoken: Haus, wohin.

And ng is normally one sound, as in English "singer", never with a hard g as in "finger". So German Finger sounds like "fing-er", and lang ends without a g.

#Why does a d sound like a t at the end of a word?

At the end of a word or syllable, German makes b, d and g hard: they sound like p, t and k. Linguists call this final devoicing.

In Hund you hear a t, in Hunde a d, because now the d starts a new syllable. The same goes for s: Haus ends in a sharp s, Häuser has a soft one in the middle.

The ending -ig is a special case. In standard German it sounds like the ch in ich: zwanzig, billig, König. In southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland you will often hear a k instead; both are correct.

#Where does the stress go in German words?

Most German words are stressed on the first syllable: ARbeit, WOHnung, FENster, EINkaufen. Three patterns break the rule, and they are worth knowing:

• Unstressed prefixes. Be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer- and ent- are never stressed, so the stress moves to the next syllable: beZAHlen, verGESsen, erKLÄren, geFALlen.
• Separable prefixes are stressed. ANrufen, AUFstehen, MITkommen. This is how you hear that a verb is separable.
• Loanwords often keep their stress at the end: BüRO, MuSIK, StuDENT, UniversiTÄT, InformaTION.

#How do you practise German pronunciation?

1. Listen first. Hear a word or sentence several times before you say it.
2. Shadow. Play a short recording and speak along with it, a split second behind, copying the rhythm and the melody, not just the sounds.
3. Record yourself and compare. You will hear things you cannot notice while speaking.
4. Work with pairs. Miete and Mitte, Wein and Wien, Hölle and Höhle: pairs train your ear and your mouth together.
5. Read aloud every day, a few lines of a text at your level. It joins spelling and sound.

Real speech is faster and more relaxed than textbook recordings; spoken German vs textbook German shows what happens to words in everyday conversation, and German greetings is a good place to start practising whole phrases.

#How does Linota help with German pronunciation?

Linota helps you hear German and say it out loud. Say it yourself shows you a sentence in English: you say it in German, then compare with the model. In Missions you can answer by speaking, in situations like a phone call to the doctor's practice. Listening episodes, in which Mia and Jonas record a short German show made with your words, give you natural speech with vocabulary you already know, and you can turn a podcast or a voice message into text on your phone to read along while you listen.

#The short version

• German spelling is regular: learn the rules once, read any word.
• Long and short vowels change meaning: Miete and Mitte.
• ei sounds like eye, ie like ee, eu like oy.
• w sounds like v, v usually like f, z like ts, sp and st at the start like shp and sht.
• b, d, g go hard at the end of a word.
• Stress the first syllable, except after be-, ge-, ver- and friends, and in many loanwords.

Next, work on the sounds English does not have: how to pronounce ä, ö and ü.