Learn German - Lesson 6 - Pronunciation practice:

Telephongespräche


(photo by  Markus P used under terms of Creative Commons license.)
old siemens phone


 





A. Some difficult clusters

 

In Lesson 4 we presented the ich-sound and the ach-sound after and between vowels and in combination with certain consonants. Lesson 5 dealt with the ts-cluster in initial, final and inter-vocalic position. These sounds also occur in complex clusters, as the following examples show. Practice them with your instructor.

 

Practice 1.


 

nicht

durch

gänzlich

wenigsten

acht

lachst

nichts

Furcht

herzlich

nächsten

achtzehn

machst

rechts

furchtbar

weichlich

höchste

achtzig

buchst

sechzehn

fürchten

rechtzeitig

möglichst

Hochzeit

lochst

 


 

 

B. Review of vowel contrasts

 

Up to now we dealt with the German sounds which are most different from English sounds. By way of review we will drill the most difficult of these sounds again, starting with the contrasts between -o- and -ö- and between -u- and -ü-.


Practice 2.


 

grosse - Grösse

Tochter - Töchter

schon - schön

offen - Löffel

Ofen - Öfen

fordere - fördere

 

 Practice 3.

Tute - Tüte

Mutter - Mütter

Huhn - kühn

rucken - Rücken

Tour - Tür

Hunde - Bünde

 

Practice 4.


 

Söhne - Sühne

Götter - Mütter

töte - Tüte

Köche - Küche

Föhre - führe

schösse - Schüsse