Thomas Müller? Jägermeister? How do you pronounce these letters with the two dots on top in German? Can you learn it if you didn't grow up with it? And what if you don't have these letters on your keyboard? I gave my best to make a video that will help you guys with all of these questions and will hopefully make the German Umlauts a little less scary. Please add YOUR tips and tricks for pronouncing the Umlauts in the comments below! ⤵
In an American keyboard you can use the double quotes as the Umlaut, so just type "u and you get the ü. Fortunately I don't have this problem because in Brazilian keyboards, there is not a single accent that they don't have... except the weird circle the Swedes uses on their vowels. I tried using a German keyboard when I moved to Berlin but failed miserably because of the Y-Z thing. So now I live in Germany, and have a Brazilian keyboard, sometimes configured as an American keyboard.
Okay, your tip on the ü by saying “eee” with a rounded mouth helped me IMMENSELY. I’ve been learning German for over a year now and never heard that tip until your video. Thank you!!
I think it makes a massive difference to have someone extremely fluent in both languages do this. Feli has the ability to speak English with almost no detectable German accent, but then blend in more or less of that sound when saying both German and English. It makes learning more fun!
@@xyzcomp08 almost no detectable German accent? Serious? She has a very distinctive German accent and it's great that she isn't losing it. You confuse her ability to speak American English very clearly with a lack of accent.
@@andrewphillips3973 what do you think I meant? She speaks English clearly without a strong accent. To me, it's almost not noticeable. If you have an issue, I can't help you.
I grew up with a father who spoke Russian and German. One of his sisters grew up in Belgium and spoke French. My German great grandmother spoke broken English unless she was mad, then only German.
Haha, people should do the OPPOSITE when they're mad - STAY with the language they're least-fluent in so nobody understands them when they say something they later regret! :oD
The Ü is quite easy to learn when you know how it was developed. It replaced the combination "iu" in middle high German and when you say "iu" very quick and short it already develops into "ü". Or you try to say "ooh" and you bring your chin up and to an underbite. For the Ö, actually place your tongue behind the lower front teeth and push the middle of the tongue slightly to the front as if you were trying to say "yo" (io again in middle high German). The Ä is just an A where you broaden your chin area instead of going vertical.
@@HalfEye79 Yes, for example the middle high German word for adventure was "adventiure". Duisburg has a completely different etymological development and in the first naming was "Tusburch" and the region it was in was actually originally also "Diusburggau". As you see originally it developed from "iu".
I've always found the "move your mouth this way" descriptions incredibly unhelpful. When I try to do that, it doesn't give the right sound, and when I try to figure out what I do to get the sound, it doesn't seem to match the description.
When I took German in high school my teacher said that when making the O or U umlaut sound you make a small o shape with your lips and make a U shape with your tongue and press it against the back of your front teeth. We were taught ezsets and umlauts, but this was the mid 90’s and he said that a lot of people thought this would go away with the advancement of computers, in order to make keyboards more universal. I’m actually really glad this never happened, as I’ve always thought these extra letters were kinda cool.
This sounds exactly like I imagine a american teacher in the 90s... "They'll surely stop doing this, when they realize how dumb it is not to buy American Keyboards" :-D. Although there was some movement in the 90s with the "Rechtschreibereform" (spelling reform). People wanted to get rid of inconsistent spelling (some of which was introduced into German by importing foreign words). In German is a rule that states a vowel followed by a double consonants is to be pronounced short so "satt" (not hungry) vs Saat (seed). But to make a sharp S sound you also use double S... but how could you have a long vowel sound in front of a sharp S? ß To the rescue: Masse (mass) is a different word than Maße (measurements/dimensions of something). The usage of ß was quite random before and was adjusted by the spelling reform. But the reform was introduced quite brutally and met a lot of resistance, so it had to be weakened a lot to get passed... so we still have inconsistencies or at least the old spelling is still allowed.
When I was learning German, my teacher told me that the ö was pronounced by forming the lips as if you were going to say o but say e (the German) instead and for the ü you form the lips to say u but say i (the German or ee in English) instead. It helped a lot.
that's the way I tend to explain it to people: Your mouth forms the base vowel while your tongue forms an 'e' (or an 'i', which amounts to the same). when switching between base vowel and umlaut your lips shouldn't move at all (as far as I've observed on myself)
Great video Feli!!! I already knew the umlauts, but every time I said them I felt like it was an approximation of the real pronunciation. After watching your video, I realized I had it right and I gained confidence in speaking German. Thank you!!!!
This was such a great video! I think learning a language is so much easier once you understand the proper way to say the vowels. And that bit at the end about using an "e" next to the vowel instead of the 2 dots makes so much sense to me now when I see German written. Informative, insightful, loved it!
Believe me i have been learning german 6 months,and i understood today how to pronounce Die Umlaute today thanks sis . German language is diffecult ,but interesting These days i enjoy learning German Thanks.
As a native French speaker, the Umlauts are really easy to say because those are sounds we also have in our language. So if you already know French, Ä = ai Ö = eu Ü = u And for the German "U" we write it "ou"
I am learning french and I was thinking how ü sounds just like the french u to me and the ö sounds a lot like eu. I didn't think about the ä sounding like the french ai thank you for that
I know I have said this before but Felicia just has a natural talent for teaching. Success will follow whatever she has planned for her future. She has much to be proud of. So admirable!
Thank you for this! My last name is Stroessner. However, before my great-grandparents moved to America, it was Strössner. So, the ö was pronounced as it is in öffnen. These days, we pronounce it Stressner (with the O being sient). The only people who have ever pronounced my last name correctly are either German, or they follow history and are familiar with Alfredo Stroessner, a former dictator of Paraguay who is of no relation to me thank God! I hope you're enjoying your trip. I would love to go to Germany someday.
Maybe your name will be pronounced more correctly from now on because of this video. My surname is an exemple for writing "oe", a German Standesbeamter got the writing wrong once and therefor this is the correct spelling now😁
@@biankakoettlitz6979 Haha I bet your name gets butchered too! Even though we have different last names, I still feel a connection to people with an oe in their names
In my lastname is no umlaut but "eh". It is written "ee", "he", or "e". Thats going on my nerves sometimes. Because there is another "e" in this name, my father made a joke about that in a bank. The clerk asked, whether there in one or two "e". My father responded with "two". But than, he corrected the clerk "Now you have written it with three Es." Think of "Pfeiffer" in "Die Feuerzangenbowle" when he is asked, whether his name is written with one or two Fs.
@@paulstroessnerjr7862 it got worth with my name in Røros (Norway) : they pronounced it "k o e/spelling each singel charakter/t l i tsch" because of their German mining tradition in ca. 1800😁 it took me a while to recognize my name😁OK. I am not much better when I speak norvegian, I gess😀
Hi Feli, you have just answered/clarified the sounds and what to do if your keyboard doesn’t have the Umlaut letters. I enjoy all your interesting videos and have happy memories of visiting Wuppertal and Hamburg in 2011 Vielen Dank and best wishes from Oxfordshire UK. I❤️🇩🇪🇪🇺
I’m a Chinese speaker and the long version of ü does exist in Chinese pronunciation. It sounds and writes exactly the same as ü in German. But it somehow took me a while to realize it😅
Hi... I really love your channel and videos.. I have a german ancestor from Munich and I have learned a lot from you and your Country.... Im a devoted fan of yours...
I am learning German and just discovered your channel. This video was SO helpful. From listing to linguists talk about this it has to do with tongue placement and movement. You did an excellent job of explaining how to pronounce these!😊 If you are not already studying linguistics you definitely should go for it. You'd be a natural.
