2. Sounds and spelling

German spelling is close to phonemic: with about fifteen rules you can pronounce any word you read and spell most words you hear. Vowel length is the rule that matters most, because it changes meaning.

Vowel length: the spelling tells you

Signal	Length	Examples
Vowel + h	Long	Bahn, Kohle, fühlen
Double vowel	Long	Meer, Boot, Saal
ie	Long i	Liebe, spielen
Single consonant after the vowel in a stressed syllable	Usually long	Tag, Name, Ofen
Double consonant, ck, tz, or a consonant cluster	Short	Mitte, Bett, Glück, Katze, Kind
ß	Long vowel or diphthong before it	Straße, groß, heißen
ss	Short vowel before it	Fluss, muss, Wasser

Minimal pairs to train your ear: Miete / Mitte, Staat / Stadt, bieten / bitten, Hüte / Hütte, Ofen / offen. If you hear the difference, you can spell the word.

Consonants and letter combinations

• ch has two sounds. After a, o, u, au it is the back sound [x], identical to Azerbaijani x in xoş (Bach, Buch). After e, i, ä, ö, ü, ei, eu and consonants it is the front sound [ç], a whispered “y” (ich, Milch, Bücher).
• -ig at the end of a word is said like -ich in standard German (König, wichtig); southern speakers say -ik.
• sch = Azerbaijani/Turkish ş; tsch = ç; j = Turkish y (ja, Jahr).
• w = v (Wasser); v = f in native words (Vater, viel) and v in loanwords (Vase, Klavier).
• z = ts (Zeit, Zug); s before a vowel = z (Sonne, Rose).
• sp, st at the start of a word or stem = shp, sht (Sport, Straße, verstehen).
• ei = “ay” (mein), ie = long i (Bier), eu / äu = “oy” (heute, Häuser).
• r after a vowel is vocalised: -er at the end of a word sounds like a short dark a (Vater ≈ “Faa-ta”).

Umlauts

ö and ü are the same sounds as in Azerbaijani and Turkish. ä is an open e: short as in Bett (Männer), long as in Käse. Historically, umlaut arose when an i in the next syllable pulled the vowel forward, a cousin of vowel harmony. That is why umlaut appears in plurals and comparatives: Mann → Männer, alt → älter.

Final devoicing and the glottal stop

At the end of a syllable, b, d, g are said as p, t, k: Tag [taːk] but Tage [taːgə]; Kind [kɪnt] but Kinder. This is the same rule that gives Turkish kitabı beside kitap.

German speakers insert a small catch in the throat before every vowel that starts a word or stem: be-enden, ver-ein, am Abend. Hearing it helps you split long words into their parts.

Stress

Native words stress the first syllable of the stem: ARbeit, LEben, verSTEhen. The inseparable prefixes be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent-, emp-, miss- are never stressed; separable prefixes always are: ANkommen, AUFstehen.

Stress therefore tells you grammar. ÜBERsetzen (to ferry across) is separable; überSETZen (to translate) is not. Loanwords usually stress the last syllable: StuDENT, NatiON, stuDIEren.

What to practise

Shadow short audio clips (repeat a sentence right after the speaker, copying rhythm and melody), drill the minimal pairs above, and record yourself reading. Because spelling and sound map so closely, good pronunciation also makes listening and spelling easier.