Learn the pronunciation of accents and silent and final letters
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate German Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, we'll cover diphthongs and combinations with the Letter S in German. |
| DIPHTHONGS |
| First let's talk a bit about German diphthongs. |
| A diphthong, refers to two vowel sounds that are pronounced together within the same syllable. You can kind of think of it like gliding from one vowel to the next very quickly, almost as if to blend the two sounds together. |
| English has diphthongs as well. |
| Take the word 'loin' for example. |
| It's not pronounced 'lo-in', but 'loin'. |
| Or the word 'foul'. It's not 'fo-ul', but 'foul'. |
| Notice the difference? |
| GERMAN DIPHTHONGS |
| Okay, now let's have a look at some of the most common diphthongs in German. |
| When the letter A is followed by a U, the two vowel sounds merge. |
| a, u, |
| au |
| Haus (house) |
| It's like the vowel sounds in the English word 'house'. Listen to a few examples. |
| Maus (mouse) |
| Frau (woman) |
| Auge (eye) |
| aus (off) |
| brauchen (to need something) |
| The next diphthong sound is... |
| e, i, |
| ei |
| Eier (egg) |
| It's like the vowels sounds in the word 'kite'. Listen to a few examples. |
| Bayern (bavaria) |
| Mai (may) |
| Meyer (German name) |
| The next diphthong sound is... |
| e, u |
| eu |
| heute (today) |
| It's the like the vowel sounds in the word 'noise'. Listen to a few examples. |
| Feuer, Freude, Leute (fire, joy, people) |
| Häuser, Fräulein (houses, miss) |
| Okay, got the hang of it? Well that's all for diphthongs. |
| COMBINATIONS WITH THE LETTER S |
| Now let's move on to combinations with the letter S. |
| Much like English, the sound changes when S is combined with other consonants. |
| In German, when the letter S is combined with H or CH, the entire syllable becomes a 'sh' sound. Like the 'sh' in the word 'ship'. |
| Show (show) |
| Shareware (shareware) |
| Scheck (cheque) |
| komisch (funny) |
| Fisch (fish) |
| When the letter S is followed by a P or a T. The S itself changes to a sh sound. |
| s, p |
| sp |
| Spiel (game) |
| This only happens when it's at the start of a word. |
| sprechen (to speak) |
| sparen (to save) |
| The same applies with S and T. |
| s, t |
| st |
| Stadt (city) |
| studieren (to study) |
| Standort (location) |
| Okay, that's all for combinations with the letter S. |
| In this lesson, we covered diphthongs in German and combinations with the letter S. |
| In the next lesson, we'll cover stress, rhythm and intonation. |
| Does your language have similar diphthongs and rules with the letter S? Let us know in the comments. |
| See you in the next Ultimate German Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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