Each language has its own special sound structure, inherent only to it, with which it is necessary to get acquainted, since a person who does not speak correct pronunciation, will not be able to correctly perceive foreign speech by ear and will not be able to be understood correctly. German, along with sounds peculiar only to him, has a number of sounds, the pronunciation of which practically coincides with the corresponding sounds of the Russian language.

In German 42 sounds, for which records are used 26 letters Latin alphabet. Both in German and in Russian, vowels and consonants are distinguished. The German language has 15 simple vowels, 3 complex two-vowel sounds (diphthongs) and 24 consonants.

German alphabet

Ha

upsilon

Additional German letters to the Latin alphabet:

a-umlaut

u-umlaut

o-umlaut

escet

Vowel sounds German language have two features:

1. At the beginning of a word or root, vowels are pronounced with a strong attack, resembling a slight click, which gives the German speech a jerky sound that is not characteristic of the Russian language.

2. Vowels are divided into long and short, which explains their large quantity compared to Russian.

Long vowels are pronounced more intensely than the vowels of the Russian language, and do not change their character during the entire time of sounding. The consonant following the long vowel freely adjoins it, as if with a short pause. When transmitting German sounds in Russian letters, the length of vowels is indicated by a colon after the corresponding letter.

short vowels are pronounced more briefly than Russian vowels. The consonant sound following the short vowel tightly adjoins it, as if cutting it off.

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The length and shortness of vowels often have a semantic meaning and determine the general character and rhythm of German speech:

Vowel pronounced for a long time:

A. V open syllable, i.e., a syllable ending in a vowel:

Vater f A:ta

Leben l e:Ben

b. in a conditionally closed syllable, i.e., a syllable that, when a word changes, can be opened:

Tag T A:To

Ta-ge T A:ge

On the letter, the length of the vowel is indicated:

A. doubling the letter

meer me:a

b. letter h after a vowel

Uhr y:a

V. letter e after i

Sie zi:

Vowel pronounced briefly, if followed by a consonant or group of consonants:

Consonants The German language has the following features:

A. they are pronounced more intensely than the corresponding Russian consonants;

b. German voiceless consonants p, t, k are pronounced with a breath, especially at the end of a word;

V. German consonants, unlike the corresponding Russian consonants, are never softened;

d. unlike the Russian language, where the voiceless consonant is voiced under the influence of the voiced consonant following it (from is tunnel, but: out from at home), in German the opposite phenomenon occurs: a voiceless consonant partially deafens the voiced one following it, remaining deaf (das Bad das bpa:t).

stress in German, it usually falls on the root of a word or on a prefix, that is, on the first syllable. When you change a word, the stress does not change. The pronunciation of German words is transmitted in this manual Russian letters without the use of generally accepted transcription marks. The transcription of the word and the stressed vowel are in different fonts. Such transcription allows (with some exceptions) to pronounce German words and sentences quite correctly.

Please note that when you hover over the Russian transcription, the IPA transcription will be displayed. This is for especially advanced students, if you do not need it, use only Russian.

Pronunciation of German vowels

Sound represented by letters A, aa, Ah, pronounced like Russian A(long) in the word "brother" or A(short) in the word "tact": baden b A: Dan, Saal for: l, Fahrt fa:at, Satz zats .

Sound represented by letters ä , Ah, pronounced like Russian uh in the word "era": Väter f e: that, wahlen V e: linen , Manner m uh on .

Sound represented by letters i, ie, ih, pronounced like Russian And in the word "blue": mir mi:a, sieben h And:ben, Ihr i:a, Mitte m And te, Tisch hush .

Sound represented by letters e, her, eh, pronounced like Russian uh or e in the words "these", "believe", "measure": nehmen n e: maine See ze:, gehen G e: en, Geld gelt, sechs zex. In an unstressed final syllable (endings -en, -er), as well as in some prefixes (for example: be-, ge- etc.) this sound is not pronounced clearly and is similar to Russian uh in the word "should": fahren f A: ren, beginnen bag And nan .

