FGL: Vowel and Consonant Combinations
Vowel and Consonant Combinations
Now that you know the German alphabet, let's learn about some different letter combinations that have specific sounds. This might look difficult at first, but the German language is much more phonetically consistent than English. Imagine what a German person learning English must think when confronted with the English words read and read (red, as in past tense) having the same spelling but different pronunciations in the present and past tense forms. Such phonetic inconsistency is not typical of German at all.
So, in the German language once you learn how a specific letter combination sounds, it will almost always sound the same. Vowel combinations are called diphthongs.
Examples
The German vowel combination "ei" will always be pronounced like the word "eye" in English.
Mein
nein
The consonant combination "sch" will always sound like a "sh" in English. Listen to the following words:
schön
die Schuhe
Other Diphthongs and Grouped Consonants
This information is really helpful when you are trying to pronounce words in German. Listen and practice saying the different vowel and consonant combinations in German listed in the chart below.
|
Dipthongs (Vowel Combinations) |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Diphthong |
Aussprache |
Beispiele / Examples |
|
ai / e |
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) or auch (also) Otherwise it is a palatal sound as in: mich (me), welche (which), or 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! |
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