Each language has its own special, unique sound system, which you need to get acquainted with, since a person who does not know the correct pronunciation will not be able to correctly perceive foreign speech by ear and will not be able to be understood correctly. German, along with sounds peculiar only to him, has a number of sounds, the pronunciation of which practically coincides with the corresponding sounds of the Russian language.

In German 42 sounds, for which records are used 26 letters Latin alphabet. Both in German and in Russian, vowels and consonants are distinguished. The German language has 15 simple vowels, 3 complex two-vowel sounds (diphthongs) and 24 consonants.

German alphabet

Ha

upsilon

Additional German letters to the Latin alphabet:

a-umlaut

u-umlaut

o-umlaut

escet

Vowel sounds The German language has two features:

1. At the beginning of a word or root, vowels are pronounced with a strong attack, resembling a slight click, which gives the German speech a jerky sound that is not characteristic of the Russian language.

2. Vowels are divided into long and short, which explains their greater number in comparison with the Russian language.

Long vowels are pronounced more intensely than the vowels of the Russian language, and do not change their character during the entire time of sounding. The consonant following the long vowel freely adjoins it, as if with a short pause. When transmitting German sounds in Russian letters, the length of vowels is indicated by a colon after the corresponding letter.

short vowels are pronounced more briefly than Russian vowels. The consonant sound following the short vowel tightly adjoins it, as if cutting it off.

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The length and shortness of vowels often have a semantic meaning and determine the general character and rhythm of German speech:

Stadt	state	city	-	Staat	state	state
offen	O fan	open	-	Ofen	O: fan	stove

Vowel pronounced for a long time:

A. in an open syllable, that is, a syllable ending in a vowel:

Vater f A:ta

Leben l e:Ben

b. in a conditionally closed syllable, i.e., a syllable that, when a word changes, can be opened:

Tag T A:To

Ta-ge T A:ge

On the letter, the length of the vowel is indicated:

A. doubling the letter

meer me:a

b. letter h after a vowel

Uhr y: a

V. letter e after i

Sie zi:

Vowel pronounced briefly, if followed by a consonant or group of consonants:

Consonants The German language has the following features:

A. they are pronounced more intensely than the corresponding Russian consonants;

b. German voiceless consonants p, t, k are pronounced with a breath, especially at the end of a word;

V. German consonants, unlike the corresponding Russian consonants, are never softened;

d. unlike the Russian language, where the voiceless consonant is voiced under the influence of the voiced consonant following it (from is tunnel, but: out from at home), in German the opposite phenomenon occurs: a voiceless consonant partially deafens the voiced one following it, remaining deaf (das Bad das bpa:t).

stress in German, it usually falls on the root of a word or on a prefix, that is, on the first syllable. When you change a word, the stress does not change. The pronunciation of German words is transmitted in this manual in Russian letters without the use of generally accepted transcription marks. The transcription of the word and the stressed vowel are in different fonts. Such transcription allows (with some exceptions) to pronounce German words and sentences quite correctly.

Please note that when you hover over the Russian transcription, the IPA transcription will be displayed. This is for especially advanced students, if you do not need it, use only Russian.

Pronunciation of German vowels

Sound represented by letters A, aa, Ah, pronounced like Russian A(long) in the word "brother" or A(short) in the word "tact": baden b A: Dan, Saal for: l, Fahrt fa:at, Satz zats .

Sound represented by letters ä , Ah, pronounced like Russian uh in the word "era": Väter f e: that, wahlen V e: linen , Manner m uh on .

Sound represented by letters i, ie, ih, pronounced like Russian And in the word "blue": mir mi:a, sieben h And:ben, Ihr i:a, Mitte m And te, Tisch hush .

Sound represented by letters e, her, eh, pronounced like Russian uh or e in the words "these", "believe", "measure": nehmen n e: maine See ze:, gehen G e: en, Geld gelt, sechs zex. In an unstressed final syllable (endings -en, -er), as well as in some prefixes (for example: be-, ge- etc.) this sound is not pronounced clearly and is similar to Russian uh in the word "should": fahren f A: ren, beginnen bag And nan .

