German Pronunciation
ජර්මන් උච්චාරණය
The complete sound system of German - vowels, consonants, special letter combos, and the rules that let you read any German word aloud correctly.
When you first encounter German pronunciation it can feel intimidating - the sounds are unfamiliar and words that look similar to English can sound completely different. But German is actually one of the most consistent languages to read aloud. Once you learn the rules and patterns here, you can pronounce almost any new German word correctly on the first try - even before you know what it means.
ජර්මන් උච්චාරණය පළමු දෘෂ්ටියට බිය ජනක විය හැකිය - ශබ්ද අපරිචිත වන අතර ඉංග්රීසි වලට සමාන පෙනෙන වචන සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම වෙනස් ශබ්දවලින් කිව හැකිය. නමුත් ජර්මන් ලිවීමට-කියවීමට ඉතාම සම්මතය - රීති ඉගෙන ගත්විට ඕනෑම නව ජර්මන් වචනයක් ප්රථමයෙන්ම නිවැරදිව උච්චාරණය කළ හැකිය.
The four rules every beginner must know first
These four consonants behave completely differently from English. Get these wrong and every German sentence sounds off. Get these right and you instantly sound more German.
W → sounds like English 'V'
W = ව් ශබ්දය
Wasser (water), Winter (winter), Woche (week), Wagen (wagon), Weihnachten (Christmas)
V → sounds like English 'F'
V = ෆ් ශබ්දය
viele (many), vier (four), Vogel (bird), Vater (father), verstehen (understand), vergessen (forget)
Z → sounds like 'ts' in cats
Z = ට්ස් ශබ්දය
Zimmer (room), Zug (train), Zucker (sugar), Zeit (time), Zebra
J → sounds like English 'Y'
J = ය් ශබ්දය
Jacke (jacket), Jahr (year), Joghurt (yoghurt), Januar (January), Jung (young), Juni (June)
Vowel combinations - always the same sound
ai / ei → 'eye' sound
Sounds exactly like the English letter 'I' or the word 'eye'
au → 'ow' sound (as in cow)
Like the exclamation 'ow!' or 'out' - never like 'aw' in English
eu / äu → 'oy' sound (as in boy)
Like 'oy' in 'toy' or 'boy' - this applies to both eu and äu
ie → long 'eeh' sound
A long, sustained 'ee' sound - held longer than a simple 'e'
The vowel combination rule is absolute - ai/ei is ALWAYS 'eye', au is ALWAYS 'ow', eu/äu is ALWAYS 'oy', ie is ALWAYS 'eeh'. There are almost no exceptions. Once you know these four, you can read German vowel pairs confidently.
ස්වර සංයෝජන රීතිය නිරපේක්ෂය - ai/ei සෑමවිටම 'අයි', au සෑමවිටම 'ඔව්', eu/äu සෑමවිටම 'ඔයි', ie සෑමවිටම 'ඊ'. ව්යතිරේකයන් ඉතා කලාතුරකිනි. මේ හතර ඉගෙන ගත්විට ජර්මන් ස්වර යුගල ධෛර්යයෙන් කියවිය හැකිය.
Umlauts - ä, ö, ü (the two dots that change everything)
German has three letters not used in English: ä, ö, and ü. The two dots above them (called an Umlaut) signal that a hidden 'e' follows the vowel - so ä reads as 'ae', ö as 'oe', ü as 'ue'. Each changes the sound of the underlying vowel significantly.
ä → sounds like 'e' in 'bed' (short) or 'a' in 'fate' (long)
ඇ - 'bed' හි 'e' ශබ්දය
Bär (bear) · Äpfel (apples) · Mädchen (girl) · Universität (university) · Sänger (singer)
ö → sounds like 'i' in 'girl' - say 'ee' with rounded lips
ඔ් - 'girl' හි 'i' ශබ්දය, නමුත් තොල් රවුම් කරන්න්
schön (beautiful) · hören (listen) · Löwe (lion) · Zwölf (twelve) · mögen (to like)
ü → sounds like 'oo' in 'dude' with pursed lips
ඉ° - 'oo' ශබ්දය, නමුත් තොල් ඉදිරියට දිගු කරන්න
Füße (feet) · müde (tired) · Brüder (brothers) · Bücher (books) · früh (early)
The 'ch' sound - two different versions
The 'ch' combination has two distinct sounds in German depending on what comes before it. This is one of the most important and most-practised sounds for new German learners.