One of the coolest stories involving Americans using umlauts is how Mötley Crüe came up with their name. They were drinking Löwenbräu beer when they came up with the name and they decided to use the umlauts they saw on the beer bottles. But they didn’t even know what umlauts were and the first show they ever played in Germany the fans were pronouncing the name differently and the guys in the band had no idea why until they found out what umlauts were.
I started learning German 56 years ago. After 4 years of study, I was pretty fluent, but I decided to retake the course after decades of not speaking the language. German has changed so much since the 1960s, I almost feel as though I need to start from scratch. Many German words I learned don’t seem to be used much anymore as they have been replaced by words from other languages.
SO glad a friend recommended your video and I found this channel! It has been my goal to learn German for years (family heritage and personal interest), and you are a natural teacher! Danke!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
You are really good at giving examples of words that have similar sounds made in English. I must say that I have always had the most difficulty pronouncing ü, and still do. Also, the u sound in French. I will try practicing my û pronunciation with your advice in mind. I am probably a lot older than most of your subscribers, and haven’t been to Europe for a long time now, but I really enjoy your cultural comparisons and I think, if you’re at all interested, you could have a career in television. You’re an attractive young woman who appears to be at home on screen. Keep up the great work!
Felicia, I'm impressed with your English. For a Kraut who was born in Germany and lived in Cincinatti for only eight years you sound a red blooded American. I have an Austro-Hungarian background but never learned German.
Feli is awesome, German is such beautiful language once you are passionate about it, and the more I learn about it I enjoy every part of it, I find its amazing that Feli takes the time to make videos explaining ANY German subjects it make it a more pleasant experience to learn about the culture and language. Thank you Feli I am from Canada ! and 18 years old, I truly want to visit Germany, hopefully I won't get lost when ever I will visit someday.
Thanks for helping me realize how difficult my own name is to pronounce, lol. I am told my grandfather changed the ü to ue when we immigrated to the U.S. When my dad used to pronounce our last name the correct way it sounded like, as you said, trying to say the u and e at the same time.
If you read an old English book you may come across the two dots above a vowel. This is called a 'diareses' and was a way to show that a double vowel was pronounced as two vowels following each other. The most famous example is cooperative which is pronounced co operative and sometimes is spelt co-operative. Of course English native speakers know how it is pronounced so the diaresis is never used nowadays. (I don't know how to type this...)
Fun fact: to get all accents on letters the you just have to switch your regular qwerty keyboard mode from US to US International. All it changes is that it allows typing accents followed by a letter to make combinations. '+e = é , `+e = è , ^+e = ê , "+u = ü, ~+n = ñ , alt+c = ç. Why not all US keyboards have this setting as standard and why so few people in the US know about it is a huge mystery...
Or, if you have an iPhone or iPad, just put your finger on the letter, say, o, and several options will pop up. Just slide your finger on the option you need, and then let go. Voilà! You also can opt for a German (or many other languages) keyboard under settings, general, keyboard, and choose German. I use English, French, and German keyboards. If you use the keyboard in your chosen language, the appropriate spell checking will kick in as well.
If you are a programmer, US international is a great keyboard setting for Germans as well. All the special characters you need are much easier to access.
@@simonthelen5910 In case you already have a German keybord, instead of buying a new one, you can use stickers to change the layout to test it. You will find them on the internet for some euros.
@@DerTaran In basically every operating system, you can select multiple keyboard layouts and switch between them using a key shortcut (e.g. Windows+Space on Windows). I'm using a German keyboard but I've memorized the US layout because characters like "{" or "\" are a lot easier to reach (for example when writing LaTex).
Nice lesson! An old language book i read back in the 70s called speaking ue as "positioning your mouth for "oo", then saying "ee". turns out a lot of foreign sounds can be done that way, setting up for this sound, then making that sound instead. (and then speaking with real speakers as much as you can, to 'sand off the rough edges' of your pronunciation. Speaking sure is, all about listening.)
This was a wonderful refresher ever scene watching your videos I have been trying to recall all the German I learned back in high school! Even tho it was only 3 years ago. It seems like I can sometimes barely remember the phrases I used when I visited Germany.
At least you are only 3 years removed from studying German, for me it's been over 30 years. I would like to get back into it, maybe when (if?) I retire and can devote more time to studying.
Hi Feli! I was in the British RAF in the 70s and 80s in the RAF bases of Willdenrath near Monchengladbach and Guetersloh near Bielefeld. You’ve just shown me how to correctly use keyboard to put the umlaut in to Guetersloh and not just a u on its own, after all those years, I can now die happy Cheers Feli!
Since 2017, the ß has also been available as a capital letter ẞ. It is used when only capital letters are used, for example, for names in passports. In addition, the ß is not used throughout the German-speaking world: In Switzerland, the ß does not exist and ss is used instead.
@@DerTaran I'm sure you know, but many may not... to type an uppercase ü -> Ü on the SwissGerman keyboard, you need to press and release the caps lock key, then press ü, which results in the Ü, and then press & release caps lock again. I've heard/read many comments stating that the 'caps lock' key is useless... well, it is used in Switzerland!
I am an American of German descent. My grandparents spoke German when they were young but my parents never learned it. I took German in high school and I have been to Germany a few times. So, I can speak German to a limited extent but I am far from fluent. My grandmother and other (older) German Americans pronounced ö and ü differently than you describe in the video. The ö was pronounced much like the German e. For example, können and kennen sound pretty much the same. Also, listen to Wayne Newton's song Danke Schoen. In the song, schoen (schön) rhymes with the English pain and explain. According to your video, that would be wrong; however, my grandmother (and others) did pronounce it that way. And consider this example from German poet Franz Grillparzer: Wie viel weißt du, o Mensch, der Schöpfung König, Der du, was sehbar siehst, was meßbar mißt, Wie viel weißt du! und wieder, ach, wie wenig, Weil, was erscheint, doch nur ein Äußres ist. In the first and third lines König and wenig are supposed to rhyme. My grandmother (and others) also pronounce ü differently than what you describe in the video. Consider the ee in the English words see and flee. That is how the ü was usually pronounced. So, über and Fieber would rhyme. Vier (4) and für would sound the same. But ü can also have a short i sound, as in the English flick or stick. I think the German poet Nikolaus Lenau gives us an example: Mitten in dem Maienglück Lag ein Kirchhof innen Der den raschen Wanderblick Hielt zu ernstem Sinnen. In the first and third lines Glück and Blick are supposed to rhyme. My grandmother and others her age pronounced the ä pretty much the same as what you describe in your video. Why do you suppose we have these differences in pronunciation between what you describe in your video and the way the older German Americans pronounced words with the umlauts ö and ü? Is there a region in Germany in which High German is spoken the way my grandmother spoke it? Is it possible that High German in Germany used to be spoken the way my grandmother spoke it, but that the pronunciation in Germany changed over the years? Any insight you could provide would be much appreciated. Thank you.
That’s most likely because there are a lot of dialects. I’m Schwäbisch they say schen instead of schön for example. Your grandparents most likely were from a region were they pronounced it differently. But in „high German“ and most German dialects the umlaut is pronounced the way she is doing it in the video :)
German was my major when I went to university years ago. maybe because i’m an indonesian, that’s why I never had problem with umlaut pronunciation, since almost all the alphabet in german is pronounced similarly as in indonesian. the hardest part of this language is the Grammatik!
