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!