Deutsche Aussprache
(German Pronunciation) Guide
Vowels (in general):
A “Ah”
E “Eh” or “Ay” (actually sounds like something between the two)
I “eeeeeee”
O Say “Oh” and think “Aw” (JUST LIKE LATIN!!)
U “ooooooo”
Y Exactly like a U with an umlaut (see below)
W Never a vowel in German – always the same sound as the English “V”
Vowels mit Umlauts
(those funny dots that look like drunken colons):
An umlaut is the equivalent of putting an “e” next to a vowel. In fact, when people didn’t have umlauts on their typewriters (back in the days of the covered wagons), they just typed an “e” instead , like this : ä = ae Tränen (tears) would have been typed: Traenen
Umlauts are ONLY used with a, o and u in German (I have no idea what those crazy Norwegians do with them!)
An umlaut, as you might imagine, creates a dipthong, altering the sound of the vowel. So,
Ä “AY” or “AI” as in “hair”
Ö “oo” as in “Look,” or like the French “eu” in “vieux” or the French e in “de”
Ü “euoooo” Almost exactly like the French “u” in “tu” – a deliciously dark sound
Other vowel combinations:
AI “EYE”
AO “OW” as in “cow”
AU “OW” as in “cow”
EE “AY” – so similar to Ä that it’s not worth mentioning the difference
EI “EYE”
EU “OY” as in “BOY”
IE “EEE”
Any other vowel combinations: pronounce them separately – do not blend.
Two final notes on vowels:
German has the schwa (ə} sound that most of us learned about in school. This is basically the “uh” sound and it is often at the end of words and is most often an “e,” e.g. “Sprache” (Shprach-uh) And since the Germans drop “r”s at the ends of words more than the Brits, we’ll probably sing it a lot.
The vowels give us the open mouths we need to get the sound out, so they are very important and we should be consistent in singing them properly.
And in the immortal words of the world famous organist/choirmaster, Nancy G. Stavely: “Don’t get your vowels in an uproar!”
Consonants
Most of the German consonants are similar to English. German differs from English in the following consonant pronunciations:
C No real German words start with C – the ones that do are usually inspired from other languages. C in German is almost always a soft c – like s – and more frequently like a “ts” sound – like the German ‘z’
G Always a hard G (NOTE: opposite of Latin!) In fact, it’s so hard, that if it’s at the end of a word, it’s often pronounced as a “K” or it can be pronounced as an “IG” (see below), e.g. as in “selig” (“blessed”) which can be pronounced “zay-leek” or “zay-leech” (“soft” ch on the middle of the tongue – see below)
J Pronounced like the English “Y”
R Guttural “R” like the French, or rolled R (this is the preferred method for singing, since the sound isn’t strangled on it’s way out into the world). Or if in a short word, it is done as the Brits would do – and more or less ignored. (See “Schwarz” below)
S At the beginning of the word – always pronounced as an English “Z”; at the END of a word, pronounced like the English “s”
SS At the end of a word (see also Final Miscellaneous at end) always pronounced with soft “S” sound
V Pronounced like the English “F”
W Pronounced like the English “V” (are we having fun yet?)
Z Pronounced “TS” “Schwarz” (“Black”) is pronounced “Shvahts” (I told you they drop their ‘r’s!)
Other miscellany on German consonants
SH If you see these letters together in German, it is NOT to be pronounced as it is in English – most likely they are together because they are in the middle of a compound word, like “Ludwigshafen” (tr: Ludwig’s Harbor”) and is pronounced “Loodviks Haffuhn”
SCH If you want the English SH sound, this is the way you do it in German
CH Remember, C rarely, if ever starts a true German word – most likely you will see this letter combination at the end of a word. If it is at the beginning of the word (as in the German word for choir (chor)), it is pronounced in the guttural way. It can be pronounced one of two ways, depending on the vowel that precedes it or the region of the country in which it’s spoken.
If an A, an O, or a U precede it, you would say the guttural “ch” – as if one were clearing the back of one’s throat (Ach! – no English equivalent – like a messy “Ock!” Or “Buch” (“book”) (boohch) Or, if an O, like the Scottish “Loch Lomond”
If an E or an I precede a CH the CH sound is pronounced more softly – from the middle of the tongue. Try saying the word “Hue” or “Hugh” and the initial “H” sound you make will be that soft CH sound. Try saying that and stop before you say the “U” sound and you will have it. Now add a sound before it:
Ich (I) (“eech”) or Pech (bad luck) (“Peych”)
The soft CH at the end of a word most likely will be sung VERY briefly, as any S would, and because its sibilance is somewhat softer, it can be a rather pleasant end to a musical phrase.