However, especially attentive listeners could notice the overtones of the "and" sound in the words Leben and See. There is no such sound in Russian or English, pay attention to it when listening to German speech. Pronounce it like Russian [e / e], and the position of the lips is like for [and]. You can also try to pronounce the diphthong [hey] without completely pronouncing the second part of the sound, i.e. the first part of the sound is [e / e], and the second [th], [th] just to the end and is not pronounced. Let's listen again:

Sound represented by letters oh oh oh, pronounced like Russian O(long) in the word "will" or O(short) in the word "clown": Oper O :pa ohne O :ne , Boot bo:t, Rolle R O le .

Sound represented by letters u, uh, pronounced like Russian at in the word "I will": du du:, Uhr y:a, hundert X at ndat .

Sound represented by letters u, uh, is absent in Russian. It's pronounced like Russian Yu in the words "jury", "mashed potatoes": führen f Yu: ren, funf funf, Ubung Yu:bun(g). Rounding the lips, as for [y], we pronounce [and]. Although in Russian transcription it will be designated as [yu], with the sound [yu] he Not is.

Sound represented by letters oh, oh, is also absent in Russian. Rounding the lips, as for [o], we pronounce [e]. Reminds me of Russian yo : schön sh yo: n, Sohne h yo:ne, Loffel l yo fel, offnen yo fnen . Although in Russian transcription it will be denoted as [e], with the sound [e] he Not is.

ei, ai, pronounced like Russian ah into the words "give": drei dry, Weise V A yze .

Diphthong denoted by letters au, pronounced like Russian ay in the word "howitzer": blau bl A at, Faust f A mouth .

Diphthong denoted by letters eu, au, pronounced like Russian Ouch in the word "your": neu Noah, Hauser X Ouch behind .

Pronunciation of German consonants

Many consonant sounds of German are pronounced almost the same as the corresponding sounds of Russian: b b, p P, w V, f f, s c or h(before a vowel or between two vowels), k To,g G,n n, m m, z c.

Sound represented by letters ch(after e, i, ö, ü and after l, m, n) pronounced like soft Russian xx in the word "chemistry": welche V uh lhe, richtig R And htikh , manchmal m A nkhmal .

The sound represented by the letter h(at the beginning of a word or syllable) is pronounced as a noisy exhalation to the next vowel. In Russian, this sound is absent, however, it is enough to pronounce Russian [x] with a light exhalation: halt halt, Herz hertz .

Sound represented by letters l, ll, pronounced as an average between Russian soft l(in the word "summer") and solid l(in the word "lacquer"): Ball ball, alt alto .

The sound represented by the letter j, pronounced like Russian th before the corresponding vowels (for example: "Christmas tree", "pit", "south"): Jacke ya ke, jemand ye:manta .

R pronunciation

Consonant sound denoted by a letter r, can also sound like a vowel sound close to the Russian sound A.

1. After long vowels (with the exception of long "a") in stressed and unstressed syllables that are final, for example:
   factor f A who: a,wir V And:A, Clavier clave And:A, Nature nat at:A .

   There may be exceptions:
   Haar ha:r, Ha: ; Bart Bart, ba:at ; Arzt arts, a:tst ; Quark quark, kva:k ; Quartz quartz, kva:c ; Harz harz

2. In unstressed prefixes: er-, her-, ver-, zer-, for example:
   erfahren eaf A:ren , verbringen February And:n(g)en , zerstampfen zeasht A mpfeng , hervor heaf O:A .
3. In the final unstressed - er, and also when consonants follow it, for example:
   Vater f A that, immer i:ma, besser b uh:sa, anders A ndas, Kindern To And ndang, auf Wiedersehen auf in And:daze:en .

In other cases, it is pronounced as a consonant sound. There are three types of pronunciation of the consonant sound "r" (the 2nd option is now more common):

1. If you touch your fingers at the base of your neck and try to pronounce "r" so that your fingertips feel it, you get the first "r".
2. If you pronounce "g", try to continue the sound ("gggggg..r.."), you get the second sound ("growl of the tiger").
3. The sound pronounced with the tip of the tongue is thus the "Russian" "r".