After a, o, u, au → hard 'ch' like in 'Loch Ness'
a, o, u, au ඊළඟට → හෙල් 'ශ්' ශබ්දය (ගෙල ගැඹුරෙන්)
das Buch (book) · auch (also) · Nacht (night) · Bauch (stomach)
After e, i, ä, ö, ü, ei, eu → soft 'ch' like 'sh' with friction
e, i, ä, ö, ü, ei, eu ඊළඟට → මෘදු 'ශ්' ශබ්දය, ඝර්ෂණ සමඟ
ich (I) · mich (me) · welche (which) · wirklich (really)
At the start of a word → sounds like 'sh'
වචනයක ආරම්භයේ → 'ෂ්' ශබ්දය
Chemie (chemistry) · China · Chef (boss)
Special letter combinations - complete reference
| Combination | Sounds like | Sinhala guide | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| sch | 'sh' in ship | ෂ° | Schule (school) · Fisch (fish) · schwimmen (swim) · schreiben (write) · falsch (wrong) |
| sp (start) | 'shp' - hidden h before p | ෂ°ප | sprechen (speak) · Sport · Spiel (game) · Spinne (spider) · Spaß (fun) |
| st (start) | 'sht' - hidden h before t | ෂ°ට | Stühle (chairs) · Straße (street) · stehen (stand) · studieren (study) |
| pf | both p+f said quickly together | ප°ෆ | Pfennig (penny) · Pferd (horse) · pflücken (pick) |
| qu | 'kv' - emphasis on the v part | ක°ව | qual (anguish) · Quittung (receipt) · Qualifikation |
| chs | 'ks' or 'x' sound | ක°ස° | wachsen (grow) · sechs (six) |
| -tion | 'tsion' at end of words | ට°සිऔ | Lektion (lesson) · Situation · Station · Position · Funktion |
| -ig (end) | 'ish' when at word end | ඉෂ° | ledig (single) · billig (cheap) · ruhig (calm) · zwanzig (twenty) · richtig (correct) |
| -chen (end) | 'shen' - always neuter | ෂෙන° | Mädchen (girl) · Brötchen (bun) · Kaninchen (rabbit) |
The German R - the raspy gargling sound
r - pronounced at the back of the throat
The German 'r' is NOT like the English 'r'. It is a raspy sound made deep in the throat, like gargling water.
Long vs Short vowels - what controls vowel length
German vowels can be long (held longer) or short (clipped). The spelling tells you which. This is crucial because vowel length can change the meaning of a word entirely.
Vowel + H → always long (the h is silent, just stretches the vowel)
ස්වරය + H → සෑමවිටම දිගු ස්වරය (h නිශ්ශබ්දය, ස්වරය දිගු කරයි)
fahren (drive) · sehr (very) · nehmen (take) · gehen (go) · sehen (see) · Söhne (sons)
Double vowels (aa, ee, oo) → long sound
ද්විත්ව ස්වර → දිගු ශබ්දය
Haare (hair) · leer (empty) · Boot (boat)
Double consonants (nn, mm, ss, ff) → short vowel BEFORE them
ද්විත්ව ව්යඤ්ජන → ඒවාට පෙර කෙටි ස්වරය
offen (open) · Wasser (water) · kommen (come) · essen (eat) · Stress
Word endings - how they sound
| Ending | How it sounds | Sinhala guide | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| -e (end) | soft 'uh' sound - almost swallowed | ෙ° | Banane (banana) · Lampe (lamp) · Schokolade (chocolate) · Frage (question) |
| -er (end) | soft 'uh' sound - the r is barely heard | ෙර° | Vater (father) · besser (better) · super (great) · Lehrer (teacher) |
| -en (end) | soft 'un' - schwa + n | ෙන° | kommen (come) · gehen (go) · essen (eat) · trinken (drink) |
| -el (end) | soft 'ul' ending | ෙල° | Apfel (apple) · Löffel (spoon) · Mantel (coat) |
The Eszett ß - Germany's extra letter
German has an additional letter called the Eszett or scharfes S (sharp S). It looks like a capital B but it is NOT a B - it is always a sharp 'ss' sound. The spelling rule determines whether to use ß or ss.
Use ß after a LONG vowel or two vowels
දිගු ස්වරයකට හෝ ස්වර දෙකකට පසුව ß යොදන්න
weiß (white) · heißen (to be called) · Fuß (foot) · Straße (street)
Use ss after a SHORT vowel
කෙටි ස්වරයකට පසු ss යොදන්න
dass (that) · bisschen (a little bit) · lassen (to leave) · Wasser (water)
ß is NEVER used at the start of a word
ß කිසිවිටෙකත් වචනයක ආරම්භයේ නොඑයි
When in doubt, 'ss' is always acceptable - Switzerland uses ss exclusively and drops ß entirely.
Word stress - where to put the emphasis
German words are almost always stressed on the first syllable or the stem of the word. Prefixes and suffixes are usually unstressed. This is more consistent than English, where stress can fall anywhere.
