I always explain it this way: ä -> form your lips/tongue as if you are pronouncing the german a, but say the german e instead ö -> form your lips/tongue as if you are pronouncing the german o, but say the german e instead ü -> form your lips/tongue as if you are pronouncing the german u, but say the german i instead It might not be 100% accurate but it's very close.
@@tulehong3613 To be precise, long Ä only merges with long E in most North German variants. There is a difference between the long variants in most other German variants. is pronounced /eː/and is pronounced /ɛː/. But in all variants I know, the short vowels are both pronounced /ɛ/ in stressed syllables. is /ə/ is unstressed syllables. But only occurs in stressed syllables, so there is no phonological contrast between the two.
*A video on the American accent in German...wait, wait I know that video :D ;) Yaayyy can't wait to see it!* And yeah, I've gotten a few requests to make a video about the German letters with the umlaut and I'm like, uuuuuh guys, I have to figure out how to SAY those letters first xD GREAT VIDEO!!! I practiced doing each one like a good student :D
*hihihi ich hatte auf jeden Fall viel Spaß beim Video! Als ausgebildete DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache)-Dozentin habe ich aber noch einen etwas einfacheren Tipp für dich, sollte dich noch einmal jemand bei Ö und Ü um Hilfe bitten: Ö -> sprich ein e, halte es und runde dann deine Lippen. Ü -> sprich ein i, halte es und runde dabei deine Lippen. Tada :D E und I sind Laute, die in fast allen Sprachen gehen und bei denen die Zungenstellung genau die richtige ist. Einzig die Lippenrundung macht den Unterschied ;) Für das Ä fällt mir gerade die Hilfestellung nicht ein - eventuell wurde es tatsächlich immer mit der Krücke über das E und dann den Mund weiter zu öffnen erklärt, also ähnlich wie du es schon getan hast. Deine Tipps waren aber definitiv amüsanter und unterhaltsamer als meine ;) Mach weiter so ^^
ä and e are actually usually pronounced the same... hätte ([ˈhɛtə]), Kette ([ˈkɛtə]), Käse ([ˈkɛːzə]), Fett ([fɛt]) It's only that "e" has a second pronunciation: Esel ([ˈeːzl̩]), See ([zeː])... OK, and a third one too (ə).
Umlaute für jene zu erklären, die deutsch lernen wollen, ist wirklich schwer. Es anhand von Vergleichen, wie Türklingel und pfeifen, zu bewerkstelligen ist eine gute Idee. Damit sollte jeder etwas anfangen können. Daumen hoch! :-)
Very nice video! Thank you! In English, we actually already have these three sounds. We just don't use different characters to depict them. Instead, we re-use the same letters and you just have to know the correct sounds by knowing the word. But, you're right, it's easy for an English speaker to just think the two dots over those letters are irrelevant :) Now the SPANISH would have a very hard time with these sounds because they literally only have FIVE vowel sounds (A E I O U). As I said, we have those same five vowels but we have more than double the number of sounds.
Hehe, I recognize this so much. People struggle with the extra Swedish letters as well. I remember being in the UK when I was a kid and just not understanding when someone was calling for me (using my surname). A and Å sound nothing alike. :D
I would really like to see a video about "How to pronounce R" topic. That kind of "R" I can hear in the word "Gericht". I'm russian and it's so hard to feel that throat muscles and make them work...
As a person who can read arabic well, nearly all the german pronunciation is incredibly easy for me. I quickly realised that I was already making these sounds when reading arabic. Russian on the other hand, I'd probably find more difficult.
Difficult to explain for anyone but a language trainer. I still struggle with the rolling English r, the non rolling German r just comes naturally to me. Ironically, for many southern Germans, who speak with a Bavarian or Frankonian accent, it is the other way round, they roll the r in German, too, even if they try to speak High German instead of their local dialect.
The "ü" is amazing to remember if you want to learn french when you're german! Just use the german ü to prononce the french u and you have the exact sound ^^
Thanks for this. As an American living in Germany for the last 6 years (and learning German/Schwäbisch) I really need this type of practice. I also love languages and am an English teacher here. Very nice videos and I look forward to having the time to watch more.
The ä is indeed almost identical to the vowels in hair or bear, but the other two are wrong. The sound in burn is made with open lips, while the German ö is a closed, more high-pitched sound. It is a workaround if you just want to be understood, but not if you try to speak without a clearly noticeable accent. Of course it is still much better than just pronuncing an o instead of an ö. The ü is definitely not in huge. Many adult English speakers struggle to hear the difference but there actually is a huge difference to the trained ear (similar as Germans who didn't learn English until they were adults often struggle to discern th and s - now if you are English you know how cringeworthy that sounds). If we compare the German ü to English sounds, it is actually closer to the y like in myth (which isn't an exact ü either, but closer to the German i).
In my German Course for Primary School students here in England we have teachers play a "letter substitution game" with the children. The game has kids change the umlaut letter into a letter or letter-combination that is easy for them to pronounce based on their own experiences with English. First we do it step by step, but by the end of the first month they are doing it in their heads and pronouncing things very well (for non native German speakers). Examples: Maedchen (sorry, I don't have the umlaut letters here) becomes Medchen (umlaut a becomes English short e); schoen becomes schern (umlaut o becomes English er); and fuer becomes foor (umlaut u becomes English oo as in moon). These aren't exact/perfect, but they work pretty well most of the time. The 'rules' of the game are simple for this age group (8-11 years old) and they think it is good fun. We do 8 words per session, two sessions per week, over the course of the first 3 months (the entire Course is four school years in length, years/grades three-through-six inclusive). Umlaut pronunciation becomes very natural after these first months.
For the umlaute, I picked up a tip on a course: ä would be like trying to say "e" but with lips shaped for "a". Likewise for ö, pronouncing "e" with an "o" form, and for ü, pronouncing "i" with an "u" form.