Remember the rules for reading some letter combinations:

ch after a, o, u it is read like Russian X: Buch boo:x, Fach fah; after all other vowels, as well as after l, m, n is read as xx: recht recht, Wichtig V And htikh Milch milch .

chs, as well as the letter X, read like Russian ks: wechseln V uh kseln .

ck reads like Russian To: Stuck piece, Ecke uh ke .

sch reads like Russian sh: Schuh shu:, waschen V A: sheng .

st PC: Stella PC uh le .

sp read at the beginning of a word or root like Russian sp: Spiel spire, sprechen sprechen .

tz reads like Russian c: Platz parade ground, sitzen h And tsen .

ng reads like ... English sound [ŋ]. The back of the tongue closes with the lowered soft palate, and air passes through the nasal cavity. In order to achieve the desired position of the organs of speech, one can inhale through the nose with the mouth wide open, then pronounce the sound [ŋ] while exhaling air through the nose. In Russian transcription, we will denote as n(g), because G there still sometimes they pronounce, as in the first word: Übung Yu:bung, verbringen February And:n(g)en , Ding dyn(g). Also this sound is in combination nk: bank baŋk, links liŋx, tanken T Aŋken .

From letter to sound

german letters based on the Latin alphabet, german letters- the topic of the article. 26 German letters present in German. Additional german letters, which are not included in the alphabet, but are often found in the most different words, these are the three umlauts Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü and the ligature ß . Latest german letters obey alphabetical order, that is, in dictionaries they immediately follow A a, O o, U u and double ss, respectively. In some cases, apply additional options German letters, but this is typical only for some dialects and in particular for words of foreign origin. German letters can form different letter combinations in words, which obey certain reading rules. There are separate sounds that are transmitted by two, three or more German letters. At the same time, one German letter, when read, can give two sounds (affricate), while some German letters can denote different sounds depending on their position in the word and neighboring letters. All double consonant German letters convey one sound and at the same time indicate the brevity of the previous vowel sound, for example: rennen - rush, rush. All doubled vowels of German letters when read are one long sound, for example: der Aal [a: l] - eel. Standing after the vowels of the German letters h is never read, but only indicates the longitude of the previous vowel. To convey the Russian letters i, ё, u in writing, the letter combinations of the German letters ja, jo, ju are used, which most closely convey the sound of these letters that have no analogues in German, for example: Yura - Jura, Yasha - Jascha. The combination of two or more consonant German letters indicates the brevity of the previous vowel even in cases where these consonants denote one sound, for example löschen - go out, fade out, erase. German vowels that are at the beginning of a root or word are always pronounced much sharper, with a so-called hard attack, for example: der Alter [`altәα]. All consonants of German letters are hard, all voiced ones are muffled and pronounced semi-voiced, and at the end of words they are always completely deafened, for example: der Dieb vor. German consonants cannot be softened before vowels, as is done in Russian. In German, German consonants are always hard. Don't focus too much on written version German letters, write as you like, the main thing is to be understood. Only approximate sketches of handwritten German letters are given here. Pay attention to the umlauts (umlauts) Ää Öö Üü - these are German letters "without a name", they only denote sounds.

Letters of the German alphabet

Thus, in this table, all existing German letters of the alphabet were considered, including four additional ones. Further, German letters can form different letter combinations in words, which obey certain reading rules. Let's try to present them also in the form of a visual table.

Letters of the German alphabet, forming characteristic letter combinations and rules for reading individual German letters

In the picture below you see handwritten German letters, but here it should be noted that everyone has their own handwriting and there can be many options.

Video with the pronunciation of the letters of the German alphabet:

And one more video for fixing:

The study of any language begins with the basics, namely with its alphabet. Some people have known him since school, but even for those who have never taught him, but have some knowledge of English, it will be easy to figure it out. The fact is that these two languages ​​are similar in many ways, moreover, it contains the same characters as English, but their pronunciation is different. Therefore, phonetics will not seem too complicated.

All characters in are based on the Latin alphabet. In total it has 26 letters. It is worth noting that the German alphabet with pronunciation is easier than English. At first, there may be difficulties in learning grammar, but this will not be a big problem.

It is comfortable for Russian-speaking citizens to study in Russian, the table of which is presented below.

Why you should learn German

Relationship with tourism

As you know, in countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg, people mostly speak German. However, knowing the German alphabet with Russian pronunciation, you can also easily communicate with people from Liechtenstein, Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, northern Italy, eastern Belgium and some other countries.

