German Sounds

Vowels and Consonants

In general, there are two types of sounds:
1.
2.

der Konsonant (consonant)

der Vokal (vowel)

English vowels are:

a e i o u (y)

German vowels are:

a e i o u (y)

Vowels can be stressed (betont [bto:nt]) or unstressed (unbetont [nbto:nt]):

)
)

revolution [rvlun] is stressed on the third syllable -lu-, not on the first one (ree-volution), nor on the
second one (re-voe-lution), nor on the fourth one (revolu-shone). In phonetic script, stress in indicated by an
accent preceding the stressed syllable (example see above).
In Chinese, they are the sounds which bear the tone (Ton) The other letters are consonants. Alternative spellings
(Ton).
for are ae1 oe ue. The sounds , do not occur in English, neither do tense e and o (see below).
In English, y mostly counts as a consonant: yellow, beyond
beyond,
but sometimes also as a vowel: my, way, hypercorrect, symbol.
way
percorrect, symbol.
The same applies to German:
y is a consonant in Yacht [jat], Yankee [jnki], Yen [jn], Yin und Yang [jn nt ja], Yoga [jo:ga],
,
,
,
Yuan [jyn], Yucatn [jukatan:] etc.,
,
but a vowel in Symbol [zymbo:l], hyperkorrekt [hy:pa korkt], Psyche [ps:] etc.
If y rates as a vowel, it is pronounced just as if there stood an . The only difference between vocalic y and vocalic
is that y occurs in foreign words from Greek, in native German words.
In German, two vowels may be combined. The result is a Diphthong [dift]:
a+i

=>

ai,
ei, ai, ey, ay [aj], pronounced similar to English y in my or i in find.

a+u

=>

o+i

=>

au [aw], pronounced similar to English ou in loud.

eu, u [j], pronounced similar to English oy in boy.

e+i

=>

ey [j], pronounced similar to English ay in way.

The combination +i occurs in the word hey! hey, hi, eh!; apart from that in foreign words only: Mainstream etc.

1) German vowels may be long or short. Long vowels are pronounced about 1,5 or 2 times as long as short vowels.
This feature concers the quantity of the vowel:
All [al] the universe <> Aal [a:l] eel. The double dot says: long vowel preceding!
2) Besides, German vowels may be tense (closed) or lax (open). As for lax vowels, the lips are more strained or
rounded. This feature concers the quality of the vowel. In English, the quality if the only difference between vowels:
Seele [ze:l] soul (tense) <> Sle [z:l] halls, saloons (lax)
3) Long vowels in German are tense:

[e:, i:, o:, u:, :, :]

except for which is pronounced [:]

4) Short vowels are rather (not in any case!) lax:

[, , , , , , y]
short e and short have the same pronunciation!

a is rather neutral (there are differences, but they are not so marked that we have to dwell thereon).
In some dialects (e.g. in Berlin), long is pronounced indentically equal to long e . Then, the letters - y and e -

represent always the same sound, and the long is no longer an exception to 3.

In Foreign words from French, the letters and are equal to German .

I. Quantity of vowels long or short

a) Long vowels
The following table shows firstly how long vowels are spelled in German, secondly how they are pronounced, thirdly,
it gives some examples for German words containing such a long vowel, fourthly, it supplies a comparative word
with a short vowel.
aa.
Aal.
For example: Long a may be spelled a, ah or aa All three are pronounced [a:]. Sample words are Wal, Zahl, Aal The
comparative word Wall is pronounced similar to Wal but has a short vowel.
Wal,
Pronounciation

Sample word with

Comparative word with

after the IPA2

Written

long+tense vowel

short+lax vowel

a, ah, aa

[a:]

Wal [va:l] whale [wjl], Zahl [tsa:l] numeral, Aal [a:l] eel

Wall [val] rampart

e, eh, ee

[e:]

Weg [ve:k] way, Mehl [me:l] flour, Tee [te:] tea

weg [vk] away

ieh,
i, ieh, ie

[i:]

Stil [sti:l] style, Stiel [ti:l] helve/stem, befiehl! order!

still [tl] silent

o, oh, oo

[o:]

Koma [ko:ma] coma, Sohn [zo:n] son, Boot [bo:t] boat

Komma [kma] comma

u, uh

[u:]

sucht [zu:t] looks for, Stuhl [tu:l] chair

Sucht [zt] obsession

, h

[:] (lax!)

Kse [k:z] cheese, sthle [t:l] would steel

Stlle [tl] stables

Stelle [tl] place

, h

[:]

l [:l] oil, Hhle [h:l] cave/den

Hlle
Hlle [hl] hell/inferno

/y, h

[y:]

fhlen
mde [my:d] tired, fhlen [f:ln] to feel

fllen [fyln] to fill

The letter h is often used as a marker for something. It is mute then!

