There are many who believe that German is not the world's most romantic language. The German language is known for its extremely long and complex words, but it is also known for its weird symbols and charming sounds.

 

But don’t worry. We have the right solution to assist you to sort through all of those ß’s, ö’s, and ü’s.

We created a game to expose you to German sounds. Listen to the audio file and determine whether the speaker is making a German letter sound or some other noise.

R sounds

Is the speaker gurgling mouthwash or producing the German “r” sound?

• Listen to the audio

Answer: The speaker was producing the German r sound. The letter r creates a rolling sound in the back of your throat when it occurs at the beginning of a word. It's worth a try. Make an r sound and then pretend to gurgle while you’re doing it.

 

When the letter r happens at the beginning of a word, it produces a rolling sound. The r produces a much softer sound everywhere else, almost like an “uh”.

 

B sounds

Is this an audio of the speaker yodeling, or is this the speaker producing the German “b” sound?

• Listen to the audio

Answer: It was the speaker who was yodeling. The good news is that in both English and German, b has the same sound. In reality, a lot of letters in German and English have the same sound such as f, h, k, l, m, n, p, and t.

Ch sounds

Is this the sound of the speaker making the German “ch” sound? Or is this the sound of an angry cat?

• Listen to the audio

Answer: That oh-so-lovely sound was the German ch sound. Make a cat-hissing sound right now to test it out.

 

That ß sound

Is this a snake about to attack? Or is the speaker making the sound for that goofy German ß symbol?

• Listen to the audio

Answer: Don't let that strange “ß” sign bother you. It's known as an eszet. It's just an “s” sound, “ssss.” In reality, as part of a spelling reform movement, Germans are pushing to eliminate the eszet and replace it with a double-s (ss).

 

W sounds

Here is a hard one. Is this the speaker making the German w sound, or is it his car refusing to start?

• Listen to the audio

Answer: That was the German w, which is similar to our “v” sound. (Now you know the reason when comedians perform German impressions, they always replace all w's with v's. I have to vash my hands with varm vater.)

You definitely need to practice this sound because most German question words begin with w's.

 

V sounds

Is this the speaker making the German “v” sound, or is it the wind blowing?

• Listen to the audio

Answer: That might have sounded like wind, but that was actually the sound of the letter v in German. It has the same sound as the letter f in English.

 

J sounds

First, let's make sure you're still awake. Is this the German sound for the letter “j” or just the sound of someone laughing?

• Listen to the audio

Answer: That was the German “j” sound, pronounced similarly to the English “y” sound. Here are some German words that have this sound.

 

Quick recap

• The r (at the beginning of the word) makes a gurgling sound
• The r (at the end of the word) sounds like “uh”
• The ch sounds like a cat hiss
• ß is simply an “ss” sound
• j sounds like the English y
• w sounds like the English v
• v sounds like the English f

Mouth practice with umlauts

There are a few vowels in German that we don't have in English: ä, ö, and ü.

Umlauts are the double dots above vowels. They alter the vowel sound to make it sound like you're having dental treatment done while trying to speak.

Here is what umlauts sound like:

 

German's not-so-silent letters

As an English speaker, you'll want to stick to our guidelines for silent letters when you first start learning German. The Germans, on the other hand, like their letter to make noise.

Here are a few places where you may get tripped up. It's important to pay attention to the speaker’s pronunciation of these sample words. Resist the urge to remain silent!

 

This is the end of our today's German speaking lesson. We hope that you can know how to use German sounds and symbols correctly. And don’t forget to follow us in the next German lessons.

Tags: learn speaking German, German pronunciation, how to learn speaking German, learn German lessons, German sounds, German symbols, learn German language, German speaking lessons