Pronunciation and spelling
Vowel contrasts: a short sound is not a long sound
Length and vowel quality can distinguish words: Stadt /ʃtat/ versus Staat /ʃtaːt/;
bitten /ˈbɪtən/ versus bieten /ˈbiːtən/.
The colon-like IPA symbol ː marks length. ie often represents a long /iː/.
Doubled consonants usually signal a preceding short vowel; a following h can mark a long vowel without being separately pronounced, as in fahren. These are useful patterns, not rules without exceptions.
ei usually sounds /aɪ̯/ as in mein.
eu/äu usually sound /ɔʏ̯/ as in heute/Häuser.
au sounds /aʊ̯/ as in Haus.
ä is often /ɛ/ or, when long, /ɛː/ in standard descriptions.
ö and ü require rounded lips; they are not just English o/u. Practise /yː/ in Tür by retaining a high front tongue position while rounding the lips. Compare schon and schön: already versus beautiful/nice.
- Example
- Die Stadt ist schön. Die Tür ist zu.
- English
- The city is beautiful. The door is closed.
- Hinglish
- Shehar sundar hai. Darwaaza band hai.
Do not depend on Hindi transliterations as exact pronunciation. They can be reminders, but they do not reliably encode these contrasts. IPA here is a sound reference, not a requirement to learn an entire phonetic alphabet.
Wir bitten um Hilfe. = We ask for help. Wir bieten Hilfe an. = We offer help.
Hinglish: Hum madad maangte hain. / Hum madad offer karte hain.
The changed vowel changes the verb.