However, especially attentive listeners could notice the overtones of the "and" sound in the words Leben and See. There is no such sound in either Russian or English, pay attention to it when listening to German speech. Pronounce it like Russian [e / e], and the position of the lips is like for [and]. You can also try to pronounce the diphthong [hey] without completely pronouncing the second part of the sound, i.e. the first part of the sound is [e / e], and the second [th], [th] just to the end and is not pronounced. Let's listen again:

Sound represented by letters oh oh oh, pronounced like Russian O(long) in the word "will" or O(short) in the word "clown": Oper O :pa ohne O :ne , Boot bo:t, Rolle R O le .

Sound represented by letters u, uh, pronounced like Russian at in the word "I will": du du:, Uhr y: a, hundert X at ndat .

Sound represented by letters u, uh, is absent in Russian. It's pronounced like Russian Yu in the words "jury", "mashed potatoes": führen f Yu: ren, funf funf, Ubung Yu:bun(g). Rounding the lips, as for [y], we pronounce [and]. Although in Russian transcription it will be designated as [yu], with the sound [yu] he Not is.

Sound represented by letters oh, oh, is also absent in Russian. Rounding the lips, as for [o], we pronounce [e]. Reminds me of Russian yo : schön w yo: n, Sohne h yo:ne, Loffel l yo fel, offnen yo fnen . Although in Russian transcription it will be denoted as [e], with the sound [e] he Not is.

ei, ai, pronounced like Russian ah into the words "give": drei dry, Weise V A yze .

Diphthong denoted by letters au, pronounced like Russian ay in the word "howitzer": blau bl A at, Faust f A mouth .

Diphthong denoted by letters eu, au, pronounced like Russian Ouch in the word "your": neu Noah, Hauser X Ouch behind .

Pronunciation of German consonants

Many consonant sounds of German are pronounced almost the same as the corresponding sounds of Russian: b b, p P, w V, f f, s c or h(before a vowel or between two vowels), k To,g G,n n, m m, z c.

Sound represented by letters ch(after e, i, ö, ü and after l, m, n) pronounced like soft Russian xx in the word "chemistry": welche V uh lhe, richtig R And htikh , manchmal m A nkhmal .

The sound represented by the letter h(at the beginning of a word or syllable) is pronounced as a noisy exhalation to the next vowel. In Russian, this sound is absent, however, it is enough to pronounce Russian [x] with a light exhalation: halt halt, Herz hertz .

Sound represented by letters l, ll, pronounced as an average between Russian soft l(in the word "summer") and solid l(in the word "lacquer"): Ball ball, alt alto .

The sound represented by the letter j, pronounced like Russian th before the corresponding vowels (for example: "Christmas tree", "pit", "south"): Jacke ya ke, jemand ye:manta .

R pronunciation

Consonant sound denoted by a letter r, can also sound like a vowel sound close to the Russian sound A.

1. After long vowels (with the exception of long "a") in stressed and unstressed syllables that are final, for example:
   factor f A who: a,wir V And:A, Clavier clave And:A, Nature nat at:A .

   There may be exceptions:
   Haar ha:r, Ha: ; Bart Bart, ba:at ; Arzt arts, a:tst ; Quark quark, kva:k ; Quartz quartz, kva:c ; Harz harz

2. In unstressed prefixes: er-, her-, ver-, zer-, for example:
   erfahren eaf A:ren , verbringen February And:n(g)en , zerstampfen zeasht A mpfeng , hervor heaf O:A .
3. In the final unstressed - er, and also when consonants follow it, for example:
   Vater f A that, immer i:ma, besser b uh:sa, anders A ndas, Kindern To And ndang, auf Wiedersehen auf in And:daze:en .

