How to put German pronunciation

German speech is one of the most recognizable by ear. Not the last role is played by the characteristic pronunciation of sounds, which often becomes a real stumbling block for those who study German as a foreign language. You can learn to speak German with almost no accent, but you will need to spend some time and make some efforts.

Our misconceptions regarding German speech

If you started studying German and set out to speak it without a clearly audible accent, the first thing you will have to understand is that all that German speech that you could still hear in films of domestic production has very little in common with real German pronunciation, which does not at all look like rude, jerky barking, as the stereotype that has developed in our society says. Moreover, in these films the roles of Germans are played by our own actors, uttering remarks with a very great accent, and sometimes their reprimand is so terrible that they can only shake their heads. Plus, the Russian transcription of German words and names plays an important role, making them almost unrecognizable. The simplest example is Hamburg, a local will not even understand if you call his favorite city in Russian fashion. Indeed, in reality, its name sounds like “Hambuyhy”, and the sound “x” is also pronounced very softly with a barely audible aspiration.

Hard and soft consonants

Start working on pronunciation from the first minutes of learning a language. You may need a little more time at the beginning, but later on you will not have to relearn, that is, practically carry out work on the errors. The first thing you should remember is that in German there is no concept of soft consonants, they are all pronounced firmly, even if the vowel following it is soft. This can be visualized as follows. If in Russian the syllable “bi” is read as “b-i”, then in German the solid b should smoothly flow into the soft and - “b-i”. The exception is the sound "l". He is the only one is soft, but only half. That is, trying to pronounce the syllable "la", you should try to find a sound lying somewhere in the middle between the sounds resulting from the pronunciation of Russian words lamp and strap. The sound "x" is also capable of being soft, but only if it is the last in a pronounced word.

P sound pronunciation features

Another stumbling block in the production of German speech for you may be the sound "p", since the vast majority of the German-speaking population prefers not his growling option, but his throat. If you can pronounce "p" with the root part of the tongue, and not with the tip - fine, if not, then you should not be particularly upset. Holders of the southern dialect pronounce the sound "p" in a manner similar to ours, so there is nothing wrong with this pronunciation.