Basic German: Pronouncing ä, ö, And ü

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HomeAcademics & The Arts ArticlesLanguage & Language Arts ArticlesLearning Languages ArticlesGerman ArticlesBasic German: Pronouncing ä, ö, and üByWendy Foster Paulina Christensen Anne Fox Updated2016-03-26 14:21:15From the bookGerman All-in-One For Dummies, with CDShare

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German has three extra vowels: ä, ö, and ü. The German word for those curious double dots over the vowels is Umlaut (oom-lout) (umlaut). Umlauts slightly alter the sound of the vowels a, o, and u, as outlined in this table. These sounds have no equivalent in English.

Pronouncing Vowels with Umlauts

German Letter	Phonetic Symbol	As in English	German Example
ä (long)	ai	say (“ay” in “say” with spread lips)	nächste (naiH-ste) (next)
ä (short)	ê	bet (clipped “e”)	fällen (fêl-en) (to fell [a tree])
ö	er	her (without the “r” sound)	schön (shern) (pretty) (remember: no “r” sound)
ü	ue	lure (“ooh” with pursed lips)	Tür (tuer) (door)

To make your German vowels ä, ö, and ü sound a bit more authentic, try progressing through the ä, ö, and ü sounds, pronouncing the vowels as though you’re getting ready to kiss someone — in other words, round your lips and pucker up, baby! The ü sound is pronounced with very pursed lips.

Pronouncing diphthongs

Diphthongs are combinations of two vowels in one syllable (as in the English “lie”). This table lists the German diphthongs and shows you how to pronounce them.

Pronouncing German Diphthongs

German Diphthong	Phonetic Symbol	As in English	German Example
ai/ei/ay	ay	cry	Mais (mays) (corn)/ein (ayn) (a)/Bayern (bay-ern) (Bavaria)
au	ou	loud	laut (lout) (noisy)
äu/eu	oy	boy	Häuser (hoy-zer) (houses)/Leute (loy-te) (people)
ie	ee	see	Miete (meet-e) (rent)

Both the long German vowel i and the German vowel combination ie are pronounced like the English letter e in see, but the German ei, ai, and ay are pronounced like the English letter y in cry.

About This Article

This article is from the book: 

German All-in-One For Dummies, with CD

About the book author:

Wendy Foster is a language instructor and the author of Intermediate German For Dummies.

Paulina Christensen, PhD, and Anne Fox are veteran language instructors.

Anne Foxis a veteran language instructor.

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