In other cases, it is pronounced as a consonant sound. There are three types of pronunciation of the consonant sound "r" (the 2nd option is now more common):

1. If you touch your fingers at the base of your neck and try to pronounce "r" so that your fingertips feel it, you get the first "r".
2. If you pronounce "g", try to continue the sound ("gggggg..r.."), you get the second sound ("growl of the tiger").
3. The sound pronounced with the tip of the tongue is thus the "Russian" "r".

Remember the rules for reading some letter combinations:

ch after a, o, u it is read like Russian X: Buch boo:x, Fach fah; after all other vowels, as well as after l, m, n is read as xx: recht recht, Wichtig V And htikh Milch milch .

chs, as well as the letter X, read like Russian ks: wechseln V uh kseln .

ck reads like Russian To: Stuck piece, Ecke uh ke .

sch reads like Russian w: Schuh shu:, waschen V A: sheng .

st PC: Stella PC uh le .

sp read at the beginning of a word or root like Russian sp: Spiel spire, sprechen sprechen .

tz reads like Russian c: Platz parade ground, sitzen h And tsen .

ng reads like ... English sound [ŋ]. The back of the tongue closes with the lowered soft palate, and air passes through the nasal cavity. In order to achieve the desired position of the organs of speech, one can inhale through the nose with the mouth wide open, then pronounce the sound [ŋ] while exhaling the air through the nose. In Russian transcription, we will denote as n(g), because G there still sometimes they pronounce, as in the first word: Übung Yu:bung, verbringen February And:n(g)en , Ding dyn(g). Also this sound is in combination nk: bank baŋk, links liŋx, tanken T Aŋken .

From letter to sound

Letters of the German alphabet	Russian transcription	Examples
ah, ah, ah	A:	Rat	pa:t
		Saat	per:t
		fahren	f A:ren
A	A	wann	van
ah, ah	e:	spat	sp:t
		zahlen	c uh:linen
ai	ah	Mai	May
au	ay	also	A wow
au	Ouch	Hauser	X O yza
b, bb	b	bitte	b And te
		ebbe	uh bae
(at the end of a word)	P	ab	up
With	To	Cafe	cafe e:
ch (after a, o, u)	X	Nacht	nakht
(after other vowels and after l, m, n)	xx	ich	uh
chs	ks	sechs	zex
ck	To	wecken	V uh ken
d, dd	d	dort	dort
		Kladde	class A de
(at the end of a word)	T	bald	balt
dt	T	Stadt	state
e, her, eh	e:, e:	er	e:a
	e: (and)	Tee	those: (and)
		gehen	ge:en
e	uh	etwas	uh yours
		dieses	d And: ze
ei	ah	mein	lane
eu	Ouch	neun	noin
fff	f	frei	fry
		Schiff	cipher
g, gg	G	gut	gu:t
		flagge	fl A ge
(at the end of a word)	To	Tag	So
(in suffix -ig)	xx	zwanzig	color A ncih
h  (at the beginning of a word and syllable)	X	haben	X A:ben
		behalten	bah A lten
(unreadable after vowels)		sehen	h e:en
i, ie, ih	And:	wir	w:a
		sieben	h And:ben
		Ihnen	i:nen
i	And	Zimmer	c And ma
j	th	Jahr	th A:
k	To	kind	kint
l, ll	eh	elf	elf
		halle	X A le
m, mm	m	machen	m A hyung
		comment	To O maine
n, nn	n	Name	n A: me
		Dann	Dan
ng	n(g)	Ding	dyn(g)
oh, oh, oh	O:	oben	O: ben
		Boot	bo:t
		Ohr	o:a
o	O	night	nox
oh, oh	"yo:"	Mobel	m yo: belle
		Sohne	h yo: ne
		Öl	yo: eh
ö	"yo"	zwolf	zwölf
		offnen	and about: fnen
p, pp	P	parken	P A rken
		knapp	knap
pf	pf	Pfennig	poof
qu	sq.	Qualitat	qualite e: T
r, rh	R	Arbeiter	A rbyte
		Rhine	R A yin(Rhine)
r	A	wir	V And:A
		erfahren	eaf A:ren
		Vater	f A that
s  (before vowels or between vowels)	h	sagen	h A:gen
		unser	at nza
		Kase	To uh:ze
(at the end of a word)	With	das	das
ss, ß	With	lassen	l A sen
		Fuss	fu:s
sch	w	Schule	w at:le
sp	sp	sprechen	spr uh hyung
st	PC	stellen	PC uh linen
t, tt, th	T	Tisch	hush
		satt	zat
		Theater	te A: that
tz	c	setzen	h uh tsen
u, uh	at:	Dusche	d at: she
		Uhr	y: a
u	at	und	unt
u, uh	"Yu:"	Tur	ty: a
		fuhren	f Yu:ren
		uber	Yu: ba
ü	"Yu"	funf	funf
		uppig	Yu shove
v  (in German words)	f	vier	fi:a
(in foreign words)	V	visite	visas And: te
		October	new uh mba
w	V	Wagen	V A: gene
x	ks	Taxi	T A xi
y	"Yu:"	Lyrik	l Yu:rick
y	"Yu"	Zylinder	tsul And nda
z	c	zahlen	c A:linen