Final Miscellaneous Information
German, like some of the European languages, has modernized its script. The old type face of the early 20th century and before has been gone since the late 40s, but a few vestiges did remain for quite some time, so you may see the following in your music:
ß – This may look like a cursive capital B, but it is the equivalent of a double S called an “Esszett” (not sure if I spelled it correctly). For example, it’s used in the German word for white “weiß” (weiss) (“Vice”).
Traditionally, nouns are always capitalized in German.
“H” in German music means B flat.
Dur means “major” and Moll means “minor”
Some Comments from Readers the World Over:
“Oxknit” writes:
Good guide! I have a British English accent but I believe that North American accents are even further away from German than ours are. My choir did a lot of work with a German language coach before a competition and she pointed out the following:
- Germans think the English-speaking mouth is very lazy. Our coach got us to emphasise all consonants, especially F, H, T, P and K, to the point where we thought we were massively overdoing it and she thought we were just about there. And don’t even get me started on “PF”…
- The last consonant in a word is always unvoiced, so what looks like a ‘D’ is pronounced ‘T’, etc
- She made us push our lips forward for O and U so that the sound was rounder and got us to work to have a bigger differentiation between the sound of the vowels that we were used to
- She had a bit of a bugbear about Ls. German Ls are “light”, not “dark”: the front third or so of the tongue is pushed up against the hard palate, wherever the Ls is in the word. She said that getting that right helped with the pronunciation of other sounds because the tongue is in the right place.
When it came to performance, my friend’s mum, who was Austrian, said that she could actually tell what we were singing without looking at the programme notes. (She implied that this had not been the case for the other choirs.)
If people are having difficulties with the guttural consonants, get them to try pronouncing “Zschochescherstraße”, which is an actual street in Leipzig. If they can do that, they can do anything!
“Linkemasche/Nattie” writes:
Cool document! I have a couple of tiny comments, though.
The Umlaut section assumes knowledge of French pronunciation, so I’d include instructions on how to do ö and ü without that knowledge. Ö I’ve seen described as making the mouth for O and trying to say E. Ü I’ve seen described as the mouth for U and trying to say I, or vice versa.
Lastly, a tiny little pedant point about C – I think that’s generally pronounced ts like a Z, rather than straight s.
Hope that’s helpful and not overly pedantic 
-LM/nattie
“Katicilli” writes:
Just an addition zo this: linkemasche uses the German vowels in her description. So for English speaking people the description should be (I hope):
For “Ö”: Forming the mouth for an “o” and trying to say “a”
For “Ü”: Forming the mouth for an “u” and trying to say “e”
And a comment to following line:
Ö “oo” as in “Look,” or like the French “eu” in “vieux” or the French e in “de”
I have never seen an “ö” pronounced as an “oo”!
”C” in the beginning of a word also sometimes is pronounced as “k”, e.g. in “Café” or “Clown”.
EDIT: I just noticed: “ö” is pronounced like the “e” in “German”
Something helpful for those of you working on JSB’s Easter Cantata (Christ lag’ in Todesbanden):
Cantata Text Word-for-word translation Pronunciation
(don’t forget to roll your ‘r’s)
Christ lag in Todesbanden Christ lay in Death’s bonds Krist lock in toad ess bond’n
Für unser Sünd gegeben For our Sin given Foor oonsuh soont gegehb’n
Er ist wieder erstanden He is again arisen Ehr ist veeduh ehrshtondun
Und hat uns bracht das Leben And has us brought the life Oont hot oonce brokt doss lehb’n
Dess wir sollen fröhlich sein So we should happy be Dess veeah sawllen frŏoleesh zine
Gott loben und ihm dankbar sein God praise and him thankful be Gawt lohbuhn oont eem donkbah zine
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hah – lay –loo-yah
