Pronounciation questions of words in 1.6

WeizuoT

November 13, 2020

What is the differences between

1.pfanne fahne

2.Fluss floss

3.Schule Schuler

4.Stehen stelen

How to pronounce

eln in lispeln

Please help me thanks!

Julia-Rocket-German-Tutor

November 18, 2020

Guten Tag WeizuoT!

Let's have a look at your words!

Pfanne / Fahne

Pfanne

Pan

Pronouncing the PF sound in German can sometimes be a bit tricky for English speakers as English doesn't really have a similar sound. You can try to pronounce P and F separately to start with and then move them closer together until you have the fast PF sound.

The H in “Fahne” is silent which signals the presence of a long vowel ("A" in this case). The two consonants NN in “Pfanne” however, mean that the vowel is short.

You can use these words for practice:

Pferd

Horse

die Badewanne

the bathtub

Sahne

Cream

Fluss / floss

Fluss

River (short vowel)

Here the only difference is the vowels U and O. You can think of U as "oo" in "foot" and “o” in "got". These vowels are followed by two consonants which means you use the short pronunciation.

Here are two additional words to practice the short vowel sounds:

Der Kuss

The kiss

das Schloss

the castle / palace

Schule / Schüler

Schule

School (fem.)

Dies ist eine Unterhaltung zwischen einem Schüler und einem Lehrer:

This is a conversation between a student and his teacher:

Here the most prominent difference is the umlaut Ü which sounds a bit like “uh” in English. The U in Schule however, sounds more like "oo" in "moon" with your lips being a bit more tense compared to the English sound. It’s very similar to pursing your lips when whistling or blowing out a candle.

stehen / stehlen

Stehen

To stand

Stehlen

To steal (long “e”)

These two words are pronounced almost exactly the same except we have an L in “stehlen”. The H is silent in both words so you can think of them as "ste - en" and “ste - len”. (Note that the E is a long vowel here)

A similar word to practice is: