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The German ABC. Absolute Beginners # 3
September 10th, 2010 by admin

Hello and welcome to the third episode for beginners - the long summer break is finally over and I hope I can produce more shows for you these coming weeks. Not only episodes for beginners, but also for advances learners.

Today, I want to pick up a topic that Burt listener asked me to cover: The German alphabet. I want to go through the 26 letters slowly now that you can hear how Sun they are pronounced.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU VWXYZ

Then there are the "umlaut" Ä Ö Ü and we have a special "s" sound, the ß. You do not hear a big difference, I know. Do not worry about that now.

While we are at the topic of pronounciation: JJ from New Zealand asked me to tell him the difference between Z and S. There's a big difference there! For example: We say cream, meaning cream, but sugar, meaning sugar. The Z is pronounced like at a s and TS. More word with Z? Let me think. How about tooth for tooth, Zeppelin, cinnamon for cinnamon or so words with the cat in the middle like Z relationship for relationship or for cat.

And one last thing: We have another sound in the German language, that is quite hard for beginners to pronounce. The CH sound. It is either ch or ch. I'll give you some examples: cooking for cook, book for book, awake for awake. Or to giggle giggle for, cup for cup and shallow for shallow.

Alphabet, we'll end with a repetition of the - so much for this quick lesson in German pronounciation. Hope you tune in next time and tell your friends about this podcast! See you soon, Your Annik.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU VWXYZ

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16 Responses
  • Lolo wrote:
    September 16th, 201017:14 at

    Annik love,

    I've found your podcast yesterday and I think that's great! I studied German at university (there are nearly 5 years ago), but I know nieman book now to speak with whom!

    Please talk about the grammar? Perhaps only very slightly Grammar?

    Please forgive my terrible spelling!

    Tschuss,
    Lolo (from Boulder, Colorado)

  • Bashar Houri wrote:
    October 5th, 201019:45 at

    hello ..
    thank u for this material .. and I'm afriad that i find it difficult to prononcé the umlauts .. is it very importent to prononcé it as well .. i mean it doest affect the meaning of the word?!

    thx!

  • admin wrote:
    October 6th, 201008:42 at

    Yes, it is quite important and it can change the meaning of some words - but do not worry about that. Do your best to pronounce them and you will get better!

  • Joseph writes:
    October 14th, 201010:35 at

    Thank you very much. I always have the difficulty to differentiate between "e" and "i". To my ears, they sound the same. Could you explain a bit more about their pronunciations?
    Thank you!

  • Annik writes:
    October 14th, 201010:56 at

    Well, the "i" is pronounced like "ea" in English. Like "Tea" or "flea" or "team". The "e" sound is quite different. It is like the "e" in "get" or "set", but sometimes longer pronounced. But you see that they are very different, right?

  • Joseph writes:
    October 15th, 201008:42 at

    Thanks a lot. Much clearer now.

  • Shero wrote:
    October 28th, 201021:46 at

    Slow German very big blooms. So I improved my German language ever. Now I am studying law at the University of Vienna. I feel like it, to know the German legal system. Could you tell me about it etws?

    Thank you very much

  • david kenihan writes:
    February 11th, 201123:43 at

    The alphabet is difficult for english speakers - 'i' and 'e' especially. Thanks for Slow German, "every time I see a bit more.

  • Alessandro writes:
    July 9th, 201118:18 at

    that's pretty good to me this site.gefalt very well. I love this site very much.

  • Bob writes:
    August 17th, 201108:57 at

    Hi! Learn the German language seems like an interesting one to. I'm wondering though if it would be useful to me as a student of business courses. Are there many career opportunities for German speakers outside of Germany?

  • admin wrote:
    August 17th, 201110:37 at

    Sorry, but how should I know? I'm not a career-counselor ... ;-)

  • Deepti wrote:
    November 15th, 201106:13 at

    Hi,

    Where are the next episodes, I mean # 4, # 5, # 6 and # 7, i have the ones from # 8 onwards and I am an absolute beginner.

  • admin wrote:
    November 15th, 201113:20 at

    See here: http://www.slowgerman.com/about

  • Sanket wrote:
    December 8th, 201107:05 at

    Slow German is really good for begineers. I am really thankful to the creater.

  • khermous writes:
    March 14th, 201200:49 at

    Hello Ms Robens! I'm Khermous Nourdine from Algeria, I write for them, because I need her help you, I'm in the first years of German, I am very interissiere for this language, because it's very antirissant but it's a bit heavy, and as you know, in Algeria are the German books and novels to improve a little unusual, so I need you by my German, many thanks ahead ...... ^ _ ^ ......

  • admin wrote:
    March 14th, 201213:36 at

    Slow is actually German for advanced learners ... I'm sorry!



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