German for all abilities, private and business
When new studenst learn the German alphabet and come across the umlauts for the first time, they often ask if it matters whether they get the different pronunciation right.
The good news is that most of the time the rest of the sentence gives away which word is required. So, even if a German learner pronounces the word without the required umlaut, a German would still understand what is meant. As an example, if I said ‘ich habe einen Bruder’ or ‘ich habe zwei Brüder’, even if I pronounced Bruder/ Brüder wrong, the ‘einen’ or ‘zwei’ would make people understand.
On the other hand, it’s good to know and distinguish between words which are spelled almost identically, but thanks to an umlaut above the a, o, or u, change the meaning slightly or completely.
Here are some of them:
singular – plural
different verbs
different nouns
different words (could be nouns, verbs, adjectives etc…)
different tenses of modal verbs
German – Austrian
If you watch the video, you can hear me pronounce all those words. There’s also a quick listening exercise at the end.
Do you know any more examples? I’m sure I haven’t found all of them. If you find other ones, please add them in the comments.
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