1) It says: the preceding vowel is long.

o ihr seht [i:r ze:t] you guys see <> Set [zt] a set of something
In this function, h is called lengthening h (Dehnungs-h).
A Dehnungs-h is only used in front of l, m, n, r, t, and seldom before d or s.
y is never followed by a Dehnungs-h.

2) It is a seperator between two vowels that belong to different syllables: nahe [na:-] near.
o If h were lacking here, the resulting word nae would be pronounced [n:] (monosyllabic),
since ae is an alternative spelling for .
3) It distinguishes homophones with long vowels:
o malen [ma:ln] to paint <> mahlen [ma:ln] to grind/mill
o der Wal [va:l] the whale <> die Wahl [va:l] the (s)election, choice, ballot
The spelling ih only occurs in the following words:
ihm (to) him (dative case)
ihn him (accusative case)

ihr:
o
o

ihr you (2nd plural)

ihr (to) her (dative case)

ihr, ihre, ihrem, ihren, ihres her(s) / their(s)

ihr,
ihnen (to) them (dative case)
o

and some derivations thereof:

o

ihrerseits for her/their part

ihretwegen because of her/them

ihretwegen
der/die/das
der/die/das Ihrige hers, theirs

In other respects, you write ie:

Dieb [di:p] thief, viel [fi:l] much, viele [fi:l] many...

ieh is used between two syllables:

fliehen [fli:n] or [fli:n] to flee, siehe [zi:] see!.

The vowels i, u, , , are never doubled.

Hence, the plural of Saal [za:l] hall is written Sle [z:l], not Sle.

International phonetic alphabet

b) Is this vowel long or short?

5) The spellings aa, ee, ie, oo; ah, eh, ih, ieh, oh, uh, h, h, h always indicate:

Long tense vowel!

However, a lonely vowel may be long or short. This is tricky, unfortunately!

But there are rules for some cases which help you to recognize long or short vowels:
6) Unstressed vowels and diphthongs are always short (but there may be secondary stress in compound
words! This stress is marked by before the lightly stressed syllable):
o
o

Abstrusitt [apstruzit:t] abstrusity, Maus [maws] mouse, Feuer [fjjr] fire

Zugfhrer [tsu:kf:rr] = Zug + Fhrer there are two long vowels!

When is a syllable stressed?

o

In native words, it is the stem syllable which normally bears the stress: Haus [haws] house,

Huser
Huserchen
Huser [hjz] houses, Huserchen [hjzn] little houses.
However, stress is captured by the prefixes miss- and un-:
missun-

missverstehen [msfsten] to missunderstand, unhflich [nhfl] impolite.

Foreign words are stressed according to the stress patterns of the respective language.

The suffixes tion [tsjo:n], -ssion [sjo:n], -itt [-it:t], -ell [l] and some others are always
stressed: Revolution [revolutsjo:n], Aggression [agrssjo:n], virtuell [vrtull].

7) In many cases, the shortness of the vowel is expressed by a doubled consonant:

o

Wahl [va:l] (s)election <> Wall [val] rampart

Aal [a:l] eel <> All [al] universe, alle [al] all, everybody

8a) Stressed vowels in an open syllable are long.

When is a syllable open or closed?
o

A syllable is open if at its end does not stand any consonant. For example: my, way, be, new,
show are open syllables, and the words analyzability, probability, neutrality
contain open syllables only. However, the words mine, ways, been, news, analysis,
probative, neutral have a closed syllable at their end.

Thus we have: Genus [ge:ns] grammatical gender, General [gnra:l] army general,
Genera
generalisieren
generalisieren [gnralizi:rn] to generalise. When the stress wanders, the length of the
ie
vowel wanders along with it!

One more example: Analyse [analy:z] analysis, analysieren [analyzi:rn] to analyze.

In foreign words, there may be a secondary stress that makes another syllable half-long:
Telefon [tlfo:n]. Primary stress on te-, secondary stress on fon.

Given a syllable with the following conditions:

1) closed syllable
2) undoubled vowel
3) no h following the vowel,

then you must learn whether it is long or short.

