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A Consistent Language
You’re fortunate to be learning German rather than English. Consider, for a moment, the hapless English learner faced with the identical pronunciation of rain, reign, and rein. The English language is fraught with pronunciation inconsistencies. German is far more consistent and predictable.
Rule #1: German is a phonetically consistent language.
Phonetic consistency means that words are pronounced as they are spelled, with consistent sounds for a given spelling. In German, it usually does not matter where a letter, or letter combination appears in word—it will usually sound the same. Exceptions are rare and typically limited to loanwords.
Every Letter Matters
English speakers have a tendency to rush through or skip letters. Many British dialects like to drop the t in matter, while Americans often ignore it in plenty. This is a bad habit when it comes to German and is best avoided.
Rule #2: German has (almost) no silent letters.
While silent letters are a hallmark of English, they’re a rarity in German. German leaves no letters behind – even consonants in clusters are typically all pronounced. This leads to stark differences in pronunciation between German and English for the same letter combinations. Take, for instance, the English psychology, the p is silent, but in its German translation, Psychologie, both P and s are pronounced distinctly.
Splitting Long Words
Mark Twain famously quipped, ‘Some German words are so long that they have a perspective.’ He was not wrong. German words are, on average, about 20 percent longer than their English counterparts . And then there are some ultra-long words. While many of these may not appear in everyday conversation, others are surprisingly common. Words like Schlittschuhlaufen (ice skating), or Rechtsschutzversicherung (legal protection insurance) are frequently used and sure look daunting. But there’s a simple trick.
Rule #3: Split up long words to simplify pronunciation.
Lengthy German words are constructed in a very logical manner. Essentially, they’re shorter words strung together. While in English, these would often appear as separate words in sequence, in German they combine to form new words of great ambition. Breaking these compounds into their individual components makes these linguistic giants far less intimidating.
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