I imagine the mapping of Latin letters into Indonesian sounds was strongly influenced by the Dutch colonial presence, which explains why it is similar to the German usage.
the " try to pronounce e at the same time" really helped with the u with umlaut sound! really surprised it did tbh, great video as always keep it up :)
We had an airport in Austin (now just a neighborhood) named Mueller. For a long time, it was pronounced as you would think it would be pronounced in German (with an American accent of course). Then the family spoke up and said that they had always pronounced their name as "Miller" so that is now its pronunciation. Same spelling though - Mueller. Basically in Texas if something looks like it's pronounced a certain way, it often isn't.
I am from kerala, southern part of india. These days, i am trying to learn German by listening Michel Thomas audio lectures. This vedio helps me a lot. Tanx
Another great video, thank you! The way that I was instructed in my German class was to make my mouth into a shape for saying an “o” sound (like “open”, then say a “u”, for ü, then basically the opposite for ö (make a “u” shape, like for saying “united”, but the say “o”).
I was taught to say the soft English "e" while holding my mouth in the position to say the presented a, o, or u. The variations came from use and practice. *edit: 3 seconds later, Feli says the same thing! 😂
Thanks muchly! Our name was Ruber with the Umlaut in the old days, but now we write Rueber. However we pronounce it Reeber which causes no end of trouble as people want to say Roober. Our mail comes Reuber, Reiber Rieber Reeber and other ways too.
I hoped you would mention that the dots are remnants of the additional E, that wandered from after A/O/U to above , and then dissolved to only be two lines and later two dots. You can think of the two dots as the top and Bottom line of the E that is not there anymore but can brought back when you don't have a German Keyboard. Its the same with the â in French, where the ^ once was an s after the a.
Lol my grandmother is german, but I’ve never heard her speak it unless shes swearing under her breath. Your pronunciation of Germany with the accent perfectly demonstrates her accent and how she speaks
Back in the day, I helped out a German teacher with typing those German umlaut characters on her computer. I grew up being computer savvy and discovered that one could type those German characters with special keystrokes (i.e.: ä = Alt+0228).
I almost posted the same. In fact, my previous computer, with a 15.6" screen has a numeric keypad, something I sought so that I could not only type the umlauts and ß, but also so that I could type Old English characters, æ, þ ð. I eventually discovered the joys of an ultraportable, but now have to use Character Map to find those characters.
For those who are curious: German umlaut keyboard shortcuts ß = alt + 0223 Ä = alt + 142 ä = alt + 0228 Ö = alt + 153 ö = alt + 0246 Ü = alt + 154 ü = alt + 0252
A _brilliant_ video. I have been struggling for years to hear the difference between a, ae, o, oe, and u, ue. You succinctly explained it to a long-time and very casual German student like me. Now if I can only remember the vocabulary...
I once knew an American student here in Germany who had learned German but completely gave up the pronunciation of Ü. Instead, he always pronounced it like a normal German U. My advice to him was that instead of the U, he should pronounce the Ü like the German I, with which he had no problems. Germans are more likely to understand you when you say Minchen instead of Munchen. Guess where the name Miller came from.
Miller is actually English. I don't think it ever had the "ü" vowel sound. In English (at least in the US), the most common Anglicized spellings for Müller are either Mueller or Muller. That being said, many of the Old English "ü" sounds (often written with "y") became an "i" in Modern English, so Miller may have been originally Myller.
@@VTdarkangel It's very likely that you are right. Müller might not be the origin of Miller. But both words definitely have the same origin and Müller is the correct German translation of Miller. Mueller is just the German replacement of the umlaut, as mentioned in this video. Before there was a uniform spelling in Germany, Müller was also sometimes spelled Myller here. And btw. if you say Muller for Müller most Germans will struggle to understand it, while Miller is easier to understand.
@@felixstoll2277 That is interesting. That suggests German ears are listening more to the part of the vowel that is shaped by the tongue than by the lips.
👍 Thanks Felicia! I am a Belgian national, but from German decent as you can see in my family name. Pronunciation for non German speakers is a nightmare, however from now on I will refer people to this video! Just for your amusement here is the funny backstory about my family name : `Hören` in German means `Listen` in English ok, nothing wrong with that, however as you explained `ö` can be written also as `oe` ... still nothing wrong for German speakers, however in Dutch (60% of Belgium is Dutch speaking) `oe` is pronounced COMPLETELY different ... it translates to the `u` sound in German ... making my name `Huren` ... which translates to ... `Whores` in English ... Trust me, I have heard all the jokes ! Another interesting detail is that the German word `hören` translates to the Dutch word `horen` ... you see now why I do often omit the umlaut because it beats the alternative! 😂
If you are ever in SE/east central Ohio, we have an historical site called Schoenbrun. We don't use umlates in our spelling, but it is certainly pronounced as if they are present. Not far from Schoenbrun is Gnadenhutten 😊
Good tutorial. You can print out (or view online) an extended ASCII chart and enter any of the special characters, foreign letters, math symbols, borders, etc. via Alt+decimal-number.
Because French evolved from Latin spoken by Germanic tribes (the Franks, from which the name of the country France derives) and Celtic tribes. So it's not that surprising. I'm a native French and German sounds very clear to my ears, much more so than English, even though my English is much better than my German.
Your tongue trick seemed to work for the Ü as well. Say U then move your tongue slightly forward and up to touch the sides of your top teeth and you should be close to the Ü sound. Similar to how the Ë worked as you mentioned.
Thomas Müller! Mein Leiblingsfußballer! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 😃 As an American who’s trying to learn German later in life, I’ll take all the lessons I can get. I sing in a German choir in my hometown. Many of the singers emigrated from Germany to America. I typically sit between one of the native speakers and a guy who served in the US Army in Germany who married a Munich girl and brought her back with him to the States. They’re a big help with pronunciation, especially umlauts. I must be doing OK, they don’t correct me very often.
They would probably tell you that it’s “Liebling”, not “Leibling”, though. 🤗 ei is pronounced like ay in German, ie is pronounced like ee. But you made a good job by connecting two substantives with an s here. 😃👍
I've actually been trying to learn another language (not German, tut mir leid!) and they try to do the pronunciation with accent characters -- and as a native English speaker who never had to use accented characters, it doesn't matter what the accent over the character is I don't know how to say it. I have to try to memorize their example sounds like the "oo" in "boot" or the "u" in "put". All I see is the letter it's over and then a strange symbol that I don't know what it does to the sound. Except for the ' over an e for words like "touche'". This was a fun video because it's been so long since I thought about umlauts.
