The combination IE is usually pronounced as a long i (sieben, tief, viel). A vowel is usually long if its syllable is not closed by a consonant (ja, so, ha-ben, o-ben) or followed by a single consonant (gut, kam, rot, schon). Long vowels: A vowel followed by a silent H or doubled is pronounced long (fahren, wohnen, Boot, Seele, Stuhl). The vowel preceding CK is always short (Bock, locken, Lücke, trocken). Short vowels: A stressed vowel followed by two consonants is usually pronounced short (Bett, hacken, kann, selber), but long vowels in a root form remain long even if inflected to be followed by two consonants (groß – größte or leben – gelebt). German vowels are pronounced long or short. The German vowels must be as clearly and cleanly enunciated as consonants for understanding. Here is a brief overview of all sounds and basic rules that should help you get to grips with German pronunciation: German VowelsĮnglish speakers, particularly Americans, tend to be careless with vowel pronunciation and get away with it. That is, if you learn how to correctly pronounce individual letters and letter combinations and where to place accents you will be able to pronounce German words correctly without even ever having heard them from a native speaker’s mouth. Unlike English words, German words are pronounced as they are written. In most cases, pronunciation of the sounds used in the German language follows certain rules and patterns that you need to learn by heart. So, altogether there are 30 letters in the German alphabet but there are a lot more sounds than letters (to get started watch this video to learn how to pronounce individual German letters). In addition, German has a character ß called eszett (or scharfes-S) and three umlaut vowels ä, ö and ü. German uses the 26 letters of the English alphabet.
If you manage all the basics of German pronunciation presented in this brief guide, your German should soon sound well enough for a native listener. No matter how harsh the German language may sound to your ear, the good news is that mastering German pronunciation is not too difficult, especially if you are a native speaker of another European language. German is one of those foreign languages that most people in the world can clearly recognize by its sound even if they do not speak a word of German.
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