{"id":9645,"date":"2018-02-28T12:46:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T12:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=9645"},"modified":"2018-02-28T12:46:18","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T12:46:18","slug":"does-german-use-silent-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/does-german-use-silent-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Does German Use Silent Letters?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guten Tag! In today\u2019s post I\u2019d like to discuss German silent letters with you. There are many silent letters in the English language, such as the h in hour, the c in muscle, the first d in Wednesday, and the e on the end of practically every word (name, like, love, breathe), to name but a few. The question is, do these silent letters exist in German, and are the same as \u2013 or different to \u2013 the English ones?<\/p>\n

Does German Use Silent Letters?<\/h2>\n
\"shh\"<\/a>

‘shh’ by airpix on flickr.com under a CC license (CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

The brief answer is that silent letters are extremely rare in the German language! As a general rule, all letters are pronounced in German. Due to this, you’ll find that the same letter combinations are often pronounced differently in German to how they are in English. Below are some examples.<\/p>\n

German sound:<\/strong> Kn
\nGerman word:<\/strong> der Knoblauch (garlic)
\nWe have the same letter combination \u2013 kn \u2013 in English, but it is pronounced differently in German. In English, the K is silent, like in the word KNEE. In German, both the K and the N are pronounced, and the K is hard.<\/p>\n

Sound clip: ‘der Knoblauch’<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/02\/Knoblauch.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

German sound:<\/strong> Ps
\nGerman word:<\/strong> psychologisch (psychological)<\/p>\n

Again, we have the same letter combination \u2013 ps \u2013 in Englsh, but it is pronounced differently in German. In English, the P is silent, like in the English word PSYCHOLOGICAL. In German, both the P and the S are pronounced, so the word begins with a \u2018psss\u2019 sound.<\/p>\n

Sound clip: ‘psychologisch’<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/02\/psychologisch.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

German sound:<\/strong> Pf
\nGerman word:<\/strong> der Pfeffer (pepper)<\/p>\n

This is not a letter combination we have in English. By now you may be able to guess what we do with it in German, though: Yep, that\u2019s right. Pronounce both the P and the F, so the word begins with a \u2018pfff\u2019 sound.<\/p>\n

Sound clip: ‘der Pfeffer’<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/02\/Pfeffer.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

German sound:<\/strong> E (at the end of a word)
\nGerman word:<\/strong> der Hase (rabbit)<\/p>\n

The e on the end of English words is usually silent, but this is not the case in German. Each time you see the letter e at the end of a German word, pronounce it with an \u2018eh\u2019 sound. My German name (Constanze) has been pronounced incorrectly my entire life because here in the UK we don\u2019t pronounce the \u2018e\u2019 on the end of words. This has led to me being called Constanz or Constance on more occasions than I care to remember! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Sound clip: ‘der Hase’<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/02\/Hase.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Please note that there are exceptions to this rule when a word ends in \u2018ie\u2019 (die Zeremonie \u2013 ceremony) but, equally, there are words ending in \u2018ie\u2019 which DO follow the rule of pronouncing the \u2018e\u2019 – such as die Familie (family), which is pronounced \u2018Fam-eel-ee-eh\u2019.<\/p>\n

I hope this has been interesting! If you\u2019d like more posts about pronunciation, let me know. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Bis bald<\/p>\n

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

Guten Tag! In today\u2019s post I\u2019d like to discuss German silent letters with you. There are many silent letters in the English language, such as the h in hour, the c in muscle, the first d in Wednesday, and the e on the end of practically every word (name, like, love, breathe), to name but…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":9669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[11971,8],"tags":[8244,375970,12133,6,376071,2267,551768,298611,2538,2642,12028],"class_list":["post-9645","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar-language","category-language","tag-alphabet","tag-german-and-english","tag-german-grammar","tag-grammar","tag-language-listening","tag-listening","tag-pronunciation","tag-silent-letters","tag-speaking","tag-writing","tag-writing-german"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9645"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9670,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9645\/revisions\/9670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}