German is important for tourism

New useful acquaintances

In a foreign country, you should be more confident. Knowing the language will greatly simplify communication with the locals. Knowing the language for beginners with pronunciation, you can easily meet new people, learn their character and interests.

Education and self-development

Many people strive to become more educated, to expand the range of their knowledge and skills, and what can be better study one or more foreign languages? It is worth noting that not only the quantity is taken into account, but also the level of mastering them. The German alphabet with pronunciation will help with this problem as well.

Work abroad

It's no secret that even the minimum wage in Europe can exceed Russian standards. Knowing at least one foreign language you can choose more than one prestigious profession, or try to open your own. Russian-speaking citizens will be helped in this by the German alphabet with Russian pronunciation.

Educational literature

Approximately 18% of the total mass of books in the world are printed in German. Of these, only an insignificant part has been translated into Russian. Reading works in their original form allows a person to enrich himself with invaluable knowledge, learn more about the culture of a given country, and better understand the specifics of its language. Appreciate the fullness works of art help the German alphabet with pronunciation.

Consonants. Pronunciation

For beginners with pronunciation, it is advisable to remember such an important nuance that all German consonants are hard. Voiced pronunciation is slightly muffled. The final consonant of the word is completely stunned.

Phonetics offers illustrative examples for analysis. The word dieb is a thief. As can be seen from the transcription, the letter "d" is semi-voiced, and "b", as it stands at the very end, is significantly muffled.

1. The letter "h" in the root or the first in the word is read as "x" with a slight aspiration. For example, herz, which translates as heart. Inside and at the end, she lengthens the vowel before her: fahren - to go; froh - cheerful or joyful.
2. The letter "j" is similar to the Russian "y". It is worth remembering the phrases "ja" and "ju", sounding like "I" and "yu". For example, jahr, which translates as a year, or juni - June.
3. The letter "l" is always slightly softened: blume is a flower.
4. The letter "s" preceding the vowel is converted to the sound "z": sonne - the sun, the verb lesen - to read.
5. The letter "ß" is pronounced like "s". For example, groß is big.
6. The consonants k, p, t should be pronounced with a slight aspiration: park - park, torte - cake, ko†fer - suitcase.
7. It is important to note that the letter "v" is not read as "v", but as "f": vater - father. However, in borrowed words it can be pronounced as "in": vase - vase.
8. The letter “w” must be pronounced by analogy with the Russian “v”: wort is a word.
9. You should remember a small rule: double consonants sound like single ones, shortening the vowel in front of them: rennen - rush, sommer - summer, mutter - mother.

Letter "r". Pronunciation features

The German alphabet with pronunciation will help you master the alternative pronunciation of "r".

• If she starts a word, then the sound will be a little burry and stretched like the Russian sound [x], but in this case the voice will play a direct role.
• Another pronunciation is possible if the letter is at the beginning of the word. The sound will become more resonant and front-lingual [r].
• Toward the middle of the word [r] becomes much quieter, but still distinguishable.
• It is worth noting that in the tail of the word the letter loses its original sound and is transformed into a vocalized [α], which is closer to a vowel.

The German alphabet with Russian pronunciation gives you the opportunity to practice your comparative analysis. For example, in the word der rabe, which means raven, the sound [r] is predominantly loud and rolling. In the verb to teach - lehren, this sound will be more muffled, but will not lose its color. As for the word spectator - der zuschauer, you can see how [r] turns into a vocalized [α] by its example.

Vowel pronunciation

To convey the Russian letters i, ё and yu, special letter combinations ja, jo, ju are used in German. They are able to most accurately convey the sound of analogues of letters. For example, consider a couple of Russian names: Yura - Jura and Yasha - Jascha.

As for double vowels, they are read with one long sound. For example, an eel is der Aal [а:l]. On the transcription, you can see that the sound [a] is lingering. The rest of the vowels are read according to the same principle: tee - tea; raar - pair; boot - boat.

If the vowel is located at the beginning or at the root of the word, the sound will turn out to be much sharper and harder, giving the German speech a rougher character, jerky phrases in comparison with the usual Russian speech. You can trace this intonation in the word der Alter [altә].