German alphabet was created on the basis of the Greco-Roman alphabet, table German alphabet includes: lowercase and uppercase letters German alphabet, pronunciation German alphabet, transcription of letters German alphabet. Why is it worth learning the German alphabet? A clear knowledge of the German alphabet and transcriptions is a key factor when using dictionaries, writing and reading texts. Everything is very simple, because in order to master the German language, you should also know the German alphabet in order to be able to read and quickly navigate in the dictionary. In addition, when talking on the phone, you can often hear the following phrase: "buchstabieren Sie bitte!", Which means something like this: "I can not understand your foreign pronunciation, please spell it," which once again proves the need to study the German alphabet. We will talk about the spelling of the German language and the main rules of reading on the pages of our site, and now we will return to the German alphabet itself. Names of letters, i.e. the sounds that we pronounce when naming the letters of the German alphabet, as well as in English, differ significantly from other languages ​​​​and the original ones - Latin. As well as for English and French, the basis for the German alphabet are Latin letters: A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z, besides them there are also umlauts : Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü and the ß ligature. In total we get 26+3+1= 30 characters. I want to note that umlauts and ligatures are not considered letters, so the correct answer to the question “how many letters are in the German alphabet?” will be - 26. The English and German alphabets have a lot in common, since the languages ​​\u200b\u200bhave the same roots and belong to the same language group. If you are familiar with the English alphabet, then learning the German alphabet will be much easier. Despite the fact that the sounds denoting letters in the two languages ​​are different, reading the letters of the German alphabet is much easier than reading English. The table of the German alphabet shows the Russian and classical transcriptions. The Russian version is not entirely correct and rather serves as a hint. Most letters of the German alphabet have a constant sound correspondence, so transcription is not used as often as in English. We suggest you learn the German alphabet with the help of a fun video at the end of the article. Thus, we got acquainted with the German alphabet, as well as the umlauts of the German language.

Letters of the German alphabet

Pronunciation table of the German alphabet

Umlauts Ä, Ö, Ü.

Umlauts or umlauts?

Often the question arises how to write "umlauts" or "umlauts"? In fact, this is true, and so, everything will depend on how you read the word Umlaut. The most commonly used word "umlaut", and we will take it for the truth.

So what is an umlaut if not a letter?

Omitting scientific terms and definitions, an umlaut can be called a sound phenomenon, which consists in changing the sound and timbre of vowels.
There are three umlauts in German Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü. As you can see, they are distinguished from ordinary vowels by the presence of two dots above the letter.