Normally, closed syllables without following h / double consonant are short:
mit [mt] with, um [m] around, von [fn] of/from/by, bis [bs] until

8b) Here the most important exceptions with a long vowel:

Bad [ba:t] bath(room), Rad [ra:t] wheel, Rat [ra:t] advice/coucil, Tat deed
Tag [ta:k] day, lag [la:k] (he) lay, mag [ma:k] (he) likes, sag [za:k] say!, Weg [ve:k]
zog [tso:k] (he) drew, log (he) lied, bog (he) bent, trug [tru:k] (he) carried/bore
hob [ho:p] (he) raised/lifted, Not [no:t] distress, need, Kot [ko:t] excrement
Zug [tsu:k] train/draught, Betrug [btru:k] fraud, klug clever, genug [gnu:k] enough
x-mal [ma:l] x-times, Mal mole, Wal [va:l] whale, Tal [ta:l] valley, ...al
Obst [o:pst] fruits, schon [o:n] already, Tuch [tu:x] cloth/towel, schwer [ve:r] heavy
In all derivations of suchen [zu:x] seek, look for: sucht, suchst, suchen...
In all derivations of Buch [bu:x] book and buchen to book: Bcher, buchst, bucht...
bucht...
In all derivations of tun [tu:n] to do: tut, tust, tue [tu:], tat [ta:t], tte, getan [gta:n] done
fr [f:r] for, zum [tsu:m] and zur [tsu:r] to the
vor [fo:r] before (preopsition), bevor [bfo:r] before (conjunction)
nach [na:] after (preposition), nachdem [nade:m] after (conjunction)
er [e:r] he; wir [vi:r] we; mir [mi:r] to me, dir [di:r] to thee
The following forms of the definite article: der, dem, den (of/to) the

II. The Quality of vowels tense or lax

9) Short vowels may have the quality tense or lax, according to the context.
In an open syllable (see 8), they are tense:

Theater
Theater [tea:tr], Silikon [ziliko:n]
the, a, si, li are open syllables

If the vowel is long, they are tense (except for ):

The
Theater [tea:tr], Silikon [ziliko:n]

Lax vowels only occur in closed, short syllables:

durstig [drstk] thirsty

urstig

a and kon are long syllables

durs and tig are closed syllables, the vowels are short

10) There is one important exception: The letter e.

It can actually be pronounced with three different qualities:
o

tense:

[e:] if long and stressed:

lax:

[] if short in a closed syllable:

Seele, nehmen to take, Weg

ehmen
eele, neh
[e] if unstressed in an open syllable Theologie [teologi:]
The
Westen [vstn] west, mental [mnta:l]
the prefix er-: Ergebnis [rge:pns] result
the prefix ver-: versteht [frte:t] understands
the prefix zer-: zerstrt [tsrt:rt] destroyed
erstrt

murmured:

[] as a in English about in many cases (see below)

This sound is called Schwa [va:].

The combination +r is pronounced a in contemporary German. But for convenience, we will write
r here, as you will find it also in most dictionaries.

For example: Teller plate is actually pronounced [tl] (is resembles the British way of pronouncing this word), but you
Telle
will normally find it transcribed as [tlr] which is the original pronunciation (it can be heard in the theather or the opera).

11) When is schwa used?

o

It is always unstressed.

In the German prefixes be- and ge-:

bekommt [bkmt] (he) obtains, bestimmt [bstmt] certainly
unbekannt [nbkant] unknown, ausbezahlt [awsbtsa:lt] paid off
Besuch [bzu:x] visitation, Betrag [btra:k] amount (sum)
genug [gnu:k] enough
geniet [gni:st] (he) enjoys
Gefhl [gf:l] feeling
In most past participles: gemacht [gmat] made, getan [gta:n] done etc.

In the German suffix chen:

che
Hndchen [hyntn] doggy, pooch, Huschen [hjsn] little house, cottage
Kaninchen [kani:nn] bunny, Mdchen [m:tn] girl

In the inflectional endings:

Declension on nouns:

Hause
Hause
Huse
Huse
Haus des Hauses dem Hause die Huser den Husern

Declension on Adjectives:

groe groe
groe
gro
roe
groe
gro big groe groes groem groen groer

Comparative and superlative:

besse
lte
grer bigger, besser better, ltest oldest...
gre
Baue
Arbeite
Schle
Bauer farmer, Arbeiter worker, Schler pupil

Derivation in er:

finde
finde finde findest; find
In verbal endings (e, en(d), est, et): finden to find finde findet findest; findend...

In words which end in unstressed e/es, -en/ens, -er/ers, -el/els -eln/ern:

/ens,
/ers,
/els;
/es, en/ens er/ers el/els eln ern
Name
,
Name [na:m], Rose [ro:z], Ruhe [ru:] silence, Fassade [fasad] veneer, faade,
Katze
Katze [kats] cat, Biologe [biolo:g] biologist...
weise
weise [vajz] wise, leise silent, beide [bajd] both...
alle
alles everything, Gutes good (things), Neues something new, new products...
Bode
Boden [bo:dn] ground, bottom, Polen [po:ln] Poland...
offe
offen [fn] open(ed), nehmen [ne:mn] to take, unten [ntn] below, downstairs...
erstens [e:rstns] firstly, Aliens [ljns] aliens, eines Mdchens (genitive) of a girl...
erste
Arbeit
Arbeiter (see above), Kellner [klnr] waiter, Messer [msr] knife, inserted blade,
Telle
Teller plate, Wetter [vtr] weather...
aber [a:br] but, voller [flr] full of, schneller [nlr] faster...
eines Bauers of a farmer, eines Schlers of a pupil... anders [andrs] in another way
eine Baue
Amse
Decke
Amsel [amzl] blackbird, Deckel [dkl] lid/cap... dunkel [dkl] dark...
Decke
des Deckels of the lid, mangels for lack of...,
dunke
dunkeln to darken, fesseln to fetter, Amseln blackbirds (plural)...
verbesse
verbessern [frbsrn] to improve, to correct, ndern [ndrn] to alter, to modify...
Telle
den Tellern (to) the plates (dative plural)...