Den Tod, Niemand zwingen kunnt The Death, No one force(overcome) could Dayn Tawt, Neemant tsvinguhn koont
Bei allen Menschen kindern Among all Mankind children Buy ahllen menshen kinduhn
Das macht alles unser Sünd That makes all our Sin Doss makt ahlless oonsuh soont
Kein Unschuld war zu finden No innocence was to find Kine oonshult vah tsoo find’n
Davon kam der Tod, sobald From there came the death, so soon Dahfun kahm dehr Tawt, zohbawlt
Und nahm über uns Gewalt And took over us power (force) Oont nahm oobuh oonce gevahlt
Hielt uns in seinem Reich gefangen Held us in his realm imprisoned Heelt oonce in zine-uhm Reish gefonguhn
Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah
Jesus Christus Gottes Sohn Jesus Christ, God’s Son Yayzoose Kristoose Gawtess Zawn
An unser Statt ist kommen To our place has come Ahn oonzuh shtott ist kawmuhn
Und hat die Sünde weg getan And has the sins away done Oont hot dee soonduh vayk getahn
Damit, den Tod genommen Therewith, the death taken Dah mitt dayn Tawt genawmuhn
All sein Recht und sein’ Gewalt All his right(s) and his power Ahl zine Reysht oont zine gevahlt
Da bleibet nichts denn Tod’s gestalt There remains nothing (of) death’s form Dah bleybett neeshts dayn Tawts geshtahlt
Den Stach’l hat er veloren. The sting has he lost Dayn shtockel hot ehr fehlawr’n
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah
Da Tod und Leben rungen With Death and Life at stake Dah Tawt oont lehb’n roong’n
Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg It was a wondrous War Ess vah ayn voonduhrleeshuh Kreek
Das Leben behielt den Sieg The life held the victory Das Lehb’n buheelt dayn Zeek
Es hat den Tod verschlungen It has the Death swallowed Ess hot dayn Tawt fairshloong’n
Die Schrift hat verkündiget The Scripture has fortold Dee Shrifft hot fairkoondeegett
Wie ein Tod den andern frass As a Death the other devoured Vee ine Tawt dayn onduhn fross
Ein Spott aus dem Tod ist worden A joke out of the Death has become Ine shpawt owce dehm Tawt isst vawd’n
Hallelujah Hallelujah hallelujah
(Bass solo)
Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm Here is the righteous Easter Lamb Heear isst doss rehshtuh Awstuh-lomm
Davon Gott hat geboten Of which God has announced Dahfun Gawt hot geboht’n
Das ist hoch an des Kreuzes Stamm That is high on the Cross’s stem Doss isst hokh on dehs Kroytses Stahmm
In heisser Lieb’ gebraten In hot love “glowed” (lit. “fried”) In hice-uh leep gebrawt’n
Das Blut zeichnet unser Tür The blood shows our door Doss Bloot tzeye-shnet oonce-uh Toor
Das halt der Glaub’ dem Tode für That holds the Faith the Death before Doss hahlt dehr Glowp dehm Toaduh foor
DerWürger kann uns nicht mehr schaden The slayer can us not more harm Dehr voorguh kahn oonce neesht mehr shahd’n
(Soprano solo)
So feiern wir das hohe Fest, So celebrate we the high feast Zoh fiyan veeahr doss hoe-uh fest
Mit Herzensfreud’ und Wonne With heartfelt joy and gaiety Mit Hertsensfroyduh oont vawnuh
Das uns der Herr erscheinen lässt That us the Lord to shine lets doss oonce dehr hehr ehrshine-uhn lest
Ist selber die Sonne Is Himself the Sun ist zelbuh dee zawnuh
Der durch seiner Gnaden Glanz That through his Gracious Glow Dehr doorch zinah gnahd’n glonts
Erleuchtet unsre Herzen ganz Enlightens our hearts fully ehrhloyshtet oonzruh hair-tsuhn gonts
Der Sünden Nacht ist verschwunden The Sins Night has disappeared Dehr zoonduhn nockt ist fairshvoond’n
Hallelujah! Hallelujah hallelujah
(Chorale)
Wir essen und leben wohl We eat and live, well Veeah essuhn oont laybun vawl
Im rechten Osterfladen In the righteous Easter Host im reshtuhn Awstuh-flahd’n
Der alte Sauerteig nicht soll sein The old leaven not should be dehr ahltuh zow-a-tike neesht zawl zine
Bei dem Wort der Gnaden By the word of the Gracious by dehm vawt dehr gnahd’n
Christus will die Koste sein Christ wants the meal to be Kristoose vill dee Kawstuh zine
Und speisen die Seele’ allein And feeds the soul alone oont shpiezen dee zayluh ahline
Der Glaub’ will keins andern leben. The faith wants no other life dehr glowp vill kine ahnduhn lehb’n
Hallelujah! Hallelujah Hallelujah