In order to correctly pronounce the sounds of the German alphabet when reading umlauts, remember the following rules:

• Ä. If you see this symbol after a vowel or at the beginning of a word, it will read - "E", and if it comes after a consonant, then - "E".
• Ö. Tongue in position as in the pronunciation of "E", lips as in "O"
• Ü . Tongue in position as in the pronunciation of "I", lips as in "U"

A few examples:

Die Hande
Die Ahre
Osterreich
Zwolf
Wunderschön!
Die Ubung
Zu kussen
Kuhl
Die Manner
Hauser
Die Hofe
Die Bucher
Die Gaste

How individual umlaut characters are read like this:

• "ä" - a-umlaut
• "ü" - u-umlaut
• "ö" - o-umlaut

More about umlauts:

• In some cases, for example, if there is no German keyboard layout, umlauts can be replaced with digraphs (two letters):

ä - ae
ü – ua
ö-oe

• In the German alphabet, umlauts come immediately after the corresponding vowels, which will come in handy when looking up dictionary entries.
• How to insert an umlaut sign if there is no German layout on the keyboard? In addition to buying a keyboard, there is another way:

Ä - Hold down the "Alt" key and press "0228" in turn
Ü - Hold down the "Alt" key and press "0252" in turn
Ö - Hold down the "Alt" key and press "0246" in turn

Don't forget to switch the keyboard layout to English.

Ligature ß (es-cet)

Another sign requiring special attention in German alphabet is an escete. This is not quite a letter, an escet is a ligature, or, more simply, a sign that combines two letters " f" And " S»:

f+s= ß

In words, the escet is read as a long " WITH". For example: weiß - weiss, groß - gross, Straße [strasse]

A few examples:

der Floss
der Fuss
die Gröse
der Grüss
das Mass
die Muse
die Strasse
die Sauce
der Stoss

More about the ß sign:

• "scharfes s" - the second name of ß
• If you do not have a German keyboard layout, ß can be safely replaced with ss.
• For the case when you are in doubt whether to write "ss" or "ß", there is a rule: escet is written only after long vowels, in other cases double S is written.

When sorting dictionary entries, "ß" is equal to a double "S".
The ß is used only in Germany and Austria, in other countries it is replaced by "ss".
On June 25, 2008, the large letter "ß" was included in the technical standards. Prior to this, for 130 years there were disputes about whether the Germans needed a large es-zet. Let me remind you that ß can be either in the middle or at the end of a word.

We look at the material with the pronunciation of the letters of the German alphabet:

And one more video to fix the letters of the German alphabet:

It's time to reinforce this skill on the other hand - learn how to write German letters by hand. Moreover, not printed letters, namely written ones.

What is it for?

1. First, by writing words by hand, we connect motor memory to the learning process. This is a valuable resource when learning a foreign language, it must be used!
2. Secondly, you are learning German not for virtual purposes, but for real life. And in real life, you really may need to fill out some forms, questionnaires in German, perhaps handwritten applications, etc.

But - you ask - are not those Latin letters that we know from mathematics or from English lessons enough? Aren't they the same letters?

And you will be partly right: of course, these are the same letters, but, as it should be for original cultures, there are some features in the German written font. And it is useful to know them so that when faced, to be able to read what is written.

And for many people, handwriting is far from the school norm, to put it mildly. And in order to understand this kind of handwritten "fonts", it is important to have your own writing skill, which has evolved through different situations - writing in a hurry, on scraps of paper, in uncomfortable positions, on a school board with chalk or marker, etc. But most importantly, you need to clearly imagine to himself the original, which each hand-writer undergoes his own individual changes. This original will be discussed later.

German written fonts

At the moment, there are several written German scripts that are used for teaching in elementary school, and, accordingly, are used later in life. In one Germany, for example, there are several "standards" adopted at different times. Some federal states have clear guidelines for the use of a certain font in elementary school, while others rely on the choice of the teacher.

latin script(Lateinische Ausgangsschrift) was adopted in Germany in 1953. In practice, it differs little from its predecessor of 1941, the most noticeable is the new look of the capital letter S and the new cursive spelling of the letters X, x (the horizontal dash in the center also left the capital X), plus the "loops" were abolished - in the center of capital letters E, R and in connecting dashes (arcs) of the letters O, V, W and Ö.

