German lesson for beginners – 2: pronunciation

Lesson 2: Pronunciation and the alphabet

Grammar:
Letters in German are not much different from English. Some pronunciations are different though:

  • c is pronounced as in pots or can
  • g is pronounced as in great
  • i is pronounced as in freedom, not as in I
  • j is pronounced as in young
  • u is pronounced as in today
  • w is pronounced as very
  • z is pronounced as pots

When you are saying the alphabet, some letters get weird. J is pronounced jot, V is fow, Y is epsilon. So when spelling in German, don’t forget those. Listen to the full alphabet here.

Some letters are not in the alphabet, namely (listen to them here):

  • ä
  • ö
  • ü
  • ß (pronounced ‘s’)

Note: the ¨ is called ‘Umlaut’ in German, and can be replaced by an e after the letter. So instead of ä, it’s ae, ö becomes oe and ü ue.

There are some special combinations:

  • sch is pronounced ‘s’ as in sure or ‘sh’ as in shut
  • sp and st are pronounced chp and cht

Don’t have not enough? Visit Wikipedia for more exceptions in German.

Exercises and new words:
Pronounce the following words:

  • Das Jahr (-e) = year
  • Das Beispiel (-e) = example
  • Der Mensch (-en) = human being
  • Der Tag (-e) = day
  • Die Frage (-n) = question

Solutions