Yeah, when I was first learning German back in the day, that was pretty much how the teacher had us do it. It's a great way to start learning the unfamiliar sounds. After hardly any time at all, you find yourself making the more-or-less correct sound without the trick.
Also a video about the ß is tricky for Americans... You may already have this video and I may just not have seen it yet... You had helpful tricks for the umlaut, thanks
Okay i have to say when you said "You shouldnt stick your tongue out that much" and then demonstrated, I lost my shit and spit my toothpaste all over mirror. Totally worth it though.
I just shut my mouth immediately when u flashed right on ma face... 😂🤣 An honest confession, can't take my eyes off of u. Every time I need to watch twice or thrice to get the video, coz first or second times goes real real slow and I just try not to understand anything. Love u, like all of u... 😘
You really make your videos different and interesting, I learn and I have fun (mostly the latter). I live in Oldenburg, not as close to Hamburg as I would wish, it's my favourite city in Deutschland!
Recently had to name change a character and decided on Kämeltotem. Since my German hasn't been used in a very long time I found this video looking for ways to brush up. It is safe to say I love the name even more now that I am saying it with an accent. Very lovely video both for it's light hearted way of approaching the topic and it's actual value. Thank you.
When I was learning German, I had a friend that said that umlaut meant large, like this letters should be pronounced longer than usual, he also said that he had an umlaut you know what, then after the second lesson in German he learnt that he was actually wrong
Learning about the IPA vowel chart really helped me pronounce vowels that I could never pronounce before. It shows the height in the mouth and the relationship between them.
Thank you! I had to introduce a German person as a speaker at a conference and you gave me the quick coaching I needed to pronounce his name correctly.
Love love this video.. but if I may make a suggestion.. if you could after each mouth sound give a few pronounciations of the word.. with amd without the umlaut for comparison.. just so we can hear several takes or examples of the actual word instead of sound. Thank you so much.. you’re very funny!!!
The umlauts are where French native speakers have a bit of an advantage pronouncing German properly because those sounds /ä/, /ö/ and /ü/ exist in French but are, in fact, written /è/, /eu/ and /u/
'like ignoring the second line on a pregnancy test'. Spätestens da sollte jeder kapiert haben, wie wichtig dir dieses Thema ist ;) Ich erinnere mich, dass bei meinen Eltern oft falsche Post ankam. Warum? Ganz einfach: Der Straßenname existiert doppelt. Einmal in der kurzen Variante, dort wohnen meine Eltern, einmal ergänzt um das Wort 'Brünnlein'. In letzt genannter Straße ist ein Gebäudekomplex, der hauptsächlich an amerikanische Militärangehörige vermietet ist. Und was machen deren Verwandte, wenn sie Post verschicken? Richtig, da ist ein Wörtchen in der Anschrift, das so komische Pünktchen hat, also lässt man es einfach weg. Entspricht ungefähr dem zweiten Strich in deinem Beispiel, nur dass man falsche Post einfach zurück geben kann ;) Short version in English: When sending an letter to Germany an the address contains an word with ä ö or ü, it's not a good idea to just leave this word out. The letter might not reach its destination.
Omg your tips are so crazy.... but effective. I was doing all the weird exercises sitting on my porch and I looked up and my neighbor was outside staring at me like "What the..???" hahaha it was funny >.
Omfg "pretending that 2 dots on a vowel don't matter is similar to pretending that the second line on a pregnancy test doesn't matter." Best line ever... and yes it changes everything. You're 👌 🤣🤣🤩
You are very cute and funny, but exactly for that reason, I can't concentrate enough to learn anything in this video! Still, you got a big smile and a thumb up from me. Keep up the good work and next time, don't be so cute! 😄
In German "s" is mostly a soft, voiced sound like the English 'z' in 'zoo' or 'zigzag' with few exceptions where it is voiceless. Voiced s can be found in almost any position in a word, though never at the end of a word. "Sonne", "saftig", "lesen", "leise", "sehr", "schmusen". "s" at the end of words is never voiced, but voiceless. Some voiceless exceptions are "hastig", "Bus", "las", "fies", "Glas", "Gras", "mästen" "s" before "t" or "p" or after consonants is always voiceless. "Lust", "Frust", "Rispe", "Achse". When a word starts with "st"/"sp" it turns into a "scht" or "schp" sound. "Sport", "sprechen", "stolpern", "stutzen". "ss" and "ß" both are voiceless and totally identical in pronunciation. The difference between the two is how the vowel before is spoken. Also you never find them starting a word, but rather often ending words. Vowels before "ss" are short. "Ross", "Fluss", "fassen", "fressen, "Kuss", "müssen" Vowels before "ß" are long. "Gruß", "Fuß", "süßen", "müßig" There are few exceptions (you guessed it), though pretty rare. Hope that helps a bit. I'm not a German coach either, though a native speaker. :)
+Seleuce Ich glaube aber dazu gäbe es noch das ein oder andere zu sagen in einem Video. (z.B. Unterschied Deutschland/Schweiz, alte/neue Rechtschreibung, evtl. Ausnahmefälle (falls es welche gibt)
TravelEnthusiastDE Ja, es gibt noch mehr zu sagen. Und gesprochen Beispiele sind immer das Beste. Ist nur eine Basis, um sich zu orientieren. Ich hab mit so vielen Nationalitäten zu tun, da lernt man seine Sprache zu erklären. :)
Herrlich! One of your best videos i have seen until now. Musste teilweise echt herzhaft lachen. Please keep on making videos like this. Liebe Grüße Sascha
And that appears to be where the "dots" came from. If you are writing German cursive - the old writing style - the "e" was written almost as an i - (lower case, without the dot), lifting the pen/pencil and then writing a second one adjacent to it (ii, with a break between the letters). I surmise that originally the German "e" was written after the altered vowel (a, o, u) - ae, oe, ue. Eventually, since each double character represented a single sound, it became customary to write the e over the a,o, or u, instead of after it. Take that cursive ii, pretty soon you have two strokes, and eventually shorthanded to two dots.
