German Pronunciation Rules

Words Ending with er

In German, if any word ends with er, the pronunciation of the letter sounds like a.

Examples:

• der Vater → Vata
• die Mutter → Mutta
• der Bruder → Bruda

Words Containing ie

In German, if any word contains ie, the pronunciation sounds like ee (long i sound).

Examples:

• die → dee
• sie → see
• wie → wee
• knie → knee
• Soziologie → Soziologee

Words Containing ei

In German, if any word contains ei, the pronunciation sounds like eye (ai sound).

Examples:

• das Ei → eye
• sei → sigh
• nei → nigh
• nein → nine
• mei → my
• mein → mine

Common Letter Combinations

Words Ending with "ig"

In German, if any word ends with "ig", the pronunciation sounds like "ikh" (like "ick" with a harder "k").

Examples:

• Ludwig: Ludwikh
• Richtig: Rikhtikh
• Honig: Honikh
• Zwanzig: Zwanzikh
• Wichtig: Vikhtikh

Pronunciation of ch

Basic Rule:

• If ch comes after e, it sounds like sh (soft sound)
• In all other cases except the first rule, it sounds like kh (hard sound, like clearing throat)

Detailed Rules:

a. High Priority: If ch comes after any of these letters: e, i, ei, ä, ö, ü - then it sounds like sh (soft)

Examples:

• die Küche → Kusheh
• Ich spreche (to speak, verb) → Ish spresheh

b. If ch comes after any of these letters: a, o, u, au - then it sounds like kh (hard)

Examples:

• das Buch → Bukh
• die Bücher → Busher
• das Sprache (language, noun) → Sprakheh

Note: These pronunciation rules use English phonetic approximations to help understand German pronunciation.