First of all, great video again! :) I just have to drop an additional fact on how to pronounce the umlaut Ä: Typically in Northern Germany it is ALWAYS pronounced like an E, so here in the North we DO say Käfer like "Kehfer" and gähnen like "gehnen". In Southern Germany it might be very much like you said, but this is just another prime example on how different the various regions in Germany are. :D So in conclusion, in Northern variants of German the letters Ä and E are phonetically identical, it solely depends on the etymology which letter is used. :) Also in general, there is a very helpful chart on how to pronounce every vowel sound that exists in any human language, each sound represented by their IPA character (IPA = International Phonetic Alphabet): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPA_vowel_chart_2005.png As you can see, every single vowel can be created via three attributes: 1) How wide your mouth is opened 2) How far to the front your tongue is positioned 3) Whether your lips are rounded or not This helped me a lot to pronounce vowels that don't exist in either German or English, like the unrounded back close vowel (or the "unrounded U") for example, which corresponds to the Japanese "U" sound or the Turkish "I" without (!) the dot. Also, since it is the topic of this video, the Ö umlaut is represented in the chart above by the " ø" (the long "schön"-Ö) and the "œ" (the short "öffnen"-Ö) while the Ü umlaut is represented by the " y" (the long "über"-Ü) and the "ʏ" (the short "Thomas Müller"-Ü). :)
Weiter im Süden ist es dafür eher umgekehrt. Wir Schwaben sagen auch Käse mit dem ä-Laut, nicht Kehse. Außerdem treibt es mich manchmal auf die Palme, wenn jemand sogar das Wort Schwäbisch als Schwehbisch ausspricht ^^'
Thats really Interessting, We aslo mostly pronounce ä- as eh- as well here in Austria, or at least where im from. I wonder why we have that similarity even tho wer're further apart geographically than austria and the south of germany are ^^
@@zadass Interesting, I didn't know that. :) Well, that could be for a similar reason there is a somewhat "chopped" regional distinction for the way German speakers say the short version for ":45 hours". Here in the North and West of Germany we say "Viertel vor", for example "Viertel vor neun" representing 8:45 am, which as far as I know also applies to Bavaria and Austria. Then again there is this kind of "sash" going diagonal from Southwest to Northeast on the map straight through the German speaking area, where "Dreiviertel" ist used to describe this time, so 8:45 am would be "Dreiviertel neun". But this is a whole other topic that can get pretty heated at times which version is "correct". :D In the end it's just a regional distinction and there is no right or wrong - even though i personally find "Dreiviertel" to be rather cringeworthy, but that's probabaly because I didn't grow up with it. :D
I was taught that to make the ö sound, you make “ay” like in “hay” and then round your lips, and to make the ü sound, you make “e” like in “he” and then round your lips. Is that close?
That's pretty much it for "ü". For the other two...the way we English speakera say "ay" in "day" or "say" is by default a diphthong (i.e. two vowels said in the same time as one). Even when we say the letter "a" in English when we're spelling a word, reciting the alphabet, or whatever. Make it one vowel. That's "ä". Then take "ä", close your mouth and round your lips. That's "ö". You could also describe "ö" as a more closed version of the vowel in "good", or "foot" - at least said by an American. Disclaimer, I'm a native English speaker who's still VERY much a beginner to German! So I could be wrong. Also, try to make ALL your vowels in German come from a place further back in the mouth than their English equivalent- at least if you're American. Hope this helps! P.S. "ü" also exists in French and even Mandarin, just as a fun fact.
@@kirstenmuller4536 Hi Kirsten, your name is Muller. Some hundred years ago it might have been Müller, for Muller doesn’t“t exist. It“s only the Americanized form of Müller. When surnames were created your ancients may have been millers.😃👍
@@kirstenmuller4536 Sure. That concessions have to be made, if you decide to live in a country with another language. Have you heard, how many refugees arrived in Germany in the last years? Arabic names have 3 components: The name of the father, the grandfather and the personal name. Our computers dont't like 3 names. I remember 4 brothers - 2 of them in my class, that our computer system at school got with the same name. You cam imagine the chaos. Now most of the refugees take the name of the father as last name and drop the name of the grandfather. The Russian and Slovakian ladies have -va at the end of their names. In Germany they drop it,too.You definitely can't have a last name in the US nobody can pronounce because of the ü....;o))
This video is very helpful with pronouncing the words with the umlaut! I've gotten down the ö pretty well after saying "Danke schön" quite often on my last trip to Austria and Germany a few years back, but this really helps with the ü. I'll have to remember this video the next time I go there!
It feels like tongue placement is vital! Also using the back of your throat for specific pronunciation is key. At least for me. I know you are not a fan of Rammstein, but for me listening to them helps greatly with pronunciation of German. And when I look up the translation of song lyrics to English further helps. 😁
I recently discovered these videos and they're awesome. This umlaut video reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend about pronoun gender agreement in a sentence like "Da ist das Mädchen. (Sie oder Es?) hat schöne Haare." On one hand "es" seems like it might be grammatically correct (at least by English grammatical standards), but on the other it just sounds weird to me. (Disclaimers: Sorry this is off topic or if it was previously covered. And mein deutsch ist nicht so gut aber ich lerne...) Anyone more in-the-know have any thoughts on this? Also I love the "maintain the shape but say an 'e' tip.. what's hardest for me is getting those sounds out properly when they are so close to other sounds (e.g. Mädchen again) but I guess that just boils down to muscle memory...
Das Mädchen - es hat blondes Haar - sie hat blondes Haar: spoken language: you can say „sie“. Written language: clearly a grammatical fault, if you take „sie“. I‘m teacher, I whould mark the mistake in an school essay.
Great video. The only thing I wish you had done is pronounce the ö and ü back to back without any other words. So like this: " ö (pause) ü (pause) (then repeat around 10 times) "
My favorites city in Germany is like a fairy tale City. Rothenburg. My favorite castle in the world is also in Germany like a fairy tale Castle. Neuschwanstein. My favorite car in history came from Germany. And the list goes on and on. I grew up in Cincinnati and that was once the most German of all cities in America.
@@berniej.rucker4252 and Frankenmuth is my favorite city in Michigan. I have been there a few times. Sadly I heard the brewery was destroyed by a tornado. That city is very beautiful.
When I learned the very similar sounds in Danish, I learned to make the sounds further back in my mouth. But then, people say Danish sounds like a throat disease 😕
ive been trying to learn Danish for a couple of decades but my hearing is shot and i have a very hard time hearing even whether a C is pronounced like D or B or G... that and i dont know if i have the capability to learn another language...
thank you a lot for this video!! As a Turk,pronouncing ''ü'' and ''ö'' is easy for me(they are also in our alphabet) but I'm struggling to pronounce other vowels.I hope I can get better as I practice more.
To insult it is more efficient to use dialect. For instance Johnny Depp whould have chosen another last name, if he whould have had a Bavarian auntie I bet.
@@johnvelas70 Because "Depp" is the most popular insult in Bavaria.... ;)))) Known throughout the whole German speaking world...... Meaning something like idiot: Person with no brain or unpolite, unfitting, unpleasant behaviour. Or simply: unlikable person. Funny, if one of your favourite actor has this as a last name.
Thomas Müller? Jägermeister? How do you pronounce these letters with the two dots on top in German? Can you learn it if you didn't grow up with it? And what if you don't have these letters on your keyboard? I gave my best to make a video that will help you guys with all of these questions and will hopefully make the German Umlauts a little less scary. Please add YOUR tips and tricks for pronouncing the Umlauts in the comments below! ⤵
Thanks German girl in America. Sorry about that.
burn the Björn
When will you visit México lol?
Jägermeister is a case like Käse, that you mention in your video: I think most people pronounce it like Jegameista (
In an American keyboard you can use the double quotes as the Umlaut, so just type "u and you get the ü. Fortunately I don't have this problem because in Brazilian keyboards, there is not a single accent that they don't have... except the weird circle the Swedes uses on their vowels. I tried using a German keyboard when I moved to Berlin but failed miserably because of the Y-Z thing. So now I live in Germany, and have a Brazilian keyboard, sometimes configured as an American keyboard.
Okay, your tip on the ü by saying “eee” with a rounded mouth helped me IMMENSELY. I’ve been learning German for over a year now and never heard that tip until your video. Thank you!!
That’s the way my German teacher taught us to pronounce ü.
I've heard it a lot in reference to the French u.
It's the same like उ in hindi
Shape an english... U say an English eee. It's not that hard.