12) If final e is stressed or written ee / , it is pronounced [e:]:

Kaffee [kafe] coffee
Schnee [ne:] snow
Caf [kafe:] caf
Variet vaudeville...
If such a word is inflected, the pronunciation [e:] remains unchanged:
des Kaffees [kafe:s] of the coffee
des Schnees [ne:s] of the snow
Cafs [kafe:s] Cafs...
Final e is never pronounced [].
13) Words ending in ie are normally stressed on the last syllable: Biologie [biologi:].
Biologie
There are some exceptions (of feminine gender) which are stressed on the syllable before -ie:
Familie
plural: Familien [fami:ljn] families
Familie
Familie [fami:lj] family
Studie [tu:dij] survey, study plural: Studien [tu:dijn] studies
Prmie [pr:mj] bonus, prize plural: Prmien [pr:mjn] premiums, awards, prizes
Aktie [aktsj] share/stock
Serie [ze:rij] series, serial
Linie [li:nj] line, route

plural: Aktien [aktsjn] shares/stocks

plural: Serien [ze:rijn] series
Serien
plural: Linien [li:njn]
Linien

Folie [fo:lj] foil, transparency

Mumie [mu:mij] mummy

plural: Folien [fo:ljn]

Folien
plural: Mumien [mu mijn]
Mumien

Pistazie [pistatsj] pistachio

plural: Pistazien [pistatsjn]
Pistazien
and trees species: Akazie acacia, Pinie pine, Magnolie magnolia... (all of them have n in the plural)
Akazie
, Pinie
, Magnolie

One pattern is still missing. It applies to foreign words only (most of them you will know from English).
13) Given the following pattern:
A word with more than two syllables (e.g. Minister - 3 syllables, Zoologie - 4 syllables...)
Ministe
,
The first syllable is open
The second syllable is open, too, and contains e
Then, this e is pronounced as a Schwa:
Mine
Obe
Mazedonien [matsdo:njn] Macedonia, Mineral [minra:l], Obelix [o:bliks] (a comic figure),
Mazedonien
Kame
Kamera [kamra]
If the first syllable has also open e, this e is often weakened to []
(unless it is followed by another vowel or h):
Sene
vege
Telefon [tlfo:n], Senegal [zngal], vegetarisch [vgta:r] vegetarian, veggie,
Tele
Karne
Venezuela [vntsue:la], Karneval [karnval]...
ene
The
But: Teheran [te:ra:n] (not [t...]), Theologie [teologi:] (not [to...]) etc.
Tehe

III. Examples
Open and closed syllables:
mental [mnta:l] <> Meniskus [mensks]
Minister [minstr minst]

e in mental is lax, e in Meniskus is tense

first i is tense, second i is lax (note the Schwa!)

Trombose [trmbo:z]
Vakuum [vakum]

first o is tense, second o is lax (note the Schwa!)

Zypern [ts:prn] <> zypriotisch [tsyprijo:t]

y in Zypern is tense, y in zypriotisch is lax (note the Schwa!)

Uran [ura:n] <> Urne [rn] urn

oral [ora:l] <> Ort [rt] location, point

Uran contains tense vowels only

oral contains tense vowels only
oral contains tense vowels only
o is lax, is tense and long

Zoologie [tsoologi:]
monstrs [mnstr:s]

first u is tense, second u is lax

Lax pronunciation:
Myrrhe
Myrrhe [myr]
Mrde
Mrder [mrdr mrd] murderer
Sphre
Sphre [sf:r]

long remains lax

Schwa and vowel length:

Sphre
Sphre [sf:r]
Sphren [sf:rn] spheres
Sphre
Sphre
Sphrenharmonie [sf:rnharmoni:] harmony of the spheres
Sonne
Sonne [zn] (schwa)
Strahl [tra:l] (long vowel)
Sonnenstrahle
Sonnenstrahlen [znntra:ln] sunbeams (schwa, long vowel)
In combined words, the pronunciation of the individual parts remains unchanged.
The first part (normally) gets primary stress [], the other parts get secondary stress [].