Letter combinations in vowels and consonants

The alphabet in German with pronunciation has its drawbacks. Not every sound is optimally described by a letter. Sometimes, to achieve the desired result, you have to resort to combining certain characters of the alphabet:

1. The combination of the letters "ie" is converted into a drawl "and". For example: bier -. And if you swap these characters in places - "ei", you get short sound"ay": heimat - homeland.
2. In combination with "u", the letter "e" gives the sound "oh": heute - today. The same sound can be obtained by combining the letter "ä" with "u": bäume - trees. The features of this symbol will be discussed further.
3. The letter combination "sp" at the root or the beginning of the word should be pronounced as "shp": sport, which means sport in translation.
4. There is another sound similar to this - "piece". It is formed by combining the letters "s" and "t" by analogy at the beginning or root. Example word: stern - star.
5. The pure sound "sh" is formed using three letters at once: s, c, h, going in a row one after another. As an example: schule - school, schwester - sister.
6. The letter combination "ck" is pronounced like a short "k": backen - oven. This sound also has varieties: "ks" and "kv". The first of them is formed by three letters: c, h, s. For example: sechs - six. And the sound "kv" can be obtained by combining two elements "q" with "u": quark - cottage cheese.
7. It is impossible not to note such sounds as "x" and "h". They are an integral part of the German language. As a rule, by combining "c" and "h" you can get a deaf "x": buch - book, machen - to do. And to get a short "h" you will need 4 letters at once: t, s, c, h. This combination is used in one very useful word: deutsch - German.

Unusual symbols and their pronunciation

The German alphabet with Russian pronunciation, the table of which is shown below, has specific letters that have a cap in the form of two dots. These symbols also have their own pronunciation. For example, the letter “ä” sounds more like the Russian sound “e”: mädchen is a girl.

The next letter is ö. It is very reminiscent of "yo" from the Russian alphabet and is read exactly the same way as it is. Example word: schön - beautiful.

And the last character is “ü” by analogy with “yu”: müll is garbage.

Emphasis features

The stress in German usually falls on the first syllable. In words with an unstressed prefix, the stress moves to the next syllable. For example, consider the suffix –tion. It will always be stressed and pronounced as , where "i" is a short slip sound, and the stress fell on "o".

As for the letter combinations "ts", they form the sound "ts". For example, we can take the foreign word kommunikation, which means connection or communication.

Words where the stress falls on the first syllable: ausländer - a foreigner or aufmachen - to open. An exception to the rule is a common borrowing from foreigners of the word computer and others.

It is worth noting the words with the presence of an unstressed prefix, these include: be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent-, miss-. The stress in words with such prefixes will be shifted to the next syllable. For example: verkaufen - to sell, bekommen - to receive.

Simple words to practice pronunciation

German alphabet with Russian pronunciation, practice table simple words which is presented below, allows you to practice reading them, at the same time replenishing your vocabulary.

• strand - beach;
• reise - travel;
• leute - people;
• zeit - time;
• frühling - spring;
• herbst - autumn;
• fleisch - meat;
• fisch - fish;
• wein - wine;
• kaffee - coffee;
• zwieback - cracker;
• radieschen - radish;
• richtig - correct;
• schule - school;
• volk ​​- people.

German alphabet with Russian pronunciation: table, phonetics updated: June 3, 2019 by: Amazing World!

in German

The German language is quite complex from a grammatical point of view, but learning to read German is very easy. There are few rules, there are practically no exceptions to them. Also in German there are no difficult sounds for Russians. You don't have to "break your tongue" and you have a good chance of speaking German with a chic pronunciation.

Own additional letters of the alphabet:

The German language has the Latin alphabet and there are 4 additional letters:

Öö - the position of the tongue as in uh, and lips - as with O(the sound is obtained as something in between our "e" and "o")

Ää - How uh at the beginning of a word and after vowels e- after consonants

Üü - the position of the tongue as in And, and lips - as with at(the sound is obtained as something in between our "and" and "y")

If your keyboard does not have these terrible letters, then when writing, you can replace them with combinations oe (ö), ae (ä), ue (u). You will be understood. But still, it is more pleasant for Germans to see their letters, and search engines and translators on the Internet do not perceive this method very well. Therefore, I advise you to install the German keyboard layout on your computer.