It isn't that hard. Shape the vowel under the umlaut with your mouth. The umlaut needs you to pronounce a short eh sound after that
Felicia, people pay $300 a credit hour to learn what you just instructed in a short video. Thanks, safe travels. Great video.
Ja, das ist Wahrheit
I think it makes a massive difference to have someone extremely fluent in both languages do this. Feli has the ability to speak English with almost no detectable German accent, but then blend in more or less of that sound when saying both German and English. It makes learning more fun!
@@xyzcomp08 almost no detectable German accent? Serious? She has a very distinctive German accent and it's great that she isn't losing it. You confuse her ability to speak American English very clearly with a lack of accent.
@@andrewphillips3973 what do you think I meant? She speaks English clearly without a strong accent. To me, it's almost not noticeable. If you have an issue, I can't help you.
I have the hardest time with umlauts, my teacher tells me my pronunciation is very good, except for my umlauts
I grew up with a father who spoke Russian and German. One of his sisters grew up in Belgium and spoke French. My German great grandmother spoke broken English unless she was mad, then only German.
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Hahaha family mr. worldwide
Haha, people should do the OPPOSITE when they're mad - STAY with the language they're least-fluent in so nobody understands them when they say something they later regret! :oD
😂😂😂🌹
Hello, because what are you talking about where do you live
The Ü is quite easy to learn when you know how it was developed. It replaced the combination "iu" in middle high German and when you say "iu" very quick and short it already develops into "ü". Or you try to say "ooh" and you bring your chin up and to an underbite. For the Ö, actually place your tongue behind the lower front teeth and push the middle of the tongue slightly to the front as if you were trying to say "yo" (io again in middle high German). The Ä is just an A where you broaden your chin area instead of going vertical.
The Ü is often taught to say a long English e (ee or ie) with the lips rounds. Pretty much German ie with the lips rounded.
Are you sure, it is "iu" and not "ui"? I ask because of the city of Duisburg.
@@HalfEye79 Yes, for example the middle high German word for adventure was "adventiure". Duisburg has a completely different etymological development and in the first naming was "Tusburch" and the region it was in was actually originally also "Diusburggau". As you see originally it developed from "iu".
I've always found the "move your mouth this way" descriptions incredibly unhelpful. When I try to do that, it doesn't give the right sound, and when I try to figure out what I do to get the sound, it doesn't seem to match the description.
@@MarcusAgricola I thought middle high german iu changed into modern high german eu
liut - Leut
diutsch - deutsch
When I took German in high school my teacher said that when making the O or U umlaut sound you make a small o shape with your lips and make a U shape with your tongue and press it against the back of your front teeth. We were taught ezsets and umlauts, but this was the mid 90’s and he said that a lot of people thought this would go away with the advancement of computers, in order to make keyboards more universal. I’m actually really glad this never happened, as I’ve always thought these extra letters were kinda cool.
This sounds exactly like I imagine a american teacher in the 90s... "They'll surely stop doing this, when they realize how dumb it is not to buy American Keyboards" :-D. Although there was some movement in the 90s with the "Rechtschreibereform" (spelling reform). People wanted to get rid of inconsistent spelling (some of which was introduced into German by importing foreign words).
In German is a rule that states a vowel followed by a double consonants is to be pronounced short so "satt" (not hungry) vs Saat (seed). But to make a sharp S sound you also use double S... but how could you have a long vowel sound in front of a sharp S? ß To the rescue: Masse (mass) is a different word than Maße (measurements/dimensions of something). The usage of ß was quite random before and was adjusted by the spelling reform. But the reform was introduced quite brutally and met a lot of resistance, so it had to be weakened a lot to get passed... so we still have inconsistencies or at least the old spelling is still allowed.
Not to be rude, really, but what that teacher said sounds extremely narrow minded and ignorant damn
When I was learning German, my teacher told me that the ö was pronounced by forming the lips as if you were going to say o but say e (the German) instead and for the ü you form the lips to say u but say i (the German or ee in English) instead. It helped a lot.
that's the way I tend to explain it to people: Your mouth forms the base vowel while your tongue forms an 'e' (or an 'i', which amounts to the same). when switching between base vowel and umlaut your lips shouldn't move at all (as far as I've observed on myself)
This helped me so much! Thank you
Great video Feli!!! I already knew the umlauts, but every time I said them I felt like it was an approximation of the real pronunciation. After watching your video, I realized I had it right and I gained confidence in speaking German. Thank you!!!!
This was such a great video! I think learning a language is so much easier once you understand the proper way to say the vowels. And that bit at the end about using an "e" next to the vowel instead of the 2 dots makes so much sense to me now when I see German written. Informative, insightful, loved it!
Believe me i have been learning german 6 months,and i understood today how to pronounce Die Umlaute today thanks sis .
German language is diffecult ,but interesting
These days i enjoy learning German
Thanks.
Thank you for posting this. Helpful as a person who doesn't speak as much German as I used to and forgetting proper way needed this
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As a native French speaker, the Umlauts are really easy to say because those are sounds we also have in our language. So if you already know French,
Ä = ai
Ö = eu
Ü = u
And for the German "U" we write it "ou"
I am learning french and I was thinking how ü sounds just like the french u to me and the ö sounds a lot like eu. I didn't think about the ä sounding like the french ai thank you for that
@@trishaniweller1931 no problem 😊
Merci bcp!!!!!!
Et pour ÄU?
@@SuperLetout German "äu" and "eu" are pronounced like oi in English, oí in Spanish or oï in French.
Oh gods, thank you!! Always had trouble with these when learning German! Hope your trip is going well!
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I know I have said this before but Felicia just has a natural talent for teaching. Success will follow whatever she has planned for her future. She has much to be proud of. So admirable!
Thank you for this! My last name is Stroessner. However, before my great-grandparents moved to America, it was Strössner. So, the ö was pronounced as it is in öffnen. These days, we pronounce it Stressner (with the O being sient). The only people who have ever pronounced my last name correctly are either German, or they follow history and are familiar with Alfredo Stroessner, a former dictator of Paraguay who is of no relation to me thank God!
I hope you're enjoying your trip. I would love to go to Germany someday.
Maybe your name will be pronounced more correctly from now on because of this video. My surname is an exemple for writing "oe", a German Standesbeamter got the writing wrong once and therefor this is the correct spelling now😁
@@biankakoettlitz6979 Haha I bet your name gets butchered too! Even though we have different last names, I still feel a connection to people with an oe in their names
In my lastname is no umlaut but "eh". It is written "ee", "he", or "e". Thats going on my nerves sometimes.
Because there is another "e" in this name, my father made a joke about that in a bank. The clerk asked, whether there in one or two "e". My father responded with "two". But than, he corrected the clerk "Now you have written it with three Es." Think of "Pfeiffer" in "Die Feuerzangenbowle" when he is asked, whether his name is written with one or two Fs.
@@paulstroessnerjr7862 it got worth with my name in Røros (Norway) : they pronounced it "k o e/spelling each singel charakter/t l i tsch" because of their German mining tradition in ca. 1800😁 it took me a while to recognize my name😁OK. I am not much better when I speak norvegian, I gess😀
@@HalfEye79 I. love the movie and thought of it.😀
Hi Feli, you have just answered/clarified the sounds and what to do if your keyboard doesn’t have the Umlaut letters.
I enjoy all your interesting videos and have happy memories of visiting Wuppertal and Hamburg in 2011
Vielen Dank and best wishes from Oxfordshire UK. I❤️🇩🇪🇪🇺
I’m a Chinese speaker and the long version of ü does exist in Chinese pronunciation. It sounds and writes exactly the same as ü in German. But it somehow took me a while to realize it😅
It is basically the same as in Hanyu pinyin 玉.