The GDR also made adjustments to the primary school curricula, and in 1958 the Schreibschrift-Vorlage script was adopted, which I do not show here, since it repeats the above variant almost exactly, with the exception of the following innovations:

• new cursive lowercase t (see next font)
• slightly modified spelling of the letter ß (see next font)
• the right half of the X, x is now slightly separated from the left
• dots over i and j became dashes, similar to dashes over umlauts
• the horizontal line at the capital Z disappeared

And 10 years later, in 1968 in the same GDR, in order to make it easier for schoolchildren to write, this font was further modified, radically simplifying the writing of capital letters! Of the lowercase, only x has been changed, the rest is inherited from the 1958 font. Once again, note the spelling of ß and t, as well as the slight differences in f and r compared to writing in the "Latin" font. As a result, the following happened.

school writing font(Schulausgangsschrift):

Germany also went in the direction of simplification, having developed its own version of a similar font in 1969, which they called “simplified”. The innovation and feature of this font was that all connecting dashes were brought to the same level, to the rather "line" of small letters.

Simplified written font(Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift):

In general, it is not the same as the "school" font above, although there are some stylistic similarities. By the way, dots over i, j have been preserved, while strokes over umlauts, on the contrary, have become more like dots. Notice the lowercase s, t, f, z (!), as well as the ß.

It is worth mentioning another option, under the solid name of the "base font" (Grundschrift), all the letters of which, both lowercase and uppercase, are more similar to printed ones, and they are written separately from each other. This variant, developed in 2011, is being tested in some schools and, if adopted at the national level, could replace the three above.

Austrian script fonts

To complete the picture, I will give two more variants of the capital German alphabet, which are used in Austria. I will leave them without comment, for independent comparison with the above fonts, drawing your attention only to a couple of features - in the 1969 font in lowercase t and f, the crossbar is written the same way (with a "loop"). Another feature no longer concerns the alphabet itself - the spelling of the number 9 differs from the version to which we are accustomed.

Austrian school font 1969:

Austrian school font(Österreichische Schulschrift) 1995:

What written German font should I use?

With such a variety of "standard" fonts, a reasonable question is which one to follow in writing? There is no definitive answer to this question, but some recommendations can be made:

• If you are learning German with the aim of applying it to a specific country, such as Austria, choose between the written samples of that country. Otherwise, choose between the German variants.
• For independent learners of German at a conscious age, I would recommend the "Latin" written script. This is a real classic and traditional German writing. For an adult, it will not be difficult to master it. One way or another, you can try each of the above options and choose the one that you like best.
• For children who are just learning to write letters and it is important to learn them faster, you can choose between "school" and "simplified" fonts. The latter is perhaps more preferred.
• For language learners in a general education school, this issue is not particularly important, you need to follow the model that the teacher or textbook gives (and requires to follow). As a rule, in our schools this is the "Latin" script. Sometimes - his GDR modification of 1958, which gives out the way the lowercase t is written.

What should be the outcome of this lesson:

1. You must decide on the German font that you will follow on the letter. Try different options and make your choice.
2. You must learn to handwrite all the letters of the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase. Repeat the lesson, then practice writing all the letters of the alphabet (in order) from memory. When self-checking, carefully compare each of your strokes with the sample. Repeat this paragraph until you make a single mistake - neither in the spelling of the letters, nor in their order.

In the future, when doing writing assignments, from time to time compare your notes with a font sample, try to follow it always (including drafts), correct your handwriting. However, I will remind you of this.

Great news! Our website has the option pronunciationhave any German text. For this it's simple highlight German text or word anywhere on our site And click on the bottom right button "Play"(white triangle in a black circle). After that, you will hear the text spoken in German. We advise you to use this function in the Phrasebook section of our website.