Haha! This video is SUPER! You teach and explain better than most linguists and teachers that I have experienced. You are more relatable and funny. Thank you for the video!
Ich bin ausm Norden. Ick sprech dat ä sowieso als e. Dat sind Kefer und Stedte! Ne aber das ist echt beschissen wenn man zwischen Bären und Beeren unterscheiden will... XD Ich würde aber auch den Tipp geben, dass ü ein i mit gerundeten Lippen (man vergleiche lütt und little) und ö ein e mit gerundeten Lippen ist. Ä ist das kurze betonte e wie in besser oder essen, aber ä ist ein wenig länger als das e. Son lütten bitten länger.
Oh, da fällt mir ein... :-) wie gewinnt man Brom? zuerst sammelt man ein paar Brombeeren, und wird diese dann zu Boden. dort verbindet sich dann die Beere mit der Erde und wird zur Erdbeere und übrig bleibt das Brom...
Thank you so much for making these videos! I have come farther in learning German because of it!:) I was hoping you could help me understand dialects a little better. My friend is learning German like I am, but she says she learned from someone that it's okay to pronounce 'ch' with 'Sh' because there are different dialects in the German language and one you can pronounce the ch that way because it is one of the German dialects. Is this true? And also if it is; is it bad to learn German from a bunch of different German youtubers because dialects are that diverse and I would just be learning bits and pieces of different dialects in the German language? Just a little bit confused...(or a lot!) Thanks for all the help!!
I am Serbian, I speak Serbian perfectly, I am good at English (struggels with spelling as you can see), and I am also studding German. Can somebody please recomend a good TV show in german, that has English subtitles that I can find on Internet? I think that would be very helpful while studding German. Pls help
hey you can check Deutsche Welle news channel website. Click on Deutsche lernen tab. you would find links for different levels z.B. a1,a2....etc. and you can listen to lansam gesprochen nachrichten which help you with listening skills.
you can download audials . it is app . install in your mobile. find podcasts in language learning then in German link. there you can find various podcasts and listen to them. they are very good.
The one I've consistently had trouble with is the, "ä" as it seems to be pronounced different with different words utilizing that letter. I hope this will help as in 20+ years, I've still not got it right. English speakers will note that we simply replaced the "ö" with the two letters "oe" together. We did the same thing with the "ü" by putting the two letters "eu" together. The latter is somewhat ridiculous as many will pronounce it as "ouy" rather than how it was intended. Many did this with their names to Americanize it in the early part of the 20th century.
Even English (meaning people in England) pronounce bad the same way. (It's mostly the Southern English who pronounce 'a' as 'ah' more. The Northern English are more like Americans that way; the 'a' in 'bad' is more common there.) Anyway, ä is not always the sound in bad. If ɛ as in end and æ as in bad, then according to Wikipedia: 'In German and Slovak Ä stands for [ɛ] (or a bit archaic but still correct [æ]).'
Now if we can manage to teach Americans to pronounce "uber" like "über" (because they again just swiped away the two dots -.-) I'd be more than happy :D
You are super lovely and funny. I really enjoy your videos and the way you speak is just perfect, I personally think you have an extremely clear accent and I did not know you were German when I first listened to you. It was so surprising when I read those stupid remarks about your accent because your voice is remarkably clear and pleasant. I think there will be always rude people without self esteem and envious. You should not pay attentionto them because you are truly amazing and you should be proud of yourself and I bet they could not speak German as eloquently and clearly as you speak English even if they were immortal. Always remember you can achieve anything you want, you just have to keep trying and be thick skinned. Your personality is sweet and witty and you certainly were born to shine. I am learning German as well as french and I hope someday I will speak as clearly as you do. Congratulations for your cute baby girl, I bet you will be an awesome mother and she will be tremendously proud of you. Please never stop dreaming.
It had been difficult for me to tell the difference between o and u umlaut until I can hear them one right after another on your clip, then I can see the clear differences, Thanks!
So far you are the best teacher I've ever known to teach the German language and your english pronunciation is awesome very clear. I hope you do videos for the other consonants especially the ''r'' sound. Keep it up.
This is the funniest most German video on pronunciation of umlauts.. Because my mispronouncing a German word as a foreigner is as serious as not knowing I'm pregnant. XD Love this.
+Don'tTrustTheRabit thank you so much this is going to help me with my german speaking exam in school, which has a lot of umlouts in them, btw I LOVE watching your vids xxx keep it up
The problem is the phonemic-graphem correspondence. As in foreign countries they don’t have ä, ö and ü as Umlaute, so every ä is an ae, ö is an oe and ü is an ue. When they pronounce these letters, they have a different roundings of there lips and the mouth movement is also different
Thanks so much for this!!! I have plans to go to Germany and I know words and everything but I just simply couldn't pronounce umlauts. Thank you so much!
Thanks for clarifying the umlaut sounds. I love the German language but there's no one in Arizona who speaks it here. No one to practice German with. But I do want to learn it a little at a time. Great video, funny too. That's what makes learning German fun.
You are amazing : ) I loved just staring at you being your funny self : ) Mannn, i had no idea German was so complicated and yet there exists such a tutor like yourself who explains it so simply; i feel like i should take it up all of a sudden. I do have several really close German friends but never needed to learn the language. I'm pretty much here cuz i was looking up the right way to pronounce Ben Bohmer (the EDM Trance guy) and the 'o' in his name has the two dots on top of it - just watched one of his sets and decided his stuff suited my ears : ) All the best, sweet miss! My compliments : )
I learned German since high school. To pronounce ö and ü, I have always used a little /r/ sound, to which some Tild me I was wrong. You proved me right! Thanks, Trixie.