Hi... I really love your channel and videos.. I have a german ancestor from Munich and I have learned a lot from you and your Country.... Im a devoted fan of yours...
How did you get such a great American accent in so short a time? You are amazing!
I am learning German and just discovered your channel. This video was SO helpful. From listing to linguists talk about this it has to do with tongue placement and movement. You did an excellent job of explaining how to pronounce these!😊 If you are not already studying linguistics you definitely should go for it. You'd be a natural.
One of the coolest stories involving Americans using umlauts is how Mötley Crüe came up with their name. They were drinking Löwenbräu beer when they came up with the name and they decided to use the umlauts they saw on the beer bottles. But they didn’t even know what umlauts were and the first show they ever played in Germany the fans were pronouncing the name differently and the guys in the band had no idea why until they found out what umlauts were.
Thanks!
I started learning German 56 years ago. After 4 years of study, I was pretty fluent, but I decided to retake the course after decades of not speaking the language. German has changed so much since the 1960s, I almost feel as though I need to start from scratch. Many German words I learned don’t seem to be used much anymore as they have been replaced by words from other languages.
That's interesting, can you give us some examples?
Give us some examples please
@@RM-gc8lx it definitely did change a lot and I can tell when reading old articles and imperial studies
_"[...] I almost feel as though I need to start from scratch"_ Are you sure about that?
@lilliandrescher8713
"Wes Brot ich ess, des Lied ich sing"
SO glad a friend recommended your video and I found this channel! It has been my goal to learn German for years (family heritage and personal interest), and you are a natural teacher! Danke!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Good post. Most of my German studies were in High School and university 30 years ago. A refresher is needed!
I think that was the most enjoyable foreign language lesson I ever had..😀 Danke Felicia..
You are really good at giving examples of words that have similar sounds made in English. I must say that I have always had the most difficulty pronouncing ü, and still do. Also, the u sound in French.
I will try practicing my û pronunciation with your advice in mind. I am probably a lot older than most of your subscribers, and haven’t been to Europe for a long time now, but I really enjoy your cultural comparisons and I think, if you’re at all interested, you could have a career in television. You’re an attractive young woman who appears to be at home on screen. Keep up the great work!
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Felicia, I'm impressed with your English. For a Kraut who was born in Germany and lived in Cincinatti for only eight years you sound a red blooded American. I have an Austro-Hungarian background but never learned German.
Sehr gut, Feli! Dankeschõn. Keep up the fantastic content.
Feli is awesome, German is such beautiful language once you are passionate about it, and the more I learn about it I enjoy every part of it, I find its amazing that Feli takes the time to make videos explaining ANY German subjects it make it a more pleasant experience to learn about the culture and language.
Thank you Feli I am from Canada ! and 18 years old, I truly want to visit Germany, hopefully I won't get lost when ever I will visit someday.
Thanks...my wife and I were discussing this very topic last evening!😀
Hallo Servus!
german speakers: 😃😄😀
portuguese speakers: 😮
Thanks for helping me realize how difficult my own name is to pronounce, lol. I am told my grandfather changed the ü to ue when we immigrated to the U.S.
When my dad used to pronounce our last name the correct way it sounded like, as you said, trying to say the u and e at the same time.
If you read an old English book you may come across the two dots above a vowel. This is called a 'diareses' and was a way to show that a double vowel was pronounced as two vowels following each other. The most famous example is cooperative which is pronounced co operative and sometimes is spelt co-operative. Of course English native speakers know how it is pronounced so the diaresis is never used nowadays. (I don't know how to type this...)
Fun fact: to get all accents on letters the you just have to switch your regular qwerty keyboard mode from US to US International. All it changes is that it allows typing accents followed by a letter to make combinations. '+e = é , `+e = è , ^+e = ê , "+u = ü, ~+n = ñ , alt+c = ç. Why not all US keyboards have this setting as standard and why so few people in the US know about it is a huge mystery...
Or, if you have an iPhone or iPad, just put your finger on the letter, say, o, and several options will pop up. Just slide your finger on the option you need, and then let go. Voilà! You also can opt for a German (or many other languages) keyboard under settings, general, keyboard, and choose German. I use English, French, and German keyboards. If you use the keyboard in your chosen language, the appropriate spell checking will kick in as well.
If you are a programmer, US international is a great keyboard setting for Germans as well. All the special characters you need are much easier to access.
Great tip. I switch between German and US keyboard layouts a lot. I will definitely give this a try.
@@simonthelen5910 In case you already have a German keybord, instead of buying a new one, you can use stickers to change the layout to test it. You will find them on the internet for some euros.
@@DerTaran In basically every operating system, you can select multiple keyboard layouts and switch between them using a key shortcut (e.g. Windows+Space on Windows). I'm using a German keyboard but I've memorized the US layout because characters like "{" or "\" are a lot easier to reach (for example when writing LaTex).
Nice lesson! An old language book i read back in the 70s called speaking ue as "positioning your mouth for "oo", then saying "ee". turns out a lot of foreign sounds can be done that way, setting up for this sound, then making that sound instead. (and then speaking with real speakers as much as you can, to 'sand off the rough edges' of your pronunciation. Speaking sure is, all about listening.)
This was a wonderful refresher ever scene watching your videos I have been trying to recall all the German I learned back in high school! Even tho it was only 3 years ago. It seems like I can sometimes barely remember the phrases I used when I visited Germany.
At least you are only 3 years removed from studying German, for me it's been over 30 years. I would like to get back into it, maybe when (if?) I retire and can devote more time to studying.
Hi Feli! I was in the British RAF in the 70s and 80s in the RAF bases of Willdenrath near Monchengladbach and Guetersloh near Bielefeld. You’ve just shown me how to correctly use keyboard to put the umlaut in to Guetersloh and not just a u on its own, after all those years, I can now die happy
Cheers Feli!
Since 2017, the ß has also been available as a capital letter ẞ. It is used when only capital letters are used, for example, for names in passports.
In addition, the ß is not used throughout the German-speaking world: In Switzerland, the ß does not exist and ss is used instead.
On a Swiss keyboard/typewriter you won't find capital ä, ö and ü as well, the shift key is used to access French letters with accents.
1:34
@@LeeOfLawazantiya As if I would watch the whole video before posting a comment. Who does something like that?
@@DerTaran I'm sure you know, but many may not...
to type an uppercase ü -> Ü on the SwissGerman keyboard, you need to press and release the caps lock key, then press ü, which results in the Ü, and then press & release caps lock again.
I've heard/read many comments stating that the 'caps lock' key is useless... well, it is used in Switzerland!
@@alexandergutfeldt1144 I know it, but I consider it - somehow - cheating.
You are a good educator! This is valuable stuff.
I am an American of German descent. My grandparents spoke German when they were young but my parents never learned it. I took German in high school and I have been to Germany a few times. So, I can speak German to a limited extent but I am far from fluent.
My grandmother and other (older) German Americans pronounced ö and ü differently than you describe in the video.
The ö was pronounced much like the German e. For example, können and kennen sound pretty much the same. Also, listen to Wayne Newton's song Danke Schoen. In the song, schoen (schön) rhymes with the English pain and explain. According to your video, that would be wrong; however, my grandmother (and others) did pronounce it that way.