First syllable stressed (most German words)
ප්රථම syllable-ය අවධාරිත (බොහෝ ජර්මන් වචන)
KOM-men · WOH-nen · LER-nen · AR-beiten · SPIE-len
Separable verb prefix is stressed when separated
Separable verb prefix වෙන් කළ විට එය ශක්තිමත් ලෙස කියවෙයි
EIN-kaufen (to shop) · AN-kommen (to arrive) · AUF-stehen (to get up)
Inseparable prefixes (be-, ver-, er-, ent-, emp-) are NEVER stressed
Inseparable prefixes (be-, ver-, er-, ent-, emp-) කිසිවිටෙකත් ශක්තිමත් නොවේ
be-SU-chen (visit) · ver-STE-hen (understand) · er-KEN-nen (recognise)
Foreign/loan words often stressed on the last syllable
විදේශ/ණ් ඉවතට ගත් වචන අවසාන syllable-ය අවධාරිත
Stu-DENT · Mu-SE-um · Uni-ver-si-TÄT · In-ter-na-tio-NAL
Complete pronunciation quick-reference
| Letter / Combo | English equivalent | Sinhala guide | Key examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | short: 'a' in cat / long: 'a' in father | අ / ආ | Mann (man) · fahren (drive) |
| e | short: 'e' in bed / long: 'ay' in say | එ / එ° | essen (eat) · gehen (go) |
| i | short: 'i' in bit / long: 'ee' in see | ඉ / ඊ | bitte (please) · bieten (offer) |
| o | short: 'o' in off / long: 'o' in go | ඔ / ඕ | offen (open) · Boot (boat) |
| u | short: 'oo' in book / long: 'oo' in moon | උ / ඌ | und (and) · Uhr (clock) |
| ä | 'e' in bed | ඇ | Mädchen (girl) · Äpfel (apples) |
| ö | 'i' in girl with rounded lips | ඔ° | schön (beautiful) · Zwölf (twelve) |
| ü | 'oo' in dude with pursed lips | ඉ° | müde (tired) · Füße (feet) |
| ß | sharp 'ss' | ස°ස° | Straße (street) · weiß (white) |
| W | English V | ව | Wasser (water) · Winter |
| V | English F | ෆ | Vater (father) · viele (many) |
| Z | 'ts' in cats | ට°ස | Zeit (time) · Zimmer (room) |
| J | English Y | ය | Jahr (year) · Jacke (jacket) |
| ai / ei | 'eye' / English 'I' | අයි | mein (my) · Ei (egg) |
| au | 'ow' in cow | ඔව් | aus (from) · auch (also) |
| eu / äu | 'oy' in boy | ඔයි | heute (today) · neu (new) |
| ie | long 'ee' | ඊ | wie (how) · Sie (you formal) |
| sch | 'sh' in ship | ෂ | Schule (school) · Fisch (fish) |
| ch (a/o/u) | guttural 'ch' - Loch Ness | ශ°(ගෙල) | Buch (book) · auch (also) |
| ch (other) | soft 'sh' with friction | ශ°(මෘදු) | ich (I) · welche (which) |
| ch (start) | 'sh' like Chemie | ෂ | Chemie · China · Chef |
| sp (start) | 'shp' | ෂ°ප | sprechen (speak) · Sport |
| st (start) | 'sht' | ෂ°ට | Straße · stehen (stand) |
| pf | p + f together quickly | ප°ෆ | Pferd (horse) · Pfennig |
| qu | 'kv' | ක°ව | Quittung (receipt) |
| -ig (end) | '-ish' | ඉෂ° | zwanzig (20) · richtig (correct) |
| -tion | '-tsion' | ට°සිऔ | Lektion · Station |
| vowel + h | silent h, long vowel | (දිගු ස්වරය) | fahren · sehr · nehmen |
| double vowel | long vowel | (දිගු ස්වරය) | Haare · leer · Boot |
| double cons. | short vowel before | (කෙටි ස්වරය) | Wasser · kommen · offen |
| r | raspy, guttural gargle | ශ°ලේෂ්ෂ | rot (red) · Lehrer (teacher) |
The single best habit: read German text aloud every day. German spelling is so consistent that the more you read aloud, the more automatic the sound rules become. Unlike English, you almost never need to guess - if you know the rules, you know the pronunciation.
හොඳම පුරුද්ද: දිනපතා ජර්මන් text ශ්රව්ය ලෙස කියවන්න. ජර්මන් අක්ෂර සම්මත ඉතා ස්ථාවරයි - රීති දන්නවා නම්, උච්චාරණය දන්නවා. ඉංග්රීසි වලට වෙනස්ව අනුමාන කිරීමට සිදු නොවෙයි.
Check your understanding
How is 'W' pronounced in German? (e.g. in 'Wasser')