Vowels

a

like ‘u’ in “cup”, ‘a’ in “target”

e

like ‘e’ in “ten”, ‘a’ in “bake”

i

like ‘i’ in “bingo”

o

like ‘oo’ in “door”, like ‘o’ in “mole”

u

like ‘ou’ in “you”

ä

(Umlaut, transcribed as ‘ae’) like ‘e’ in “ten”, ‘a’ in “band”

ö

(Umlaut, transcribed as ‘oe’) like ‘i’ in “Sir”

ü

(Umlaut, transcribed as ‘ue’) like ‘y’ in ‘Tyrell’

y

same as ‘ü’, but also consonant “j” in words of foreign origin (“Yacht”)

Length of Vowels

A vowel is shortened when followed by a double consonant.

A vowel is lengthened by a subsequent ‘h’, or by a double vowel, depending on the word. An exception is ‘i’, which is lengthened by a following ‘e’ or ‘eh’.

Examples: the h in Hahn makes the a long; the aa in Haar is also long, the e in Tier makes the i long. (See below for “Diphthongs”.)

Consonants

Consonants are pronounced quite strongly (except perhaps the ‘r’).

b

like ‘b’ in “bed”

c

like ‘ts’ in “bits” before ‘i’ and ‘e’; like ‘k’ in “kid” else

d

like ‘d’ in “dog”

f

like ‘ph’ in “phone”

g

like ‘g’ in “go” (never as in “giraffe”)

h

like ‘h’ in “help”

j

like ‘y’ in “yoga”

k

like ‘c’ in “cat”

l

like ‘l’ in “love”

m

like ‘m’ in “mother”

n

like ‘n’ in “nice”

p

like ‘p’ in “pig”

q

like ‘q’ in “quest” (always with “u”)

r

like ‘r’ in “arm”, like ‘r’ in “feather”. Terminal Rs are almost silent but with the hit of an “r” sound. Rs beginning a word or syllable are pronounced from the back of the throat, as in French.

s

like ‘z’ in “haze”

t

like ‘t’ in “top”

v

like ‘f’ in “father”, or like “v” in “victory”

w

like ‘v’ in “victory”, never like ‘wh’ in “whisky”

x

like ‘cks’ in “kicks”

z

like ‘ts’ in “bits”

ß

like ’ss’ in “hiss”

Common diphthongs and other digraphs

Note: these combinations are not always used as diphthongs. At syllable boundaries and sometimes even in a syllable, they are spoken as separate vowels (e.g. soeben — zoh-AY-ben)

au

like ‘ow’ in “how”

ae

transcription for ‘ä’ if not available on a keyboard or in URLs

ah

like ‘a’ in “bar”, longer than ‘a’.

äu

like ‘oy’ in “boy”

ei

like ‘i’ in “wine”

eu

like ‘oy’ in “boy”

eh

long ‘e’

ie

like ‘ee’ in “week”, longer than ‘i’.

ieh

like ‘ee’ in “week”, longer than ‘i’, fundamentally no difference to ‘ie’.

oe

transcription for ‘ö’ if not available on a keyboard or in URLs

oh

like ‘oo’ in “door”, longer than ‘o’.

ue

transcription for ‘ü’ if not available on a keyboard or in URLs

uh

like ‘ou’ in “youth”, longer than ‘u’.

ch after ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’

like ‘ch’ in Scottish “loch”, spoken in the throat, like ‘j’ in Spanish

ch after ‘i’ and ‘e’

like ‘h’ in “huge”

ch at the beginning of a word

like ‘ch’ in “character”

ck

like ‘ck’ in “blocking”

ng

like both ‘ng’ in “singing”, never like ‘ng’ in “finger”

ph

like ‘f’ in “fish”

sch

like ’sh’ in “sheep”

sp at the beginning of a word

like ’shp’ in “fish pool”

ss

like ’ss’ in “hiss”, in contrast to ‘ß’, makes the preceding vowel shorter. Also used as transcription for ‘ß’ in URL or on foreign keyboards.

st at the beginning of a word

like ’sht’ in “ashtray”