And consider this example from German poet Franz Grillparzer:
Wie viel weißt du, o Mensch, der Schöpfung König,
Der du, was sehbar siehst, was meßbar mißt,
Wie viel weißt du! und wieder, ach, wie wenig,
Weil, was erscheint, doch nur ein Äußres ist.
In the first and third lines König and wenig are supposed to rhyme.
My grandmother (and others) also pronounce ü differently than what you describe in the video. Consider the ee in the English words see and flee. That is how the ü was usually pronounced.
So, über and Fieber would rhyme. Vier (4) and für would sound the same.
But ü can also have a short i sound, as in the English flick or stick.
I think the German poet Nikolaus Lenau gives us an example:
Mitten in dem Maienglück
Lag ein Kirchhof innen
Der den raschen Wanderblick
Hielt zu ernstem Sinnen.
In the first and third lines Glück and Blick are supposed to rhyme.
My grandmother and others her age pronounced the ä pretty much the same as what you describe in your video.
Why do you suppose we have these differences in pronunciation between what you describe in your video and the way the older German Americans pronounced words with the umlauts ö and ü?
Is there a region in Germany in which High German is spoken the way my grandmother spoke it?
Is it possible that High German in Germany used to be spoken the way my grandmother spoke it, but that the pronunciation in Germany changed over the years?
Any insight you could provide would be much appreciated. Thank you.
That’s most likely because there are a lot of dialects. I’m Schwäbisch they say schen instead of schön for example. Your grandparents most likely were from a region were they pronounced it differently. But in „high German“ and most German dialects the umlaut is pronounced the way she is doing it in the video :)
Oh also, the song danke schoen (correct spelling is Dankeschön) is sung with an American accent so it’s definitely not how Germans would say it :)
No, the description in the video is 100% correct High German. Your relatives probably spoke the dialect of their region.
You are a fantastic German teacher and ambassador! I love watching and sharing your videos with my American family. Liebe Grüße aus Bonn, Monika
German was my major when I went to university years ago. maybe because i’m an indonesian, that’s why I never had problem with umlaut pronunciation, since almost all the alphabet in german is pronounced similarly as in indonesian. the hardest part of this language is the Grammatik!
Been living in Germany for 5 years and that's still one of my biggest struggles when speaking
I live in Germany and grown up here, I still do grammer mistakes in my classtest. And not just a few.
@@kassirosenburg8221 And so do german native speakers.
Guess why I know this ! :-)
I imagine the mapping of Latin letters into Indonesian sounds was strongly influenced by the Dutch colonial presence, which explains why it is similar to the German usage.
@@swyntopia i am a native speaker.
the " try to pronounce e at the same time" really helped with the u with umlaut sound! really surprised it did tbh, great video as always keep it up :)
We had an airport in Austin (now just a neighborhood) named Mueller. For a long time, it was pronounced as you would think it would be pronounced in German (with an American accent of course). Then the family spoke up and said that they had always pronounced their name as "Miller" so that is now its pronunciation. Same spelling though - Mueller. Basically in Texas if something looks like it's pronounced a certain way, it often isn't.
I bet they didn't know any better. lol
A part of me died inside when I realized you don't say "Amarillo" as "am uh REE yo" like it should be in Spanish
I am from kerala, southern part of india. These days, i am trying to learn German by listening Michel Thomas audio lectures. This vedio helps me a lot. Tanx
Thank you for that excellent lesson!
Great explanation! I'm learning german on duolingo and was definitely struggling with the umlauts. Thanks!
When I was a kid the Umauts were taut to us for pronunciation, and you could also find them in the websters dictionary.
Another great video, thank you! The way that I was instructed in my German class was to make my mouth into a shape for saying an “o” sound (like “open”, then say a “u”, for ü, then basically the opposite for ö (make a “u” shape, like for saying “united”, but the say “o”).
I was taught to say the soft English "e" while holding my mouth in the position to say the presented a, o, or u. The variations came from use and practice.
*edit: 3 seconds later, Feli says the same thing! 😂
Thänk you, Feli from Görmäny for this really väry interesting lässon.
Thanks muchly! Our name was Ruber with the Umlaut in the old days, but now we write Rueber. However we pronounce it Reeber which causes no end of trouble as people want to say Roober. Our mail comes Reuber, Reiber Rieber Reeber and other ways too.
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Thank you so much for this video! I'll be watching more of your videos. Du bist sehr klug!
I hoped you would mention that the dots are remnants of the additional E, that wandered from after A/O/U to above , and then dissolved to only be two lines and later two dots. You can think of the two dots as the top and Bottom line of the E that is not there anymore but can brought back when you don't have a German Keyboard. Its the same with the â in French, where the ^ once was an s after the a.
Lol my grandmother is german, but I’ve never heard her speak it unless shes swearing under her breath.
Your pronunciation of Germany with the accent perfectly demonstrates her accent and how she speaks
I like that you included the U+I hack to say Ü but there is a similar hack for Ö. You make your lips into an O shape and say E (the German E) 😊
Wow, this is so short and to-the-point that I just had to leave a comment. You have a knack for teaching. Keep it up!
Back in the day, I helped out a German teacher with typing those German umlaut characters on her computer. I grew up being computer savvy and discovered that one could type those German characters with special keystrokes (i.e.: ä = Alt+0228).
I almost posted the same.
In fact, my previous computer, with a 15.6" screen has a numeric keypad, something I sought so that I could not only type the umlauts and ß, but also so that I could type Old English characters, æ, þ ð.
I eventually discovered the joys of an ultraportable, but now have to use Character Map to find those characters.
For those who are curious:
German umlaut keyboard shortcuts
ß = alt + 0223
Ä = alt + 142
ä = alt + 0228
Ö = alt + 153
ö = alt + 0246
Ü = alt + 154
ü = alt + 0252
A _brilliant_ video. I have been struggling for years to hear the difference between a, ae, o, oe, and u, ue. You succinctly explained it to a long-time and very casual German student like me. Now if I can only remember the vocabulary...
I once knew an American student here in Germany who had learned German but completely gave up the pronunciation of Ü. Instead, he always pronounced it like a normal German U.
My advice to him was that instead of the U, he should pronounce the Ü like the German I, with which he had no problems. Germans are more likely to understand you when you say Minchen instead of Munchen. Guess where the name Miller came from.
Miller is actually English. I don't think it ever had the "ü" vowel sound. In English (at least in the US), the most common Anglicized spellings for Müller are either Mueller or Muller. That being said, many of the Old English "ü" sounds (often written with "y") became an "i" in Modern English, so Miller may have been originally Myller.
@@VTdarkangel It's very likely that you are right. Müller might not be the origin of Miller. But both words definitely have the same origin and Müller is the correct German translation of Miller. Mueller is just the German replacement of the umlaut, as mentioned in this video. Before there was a uniform spelling in Germany, Müller was also sometimes spelled Myller here.
And btw. if you say Muller for Müller most Germans will struggle to understand it, while Miller is easier to understand.
@@felixstoll2277 That is interesting. That suggests German ears are listening more to the part of the vowel that is shaped by the tongue than by the lips.
A very young, nice and intelligent teacher. Vielen Dank!
👍 Thanks Felicia! I am a Belgian national, but from German decent as you can see in my family name. Pronunciation for non German speakers is a nightmare, however from now on I will refer people to this video! Just for your amusement here is the funny backstory about my family name : `Hören` in German means `Listen` in English ok, nothing wrong with that, however as you explained `ö` can be written also as `oe` ... still nothing wrong for German speakers, however in Dutch (60% of Belgium is Dutch speaking) `oe` is pronounced COMPLETELY different ... it translates to the `u` sound in German ... making my name `Huren` ... which translates to ... `Whores` in English ... Trust me, I have heard all the jokes ! Another interesting detail is that the German word `hören` translates to the Dutch word `horen` ... you see now why I do often omit the umlaut because it beats the alternative! 😂
(on my moms acc) my last name is german aswell!
