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Is there a sound in the German language that is similarly difficult for English speakers as th is for German speakers?

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    "ü" and "ö" are very difficult to pronounce, at least for me.
    – user128
    May 25, 2011 at 18:29
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    @Explorer “ö” is almost exactly the same sound that you get when pronouncing “further” with a British accent (i.e. with a silent “r”). The only difference is that in German the sound is usually closed. Not many people seem to know this.
    – Konrad Rudolph
    May 25, 2011 at 19:53
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    @Explorer You had me momentarily surprised, but then I saw in your profile that you come from Norway. And indeed, my experience with Norwegians is that they would pronounce it more like “ä”. For the “ö” pronunciation, listen e.g. here: dictionary.reference.com/browse/further
    – Konrad Rudolph
    May 25, 2011 at 21:16
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    @Explorer: hint for pronouncing "ü" - Say the i: sound and round your lips while doing so. Say "fiehl" with rounded lips and it will sound like "fühl". Similarly for "ö" - say the e: sound with rounded lips.
    – teylyn
    May 26, 2011 at 4:06
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    Funny enough: German people can't pronounce squirrel, and everyone else in the world can't pronounce Eichhörnchen.
    – Federico Poloni
    Jan 6, 2016 at 19:01

7 Answers 7

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The ulvular trill of the German r is tricky for us. I can do it after a vowel but not very well at the start of a word.

The ch in ich takes a while to master, but mostly because beginners tend to assimilate it with English sh, not because it's terribly hard. The ch in nach is easier.

ü also takes a while to get to grips with.

I consider none of the other vowels (and diphthongs) difficult to articulate for an English speaker, but for a beginner it's natural to substitute them with a similar but different sound that's more familiar. In the same way, a English speaker with a non-rhotic accent may have a tendency to pronounce word-final -er as a schwa as in those varieties of English.

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    Like "g" in "fertig".
    – user128
    May 25, 2011 at 18:34
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    @fzwo: TeX stand for the greek letters tau-epsilon-chi and is thus pronounced [tɛχ] (although in Germany many peoply pronounce it [tɛç]).
    – FUZxxl
    May 25, 2011 at 18:42
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    @FUZxxl: No, TeX is supposed (by Knuth) to be pronounced with a "ch" as in nach, but I don't know any German who does this. They all say it with a "ch" as in ich or frech.
    – Hendrik Vogt
    Jun 6, 2011 at 17:04
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    @Alenanno: No, the pronunciation of "ch" depends on the vowel preceding it.
    – Hendrik Vogt
    Jun 6, 2011 at 17:07
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    @Hendrik Isn't this exactly what I said?
    – FUZxxl
    Jun 6, 2011 at 17:16
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Try to speak the German word for "matchbox"

Streichholzschachtel [ˈʃtʀaɪ̯ç.hɔlʦˌʃaχ.tl̩]

and then you know, which consonants are difficult to pronounce.

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    OK, those clusters are hard. I might have to stick to "Das Ding, in dem die Dinge sind, mit denen man Feuer macht".
    – misterben
    May 25, 2011 at 17:16
  • funny thing is, there isn't even a synonym for that in German. Not even in everyday language!
    – ladybug
    May 26, 2011 at 7:55
  • What about Zündholzschachtel, which is a bit easier?
    – misterben
    May 26, 2011 at 9:05
  • Or "Zündholzbox"?
    – FUZxxl
    May 26, 2011 at 9:11
  • @ladybug: I suppose there are many words for which there is no synonym. Is there a synonym for matchbox?
    – O. R. Mapper
    Mar 21, 2015 at 22:20
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Most native English speakers have difficulties with the sound ch, pronounced like the guttural ch in Scottish "loch."

Also, the correct pronunciation of the different forms of r is a problem for many people from English speaking countries.

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My father (American) always had huge differences with the German R. He tended to form it from the tip of the tongue (rolling). I guess the difficult part was realizing how similar the German and English versions are.

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As a Brazilian, my native language is Brazilian Portuguese. I found it much, much easier to learn the German phonemes than the English ones, both to understand and to pronunce them.

However, there are some phonemes that are a bit tricky in German. The umlauted vowels are a bit of a challenge. However the ch is way harder. I can say I did not "get it" yet.

The r (uvular trill) is somewhat hard, too, but not impossible.

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Try ,,tzsch''. I've seen in it only in names and even native speakers argue about how one should pronounce this. In upper saxon it is pronounced like ,,tsch'' (without the z).

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    Isn’t the “z” in “tzsch” always silent?
    – Konrad Rudolph
    May 25, 2011 at 19:55
  • Tja, I guess that tells you how close to speaking Saxon we are here in Berlin :-)
    – Sean Patrick Floyd
    May 25, 2011 at 20:27
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    @Konrad: Yes, I agree for single words, but I guess "Blitzschlag" is not easy.
    – Phira
    May 28, 2011 at 20:58
  • @Phira: Given that the tzsch in that example spans a word boundary (within the compound), I don't think it's a good example. Otherwise, you could argue that English has the exact same thing, e.g. in a sentence like "Vince should leave." The ce sh would form the same combination of sounds, but there's no issue about that because the ts sound and the sh sound belong two different words and syllables.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Mar 21, 2015 at 22:24
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It's not simply a matter of the isolated sounds; their "phonetic context" also matters. I have no problem with the sound at the end of ich, dreißig, fertig, etc. but I can't say Eichhörnchen at normal speed.

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    Try the Bavarian Oachkatzlschwoaf ;)
    – Jan
    Dec 30, 2015 at 17:27

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