Preface — learning German
When I took my first German course, I had many questions that just weren’t getting answered. We’d study one aspect of the language, only to come back to it weeks later to find there was more in that area that we didn’t discuss — requiring an “unlearning” process as I had to back up and reopen an area I thought we were done with.
Most modern language courses are based on the “example and practice” system, also known as the Berlitz method, where you are given a sentence to chew on, and now you try it. It’s hard to wrap your head around a topic if you don’t know where the end of it is.
And the big problem with example and practice is that if you happen to say it wrong, then practicing just reinforces your error. It was years before I learned the correct pronunciation of sind.
In short, this series is about all the things I wish I knew when I first started. It’s more of a “left brain” method in contrast to the usual “right brain” approach.
Your best course of action
By now, you should be asking this question: is it really possible to learn the German language just by reading about it? The answer is no; you should find someone to work with who is a native German speaker, preferably someone from the same part of Germany whose dialect would be the most useful to you. For example, an aspiring diplomat might want to concentrate on Berlinese.
The best course of action would be to read these articles and practice them and take a German course in a courseroom. But you can start here anytime; with a formal courseroom setting, you may have to wait until new a course begins.
One important addition to your learning program
There are four channels of communication:
- ◆ Writing. What makes this fairly easy, is you can rearrange sentence structure and use the synonyms you are already familiar with.
- ◆ Reading. A bit more difficult than writing, because you often have to stop and look up words in a dictionary.
- ◆ Speaking. As long as you can read and write and use the correct pronunciation, this shouldn’t be too difficult.
- ◆ Listening. Hearing someone speak and understanding what’s being said. The difficult part of this is you don’t get to choose which words are being used; if you don’t understand a word, you can’t just substitute a synonym that you do know.
The last one is not normally taught in courserooms, and is the most difficult to boot. So what I did was get a few children’s reading books and paid someone (born in Germany, naturally) to read me a sentence at a time. Slowly, I gained the ability to understand the spoken German word and translate it into English. As I did so my comprehension improved greatly.
Learning pronunciation from a text source
So just how do you learn how to speak a language without hearing an audio track? Here’s how I do it: Each time I want to show how a word or letter is pronounced, I reduce it to simple English words (sometimes names) and underline the part to be said. For example, sind (are) is pronounced like zint, but I write that as zinc·top. You pronounce the first three letters of zinc followed by the first letter of top. The · (“flying period”) means the sounds are “smushed” together in a single syllable. The – (hyphen) shows they are sounded separately, in different syllables.
Of course, if you really want to hear the sounds online, there are a number of web sites that provide that.
Here are some more guidelines about pronunciation:
Pronunciation help is generally in this color. (Other colors are used too, but are described elsewhere.)
Don’t say anything that isn’t underlined. Those letters are just there to help you figure out what you do say.
A double underline “stretches” a sound (increases its duration).
And capital letters indicate accented syllables. Example: verbeulen (to dent) = fur–BOY–Lend. A major accent is in ALL CAPITALS, and a minor accent has only the First letter capitalized.
Remember, for every rule there are plenty of exceptions. No document like this can cover everything there is to know, but this is still a good place to start.
The consonants
b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x y z ß
b — Name: Bey (halfway between bay and beep)
Is usually pronounced as it is in English, except when b (or bs) comes at the end of a word, it’s pronounced as p (or ps).
c — Name: Tseh (cat·say)
The c most frequently appears in the combination sch, where it is silent – in other words, the sch is pronounced like sh as it is in English. Where ch is at the beginning of a word, it is pronounced ship as in Chance (chance), or crunch as in Christ/in (Christian). When c is followed by k, the c is silent — but ck counts as a doubled letter, which makes the preceding vowel into a short vowel.
In the combinations ach, och, and uch, the ch is pronounced with a kind of a gargling sound — like Russian kremlin or Scottish loch. It’s a sound that just doesn’t occur in English. Caution: most English speakers pronounce Kremlin differently than Russians do. Be sure to use the proper Russian pronunciation where needed. And be sure to pronounce the a, o, or u in front of the ch.
ech is just pronounced mesh, ich is pronounced teach·shop, and chs is always pronounced hex no matter what precedes it.
d — name: Deh (dead·heart)
d is pronounced the same as in English, except when it comes at the end of a word, when it is pronounced as t. Example: Kind (child) think·hint.
f — name: Eff (ephemeral)
f is pronounced the same as in English.
g — name: Geh (gay)
g is pronounced like g in gate, not like g in general. But when g comes at the end of a word, it’s pronounced either as key or shout, mostly depending which regional accent is in use.
h — name: Hah (ha ha ha)
h sounds the same as in English, with the following two exceptions: h is silent when it’s preceded by a vowel in the same syllable; but that makes the vowel into a long vowel. And it is silent when preceded by a t in the same syllable, the same way the h in Thomas is silent, as in Thermostat (TERM limits-motor-She·shot·hot). But if the t and the h are in separate syllables, they are both pronounced, as in Lufthansa (loofa·towel-HOT·hand-Safari) (Lufthansa is the German national airline.)
j — name: Yott (yodel·time)
This is pronounced with an English y sound.
k — name: Kah (Chewbacca)
k is pronounced the same as in English. See the notes under c and n.
l — name: Ell (elbow)
l is pronounced the same as in English.
m — name: Emm (emulate)
m is pronounced the same as in English.
n — name: Enn (energy)
n is pronounced the same as in English. When preceded by a k, both are pronounced, as in black–night. Example: knacken (crack [verb]).
p — name: Peh (Peyton Place)
p is pronounced the same as in English, except when p is followed by f in the same syllable, when the p is silent — but pf counts as a doubled letter, which makes the preceding vowel into a short vowel.
q — name: Kuh (cooties)
q is pronounced like English k — in particular, qu is pronounced kilo·volt.
r — name: Err (hair)
r is similar to English, but it may or may not be rolled. (It depends on the dialect.) The name of the letter may also be rolled. A sound?
s — name: Ess (essential)
s is pronounced like snake, unless it’s at the beginning of a syllable, when it’s pronounced like zoo.
t — name: Teh (tailor)
t is pronounced the same as in English. When t is followed by r, they are usually combined into a single sound (like travel), but sometimes not (like rat–race).
v — name: Fau (foul play)
v is pronounced like English f. Example: Vogel (bird).
w — name: Veh (Tee Vee) ???
w is pronounced like English v.
x — name: Iks (ex-wife)
x is pronounced the same as in English, with a ks sound. Note: many words in English with an x translate to a chs word in German (although the x and the chs sound the same). The German province of Saxon is, in German, spelled Sachsen, sounding the same except for the a.
y — name: Ypsilon (clips–silver-look·On)
This is a very rare letter in German. When it’s a consonant, it’s usually pronounced the same as in English. See the next lesson for y as a vowel.
z — name: Tzett (tizzy·jet)
z is pronounced zebra, unless it’s at the beginning of a word, when it’s pronounced like pizza.
ß — name: Ess-Tzett (mess–tizzy·jet) or Scharfes Ess (scharp-festival mess)
Pronounced as hiss.
Look for Jennie’s German Language Classroom for English Speakers on the last (sometimes next-to-last) Wednesday of every month.
Copyright © 2019 by Jennifer Freeman. In particular, permission is not granted to assemble the parts of this series together and distribute them. You may of course post links to the individual posts.
Great article and so true!