Correct me if I am mistaken but I remember in college when I studied German (got a bit rusty so I am watching this for recap) that pronouncing umlauted vowels properly is not just a matter of sounding correct but also grammatically important. For example to when changing some nouns from singular to plural in German the vowels change between umlauted and un-umlauted.
The Hochdeutsch I was taught, and also learned from my Austrian Frau, incorporated not two, but three ways to express the "a" in German. Without the umlaut, it has the sound as in "ah", or "ha, ha, ha"; whereas the "ä" actually has two pronunciations, which you also illustrated when you spoke the word, "das Mädchen". This ä has a more sharper sound, as in "Qualität", "Bestätigung", and "Bären", and yes, "Käfer"; although you pronounced Käfer with a different "a", although it should sound the same as in "Mädchen". The other softer "ä" sound is heard in words like "Bäckerei", "Hände", and "lässt", which share the same "a" sound as in the English words, hand, band, act, etc. :-D
The fact that it's hard to remember whether the vowel is umlauted or not (especially if the umlaut isn't there in the base form of the word but occurs when there's inflection) is another reason why we might seem to be trying to avoid using umlauts.
Unglaublich ... ich finds sehr schön, dass du ne amtliche Macke hast, bitte nicht ändern! Ich hab lange nicht mehr so sehr bei nem Video gefeiert und der Daumen war schon bei der hälfte des Videos oben. Ich werd dann mal losgehen und Zwerchfell wieder lockern .... :D
Wait, so if I mispronounce German words, I'm gonna get PREGNANT?
*runs far away from Germany*
you don't have to be in germany to mispronounce german words
James Lee It was a joke
@@myamdane6895 thank you i didn't realise
@@James-le8gd Err/Vooosch ;-)
@@RogerBarraud no
Hallo!
sorry for my bad german
😂
lol
+Klapsi und Mühli live aus der Klapse
Hello
Entschuldigt mein schlechtes Englisch*
Thank you for giving me a Smyle :D
krino81 meddl
Oh I use “Ö” for a mouth and two eyes🤣
Smart
Ö
Code 44 gay
Ü
@@juniperjabber That was my name once, but then I had the account suspended
As a native German i can verify this is how you pronounce it. Best pronunciation of ä, ö and ü I have seen so far on UA-cam
I always explain it this way:
ä -> form your lips/tongue as if you are pronouncing the german a, but say the german e instead
ö -> form your lips/tongue as if you are pronouncing the german o, but say the german e instead
ü -> form your lips/tongue as if you are pronouncing the german u, but say the german i instead
It might not be 100% accurate but it's very close.
Holy fuck, that works :D I mean, I am german, but tried it and I now know, why we write "ae" instead of "ä" sometimes :D
you came, you saw, you conquered. Thanks
Jorge Aguilera Vene Vidi vici
ALTER! FANTASTISCH!
Hmm... stimmt. Könnte so funktionieren!
Thänk yöü för this wönderfül videö! I häd fün prödücing Germän ümläüt söünds. I feel like I äm never göing tö mix them üp ägäin. Wäit...
this looks like a typical comment in the finnish language
@@verandi3882 Maybe a Finglish comment written by a dumbass..
It's like a french trying to speak english ^^
bruh thats so weird lol
that looks*
I am German and did all this....
Who didnt XD
Me too xD
Same :D
Yap me too
Oh and also has anyone noticed how this ï looks like a dick??
Ä=same as German E
Ö=German E with rounded lips
Ü=German I with rounded lips
That is all you need to know.
danke!
If Ä is like E, then why do we even need Ä? Why complicate things?
@@tulehong3613 To be precise, long Ä only merges with long E in most North German variants. There is a difference between the long variants in most other German variants. is pronounced /eː/and is pronounced /ɛː/.
But in all variants I know, the short vowels are both pronounced /ɛ/ in stressed syllables. is /ə/ is unstressed syllables. But only occurs in stressed syllables, so there is no phonological contrast between the two.
@@tulehong3613 because historically it is a different sound and in certain regions of Germany it still is pronounced differently.
@@tulehong3613 Because the commenter is wrong. They are not the same.
Öööööö :D
Äääääää :D
Ich liebe deine Videos
Üüüüüü :D
Spanish has ü too, like example "Órale güey"
ÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅ
*A video on the American accent in German...wait, wait I know that video :D ;) Yaayyy can't wait to see it!* And yeah, I've gotten a few requests to make a video about the German letters with the umlaut and I'm like, uuuuuh guys, I have to figure out how to SAY those letters first xD GREAT VIDEO!!! I practiced doing each one like a good student :D
:D
😂😂😂
lol! i first thought of you when i saw the title of this video :D
*hihihi ich hatte auf jeden Fall viel Spaß beim Video!
Als ausgebildete DaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache)-Dozentin habe ich aber noch einen etwas einfacheren Tipp für dich, sollte dich noch einmal jemand bei Ö und Ü um Hilfe bitten:
Ö -> sprich ein e, halte es und runde dann deine Lippen.
Ü -> sprich ein i, halte es und runde dabei deine Lippen.
Tada :D
E und I sind Laute, die in fast allen Sprachen gehen und bei denen die Zungenstellung genau die richtige ist. Einzig die Lippenrundung macht den Unterschied ;)
Für das Ä fällt mir gerade die Hilfestellung nicht ein - eventuell wurde es tatsächlich immer mit der Krücke über das E und dann den Mund weiter zu öffnen erklärt, also ähnlich wie du es schon getan hast.
Deine Tipps waren aber definitiv amüsanter und unterhaltsamer als meine ;)
Mach weiter so ^^
Dem ist nichts hinzuzufügen.
Qué?
