The vocalic “R” appears in unique circumstances only. It is pronounced similar to the “schwa,” a very common vowel sound in German, giving the vocalic “R” the nickname of the “dark schwa.” However, given how alien the consonantal “R” can be, some learners have just settled for rolling the “R”’s from the tips of their tongues, the same way you would in Spanish.Īlternatively, the vocalic “R” gets its name due to the fact that its pronunciation is very similar to that of a vowel. The sound comes from the uvula, which is at the back of the throat, and resembles the sound you make when you are gurgling. When in the middle of a word, “R” takes a guttural sound, one that is foreign to English speakers. In fact, it can be very off-putting for people learning the language. The consonantal “R” can be difficult to get right. Nevertheless, “R” is one of the more difficult German consonants to pronounce as you shall see shortly.įor starters, there are two types of “R.” You have the consonantal “R” and the vocalic “R.” The Germans call it “er,” which isn’t too dissimilar to how it is called in English.
“Quatsch,” which means “nonsense.” The word is pronounced as “kvach.” For example, the letter “S” is pronounced one way in Germany and in a slightly different way in Austria. It should be noted that plenty of the pronunciations that follow are approximate.Īnother thing you should be aware of beforehand is that the pronunciations of letters differ from region to region. Once we’ve learned the name of the letter, we will learn how it sounds when used in the middle of a word, which can be different than the letter’s original name.Īgain, if we look at English, the pronunciation of the word “up” is quite different than the pronunciation of the letters making up the word, which are “you” and “pee.”
For example, the English name for “T” is “tee,” and the English name for “U” is “you.” We will start by learning the German name for each letter. It’s interesting to note that these letters are also ordered the same way they are in English.Īs we learn the 26 letters, we will also learn their German names as well as how they sound when used in a word. Let’s start with the basic 26 before we move onto the Umlauts and the Eszett. Moreover, some countries consider the Eszett, ß, another letter, which would bring the grand total up to 30 letters.
0 kommentar(er)
