In this book you are given the pronunciation of the phrases so that you will soon be able to recognize the different sounds. (The stressed syllable is marked in bold.) Here are a few rules you should know:
Umlauts
| German | sounds like | example | pronunciation |
| ä | bed/hair | hätte/spät | het-e/shpeht |
| äu | boy | läutet | loytet |
| ö | Arthur/fur | können/Höhe | kur’nen/hur’-e* |
| ü | duke/due | dürfen/Mühe | duerfen/mue-e |
* ur’ as in hurt without the r pronounced
A final e is always pronounced, but weakly like the e in the: Seide (zy-de), bitte (bit-e).
An underline indicates a short vowel, e.g. Mutter (mootter), Mörder (murder), Küste (kueste).
If an h is added after the vowel, the sound is longer, e.g. Tag (tahk), Mädchen (meht-khen), Leben (lehben), hoch (hohkh).