ä and e are actually usually pronounced the same...
hätte ([ˈhɛtə]), Kette ([ˈkɛtə]), Käse ([ˈkɛːzə]), Fett ([fɛt])
It's only that "e" has a second pronunciation:
Esel ([ˈeːzl̩]), See ([zeː])...
OK, and a third one too (ə).
VERY useful and I AM a linguist! You're also very charming and that always makes practicing German more pleasant. Thank ya!
Umlaute für jene zu erklären, die deutsch lernen wollen, ist wirklich schwer. Es anhand von Vergleichen, wie Türklingel und pfeifen, zu bewerkstelligen ist eine gute Idee. Damit sollte jeder etwas anfangen können. Daumen hoch! :-)
Very nice video! Thank you! In English, we actually already have these three sounds. We just don't use different characters to depict them. Instead, we re-use the same letters and you just have to know the correct sounds by knowing the word. But, you're right, it's easy for an English speaker to just think the two dots over those letters are irrelevant :) Now the SPANISH would have a very hard time with these sounds because they literally only have FIVE vowel sounds (A E I O U). As I said, we have those same five vowels but we have more than double the number of sounds.
Hehe, I recognize this so much. People struggle with the extra Swedish letters as well. I remember being in the UK when I was a kid and just not understanding when someone was calling for me (using my surname). A and Å sound nothing alike. :D
Jew
I laughed so hard at your pronounciations, my face was tränenüberströmt.
Unglaublich. Ein Wort das alle drei Umlaute beinhaltet!
you can pretty much also use these to pronounce the danish and norwegian æ (ä) and ø (ö), the ü sounds like our y though.
I would really like to see a video about "How to pronounce R" topic. That kind of "R" I can hear in the word "Gericht".
I'm russian and it's so hard to feel that throat muscles and make them work...
Good idea, I will think about it. :)
As a person who can read arabic well, nearly all the german pronunciation is incredibly easy for me. I quickly realised that I was already making these sounds when reading arabic. Russian on the other hand, I'd probably find more difficult.
Abd E Same here 🏄
Difficult to explain for anyone but a language trainer. I still struggle with the rolling English r, the non rolling German r just comes naturally to me. Ironically, for many southern Germans, who speak with a Bavarian or Frankonian accent, it is the other way round, they roll the r in German, too, even if they try to speak High German instead of their local dialect.
yeah its kinda weird honestly in hochdeutsch it sounds like youre basically trying to roll your r but failing miserably but intentionally??
The "ü" is amazing to remember if you want to learn french when you're german! Just use the german ü to prononce the french u and you have the exact sound ^^
or ö for their e
As some one from Quebec I can confirm (even if some things are pronounced slightly differently with our accent this still sounds the same)
My girlfriend sent me your way so I can properly say Fährst...Ä, heard that flash and I lost it 😂😂😂😂 definitely liked this video
OMG Trixie you're the best!!!!!!
And they say Germans don't have a sense of humor. Ha!
Funniest. DTTR Video. Ever.
Germans do have a sense of humour... but only a German would take care to explain at the end that she had used humour to make it more interesting! :-D
Thanks for this. As an American living in Germany for the last 6 years (and learning German/Schwäbisch) I really need this type of practice. I also love languages and am an English teacher here. Very nice videos and I look forward to having the time to watch more.
The Ä is also in the english word hair
Ö is in burn
Ü is in huge
Those are not the exact same sound, though, but they are very similar.
Not with my accent, in a northern irish accent hair is pronounced hör, and burn is pronounced burn, and huge is pronounced, yeah hüge
The ä is indeed almost identical to the vowels in hair or bear, but the other two are wrong. The sound in burn is made with open lips, while the German ö is a closed, more high-pitched sound. It is a workaround if you just want to be understood, but not if you try to speak without a clearly noticeable accent. Of course it is still much better than just pronuncing an o instead of an ö.
The ü is definitely not in huge. Many adult English speakers struggle to hear the difference but there actually is a huge difference to the trained ear (similar as Germans who didn't learn English until they were adults often struggle to discern th and s - now if you are English you know how cringeworthy that sounds). If we compare the German ü to English sounds, it is actually closer to the y like in myth (which isn't an exact ü either, but closer to the German i).
In my German Course for Primary School students here in England we have teachers play a "letter substitution game" with the children. The game has kids change the umlaut letter into a letter or letter-combination that is easy for them to pronounce based on their own experiences with English. First we do it step by step, but by the end of the first month they are doing it in their heads and pronouncing things very well (for non native German speakers). Examples: Maedchen (sorry, I don't have the umlaut letters here) becomes Medchen (umlaut a becomes English short e); schoen becomes schern (umlaut o becomes English er); and fuer becomes foor (umlaut u becomes English oo as in moon). These aren't exact/perfect, but they work pretty well most of the time. The 'rules' of the game are simple for this age group (8-11 years old) and they think it is good fun. We do 8 words per session, two sessions per week, over the course of the first 3 months (the entire Course is four school years in length, years/grades three-through-six inclusive). Umlaut pronunciation becomes very natural after these first months.
For the umlaute, I picked up a tip on a course: ä would be like trying to say "e" but with lips shaped for "a". Likewise for ö, pronouncing "e" with an "o" form, and for ü, pronouncing "i" with an "u" form.
I'm German and I can confirm this! That tip is really good!
👍
wow, that's incredible! thanks
Yeah, when I was first learning German back in the day, that was pretty much how the teacher had us do it. It's a great way to start learning the unfamiliar sounds. After hardly any time at all, you find yourself making the more-or-less correct sound without the trick.
if you need some words to practice I would recommend:
OBSZÖNITÄT, ÜBERLÄUFER and BÜCHSENÖFFNER 😜
Also a video about the ß is tricky for Americans... You may already have this video and I may just not have seen it yet... You had helpful tricks for the umlaut, thanks
I love your videos. You are an excellent teacher and definitely better than any boring antiquated linguistics coach. ❤
gosh I love your jokes and the way you're teaching german, tysm! you're such a charismatic and charming person
Okay i have to say when you said "You shouldnt stick your tongue out that much" and then demonstrated, I lost my shit and spit my toothpaste all over mirror. Totally worth it though.
