Learn how to pronounce the German C, Q and CH at the beginning of a word
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
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.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Judith: Hallo, [ich heiße] Judith. |
| Chuck: Hi, I am Chuck. |
| Judith: [Willkommen]! |
| Chuck: You are listening to germanpod101.com this is accent improvement series, lesson 9. 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 with us for this lesson. Judith, what are we learning? |
| Judith: Today we are going to study the letter C and Q and also a little extra about the CH combination. |
| Chuck: Attention listeners, comment! |
| Judith: Comment! |
| Chuck: And comment some more. |
| Judith: It’s easy. |
| Chuck: And asking questions really helps improve progress. |
| Judith: So about those letters... |
| Chuck: Judith, I think it would be nice to have an example sentence of these letters to start. |
| Judith: Sure. [Quatsch! Dieser Clown meint, dass Cäsar China durchquert hätte]. |
| Chuck: This means, nonsense, this clown says that seas are across China. Could you say that again but a bit slower this time? |
| Judith: Of course: [Quatsch! Dieser Clown meint, dass Cäsar China durchquert hätte]. So let’s go over the letters one by one. |
| Chuck: The German letter [q] always appears with a letter [u] following it. It never stands on its own. |
| Judith: And there is only one possible pronunciation for it [q] as in the explanation [Quatsch]! |
| Chuck: Bogus. |
| Judith: This does not change even when qu appears in the middle of a word as in [durchqueren]. |
| Chuck: To traverse. Next the German letter C has two possible pronunciations when it stands on its own either a K or TS. The former is more common. |
| Judith: As an example of the letter C being pronounced as [c] our sample sentence featured the word clown. As an example of it being pronounced as [c] there is the word [Cäsar]. |
| Chuck: It’s very uncommon that a letter C is used on its own like this in German. The letter K replaces it in most cases where English would use C. |
| Judith: However, C is part of the cluster sch the German equivalent of an sh and as we’ve seen before, c is also part of the cluster ch which is pronounced either as an [ach] or as an [Ich]. |
| Chuck: Let’s cover one more thing about this vital German consonant combination. How to pronounce it at the beginning of a word. CH as the beginning of the word is very much a matter of taste. |
| Judith: There are some people that will pronounce it as in [Ich] some pronounce it like the English SH and some pronounce it as [k]. All of these are valid pronunciations for words like [China] or [Chemie]. So you will hear people say [China] or [China] even and same for [Chemie]. You can say [Chemi] or [Chemie]. |
| Chuck: However when you have a loan word like [Champagner] champagne, the pronunciation of the ch tends to be the same as in the original language. So sh in this case and tsh in the case of chat. |
| Judith: There is also a case to be made for ease of pronunciation. So in words with an R following the ch such as [Christentum]. |
| Chuck: Christianity. |
| Judith: The ch will always be pronounced as K. |
| Chuck: Now let’s hear the example sentence again. |
| Judith: [Quatsch! Dieser Clown meint, dass Cäsar China durchquert hätte]. |
| Chuck: Judith, could you go for the sounds we covered in this phrase and remind us what they are again? |
| Judith: Of course: [Quatsch] is the qu, clown is the c pronounced as a k, [Cäsar] is the c pronounced as [China] well, I personally pronounce it as sh but that is just one possibility and [durch] the [quert] in there is the qu sound again. |
| Chuck: Now please go to the learning center at germanpod101.com and practice the sentence until you sound 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: Then play it back just as easily. |
| Judith: So you record your voice and then you listen to it. |
| Chuck: Compare it to the native speakers |
| Judith: And adjust your pronunciation. |
| Chuck: This will help you improve your pronunciation fast. |
| Judith: All right, that’s it for today. |
| Chuck: So be sure to tune in again next time. See you then. |
| Judith: [Bis dann]! |
Comments
HideHow do you pronounce the beginning CH in "China" and "Chemie"?
Hallo robert groulx,
Danke schön for posting and studying with us. If you have any questions, please let us know.😄
Kind regards,
Levente
Team GermanPod101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
[Bis dann]!
robert
@Vanessa
yes it is. In Austria (and I believe in south Germany) you say China with a K sound.
I live in the West and only heard China with a Sch.
Ich habe immer "K" gehört. Ist es anders in verschiedenen Regionen?
(I have always heard "K". Is it different in different regions?)