Now that we know everything about solo vowels, we need to move on to see what happens when we put them together. One great tip is to shape your lips as if you were blowing out a candle. However, you’ll have no doubt come across those curious-looking vowels with the two cute dots hanging above them. They’re both voiced like the “o” in “toy.”, Whenever you see an i followed by an e, they’re pronounced like we say the “e” in “we.”. It’s all down to the vowel sounds in each word. However, there are some rules that will help you out with your vowels. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe, Get regular language learning tips, resources and updates, starting with the "Complete Guide to Foreign Language Immersion" e-book, Sign up for our weekly blog newsletter for a chance to win a free FluentU Plus subscription (value $240). Usually, vowels pair together to make certain sounds—when this occurs, the pair of vowels is known as a “diphthong.”. Let’s get to it! You must try not to do this because the German vowels and umlauts do not mix with each other in pronunciation as is the case in English. Let's check out this free lesson on German vowels! die Katze — cat. To make your German vowels ä, ö, and ü sound a bit more authentic, try progressing through the ä, ö, and ü sounds, pronouncing the vowels as though you’re getting ready to kiss someone — in other words, round your lips and pucker up, baby! They’re spoken together to sound like the English word “eye.” Here are a couple of examples: Again, these two pairs of vowels produce the same sound. First off, you need to be able to tell whether the vowel—or vowels—in a word is long or short. Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you A 3-level Walkthrough, Learn German with Movies: 10 Great Movies for Learning Real German, Learn German through Music: 8 Modern Classics to Get Started, Learn German Through TV: 8 Great Shows for German Learners, 10 German Slang Phrases to Sound Like a Native. Also keep in mind that most German syllables that begin with a vowel are led off by a glottal stop. An example of this would be st, a very common combination of the consonants s and t, found in many German words. The short a is spoken like the “u” in “cut.” Examples of this short vowel sound in use are: A long German a is spoken like the “a” in “harm.” Here are a few examples: A short German e is pronounced much in the same way as the “e” in “set” is. Please check your email for further instructions. We also participate in other affiliate advertising programs for products and services we believe in. alt — old. The same sound is produced from pairing ai and ei. Be careful not to confuse this one with äu, previously mentioned. It’s small things like this that will help your confidence in your German grow—before long you’ll notice it really blossoming! Vowels. Now that you know the difference between your vowels, diphthongs and umlauts, you’ll know the difference in pronunciation between über (over) and unter (under)—without having to ask anyone! Most of the time, an ä sounds as if you’ve just stuck an “e” after an “a.” The short ä sounds slightly more clipped, and the equivalent sound in English is the “e” in “get.”. Thanks for subscribing! Vowels in German can be long or short. can take anywhere. Careful: English speakers tend to confuse the diphthong EI (pronounced “eye”) with IE (pronounced “ee”). Tip: For both sounds, pretend you’re playing the flute and retract your lower lip—your lips can be slightly more relaxed when voicing the short vowel. So in all the examples below, I’ve just given equivalent (or approximately equivalent) English sounds. Or why the “e” sounds completely different in “bent” and “here”? The long vowel sound created by ä is a lot like the “a” in the word “day.” Or you can think of it like this: Try saying “aaah” as you would at the doctor’s, and imagine your tongue is being pressed down with the doctor’s tongue depressor. It’s a bit different from English, where the vowel a in the English word cat is short whereas the a in farmer is long. It’s the same with German, but even slightly more tricky because German vowels include a feature that doesn’t appear in English—umlauts! EI, AI, AY, EYare all pronounced like the English word “eye” or the Y in “by” or “my” or the i in “dine” or “mine”. It’s quite a bit like the “ew” sound we voice when saying “pew.” And just like with the ö above, the shorter version is voiced exactly the same as the long vowel, but not for as long. FluentU is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. The short a is spoken like the “u” in “cut.” Examples of this short vowel sound in use are: kalt — cold. While diphthongs are always vowel pairs, German also has many common grouped or paired consonants that have a consistent pronunciation as well. Often, the easiest way to explain how you pronounce a vowel is by giving an English equivalent. That umlaut above the a makes all the difference, and this pair of vowels makes an “ow” sound. The ü sound is pronounced with very pursed lips.. In the following example a short vowel will be listed like a and a long vowel like a_. Below are the most common. Grouped or Paired Consonants in German . (Download). Here are a handful of examples to practice with…, Now it’s time to look at a long u sound, which sounds like the double “o” in the word “moon.”. Click here to get a copy. How to Learn German Speaking at Home, No Joke! Once you’ve aced the long ö vowel, you’ll have no problem with the short—it’s the exact same sound, except your lips don’t have to be quite so tense, and it’s not voiced for as long. But knowing your vowels won’t only help improve your speaking—having all this vowel knowledge is really great for writing skills, too! If you ever have to take dictation or just write down something someone is saying, you’ll have a better idea of how a word is spelled just from hearing it out loud. Again, ü can be a tricky sound for non-native German speakers to pick up. She now works as a freelance writer and is also assistant editor at Slow Travel Berlin. Pronouncing diphthongs. For most vowels, the long version not only takes longer to say (in spoken German), but has a different value than the short version. das Salz — salt. Learning German becomes fun and easy when you learn with movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talks. 1. As for long i vowels, they’re pronounced like the double “e” sound in “feet.” If you lift your tongue slightly higher than you would when pronouncing the English sound, you’ll be spot on. German diphthongs are usually shorter and tenser (less glide) than English diphthongs. Examples: zu, stürzte. See below for a full discussion of short and long vowels and for sound files of the vowels … A short o in German is spoken like the English short “o” in “hot.” Here are five quick examples…, When you need to pronounce a long o in German, it’s not far from the sound of “uar” in “quarter” or the “aw” sound in “call.”, If you’re saying your short u just like the “u” in “bush,” then you’re on the right track! There’s no equivalent to the long ö sound in English; the nearest sound we have to it is the “u” sound in “burn.” It helps if you keep your lips round and tense for this sound; they should open to create a hole about the size of an olive.