Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

Judith: Hallo, [Ich heiße Judith].
Chuck: Hi, I am Chuck.
Judith: [Sie hören Germanpod101.com]!
Chuck: You are listening to germanpod101.com this is accent improvement series, lesson 5. Hello and welcome to the accent improvement series at germanpod101.com where we study modern German in a fun and educational format.
Judith: So brush up on the German that you started learning long ago or start learning today.
Chuck: Thanks for being here for this lesson. So Judith, what are we looking at in this lesson?
Judith: Today we are going to study common diphthongs, vowel combinations.
Chuck: Attention listeners! Comment, comment and comment some more.
Judith: It’s easy.
Chuck: And asking questions really helps improve progress.
Judith: So of all those diphthongs, in German, there are three common diphthongs represented by five different spellings.
Chuck: Unlike the umlaut that we did last time, these vowel combinations are not really new songs. You recognize them from English.
Judith: However to speak accent free German, you will have to pronounce them a little bit differently than you used to.
Chuck: So pay close attention when we compare them directly to the English equivalents.
Judith: And after the lesson, use the line by line dialogue tool to listen to the distinctions over and over.
Chuck: Judith, could you please give us an example sentence with all the different diphthongs that we will talk about today.
Judith: Sure. [Kommt deine abergläubische Freundin aus Bahrain heute auch]?
Chuck: This means, is your superstitious friend from Bahrain coming also today. Say this sentence again but slowly please.
Judith: [Kommt deine abergläubische Freundin aus Bahrain heute auch]? The first sound is [ei].
Chuck: It’s most commonly spelled ei in German but ai also exists. There is no difference in pronunciation between the two but the sound is a tiny bit different from the English equivalent.
Judith: Compare
Chuck: [my]
Judith: And [mai]. For example or…
Chuck: [mein]
Judith: And mine.
Chuck: Note that the diphthongs are fixed in length. So you don’t have to worry about long and short sounds.
Judith: The next sound is [au].
Chuck: This can only be spelled au in German. Again you may think you know the sound for English but there is a slight difference of pronunciation.
Judith: Compare:
Chuck: [how].
Judith: and [hau].
Chuck: Beat
Judith: Or
Chuck: House
Judith: And [Haus].
Chuck: These kinds of differences are part of what creates the German accent in English or the English accent in German. So be careful if you want to sound natural.
Judith: The third and last common diphthong sound is [eu].
Chuck: This one is typically spelled eu but may also be spelled a with an umlaut u. Especially in the plural of words with au. For example
Judith: [Häuser].
Chuck: Houses. In this case, the English and German pronunciation appear to be identical. This one should be easy for you.
Judith: The most common word in German with this sound is [heute].
Chuck: Now, let’s hear the example sentence again.
Judith: [Kommt deine abergläubische Freundin aus Bahrain heute auch]?
Chuck: Judith, could you go through the diphthong sounds in that phrase and remind us what they are?
Judith: Sure. So the first diphthong sounds is [deine]. It is spelled ei and the I sound and then [abergläubische] in this case it is the [eu] sound but it’s spelled with a with an umlaut and [u] then [Freundin] same sound, but spelled eu [aus] au, [Bahrain] ai for the I sound and [heute] eu and [auch] au.
Chuck: Now please go to the learning center at germanpod101.com and practice this sentence until you sound just like a native.
Judith: For best results, use the voice recording tool.
Chuck: Yes the voice recording tool in the premium learning center.
Judith: Record your voice with a click of a button
Chuck: And play it back just as easily.
Judith: So you record your voice and then you listen to it.
Chuck: Compare it to native speakers.
Judith: And adjust your pronunciation.
Chuck: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast.
Judith: Alright, that’s it for today. Next time, we are moving on to consonants.
Chuck: So be sure to tune again then. See you then.
Judith: [Bis dann]!

Comments

Hide