I just shut my mouth immediately when u flashed right on ma face... 😂🤣
An honest confession, can't take my eyes off of u. Every time I need to watch twice or thrice to get the video, coz first or second times goes real real slow and I just try not to understand anything. Love u, like all of u... 😘
You're amazing!
Thank you! :3
You really make your videos different and interesting, I learn and I have fun (mostly the latter). I live in Oldenburg, not as close to Hamburg as I would wish, it's my favourite city in Deutschland!
Recently had to name change a character and decided on Kämeltotem. Since my German hasn't been used in a very long time I found this video looking for ways to brush up. It is safe to say I love the name even more now that I am saying it with an accent. Very lovely video both for it's light hearted way of approaching the topic and it's actual value.
Thank you.
That was surprisingly entertaning... LOL Thanks!
You have a lovely smile, by the way.
When I was learning German, I had a friend that said that umlaut meant large, like this letters should be pronounced longer than usual, he also said that he had an umlaut you know what, then after the second lesson in German he learnt that he was actually wrong
Learning about the IPA vowel chart really helped me pronounce vowels that I could never pronounce before. It shows the height in the mouth and the relationship between them.
Mein gott, ich liebe deine augen Trixi!
i was laughing too much during this video to actually try pronouncing anything
Thank you! I had to introduce a German person as a speaker at a conference and you gave me the quick coaching I needed to pronounce his name correctly.
Did you have a clown for breakfast? ;-)
The "pregnancy test" - joke was gorgeous!
Love love this video.. but if I may make a suggestion.. if you could after each mouth sound give a few pronounciations of the word.. with amd without the umlaut for comparison.. just so we can hear several takes or examples of the actual word instead of sound. Thank you so much.. you’re very funny!!!
OMG I LOVE ALL YOUR VIDEOS THIS ONE HAD ME CRACKING UP 😂😂 they're all so hilarious while you're able to learn something new! Thanks!
The umlauts are where French native speakers have a bit of an advantage pronouncing German properly because those sounds /ä/, /ö/ and /ü/ exist in French but are, in fact, written /è/, /eu/ and /u/
'like ignoring the second line on a pregnancy test'. Spätestens da sollte jeder kapiert haben, wie wichtig dir dieses Thema ist ;)
Ich erinnere mich, dass bei meinen Eltern oft falsche Post ankam. Warum? Ganz einfach: Der Straßenname existiert doppelt. Einmal in der kurzen Variante, dort wohnen meine Eltern, einmal ergänzt um das Wort 'Brünnlein'. In letzt genannter Straße ist ein Gebäudekomplex, der hauptsächlich an amerikanische Militärangehörige vermietet ist. Und was machen deren Verwandte, wenn sie Post verschicken? Richtig, da ist ein Wörtchen in der Anschrift, das so komische Pünktchen hat, also lässt man es einfach weg. Entspricht ungefähr dem zweiten Strich in deinem Beispiel, nur dass man falsche Post einfach zurück geben kann ;)
Short version in English: When sending an letter to Germany an the address contains an word with ä ö or ü, it's not a good idea to just leave this word out. The letter might not reach its destination.
The way you said them maps almost perfectly to the brazilian portuguese equivalents Ä=É, Ö=Ô/Ó and Ü=Ú u.u
Omg your tips are so crazy.... but effective. I was doing all the weird exercises sitting on my porch and I looked up and my neighbor was outside staring at me like "What the..???" hahaha it was funny >.
Adrian D you're supposed to hide in your offgrid sound proofed nuclear bunker before doing this. rookie mistake.
Omfg "pretending that 2 dots on a vowel don't matter is similar to pretending that the second line on a pregnancy test doesn't matter." Best line ever... and yes it changes everything. You're 👌 🤣🤣🤩
Einen Daumen hoch für den kreativen Kleinkindeinsatz!
You are very cute and funny, but exactly for that reason, I can't concentrate enough to learn anything in this video! Still, you got a big smile and a thumb up from me. Keep up the good work and next time, don't be so cute! 😄
You could do a video about the difference in pronunciation of "s", "ss", and "ß". That's a tricky one. :D
In German "s" is mostly a soft, voiced sound like the English 'z' in 'zoo' or 'zigzag' with few exceptions where it is voiceless. Voiced s can be found in almost any position in a word, though never at the end of a word.
"Sonne", "saftig", "lesen", "leise", "sehr", "schmusen".
"s" at the end of words is never voiced, but voiceless.
Some voiceless exceptions are "hastig", "Bus", "las", "fies", "Glas", "Gras", "mästen"
"s" before "t" or "p" or after consonants is always voiceless. "Lust", "Frust", "Rispe", "Achse".
When a word starts with "st"/"sp" it turns into a "scht" or "schp" sound. "Sport", "sprechen", "stolpern", "stutzen".
"ss" and "ß" both are voiceless and totally identical in pronunciation. The difference between the two is how the vowel before is spoken. Also you never find them starting a word, but rather often ending words.
Vowels before "ss" are short. "Ross", "Fluss", "fassen", "fressen, "Kuss", "müssen"
Vowels before "ß" are long. "Gruß", "Fuß", "süßen", "müßig"
There are few exceptions (you guessed it), though pretty rare.
