Learn how to pronounce the letters S, and A
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| Judith: Hallo, [Ich heiße] Judith. |
| Chuck: Hi I am Chuck. |
| Judith: [Sie hören germanpod101.com]! |
| Chuck: You are listening to germanpod101.com this is accent improvement series, lesson 7. |
| Judith: [Willkommen]! |
| Chuck: Welcome to another lesson by germanpod101. |
| Judith: This lesson is one part of the accent improvement series. |
| Chuck: You can find the rest of the lessons at |
| Judith: Germanpod101.com. |
| Chuck: Our goal in the accent improvement series is to help you improve your pronunciation so that you sound more and more like a native speaker. |
| Judith: However to really improve, it’s not enough that you listen to the lessons. |
| Chuck: You will also need to practice the pronunciation of the words and phrases over and over on your own. |
| Judith: To practice the phrases, go to germanpod101.com, access the learning center and use the line by line dialogue tool. |
| Chuck: If you find that you have a lot of trouble with one particular word however, go to the vocabulary section of the learning center and listen to the pronunciation of just that one word over and over. |
| Judith: In the learning center, you can also record your own pronunciation and compare it to mine. |
| Chuck: Today we will look at the various S sounds in German. |
| Judith: In German, there are three types of S sounds spelled in four different ways. |
| Chuck: So Judith, could you give us the sample phrase so that we can hear them? |
| Judith: Sure. [Zehn chinesische Schüsselchen]. |
| Chuck: Whoa! What does that mean? |
| Judith: Ten little Chinese bowls. |
| Chuck: That sounds useful. |
| Judith: Well it has all those sounds in it and it’s really good for practice because it’s almost a tongue twister. |
| Chuck: Alright, you convinced me. Can you say it a bit slower though this time? |
| Judith: Yeah [Zehn chinesische Schüsselchen]. |
| Chuck: Now let’s look at the different S sounds. |
| Judith: First let me say that the English S sound is spelled as either [ß] or a ss. Sometimes also as simple S especially at the end of the words. |
| Chuck: According to the new spelling reform which some Germans still haven’t mastered, this sound is spelled [ß], but it follows a long vowel and it’s spelled ss when it follows a short vowel because a double consonant indicates a short vowel. |
| Judith: Note that in German, this sound never occurs at the beginning of a word and by the same token, the letter [ß] never appears at the beginning of a word. |
| Chuck: That’s why there is no upper case version of it, too. |
| Judith: The German letter S is typically pronounced like the English Z in zoo. |
| Chuck: Don’t forget this. At the beginning of a word, it’s the only possible way of pronouncing the S unless there are other consonants along with it. |
| Judith: At the end of a word, the S is always pronounced like [ß]. In the middle of a word, things are more tricky. |
| Chuck: Finally, the German letter z is pronounced like English ts like in [tsar]. |
| Judith: You mean the letter z? That is the part that English speakers tend to have the most difficulty with. |
| Chuck: So make an effort to always pronounce the z this way. |
| Judith: Here is a tongue twister that you can practice. [Zehn zahme Ziegen zogen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo]. |
| Chuck: Ten tame goats pulled ten hundredweights of sugar to the zoo. |
| Judith: Also you should practice today’s sample phrase which contains all three kinds of S sounds. |
| Chuck: Can we hear that again? |
| Judith: [Zehn chinesische Schüsselchen]. |
| Chuck: Can you say it faster? Come on, say it faster. |
| Judith: [Zehn chinesische Schüsselchen]. |
| Chuck: Okay. Can you go over the S sounds one more time. I don’t think I caught on that last time you went through this phrase. |
| Judith: Sure. The beginning one [zehn] is the z and then [chinesische] the [s] is spelled as an s in German and [Schüsselchen] the middle sound [Schüsselchen] is the double s standing for this sound. |
| Chuck: Now go to the learning center at germanpod101.com and practice this phrase until you sound like a native. |
| Judith: It’s not too hard to pronounce a single phrase correctly and once you master the sounds in that one, you can try to apply the knowledge everywhere. |
| Chuck: Unless that single phrase is this one. |
| Judith: It’s not that hard. |
| Chuck: Remember, it’s not that hard to say [Zehn chinesische Schüsselchen]...okay because I happened to know that a German tongue twister is very similar to this phrase. |
| Judith: And yeah, there is a tongue twister that goes [chinesisches Schüsselchen]. If you say that often enough but I think the thing that really makes it difficult is the additional [s. chinesisches] at the end there. |
| Chuck: Yeah and Susie sells seashells by the seashore. So anyway, go to the learning center now and start practicing. |
| Judith: And be sure to tune in again for our next lesson. |
| Chuck: See you next time. |
| Judith: [Bis nächstes Mal]! |
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