ß – [ss]- in general, officially this letter in German has already been canceled, replacing it with a double ss. But you can still see β and ss in both official and non-official writing. Neither option is considered an error. You need to know both, but you yourself can use any to your own taste.

Vowels and their combinations

The main vowels are read quite standardly:

a - [a] ; u - [y] ; o - [o] ; e - [e]

y- also reads like ü (something between "i" and "u")

There is a small list of vowel combinations:

ei And ai – [ah]- mein [main] (my), nein [nein] (no)

ie – [And:]- liegen [ligen] (to lie), sieben [ziben] (seven)

eu And au– [Ouch]- neu [noy] (new), neun [noy] (nine)

Consonants and their combinations

Most of the consonants are read in the standard way:

b - [b]; d - [d]; f - [f]; g - [g]; k - [k]; l - [l]; m - [m]; n - [n]; p - [p]; r-[p]; t - [t]; x - [ks]

Only r pronounced burr, but in principle, the usual Russian “r” will also be understood, and l pronounced a little softer, almost "l".

There are a number of consonants that read unusually for the Latin alphabet:

c — [To]- Code [code] (code)

h- reads like [x] only at the beginning of a word, in other cases it does not read at all - Hohe [hoe] (height)

s- is read differently depending on its position in the word:

1. reads like [h] if there is a vowel after it - sein [zain] (to be), Sonne [zone] (sun), zusammen [tsuzamen] (together)
2. reads like [w], if it is followed by a consonant p or t ( sp – [w]- spielen [shpilen] (play), sprechen [shprchen (speak); st – [PCS]- stehen [shteen] (to stand), Stuhl (shtul))
3. in all other cases it reads as [With]- es [es] (this), das [das] (this), ist [ist] (is)

v – [f]- Vogel [fogel] - bird, vier [fir] (four), Vater [fater] (father)

z – [c]- zusammen [tsuzamen] (together), zauber [tsauber] (clean)

There are also a number of consonant combinations:

ch – [X]- ich [them] (I), machen [mahen] (to do), nicht [niht] (not)

ck – [kk]- Ecke [ekke] (corner)

chs – [ks]- sechs [zeks] (six), wachsen [waxen] (grow)

sch – [w]- schon [shawn] (already), schreiben [shreyben] (to write)

tsch – [h]– Deutschland [deutschland] (Germany)

tz – [c]- Katze [katse] (cat), sitzen (sit)

th And td — [T]- Stadt [state] (city), Bibliothek [library] (library)

All double vowels are read as one: ff [f], nn [n], pp [p], ss [s]

Combinations of vowels and consonants

qu – [kv]- Quatsch [quach] (nonsense), Quadrat [square] (square)

tion — [chion]- Information [information] (information)

eh – [Hey]- nehmen [neimen] (to take), stehen [shteen] (to stand)

je – [e]- jetzt [etzt] (now), jemand [emand] (someone)

ju – [Yu]- jubeln [yubeln] (rejoice, have fun)

ja – [I]- ja [I] (yes), Jacke [yakke] (jacket)

ig- reads like [their] only at the end of the word - richtig [richtich] (correct), in any other place of the word it is read as usual [ig]- Igel [igel] (hedgehog)

accents

Good news awaits you here too. First, the stress in words most often falls on the first root syllable. Secondly, the tonality of sounds, as in Russian, does not need to be changed.

But things are a little more complicated with compound words:

• drum kits ( ab-, an-, auf-, aus-, bei-, ein-, mit-, un-, ur-, vor-, zu-)
• shockless attachments ( be-, ge-, ent-, emp-, er-, ver-, zer-)
• prefixes, which can be percussive and unstressed ( durch-, uber-, um-, unter-, wieder-)
• stressed suffixes ( -ant, -at, -ee, -ent, -et, -eur, -ion, -ist, -it, -ot, -tat, -ur)

I draw your attention to the fact that unstressed vowels, unlike Russian, are pronounced the same way as they are written.