Hope that helps a bit. I'm not a German coach either, though a native speaker. :)
+Seleuce Ich bin auch deutscher, aber starke Erklärung :)
+Seleuce Ich glaube aber dazu gäbe es noch das ein oder andere zu sagen in einem Video. (z.B. Unterschied Deutschland/Schweiz, alte/neue Rechtschreibung, evtl. Ausnahmefälle (falls es welche gibt)
TravelEnthusiastDE
Ja, es gibt noch mehr zu sagen. Und gesprochen Beispiele sind immer das Beste. Ist nur eine Basis, um sich zu orientieren. Ich hab mit so vielen Nationalitäten zu tun, da lernt man seine Sprache zu erklären. :)
Herrlich! One of your best videos i have seen until now. Musste teilweise echt herzhaft lachen. Please keep on making videos like this. Liebe Grüße Sascha
If you are typing and having problems with the Umlaut, you can just leave it out and put an 'e' behind, so:
schön = schoen
Tür = Tuer
Ärger = Aerger
And that appears to be where the "dots" came from. If you are writing German cursive - the old writing style - the "e" was written almost as an i - (lower case, without the dot), lifting the pen/pencil and then writing a second one adjacent to it (ii, with a break between the letters). I surmise that originally the German "e" was written after the altered vowel (a, o, u) - ae, oe, ue. Eventually, since each double character represented a single sound, it became customary to write the e over the a,o, or u, instead of after it. Take that cursive ii, pretty soon you have two strokes, and eventually shorthanded to two dots.
Haha! This video is SUPER! You teach and explain better than most linguists and teachers that I have experienced. You are more relatable and funny. Thank you for the video!
Ich bin ausm Norden. Ick sprech dat ä sowieso als e. Dat sind Kefer und Stedte! Ne aber das ist echt beschissen wenn man zwischen Bären und Beeren unterscheiden will... XD
Ich würde aber auch den Tipp geben, dass ü ein i mit gerundeten Lippen (man vergleiche lütt und little) und ö ein e mit gerundeten Lippen ist. Ä ist das kurze betonte e wie in besser oder essen, aber ä ist ein wenig länger als das e. Son lütten bitten länger.
Oh, da fällt mir ein... :-)
wie gewinnt man Brom?
zuerst sammelt man ein paar Brombeeren, und wird diese dann zu Boden.
dort verbindet sich dann die Beere mit der Erde und wird zur Erdbeere und übrig bleibt das Brom...
+wòóF da Corret-Jak da kommt der Chemiker durch XD
Hey Trixi. Dank Gehörgangverunreinigung, Rückerstattungsverbindlichkeit und Hängemattenverankerung hab ich es auch endlich kapiert. :)
Thank you so much for making these videos! I have come farther in learning German because of it!:) I was hoping you could help me understand dialects a little better. My friend is learning German like I am, but she says she learned from someone that it's okay to pronounce 'ch' with 'Sh' because there are different dialects in the German language and one you can pronounce the ch that way because it is one of the German dialects. Is this true? And also if it is; is it bad to learn German from a bunch of different German youtubers because dialects are that diverse and I would just be learning bits and pieces of different dialects in the German language? Just a little bit confused...(or a lot!) Thanks for all the help!!
i like your quirky way of teaching! Thanks. Had a laugh AND learned something! The comment section is just as fantastic.
This video made my tiny dog very anxious. But the help with ä is appreciated nonetheless.
Oh nooo! Pet your dog from me, I'm sorry! :)
+DontTrustTheRabbit so you musst have catched the dogs dialect thought... *ggg* let''s hope you did 'say' smth. offensive to him/her ;)
.
+DontTrustTheRabbit -did not (obviously)
this is your funniest video ever, loved the part where you say 'you shouldn't open your mouth that much every time you speak German'
I am Serbian, I speak Serbian perfectly, I am good at English (struggels with spelling as you can see), and I am also studding German. Can somebody please recomend a good TV show in german, that has English subtitles that I can find on Internet? I think that would be very helpful while studding German. Pls help
❤
hey you can check Deutsche Welle news channel website. Click on Deutsche lernen tab. you would find links for different levels z.B. a1,a2....etc. and you can listen to lansam gesprochen nachrichten which help you with listening skills.
+nikhil wali thank you sooooo much
you can download audials . it is app . install in your mobile. find podcasts in language learning then in German link. there you can find various podcasts and listen to them. they are very good.
if you need more help, then please comment on. I would help you.
Danke sehr Trixie. You are awesome!
"Or your well trained husband" 😂😂
The one I've consistently had trouble with is the, "ä" as it seems to be pronounced different with different words utilizing that letter. I hope this will help as in 20+ years, I've still not got it right.
English speakers will note that we simply replaced the "ö" with the two letters "oe" together. We did the same thing with the "ü" by putting the two letters "eu" together. The latter is somewhat ridiculous as many will pronounce it as "ouy" rather than how it was intended. Many did this with their names to Americanize it in the early part of the 20th century.
Just say 'bad' and there: You have a ä. :)
Even English (meaning people in England) pronounce bad the same way. (It's mostly the Southern English who pronounce 'a' as 'ah' more. The Northern English are more like Americans that way; the 'a' in 'bad' is more common there.)
Anyway, ä is not always the sound in bad. If ɛ as in end and æ as in bad, then according to Wikipedia:
'In German and Slovak Ä stands for [ɛ] (or a bit archaic but still correct [æ]).'
Herzlichen Glückwunsch zu 100.000 Abonnenten
Finally people will start pronouncing Motörhead correctly ;)
Or Mötley Crüe, or Häagen Dazs
Björk
I must admit you are refreshing And your good humor does help one learn a lot easier !
Now if we can manage to teach Americans to pronounce "uber" like "über" (because they again just swiped away the two dots -.-) I'd be more than happy :D
Danke. Dein Video hat mir den Tag gerettet. Und ich fand es auch lehrreich und gut rüber gebracht.
