You may be relieved to discover that the sounds of German consonants aren’t as unfamiliar as those of the vowels. In fact, German consonants are either pronounced like their English equivalents or like other English consonants. Well, there are a couple of oddities and exceptions, which we show you later.
Pronounce the letters f, h, k, l, m, n, p, t, and x the same as in English.
Although the German “r” is represented as “r” in the phonetic script of this book, it’s pronounced differently. In German, you don’t roll the “r.” To make the sound, position your tongue as if you want to make the “r” sound, but instead of rolling the tip of your tongue off your palate, leave the tongue straight and try to produce the sound in the back of your throat!
Here are the pronunciations of the consonants with sounds most like English's:
B is pronounced like:
b in boy (when preceding a vowel), or
p in stop (at the end of a syllable, or before s or t)
C is pronounced like c in cat.
CH is pronounced like:
d in dog (when preceding a vowel), or
t in bet (at the end of a syllable, or before s or t)
D is pronounced like:
d in dog (when preceding a vowel), or
t in bet (at the end of a syllable, or before s or t)
F is pronounced like f in fish.
G is pronounced like:
g in gum (when preceding a vowel), or
ck in pack (at the end of a syllable, or before s or t)
H is pronounced like h in house
J is pronounced like y in yes
K is pronounced like ck in back, but with less air exhaled
L is pronounced like l in lime, but much lighter
M is pronounced like m in me
N is pronounced like n in nice
P is pronounced like p in pit, but with less air exhaled
R rolled/trilled is pronounced like r in French, but not so strongly
S is pronounced like:
z in haze (when preceding a vowel)
otherwise: s in sit
SP is pronounced like sh in sheep, but with lips more rounded (when preceding a vowel)
ST is pronounced like sh in sheep, but with lips more rounded (when preceding a vowel)
SS is pronounced like s in sit
T is pronounced like t in tape, but with less air exhaled