Features of reading consonants:

1) The letter h at the beginning of a word or root is read as an aspirated x: Herz (heart). In the middle and end of words, it is not readable, but serves to lengthen the previous vowel: fahren (to go), froh (cheerful, joyful).

2) The letter j is pronounced like й, and in combinations ja and ju, the Russian ear hears I and yu: Jahr (year), Juni (June).

3) The letter I always softens when reading: Blume (flower).

4) Sound r Most Germans pronounce burr: Regen (rain).

5) The letter s before or between vowels is read as z: Sonne (sun), lesen (read).

6) The letter ß is read as with: groß (big).

7) The consonants k, p, t are pronounced with some aspiration: Park (park), Torte (cake), Ko†fer (suitcase).

8) The letter v is pronounced like f: Vater (father). Only in rare cases (most often in borrowed words) is it pronounced as in: Vase (vase).

9) The letter w is read as a Russian sound in: Wort (word).

10) Double consonants are read as single ones, but at the same time they shorten the leading vowel: Sommer (summer), Mutter (mother).

In German, not every consonant has a corresponding letter. In some cases, they resort to letter combinations:

1) The letter combination sp at the beginning of words and roots is read as sp: Sport (sport).

2) The letter combination st at the beginning of words and roots is read as pcs: Stern (star).

3) The letter combination ck is read as to: backen (furnace).

4) The letter combination chs is read as ks: sechs (six).

5) The letter combination ch reads like x: Buch (book), machen (to do).

6) The letter combination sch reads like sh: Schule (school), Schwester (sister).

7) The letter combination tsch is read as h: deutsch (German).

8) The letter combination qu is read as kv: Quark (cottage cheese).

The German alphabet has specific letters with two dots on top (Umlaut):

1) The letter ä is closest to the Russian e: Mädchen (girl).

2) The letter ö is read approximately like ё: schön (beautiful).

3) The letter ü is read almost like yu: Müll (garbage).

Vowel letter combinations:

1) The letter combination ie is read as a long and: Bier (beer).

2) The letter combination ei is read as ah: Heimat (Motherland).

3) The letter combination eu reads like oh: heute (today).\

4) The letter combination äu reads like oh: Bäume (trees).

5) Doubling the vowel indicates the length of the sound: Tee (tea), Paar (couple), Boot (boat).

In some ways the German language is akin to Russian. In German, voiced consonants at the end of words are also muffled during pronunciation, despite possible misunderstandings. So, for example, by ear it is impossible to distinguish (Rad) a wheel from (Rat) a council.

Features of reading at the ends of words:

1) The ending -eg in some regions of Germany is rather slurred: Kinder (children).

2) At the end of words -ig is read as ih: wichtig (important).

Accent features:

1) The stress in German usually falls on the first syllable: Ausländer (foreigner), aufmachen (to open). The exception is words borrowed from other languages: Computer. There are a lot of such borrowings in German.

2) If the word has an unstressed prefix (be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent-, miss-), then the stress shifts to the next syllable: verkaufen (sell), bekommen (receive).

3) The suffix -tion (read as zion) always pulls the stress on itself: Kommunikation (communication, communication).

Exercise 1

Practice pronunciation of the following words, and at the same time learn their meanings:

Strand (beach), Reise (travel), Leute (people), Zeit (time), Frühling (spring), Herbst (autumn), Fleisch (meat), Fisch (fish), Wein (wine), Kaffee (coffee), Zwieback (cracker), Radieschen (radish), richtig (correct), Schule (school), Volk (people)

Julia Groshe, "German for Beginners"

As a rule, learning foreign languages ​​is a good idea to start from the very basics, i.e. with alphabet and reading rules. The German language is no exception. German alphabet, like English, is based on the Latin alphabet, but it also has some differences that you need to know.

