german pronunciation rules

ei, ai – pronounced like “y” in “sky” – mein, nein, dein, kein

ie, ieh – pronounced like “ee” in cheese – lieben, biegen

s is pronounced like “z” when there is a vowel after it – sieben, sie, süß

ch is the /x/ and /ç/ sound – ich, machen, nicht

sch is pronounced like “sh” – schon, schreiben

tsch is pronounced like “ch” in “cherry” – tschüß, deutsch

eu, äu are pronounced like “oi” in “boiling” – neu, neun

z, tz are pronounced like “ts” – zu, sitzen

j is pronounced like “y” in “you” – ja, jacke

qu is pronounced like “kv” – quatsch

sp, st are pronounced like “sh” – spielen, sprechen, stehen, stunde

ck is pronounced like “k” – ecke

chs is pronounced like “ks” – wachsen

v is pronounced like “f” – viel, vorstellen

ö is like “o”, but pronounced with rounded lips – schön, öl

ü is like “ou” in “you” but pronounced with rounded lips – tschüß

ä is like “e” in “bet” at the beginning of the word and after vowels, and like “ay” in “say” after consonants – mädchen, äpfel

ß is like a long “s” – tschüß, süß

an “h” after a vowel just makes it longer, as well as a doubled vowel

please correct me if i got something wrong!

princessxbumblebee:

toes-or-not:

zukosgay:

the-illusion-of-sanity:

zukosgay:

zukosgay:

diseases in english are like “oh you have conjungitivitistittis. :)”

german meanwhile is like “you have hurty tummy syndrome :////”

going to a doctor in english: my esophagus seems to be inflamed and my trachea is itchy

going to a doctor in german: uwu dokteur, my eat-tube and breathe-tube are hurty :[[

dokteur: ahhh, yes, that is the eat-tube-and-breathe-tube-itchy-hurty-syndrome, here have some ibuprofen

“i need to go see the otolaryngologist”

“oh you mean the throat-noses-ears-doctor?”

birth control vs. antibabypillen

getting a ride 2 tge hospital in an ambulance vs. getting a ride 2 the sickhouse in a sickwagon

Is this really what german is like?

yes.

In German, “Wien” is “Vienna”, and “Wiener” denotes something coming from there. It’s a style of sausage, or was at one point.

soulorb:

!!!! oh hey this is really cool thank you!!!!! :0

jacob-the-gun:

sinnahsaint:

tywysogannwn:

lokiindistress:

awed-frog:

WHOA

this is one of the reasons it’s so hard to translate on the fly 😭 monoglots just don’t understand and think you’re bad at the source language 😟

What is UP with Russian?

Also doesn’t help that German has rules allowing for practically any sentence structure your heart desires.

Source: awed-frog

mama-germany:

Source: nunyabizni

An underrated problem of learning to speak a language as a native English speaker is when you’re trying to practice but you’re in a place where most people speak English better than you speak their language and they give up on you and switch to English

zukosgay:

zukosgay:

no internet interaction will ever again reach the high of chaos of the “does germany still exist?” officialgermangovernment: “Yes” “thanks”

this shit absolutely sends me

People always complain about articles in German, but holy shit making sense of word order when conjunctions are involved is something I really, really don’t understand.

The biggest struggle with writing about war when you’re German

marvellously-supernatural:

You see, it’s simple.

“Schießen” means to shoot.
“Scheißen” means to shit.

There’s this tiny difference in the order of these letters and the words are pronounced very differently but they look very much alike.

Especially when you’re typing fast. Especially when you’ve written for the last eight hours and it’s five in the morning and your tired soul is preparing to leave your body. Especially when Microsoft Word doesn’t underline anything because it doesn’t get the error, because technically, spelling-wise, there is none.

This fear, coming even before getting historical facts wrong, the story being boring or my writing being just bad, that I might embarrass myself and my characters because somewhere in this huge pile of over 130k words, in a serious and completely unfunny meant chapter there might be a soldier unintentionally shitting, not shooting, keeps me up at night.