Learning German Using Phonics
Learning German Using Phonics
Have you ever asked a native speaker what a particular word means, just to get a blank or confused look? Is your pronounciation so bad no one can tell what you are saying? Would you say En-glish and En-gland or Eng-lish and Eng-land and can you tell the difference? If you see an international word in a German text do you naturally say it in English or in German? Why is this important?
When you hear a child’s first attempts saying Mama or Mummy what you are most likely to hear is “MaMaMaMaMa” . It is this practicing of the sounds that is the fundamental building block of the language. The German word for train is Zug or “der Zug” the pronounciation does not rhyme with “tug” rather it is a long u sound, more like zoog, mood and rude. The Z is more of a “Ts” or “Tz” than an English “z”. The “der” is not “d-er”, more of a “dare” or “dair”. I find it easier to put the “T” sound on the end of the proceeding word than at the beginning of the “s”. so “der Zug” becomes something like “Dairt Zoog” .
If you know the sounds of German, you will be able to relate the written word to the spoken word more easily, you will be able to pronounce what you read and you will be more able to ask of assistance when you encounter a word you do not know.
Getting the pronounciation right will help you get help when you ask what a new word means, will mean more people understand your German when you do speak and will boost your confidence in your speech.
In English you already know that words starting with the prefix ‘dis-’ have a negative meaning and ‘pro-´ are positive and you know how to pronounce them. This is part of the knowledge you should try and acquire in German as fast as you can. Improving your pronounciation and your understanding of the sounds of German will make the language easier and faster to learn.
The most common German prefixes are be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, ver- and voll-; and the suffixes are -mal, -schaft, -zid, -chen, -erl, -fach, -graphie and –heit.
If you get the pronounciation of these word parts right and fluid you will already be on the right track.
How can you work on your phonics? What you need is a written text with an audio track. The two in tandem allow you to see how each word is spelled and hear how it is pronounced. You can either make your own by using a screen or document reader and your own text or a service such as LingQ which provides audio language lessons with transcripts. Once you have these you can start working on the pronounciation of individual words and word parts by listening to phrases over and over again. Try and break down the word into its syllables, once you have those try and identify the actual sounds. When you are working on your pronounciation start with the last syllable of the word and repeat it. Take the word “Entshuldigung” its syllables are Ent//shul//dig//ung. Practice the ung ending a few times, when it sounds right move on the –digung, then –shuldigung and finally the whole word. The backwards method help stop you becoming tongue tied trying to say longer more complicated words, and with the longer words you will see that many letter groups are common and you will already be able to say them. The syllable makeup of a word also helps with the parts of the word to emphasise which can be a big factor in your pronounciation.
What all this works towards is being able to use the German you learning without the embarrassment associated with saying the words all wrong. It is then obvious that if you use the German that you know, even if it is only a handful of words and phrases, they will be reinforced in your memory and you will be less likely to forget them. You will be building a solid foundation in your long term memory.
About the Author
I have been teaching Adults Basic Skills for more than 10 years and have worked with IT for more than 25 years.
I currently run a number of wiki based programs from www.peterburgess.net including the www.peterburgess.net/index.php”>skills for life living documentation project
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