Tip: if in doubt how to read a word, enter it in any free online translator and click listen. Google has such a translator. It should be noted that he translates into German disgustingly, but he pronounces the words well 🙂

Typical mistakes of Russian speakers in the pronunciation of German words:

Usually a Russian person who speaks German is easiest to identify:

• by the rolling sound R» ( r), which the Germans pronounce burr.
• over too solid sound « X» ( h at the beginning of a word ch And ig at the end of the word), which should be quite soft, as if aspirated, as if breathing on glass.
• changing the unstressed "o" to "a" - we do this out of habit from mother tongue. In Russian we do not speak [milk], we speak [malako]. The Germans don't do that.

But if you also speak in this way, then it is not at all scary, you will be understood. Moreover, there are so many dialects in the German language that, with the right use of vocabulary and grammar, even the most typical Russian pronunciation in Germany they may well be mistaken for some kind of dialect. It is checked up on own experience.

The German alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet with diacritics for vowels ( ä , ö , ü ) and a letter ß , not used in other languages. There are alternative spellings for these letters: ae, oe, ue, ss, but their use loses its uniqueness.

2. Transliteration

Some of the German letters are translated into Russian unambiguously:

3.J

Combinations j + vowel transferred like this:

At the beginning of a word and after vowels ja → I, ja (je) → e, jo → yo, jo → yo, ju → Yu, ju → yuu: Jahns → Jens, Jul → july;

After consonants ja → ya, ja (je) → ye, jo → yo, jo → yo, ju (ju)→ ew: Lilje → Lilje.

Before a consonant and at the end of a word j → th.

4. Vowels and their combinations

German diphthongs are transmitted in transcription according to the following rules: eu → Ouch, ei → ah, ie → And. A common tradition to pass eu (ei) → Hey (to her) is considered obsolete today, although many names and surnames are transmitted according to these rules: Reuters → Reuters, Geiger → Geiger.

After vowels e (ä ) → uh, i → th. At the beginning of a word e (ä , ö ) → uh, ü → And.

In other cases, vowels are transmitted by transliteration: a → A, e (ä ) → e, i → And, o → O, ö → yo, u → at, ü → Yu, y → And.

5. S, C, H

letter combinations sch, chh, ch, ph, rh, th in transcription are transmitted, respectively: sch → sh, chh → hg, ch → X, ph → f, rh → R, th → T.

Combinations tsch, zsch And chs wholly belonging to one syllable are transmitted according to the rules tsch (zsch) → h, chs → ks: Achslach → Axlakh, Zschopau → chopau. Sometimes the components of these letter combinations refer to different syllables, in which case they are transmitted independently: Altschul → Altshul.

Before front vowels ( i, e, in borrowings also y) With → c: Cilli → cilly. In other contexts c → To: Carl → Charles.

Before letters p And t at the beginning of a word or part compound word s → sh: Spray → spree. Before vowels single s → h, otherwise s → With.

In a position between a vowel and a consonant (or between a vowel and e) h omitted in transcription. In other provisions h → X.

The tradition of transmitting everywhere h → G Today it is considered obsolete, but many names and surnames are transmitted precisely according to this rule: Tannhauser → Tannhäuser, Heisenberg → Heisenberg.

The "transcriptor" does not know how to divide German words into syllables and compound words into parts.

6. Consonants

letter combinations gk And tz passed according to the rules gk → G, tz → c.

doubled ll It is conveyed in different ways, depending on the position in the word:

between vowels ll → ll: Ellerbach → Ellerbach;

At the end of a word and between consonants ll → ll: Tellkoppe → Tellkoppe;

In other positions ll → l or eh.

Before vowels l → l, before consonants and at the end of words l → eh.

In German names and titles v → f: Volkmar → Volkmar. But in names of foreign origin v can be transmitted through V: Crivitz → Krivits.

"Transcriptor" always transmits v How f.

7. Double letters

Doubled (long) German vowels are always transmitted as one: Klopeinersee → Klopeinersee.

Doubled German consonants are transmitted as doubled and in transcription if they are in a position between vowels or at the end of a word. In other positions, doubled German consonants correspond to one consonant letter of transcription: Blatt → Blatt, Schaffran → Saffron.

letter combination ck corresponds kk in a position between vowels, otherwise ck → To: Becker → becker, Dick → Dick.