I'm going to Germany next year in may. what places should I go to? :). for 2 weeks
Berlin
I like the trick of either preparing your mouth to say the umlauted letter, and then vocalizing an "E" or vice versa.
so trocken lustig, ich lach mich immer kaputt 😆
You are super lovely and funny. I really enjoy your videos and the way you speak is just perfect, I personally think you have an extremely clear accent and I did not know you were German when I first listened to you. It was so surprising when I read those stupid remarks about your accent because your voice is remarkably clear and pleasant. I think there will be always rude people without self esteem and envious. You should not pay attentionto them because you are truly amazing and you should be proud of yourself and I bet they could not speak German as eloquently and clearly as you speak English even if they were immortal. Always remember you can achieve anything you want, you just have to keep trying and be thick skinned. Your personality is sweet and witty and you certainly were born to shine. I am learning German as well as french and I hope someday I will speak as clearly as you do. Congratulations for your cute baby girl, I bet you will be an awesome mother and she will be tremendously proud of you. Please never stop dreaming.
why am I doing this? I'm German.... well... now I know how to do it properly while looking like an idiot ^^
Nifuruc haha
It had been difficult for me to tell the difference between o and u umlaut until I can hear them one right after another on your clip, then I can see the clear differences, Thanks!
gehörgang veränderung warum? Rückerstattungsverbindlichkeit ich weiß nicht mal was das heißt und ich bin 100% deutsch
Fachbegriff aus der Bilanzsprache. Niemandem sind wirklich alle deutschen Wörter geläufig, egal wie gebildet er ist.
So far you are the best teacher I've ever known to teach the German language and your english pronunciation is awesome very clear. I hope you do videos for the other consonants especially the ''r'' sound. Keep it up.
For every english one, here is a good beginner word: Streichholzschächtelchen xD
Vielen Dank! Sie machten diesen Mann zum Lachen und sie brauchte es wirklich!
If you just read it as “Streich Holz Schäch tel chen” it’s easy
Well scheiße i cant say that
This is the funniest most German video on pronunciation of umlauts.. Because my mispronouncing a German word as a foreigner is as serious as not knowing I'm pregnant. XD Love this.
is fun that germans also uses Ä and Ö just like we swedes. do you also have Å?
They do not have Å
What a great way of presentation 💕😊
2:23 soo süüß! :-3
I'm trying to learn German for my boyfriend and this video so helpful and very entertaining at the same time. You have a lovely personality!
ö is the more difficult for me as in Öl
'ör' is harder for me like in 'eichhörnchen'.
Yo I freaking love this lol how are you not a professor or teacher you made this so freaking fun and funny and easy
The baby was so cute!!!! That I melted!
WTF? It's just a goddamn baby...
+Don'tTrustTheRabit thank you so much this is going to help me with my german speaking exam in school, which has a lot of umlouts in them, btw I LOVE watching your vids xxx keep it up
Sehr gutes Video! Ich bin Deutschlehrer in Argentinien und werde dein material anwenden! Super expressiv!
The problem is the phonemic-graphem correspondence. As in foreign countries they don’t have ä, ö and ü as Umlaute, so every ä is an ae, ö is an oe and ü is an ue. When they pronounce these letters, they have a different roundings of there lips and the mouth movement is also different
Fantastic German teaching ! I love it
Thanks so much for this!!! I have plans to go to Germany and I know words and everything but I just simply couldn't pronounce umlauts. Thank you so much!
Sorry. I think you read my comments on your last video. So this time you decided to make video for German learners. Thank you. Vielen dank. TRIXI.
Thanks for clarifying the umlaut sounds. I love the German language but there's no one in Arizona who speaks it here. No one to practice German with. But I do want to learn it a little at a time. Great video, funny too. That's what makes learning German fun.
You are amazing : ) I loved just staring at you being your funny self : )
Mannn, i had no idea German was so complicated and yet there exists such a tutor like yourself who explains it so simply; i feel like i should take it up all of a sudden.
I do have several really close German friends but never needed to learn the language. I'm pretty much here cuz i was looking up the right way to pronounce Ben Bohmer (the EDM Trance guy) and the 'o' in his name has the two dots on top of it - just watched one of his sets and decided his stuff suited my ears : )
All the best, sweet miss! My compliments : )
I learned German since high school. To pronounce ö and ü, I have always used a little /r/ sound, to which some Tild me I was wrong. You proved me right! Thanks, Trixie.
Correct me if I am mistaken but I remember in college when I studied German (got a bit rusty so I am watching this for recap) that pronouncing umlauted vowels properly is not just a matter of sounding correct but also grammatically important. For example to when changing some nouns from singular to plural in German the vowels change between umlauted and un-umlauted.
I like how you prod us with 2 easy examples of the umlaut being in words then smack us over the head with the third 😂🤣
The Hochdeutsch I was taught, and also learned from my Austrian Frau, incorporated not two, but three ways to express the "a" in German. Without the umlaut, it has the sound as in "ah", or "ha, ha, ha"; whereas the "ä" actually has two pronunciations, which you also illustrated when you spoke the word, "das Mädchen". This ä has a more sharper sound, as in "Qualität", "Bestätigung", and "Bären", and yes, "Käfer"; although you pronounced Käfer with a different "a", although it should sound the same as in "Mädchen". The other softer "ä" sound is heard in words like "Bäckerei", "Hände", and "lässt", which share the same "a" sound as in the English words, hand, band, act, etc. :-D
The fact that it's hard to remember whether the vowel is umlauted or not (especially if the umlaut isn't there in the base form of the word but occurs when there's inflection) is another reason why we might seem to be trying to avoid using umlauts.
Unglaublich ... ich finds sehr schön, dass du ne amtliche Macke hast, bitte nicht ändern! Ich hab lange nicht mehr so sehr bei nem Video gefeiert und der Daumen war schon bei der hälfte des Videos oben. Ich werd dann mal losgehen und Zwerchfell wieder lockern .... :D