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The German ABC. Absolute Beginner #3

von Annik Rubens | 10. September 2010 | Absolute Beginner, SG Podcast-Episode | 22
Kommentare

Annik Rubens        

n ABC. Absolute Beginner #3           The Germa

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 listener Burt asked me to cover: The German alphabet. I
will go through the 26 letters now slowly so that you can hear how they are pronounced.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Then there are the „Umlaute“: Ä Ö Ü and we have a special „s“-sound, the ß. You don’t hear a
big difference, I know. Don’t 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 Sahne,
meaning cream, but Zucker, meaning sugar. The Z is pronounced like a t and a s. TS. More
word with Z? Let me think. How about Zahn for tooth, Zeppelin, Zimt for cinnamon or also
words with the Z in the middle like Beziehung for relationship or Katze 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: Koch
for cook, Buch for book, wach for awake. Or kichern for to giggle, Becher for cup and seicht for
shallow.

So much for this quick lesson in German pronounciation – we’ll end with a repetition of the
alphabet. Hope you tune in next time and tell your friends about this podcast! Bis bald, Eure
Annik.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

22 Kommentare
Annik am 28. Juli 2014 um 11:18
Tse. Ist es auf der Aufnahme nicht gut zu hören?
Annik Rubens        
– Juden in Deutschland           SG #196 – Juden in Deutschland