The German 'h' sound
When the German letter 'h' appears at the beginning of a word, it is pronounced in a manner that corresponds to the initial sound in the English words 'house', 'hall' or 'history'. In English as in German, a slight narrowing of the speech organs takes place in the glottis, causing friction to the airstream. The German 'h' sound is therefore called a glottal fricative. Unlike in many English dialects however, this 'h' sound can never be 'dropped' - i.e. omitted - at the start or middle of words. The 'h' sound is never used in final position in German.
Click either here or on the sound icon on the left to hear six words featuring the 'h' sound. Pay close attention to the final two words in which 'h' is used in medial position.
Sounds 1: The 'h' glottal fricative |
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Haus
(house) |
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hier
(here) |
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Heim
(home) |
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Haupt
(head) |
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Bahnhof
(station) |
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Hochhaus
(block of flats) |
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But the letter 'h' is not pronounced at all if it used merely to indicate that the preceding vowel is a long one. Click either here or on the sound icon on the left to hear four words in which the letter 'h' is not articulated. Note in particular the length of the vowel that it follows.
Sounds 2: Words in which 'h' is not pronounced |
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stehen
(to stand) |
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gehen
(to go) |
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fahren
(to travel) |
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Lehrer
(teacher) |
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The consonant cluster 'th' is always pronounced as the phoneme /t/. This is true regardless of whether 'th' appears at the beginning, middle or end of a word. Click either here or on the sound icon on the left to hear a native speaker pronounce German words which contain 'th'. The words themselves are supplied in the box below along with an English translation:
Sounds 3: The 'th' consonant cluster |
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Theater
(theatre) |
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Thema
(theme) |
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Theorie
(theory) |
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sympathisch
(pleasant) |
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Apotheke
(chemist's) |
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Mathematik
(mathematics) |
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Methode
(method) |
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Athlet
(athlete) |
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Psychopath
(psychopath) |
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As in English, the letters 'ph' are pronounced as an /f/ phoneme in German. In fact, many words that originally contained the letters 'ph' have now been Germanified such that they are now spelled with an 'f'. You would now write Telefon, for example, rather than Telephon, and Fotografie rather than Photographie. Even after the recent German spelling reforms however, a number of 'ph' words remain, sometimes as the sole acceptable spelling of a lexical item, sometimes as an accepted variant to the spelling with 'f'. Click either here or on the sound icon on the left to hear the correct pronunciation of four words with the /ph/ spelling:
Sounds 4: The German 'ph' consonant cluster |
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Philosophie
(philosophy) |
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Phrase
(phrase) |
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Physik
(physics) |
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Phonetik
(phonetics) |
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How to pronounce German 'j'
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