How to pronounce the following German cities - Part 2. Listen to Part 1 here.

1.) Nürnberg

2.) Frankfurt

3.) Leipzig

4.) Hannover

5.) Düsseldorf

6.) Kiel

How to pronounce some German cities - Part 1 :)

1.) München

2.) Berlin

3.) Köln

4.) Hamburg

5.) Stuttgart

6.) Dresden

Numbers from 0-10

Numbers from 11-20

Ok, the biggest difficulty which English-speakers experience with German numbers is that cardinal numbers above twenty appear to be formed “backwards”. When English speakers say “twenty-four”, German speakers say “four and twenty” = “vierundzwanzig”. When they are written out, each number is one continuous word - i.e. “achtundsiebzig”.

Examples:

45 -> 5 und 40 (fünfundvierzig)

99 -> 9 und 90 (neunundneunzig)

27 -> 7 und 20 (siebenundzwanzig)

30 (dreißig), 40 (vierzig), 50 (fünfzig), 60 (sechzig), 70 (siebzig), 80 (achtzig), 90 (neunzig), 100 (hundert).

Forming those numbers is quite easy. Simply take the first single number e.g. VIER and add the suffix “-zig”. The only exceptions are DREIßIG and SiebZIG, so don’t say dreizig or siebenzig.

Ok… do you remember the numbers from 0 - 10? If not - here’s a link to my last counting in German podcast ;)

Let’s continue with our numbers today. Die Zahlen auf Deutsch von 11-20. The rule is quite easy (exept 11, 12, 20): Simply say the one-digit number first and add -zehn (10).

11 elf

12 zwölf

13 dreizehn

14 vierzehn

15 fünfzehn

16 sechzehn

17 siebzehn

18 achtzehn

19 neunzehn

20 zwanzig

Die Zahlen auf Deutsch von 0-10 (the numbers in German from 0-10)

Knowing how to count is an essential part of any language that you learn. Numbers in German are actually not that difficult. But there are some differences to the way one counts in English - but you’ll learn that a bit later. Let’s start with the easy stuff!

I recorded the numbers on audio for you, so that you can listen to them and repeat them aloud if you’d like.

0 null

1 eins

2 zwei

3 drei

4 vier

5 fünf

6 sechs

7 sieben

8 acht

9 neun

10 zehn

I would like to continue with my “how to pronounce German” series. It’s about time to talk about…

No. 4: German diphthongs

1.) au

das Haus (Häuser) = house (-es)

die Maus (Mäuse) = mouse (mice)

2.) eu

teuer = expensive

das Feuer = fire

3.) ei

nein = no

(ie; hier = here)

#podcast

Finally part 3 of my German pronunciation podcast. Today I’ll tell you more about “ch”. :)

No 3: ch or ch?

die Nacht (Nächte) = night (nights)

das Loch (Löcher) = hole (holes)

das Buch (Bücher) = book (books)

ich = I ; me

das Licht (Lichter) = light (lights)

die Küche (Küchen) = kitchen (kitchens)

die Chemie = chemistry

China = China

The #German spelling alphabet

Recently, @kat_rees asked me on twitter to write something about the spelling alphabet. I thought that’s a good idea!

So, the history of the German “Buchstabiertafel” or “Telefonalphabet” started in 1890 in Berlin. Names in its phonebook were spelled by using numbers. So BABSI would have been “2 1 2 18 9”.

Since spelling a word like that is obviously a bit cumbersome, a different system was introduced only a couple of years later: Spelling something by saying a particular word for each letter which starts with the same letter. It helped to avoid misunderstandings during spelling e.g. complicated names or foreign terms and was way easier than the numbers of course. And that’s why it’s still used today.

After a whole bunch of changes over the years, the current list is defined in the “Phonodiktat” in the Federal Republic of Germany.

I pronounced it for you in this audio file. :)

#podcast

You want to know more about the pronunciation of the letters “ä”, “ö” and “ü”? Well ok, sit back and listen :)

No.2: German Umlauts

Ä:

der Esel (Esel) = donkey

der Ärger = anger

die Decke (Decken) = ceiling / blanket

der Bäcker (Bäcker) = baker

Ü:

die Tür (Türen) = door

das Gemüse = vegetables

Ö:

hören (regular) = (to) hear

das Öl (Öle) = oil