Learn German lesson 2: pronunciation (grammar, words and exercises)

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Lesson 2: Pronunciation and the alphabet

Grammar:
Letters in German are not much different from English. Some pronunciations are different though:

• c is pronounced as in pots or can
• g is pronounced as in great
• i is pronounced as in freedom, not as in I
• j is pronounced as in young
• u is pronounced as in today
• w is pronounced as very
• z is pronounced as pots

When you are saying the alphabet, some letters get weird. J is pronounced jot, V is fow, Y is epsilon. So when spelling in German, don't forget those. Listen to the full alphabet here.

Some letters are not in the alphabet, namely (listen to them here):

• ä 
• ö 
• ü
• ß (pronounced 's')

Note: the ¨ is called 'Umlaut' in German, and can be replaced by an e after the letter. So instead of ä, it's ae, ö becomes oe and ü ue.

There are some special combinations:

• sch is pronounced 's' as in sure or 'sh' as in shut
• sp and st are pronounced chp and cht

Don't have not enough? Visit Wikipedia for more exceptions in German.

Exercises and new words:
Pronounce the following words:

• Das Jahr (-e) = year 
• Das Beispiel (-e) = example 
• Der Mensch (-en) = human being
• Der Tag (-e) = day 
• Die Frage (-n) = question 

Solutions

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