German Pronunciation: How can your Eye and Feet help?

Blog 2 by Shin Shin Lung

As an English speaker, I find it a little bit challenging to pronounce certain German words.  This is because in the German language, there are some additional letters with sounds that do not have an English equivalent.

I learnt German in Australia before enrolling in DeutschAkademie this month.  My previous tutor, Dr. Erika Hild gave me the following guide which has helped me tremendously.  The guide references an English sound to a German sound. I find it easier to pronounce a German letter or word if I can reference it to a sound I already know.

Pronunciation Guide

Group of Vowels

au         similar in sound to “ow” in how

ai         similar in sound to the word “eye

ei         similar in sound to the word “eye

eu        similar in sound to “oy” in toy

ie         similar in sound to “ee” in feet

 

Umlaute

 

ä          similar to the “a” in care

ö          similar to the “ea” in earth ( closest match )

ü          no similar sounds

äu        the same as the German eu sound, which is similar to the “oy” in toy

 

I look forward to speaking German every day now! Maybe one day I might sound like a German? 🙂 #WishfulThinking

I hope you find this guide useful too!