{"id":10109,"date":"2018-08-15T12:44:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T12:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=10109"},"modified":"2018-08-15T12:54:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T12:54:02","slug":"tricky-german-pronunciation-part-2-with-audio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/tricky-german-pronunciation-part-2-with-audio\/","title":{"rendered":"Tricky German Pronunciation Part 2 (With Audio)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! This is part 2 of a requested post (please find part 1 here). Following my posts \u2018German Words You Don\u2019t Want To Mix Up\u2019<\/strong> parts 1 and 2, a lot of people were interested in a post with audio clips of words and sounds that look similar, but are very different. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes in German, when we mispronounce a word, we end up unintentionally saying a completely different world altogether \u2013 and some of those mix-ups can be quite funny and\/or embarrassing! My first post<\/a> focused on words using the Umlaut. This one will focus on other aspects of pronunciation, including the German \u2018ch\u2019 sound and the \u2018ie\u2019 and \u2018ei\u2019 sounds. I will use the examples given in my posts German Words You Don\u2019t Want To Mix Up<\/a> and German Words You Definitely Don\u2019t Want To Mix Up!<\/a>, along with a few others, so you can hear how the similar words sound, and how to pronounce them yourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This cat is your inspiration for making the German ‘ch’ sound. Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

The German \u2018ch\u2019 sound<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

The \u2018ch\u2019 sound in German is often <\/span>mis<\/span>pronounced as a hard \u2018ck\u2019 sound, <\/span>but it is actually soft, almost like a cat hissing <\/span>(note: some dialects do pronounce it as a \u2018ck\u2019 sound). <\/span>Here is the example from my previous post:<\/span><\/p>\n

Nackt (naked) vs. Nacht (night)<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Listen to the difference:<\/span><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/08\/NACKT.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

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A Nachttisch (bedside table) – or a ‘Nackttisch’ (‘naked table’)? Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Getting letters the wrong way round: ei vs. ie<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Schie\u00dfen (shooting). Definitely not Schei\u00dfen (shitting). Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

These vowel combinations are fairly straight-forward. \u2018ei\u2019 is pronounced like the English letter \u2018I\u2019, while \u2018ie\u2019 is pronounced like the English letter \u2018E\u2019. But muddling them up in speech could lead to funny errors such as:<\/span><\/p>\n

Schei\u00dfen <\/span>(shitting) <\/span>vs. Schie\u00dfen <\/span>(shooting)<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Listen to the difference:<\/span><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/08\/SCHEISSEN.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

*<\/p>\n

The importance of pronouncing the letter combinations the right way round is also shown in the following example:<\/span><\/p>\n

Br\u00fcste (breasts) <\/span>vs. <\/span><\/strong>B\u00fcrste (brush)<\/strong> <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Listen to the difference:<\/span><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/08\/BUERSTE.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

*<\/p>\n

One final example<\/b><\/span> from my <\/span>\u2018Words You Don\u2019t Want To Mix Up\u2019 <\/span>posts, but which doesn\u2019t fall into any of these categories, is:<\/span><\/p>\n

Uhren (watches) vs. Huren (whores)<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Listen to the difference:<\/span><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/08\/UHREN.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Uhren. ‘Ooooh-ren.’ Image via Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

*<\/p>\n

I hope this has been helpful, and I also hope you see the funny side to it! Mistakes are a natural part of language learning, so if you ever do muddle any of these words up I hope it will not put you off trying again. Can you think of any more examples of similar words with different pronunciations? Are there any letter combinations you are struggling to pronounce? If you find this type of post useful, let me know and leave any suggestions you might have for similar, future posts. And make sure you check out part 1<\/a> if you haven\u2019t already!<\/span><\/p>\n

Bis bald!<\/span><\/p>\n

Constanze<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Guten Tag! This is part 2 of a requested post (please find part 1 here). Following my posts \u2018German Words You Don\u2019t Want To Mix Up\u2019 parts 1 and 2, a lot of people were interested in a post with audio clips of words and sounds that look similar, but are very different. Sometimes in…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":10123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[191027,53,2155,95131,376023,376071,2267,8448,192206,551768,980,2538],"class_list":["post-10109","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","tag-confusion","tag-conversation","tag-funny","tag-german-language","tag-language","tag-language-listening","tag-listening","tag-mistakes","tag-pronounciation","tag-pronunciation","tag-same-words","tag-speaking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t