How to Learn German Phonetically

by Victor Fonseca

Overview

Learning German often presents a problem for English speakers, namely, the arrangement of vowels and consonants. This unnerving structure has led many would-be German speakers to run for a seemingly more comprehensible Romance language, like Spanish. This is unfortunate as German is a completely phonetic language, more so even than English. All the words, except for the diphthongs, can be sounded out with little trouble. Once you have mastered the German alphabet, the rest is as easy as sauerkraut.

German Signs

Step 1

Memorize the German alphabet and each letter's pronunciation. This is essential as German is one of the most phonetic languages on the planet. As the consonants and vowels appear in a word or sentence, read them as is (see Step 2, though).
Step 2

Memorize the small group of German diphthongs. These are ai, ei, au, eu and ie. Mastering the diphthongs can save you countless hours of hair-pulling aggravation.
Step 3

Gather some German-language books or magazines, either from your local library, bookstore, or from online sources or vendors.
Step 4

Single out one or two paragraphs from your books and/or magazines.
Step 5

Now, read these passages out loud. This is key. Reading aloud will familiarize not only your mouth and tongue with the phonetic nuances of German, but it will begin to train your ear to recognize words and their meaning in a conversation.

Overview