For some weeks now, I have had the opportunity to help my sweetheart in his endeavours to learn German. Apart from the struggles probably everyone starting to learn a new language faces, I have noticed one struggle in particular: German pronunciation.
For him, many of the vowel sounds I produce sound very similar or even the same, whereas they are two completely different sounds in the German language.
The bad news is: We actually have a lot of them! And each of the "simple" ones (a, e, i, o, u) can usually be pronounced either short or long. Add our weird "umlauts" (ä, ö, ü), the vowel combinations (diphtongs) and "y", which is used like a vowel, to the mix and you get complete confusion.
a
aa
ah
ai
au
ay
ä
äh
äu
e
ee
eh
ei
eu
ey
i
ie
ieh
o
oe
oh
oo
ou
ö
öh
u
uh
ü
üh
y (which isn't really a vowel, but used like one)
If you really want to learn more about the pronunciation of German vowel sounds, I can recommend this website about the German language, by Paul Joyce, which explains in detail the various sounds and gives audio examples (I will certainly pass on the link to my sweetheart).
Oh, and I will also try to convince my sweetheart to write another guest post, telling us his side of this story.
Language ... the bridge of communication, the magic creator of worlds, the brush and paint of authors. Language is magic. It gives us power. It is something you just have to love.
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