Can anyone explain to me how to pronounce the vowels that have German Umlauts?

Question

If i were to say KÜCHE how would the vowel sound different from something like UHR? Also, the same for the A, and O.

Answer 1

For ü, here is what you do. Make the vowel sound of "beet" and hold your tongue right there. Without moving your tongue or any other part of your mouth, pucker your lips together. That's ü.

For ö, the process is similar. Make the vowel sound of "bait" and hold your tongue right there. Now, just like before, without moving your tongue or any other part of your mouth, pucker your lips together. That's ö.

For ä, the process is even simpler. It's the sound of the vowel in American English "bat".

BTW, by "pucker" I mean round the lips tightly together and form a circle like you're going to give someone a kiss.

Answer 2

For Kuche (I don't have an umlaut key) which can also be written Kueche, the umlauted "u" is tongue pointed sharply toward bottom of teeth while saying a voiced oo or u. This may not be exactly the way a book describes it. This sound exists as "u" in French. No sound exists like this in English.

You need a book on phonetics with drawings of tongue placement, mouth shape, etc. A language lab where you can listen and repeat and compare your pronunciation always helps.

The umlauted "o" in German (also written oe) comes in a long and short form. These sounds occur in French but not English. If you speak French the two are like il pleure and il pleut.

If not, you need to get a phonetics book, go to a language lab (or work on home computer).

While you are at it, learn the International Phonetic Alphabet spelling of these sounds. Then with an IPA dictionary you can transfer these sounds to other languages. I first learned most of these sounds in Danish! But, use them in French.

While you are at it, make sure you can pronounce the "ch" too! And, if you are an English speaker, check on your "r"

Answer 3

i'm American and that i ought to have the skill to assert that we've slaughtered the mother tounge. whether in our risk-free practices.... as quickly as we moved over top right here to the kind new international, we had a suitable way of speaking and over the years and miles of land between familys and cities... We gained resourceful! How approximately probable the main 'hillbilly' accents? "hi ya'll!" a number of those conjure up photos of very ignorant human beings, and the actuality be known... those are between the considered necessary maximum clever and clever human beings! A us of a boy will survive is fairly actual.

Answer 4

You can't explain that in writing, you need to hear it. With some people, it helps if you add an "e" after the vowel instead of an umalut on top of it.

Answer 5

ä sound very much like a regular German e (tight ay)
long ö--say the German e (ah) and round your lips
short ö--say the German short e (like in Bett) and round your lips
long ü--say the German i (eee) and round your lips
short ü-say the German short i (ich) and round your lips.

If you have trouble with long ü, substitue an i (eee) sound. You'll shound like a German with a speech problem, not as foreign as substituting the American u sound.

the mouth diagrams in the phonetics books never helped me. Really need to talk with a kind German speaker who will llet you imitate him/her!

Answer 6

a with an umlaut (like in aepfel) sounds like a short e. o with an umlaut (like in oel) sounds like "er" (you would pronouce oel like the name Earl). u with an umlaut (like in kueche) sounds more like "oor" (like the word moor).

It is very difficult to explain in writing, but I hope this helps!