Aussprache: Vokale und Laute
Lesson 97 covered letter names for spelling things out loud. This lesson covers how letters actually sound when you speak - the vowel lengths, umlauts, and consonant sounds that make German pronunciation feel unfamiliar at first.
Every vowel (a, e, i, o, u) has a short and a long version, and length changes the word's meaning.
| Stadt | city (short a) |
| Staat | state (long a) |
| Bett | bed (short e) |
| Beet | garden bed (long e) |
Rule of thumb: a doubled consonant after the vowel (tt, ck) usually means short. A doubled vowel or a silent "h" after the vowel usually means long. Full table: Reference - Pronunciation.
1. Which spelling pattern usually signals a short vowel: a doubled consonant, or a silent h?
These are distinct sounds, not decorated versions of a/o/u.
| ä | like "e" in "bed" (spät - late) |
| ö | round your lips for "o," say "e" (schön - beautiful) |
| ü | round your lips for "u," say "ee" (müde - tired) |
Trick: freeze your lips in the plain vowel's shape (o or u), then try to say "e" or "ee" without moving them.
2. How do you physically produce ö?
mein (my) - sounds like English "mine"
Sie (you, formal) - sounds like English "zee"
ei sounds like English "eye"; ie sounds like English "ee" - the opposite of what the letter order suggests. This is the vowel-sound equivalent of the E/I letter-name trap from Lesson 97.
3. Does "ei" or "ie" sound like English "eye"?
| ch (after a/o/u) | rasping throat sound, like Scottish "loch" (Buch) |
| ch (after e/i/ä/ö/ü) | soft hiss (ich, nicht) |
| sch | English "sh" (Schule) |
| z | "ts" as in "cats" (Zeit) |
| v | usually English "f" (Vater) |
| w | English "v" (Wasser) |
Full consonant table, including sp/st word-initial shifts and final devoicing, in the reference doc.
4. "Vater" starts with a sound closer to English F or V?
5. "Wasser" starts with a sound closer to English V or W?
Cross-checked against the Goethe-Institut A1 practice materials.
Want your teaching agent to listen for these sounds in your practice sentences and flag mix-ups (short/long, ei/ie, ö/ü)? Ask it to run a pronunciation drill.