2) A vowel is usually short when it precedes the combination "ck":
lecker (tasty) Socken (socks) Lücke (hole) Wrack (wreck)
3) Note however that if the root form of the word is long, but the inflected form is followed by two consonants, the long vowel remains long:
haben (to have) gehabt (had) groß (big) größte (biggest )
German Vowels : Long and short "a"
1. The long "a" sound The long "a" sound - which can be written "a", "aa" or "ah" - equates to the English "a" in "bar" or "calm".
klar (clear) Glas (glass) Jahr (year) Bahn (railway) Haar (hair) Aal (eel)
2. The short "a" sound The short "a" sound - which can only be written "a" - is very clipped, like the English "a" sound in "man", only much shorter. It even tends towards the vowel sound in the English "but", albeit pronounced in a more open way:
Mann (man) Hand (hand) Bank (bank) Sack (sack)
To get used to the difference between the long "a" and short "a" vowel sounds, practice the following pairs of words:
Staat (state) Stadt (city) kam (came) Kamm (comb) Frage (question) Flagge (flag) Kahn (barge) kann (is able)
German Vowels : Long and short "ä"
1. The long "ä" sound The long "ä" sound - which can be written "ä" or "äh", but never "ää" - is pronounced like the "a" sound in the English "day" or "played", but the German sound is a longer one which does not slide away into "ee" as the English sounds tends to:
The long "e" sound - which can be written "e", "eh", or "ee" - is pronounced like the "a" sound in the English "day" or "played", but the German sound is a longer one which does not slide away into English "ee":
sehr (very) mehr (mehr) Meer (sea) Teer (tar) Beet ((flower-)bed) Gel (gel)
2. The short "e" sound The short "e" sound - which can only be written "e" - sounds like the "e" in English "get" or "set":
3. Unstressed "-e" at the end of a word Many German words end in a single unstressed "-e" (or "-el" / "-er". This should be pronounced as in the final syllable of the English word "brother":
Frage (question) Sprache (language) Mutter (mother) Himmel (heaven)
Take care to roll the "r" in final unstressed syllables, so as to create a difference between pairs such as "bitte" and "bitter"!
bitte (please) bitter (bitter)
German Vowels : "ei" and "ie"
1. The "ei" sound Whilst in English the pronunciation of "ei" and "ie" may vary, in German the two sounds are consistent and quite distinct.
The sound "ei" approximates to the English words "wine" or "line". It might be helpful to remember the children's character "Heidi"!
frei (free) Rhein (River Rhein) heil (healthy) dreist (sly) Kreis (circle) weit (far)
2. The "ie" sound The sound "ie" is usually the same sound as in the English words "teeth" or "beef", but with a little more tension:
Bier (beer) viel (many) Stier (bull) Frieden (peace)
When "ie" appears at the end of a word, it can be pronounced in two separate ways. It is pronounced as the normal "ie" sound outlined above - but only if the final syllable of the word is stressed:
Biographie (biography) Symphonie (symphony) Akademie (academy) Philosophie (philosophy)
BUT when "ie" appears unstressed at the end of a word, it is pronounced as two separate vowels:
Familie (family) Petersilie (parsley) Folie (film) Materie (matter)
3. Distinguishing between "ie" and "ei" To learn to distinguish between "ei" and "ie", click on the icon and practise the following pairs of words:
1. The long "o" sound The long "o" sound - which can be written "o", "oh", or "oo" - is pronounced like the sound in the English words "low" and "go", but with the lips more rounded and the mouth more open:
Rose (rose) froh (happy) Boot (boat) groß (big) so (so) rot (red)
2. The short "o" sound The short "o" sound - which can only be written "o" - sounds like the "o" in the English "not" or "rot", only shorter and with a slightly more rounded mouth:
Sonne (sun) von (of) Gott (god) Dorf (village)
3. Distinguishing between the long and short "o" sounds To learn to distinguish between the long "o" and short "o" sounds, listen and repeat the following pairs of words:
wo (where) Wonne (bliss) Rose (rose) Ross (horse) Wohl (health) Wolle (wool) Sohle (sole of shoe) Soll (debt)
German Vowels : Long and short "u"
1. The long "u" sound For the long "u" sound - which can be written "u" or "uh", think of the English vowel sound in "hoot" or "boot", but with the lips much more rounded.
2. The short "u" sound The short "u" sound - which can only be written "u" - equates to a much shorter version of the English sounds in "push" or "foot".
3. Distinguishing between long and short "u" sounds To practice the difference between long "u" and short "u" sounds, practise the following pairs of words:
1. The long "ü" sound The German long "ü" and short "ü" are two of the hardest sounds for the English speaker to master, as there are no direct equivalents in the English language.
For the long "ü" sound - which can be written "ü" or "üh", but never "üü" -, try saying a long German "ie" sound (as in the town of "Kiel", and then purse your lips as you say it, and you should be getting a perfect long "ü" - "kühl" (="cool".
3. Distinguishing between the German "u" and "ü" sounds To practise the difference between "u" and "ü" sounds, click on the icon and listen to the following pairs of words:
German uses three umlaut vowels - ä, ö and ü. Each signifies that particular vowel plus "e". In German dictionaries therefore, words beginning with "ä" will be listed between "ad" and "af", with similar listings for "ö" and "ü". They are still often written in the full form (i.e. "ae", "oe" and "ue" instead of "ä", "ö" and "ü" etc.) in shop signs and on the Internet.
This latter usage is in many cases a necessity, as many computers do not have a German keyboard with the umlaut on them. To type in the umlaut vowels on an English keyboard, you should use the ASCII keys. Hold down the "Alt" key and use the numbers on the right-hand side of your keyboard to type the following letters:
ä Alt + 132 Ä Alt + 142 ö Alt + 148 Ö Alt + 153 ü Alt + 129 Ü Alt + 154 ß Alt + 225
Germana pt Incepatori ...(Pronuntzi-Vocale) – poza de Catarina_sweetty_girl, in Our Class · 7.6KB
. This should be pronounced as in the final syllable of the English word "brother":