So, german alphabet has 26 letters. Umlauts (vowels with dots, for example: Ä-ä, Ü-ü, Ö-ö) and the ß ligature are considered a distinctive feature. Visually it looks like this:

German alphabet pronunciation

Knowing just the alphabet is not enough, since in some combinations not all letters are read the way they are written. Here are some solid rules for reading German:

Rules for reading individual letters:
s= [h]	Before vowels.	S ofa, s oh, S onne
s= [s]	At the end of a word/syllable.	W as, d as, H aus
ß = [s] short	Unreadable like the double "s" in the word "cash"!	gro ß , Fu ß ball, blo ß
h= [exhale]	At the beginning of a word or syllable, it is read as a light exhalation. After a vowel, it is not readable, but gives longitude to the vowel sound.	H anna, h aben, h elfen, wo h in S eh en, ih m, B ah n h of
y= ["soft" y]	Something between "u" and "u" as in the word m Yu if	t y pisch, G y mnastik
r= ["burry" p]	At the beginning of a word or syllable.	R enate, R egel, R epublik, ge r adeaus
r= [a]	At the end of a word or syllable.	wi r, mi r, ve r Gessen, Zimme r
x= [ks]		Te x t,bo x en
v= [f]	In most cases.	v iel, v erstehen, v or
v= [in]	in borrowings.	V erb, V ase
w=[in]		W oh, w ir, W ohnung, W inter
c= [s]	in borrowed words.	C ity
c=[k]	in borrowed words.	C afe, C computer
ä = [e]	As in the word " uh ra"	H ä nde, kl ä ren
ö ["soft" o]	As in the word "m yo d".	K ö nnen, K ö ln, Ö sterreich
ü ["soft" y]	As in the word "m Yu if".	m ü de, m ü ssen, f ü nf
Longitude and shortness of vowels:
a, e, i, o, u, ä, ö, ü= , , , , , [ ɛː ], [ øː ] [ yː] [: ] = longitudesound	In an open or conditionally closed syllable (i.e., when the form of the word changes, the syllable may again become open). Longitude and brevity of sound affect the meaning of the word!	m a len,l e Sen, Masch i ne, r o t, d u,g u t,sp ä t,b ö se, m ü de
ah,eh,ih,oh,uh, ah, öh, uh = [a:],[e:],[i:],[o:],[u:], [ɛː], [ øː] [ yː] [: ] = longitudesound		W Ah l, s eh en, ih n, w Oh nen, K uh, Z Ah ne, S oh ne, fr uh
aa, ee, oo= , , [: ] = longitudesound		S aal, S ee, B oo t
We read the following combinations like this:
ch= [hard "x"]		Bu ch, ma ch en, la ch en
ch= [xx]	Before "i" and "e".	Ich, m ich, r ech ts
sch= [w]		Sch ule, Ti sch, sch reiben
ck= [k]		le ck er, Sche ck,
chs= [ks]		se chs, wa chs en
ph= [f]		Ph oto, Ph ysik
qu= [kv]		Q adrat, Q elle
th= [t]		Th eater, Th ema
tsch= [h]		Tsch echien, deu tsch
tion= [qion]		Funk tion, Product tion
pf= [pf]		pf erd, pf ennig
sp= [wn]	At the beginning of words and syllables.	sp ort, sp rechen
st= [pcs]	At the beginning of words and syllables.	St unde, ver st ehen
ng= [nasal n]	The letter "g" is not readable, while the sound "n" is pronounced in the nose.	Ubu ng, bri ng en, si ng en
ig= [uh]		richt ig, wich ig
Rules for reading diphthongs (double vowels)
ei= [ai]		m ei n, s ei n, Arb ei t, Ei
ai= [ai]		M ai, M ai n
ie= [and] long		Br ie f, h ie r,
eu= [oh]		N eu, d eu tsch, Eu ro
au= [oh]		R au me, H au ser
au= [ay]		H au s, br au n

Well, we figured out a little with the rules of reading. I would also like to give advice on pronunciation in German. But this is in other articles on our site.