Learn how to use liaisons
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate German Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, we'll cover stress, rhythm, and intonation in German. |
| Stress, refers to the prominence or relative emphasis placed on certain syllables in a word. |
| When you say "unbelievable" in English for example, do you notice how "lie" is accentuated? |
| That's because it's pronounced longer, and louder than all of the other syllables. |
| This happens all the time in English, *and* in German. |
| Like in English, if you stress the wrong syllable in German, it will sound very un-natural. |
| Therefore, it's important to know which syllable to stress when pronouncing German words. |
| The general principle, is to stress the first syllable of a word. |
| Arbeiter (worker) |
| trinken (to drink) |
| This works for most words in German. However, there are always exceptions. |
| Loanwords or names for example, will preserve the stress rules from their language of origin. |
| Gustáv (German name) |
| There are many more exceptions to this, including a few irregular ones, so it's best to just stick to the general rule of stressing the first syllable whenever you use a word that you're unfamiliar with, and then later check with a dictionary, or a native speaker and imitate how *they* say it. |
| Next, is rhythm in German. |
| Fortunately, rhythm in German is stress-timed, like English. |
| Each syllable in German is not pronounced for the same amount of time. |
| Some syllables are actually said *longer* or shorter than other syllables. |
| This makes sense, because we know that German words contain stress, which not only makes some syllables LOUDER, but *also*, longer. |
| Therefore, it would make sense that stressed syllables will be said for longer than non-stressed syllables. |
| But did you know that non-stressed syllables are actually shortened and said softer as a result? |
| Like in English, this happens all the time in German. Compare a sentence in German that is said over properly, to one which you would hear in everyday conversation. |
| Wir wollen gehen. (we want to leave) |
| Wir woll'n geh'n. |
| Listen to another example. |
| Wir haben es gesehen. (We have seen it) |
| Wir haben`s gesehn |
| Okay, let's move on. |
| Finally, we have intonation. |
| German intonation is very similar to English. For example, the pitch falls at the end of declarative or imperative sentences. |
| Ich gehe arbeiten (I go to work) |
| Mach das Fenster zu! (Shut the window!) |
| Marie macht das Fenster zu. (Marie shuts the window) |
| If the sentence is continuing however, the pitch will rise at the end of the first and any subsequent clauses, up until the end of the sentence where it has a falling pitch. |
| Marie macht das Fenster zu, denn ihr ist kalt. (Marie shuts the window, because she feels cold) |
| Most questions in German will end with a rising pitch. |
| Hast du Hunger? (Are you hungry?) |
| Magst du Fußball? (Do you like soccer?) |
| Hat Peter eine Katze? (Does Peter have a cat?) |
| Unlike English though, German questions can sometimes have a falling intonation as well. This is typical of what/why/when/where questions that contain a presupposition or make an assumption in which the result is likely. |
| Was für eine Katze hat Peter? (What kind of cat does Peter have?) |
| Here, the speaker is asserting that Peter has a cat, so the question has a falling pitch. |
| Here's another example. |
| Wie ist das Wetter heute? (How is the weather today?) |
| Questions that have a falling pitch are generally quite informal, and can sometimes be used to signify annoyance or strictness. |
| For example, if a parent is talking to their child and wants to communicate strictness, the question would have a falling pitch at the end. |
| Hast du deine Hausaufgaben gemacht? (Have you done your homework?) |
| Okay, well that's all for intonation. |
| In this lesson, we covered stress, rhythm, and intonation in German. |
| In the next lesson, we'll review the material that we've covered in this series. |
| Were there more things familiar to English than you thought? Please comment and share your thoughts! |
| See you in the next Ultimate German Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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