🤣
@@deirdretejam3659 ..and there is a former 'ü' as well!
Thanks Feli! 9:58 More pronunciation videos please. Love your content!
If you are ever in SE/east central Ohio, we have an historical site called Schoenbrun. We don't use umlates in our spelling, but it is certainly pronounced as if they are present. Not far from Schoenbrun is Gnadenhutten 😊
Good tutorial. You can print out (or view online) an extended ASCII chart and enter any of the special characters, foreign letters, math symbols, borders, etc. via Alt+decimal-number.
Don't wörry, be häppy
Hey thanks for your help IAM from the states currently in Mexico and learning German so actively I hear two languages daily and practice the third
As a French guy with an Algerian background once said to me: German is funny, you put little dots on the letters like in Arabic.
Ü = the tongue in the position of “ee” but the lips in the position of “oo”.
That was the best explanation I have seen. Thanks
It's surprising how does german sounds are close to french's one
With these sounds German French learners don't struggle with, too.
Because French evolved from Latin spoken by Germanic tribes (the Franks, from which the name of the country France derives) and Celtic tribes. So it's not that surprising.
I'm a native French and German sounds very clear to my ears, much more so than English, even though my English is much better than my German.
Watching your video from Switzerland. Very nice videos to learn german
Your tongue trick seemed to work for the Ü as well. Say U then move your tongue slightly forward and up to touch the sides of your top teeth and you should be close to the Ü sound. Similar to how the Ë worked as you mentioned.
Thank you for making this video it helped with my german
Thomas Müller! Mein Leiblingsfußballer!
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 😃
As an American who’s trying to learn German later in life, I’ll take all the lessons I can get. I sing in a German choir in my hometown. Many of the singers emigrated from Germany to America. I typically sit between one of the native speakers and a guy who served in the US Army in Germany who married a Munich girl and brought her back with him to the States. They’re a big help with pronunciation, especially umlauts. I must be doing OK, they don’t correct me very often.
They would probably tell you that it’s “Liebling”, not “Leibling”, though. 🤗
ei is pronounced like ay in German, ie is pronounced like ee.
But you made a good job by connecting two substantives with an s here. 😃👍
This was really helpful, thank you!
We need umlauts in the English language. One joke I've heard from English learners is: English: 5 vowels, 50,000 vowel sounds!
Your videos are sooo nice.✌🏻😊
I've actually been trying to learn another language (not German, tut mir leid!) and they try to do the pronunciation with accent characters -- and as a native English speaker who never had to use accented characters, it doesn't matter what the accent over the character is I don't know how to say it. I have to try to memorize their example sounds like the "oo" in "boot" or the "u" in "put". All I see is the letter it's over and then a strange symbol that I don't know what it does to the sound. Except for the ' over an e for words like "touche'". This was a fun video because it's been so long since I thought about umlauts.
This is one of the best videos . Wow..thanks a ton for saving my time. Many instructors can't explain it so well.
First of all, great video again! :)
I just have to drop an additional fact on how to pronounce the umlaut Ä: Typically in Northern Germany it is ALWAYS pronounced like an E, so here in the North we DO say Käfer like "Kehfer" and gähnen like "gehnen". In Southern Germany it might be very much like you said, but this is just another prime example on how different the various regions in Germany are. :D
So in conclusion, in Northern variants of German the letters Ä and E are phonetically identical, it solely depends on the etymology which letter is used. :)
Also in general, there is a very helpful chart on how to pronounce every vowel sound that exists in any human language, each sound represented by their IPA character (IPA = International Phonetic Alphabet):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPA_vowel_chart_2005.png
As you can see, every single vowel can be created via three attributes:
1) How wide your mouth is opened
2) How far to the front your tongue is positioned
3) Whether your lips are rounded or not
This helped me a lot to pronounce vowels that don't exist in either German or English, like the unrounded back close vowel (or the "unrounded U") for example, which corresponds to the Japanese "U" sound or the Turkish "I" without (!) the dot.
Also, since it is the topic of this video, the Ö umlaut is represented in the chart above by the "
ø" (the long "schön"-Ö) and the "œ" (the short "öffnen"-Ö) while the Ü umlaut is represented by the "
y" (the long "über"-Ü) and the "ʏ" (the short "Thomas Müller"-Ü). :)
Weiter im Süden ist es dafür eher umgekehrt. Wir Schwaben sagen auch Käse mit dem ä-Laut, nicht Kehse. Außerdem treibt es mich manchmal auf die Palme, wenn jemand sogar das Wort Schwäbisch als Schwehbisch ausspricht ^^'
Thats really Interessting, We aslo mostly pronounce ä- as eh- as well here in Austria, or at least where im from. I wonder why we have that similarity even tho wer're further apart geographically than austria and the south of germany are ^^
@@zadass Interesting, I didn't know that. :) Well, that could be for a similar reason there is a somewhat "chopped" regional distinction for the way German speakers say the short version for ":45 hours". Here in the North and West of Germany we say "Viertel vor", for example "Viertel vor neun" representing 8:45 am, which as far as I know also applies to Bavaria and Austria. Then again there is this kind of "sash" going diagonal from Southwest to Northeast on the map straight through the German speaking area, where "Dreiviertel" ist used to describe this time, so 8:45 am would be "Dreiviertel neun". But this is a whole other topic that can get pretty heated at times which version is "correct". :D In the end it's just a regional distinction and there is no right or wrong - even though i personally find "Dreiviertel" to be rather cringeworthy, but that's probabaly because I didn't grow up with it. :D
Ah the Umlaut. Or as a friend of mine once called them - "rock dots". All the "cool" 80's bands used them - "Mötley Crüe", etc.. Love the videos!
I try to make a subtle U with my lips when saying Ü.
Super useful!!!! Thank you very much!
I was taught that to make the ö sound, you make “ay” like in “hay” and then round your lips, and to make the ü sound, you make “e” like in “he” and then round your lips. Is that close?
th-cam.com/channels/jGgnggAF5CaELqjKA_lkPA.html
That's pretty much it for "ü". For the other two...the way we English speakera say "ay" in "day" or "say" is by default a diphthong (i.e. two vowels said in the same time as one). Even when we say the letter "a" in English when we're spelling a word, reciting the alphabet, or whatever. Make it one vowel. That's "ä". Then take "ä", close your mouth and round your lips. That's "ö". You could also describe "ö" as a more closed version of the vowel in "good", or "foot" - at least said by an American.
Disclaimer, I'm a native English speaker who's still VERY much a beginner to German! So I could be wrong.
Also, try to make ALL your vowels in German come from a place further back in the mouth than their English equivalent- at least if you're American.
Hope this helps! P.S. "ü" also exists in French and even Mandarin, just as a fun fact.
@@kirstenmuller4536 Hi Kirsten, your name is Muller. Some hundred years ago it might have been Müller, for Muller doesn’t“t exist. It“s only the Americanized form of Müller. When surnames were created your ancients may have been millers.😃👍
@@tinytinky9975 Yes, that's true! I WAS told that the umlaut used to be there. But I pronounce it in the American way.
@@kirstenmuller4536 Sure. That concessions have to be made, if you decide to live in a country with another language. Have you heard, how many refugees arrived in Germany in the last years? Arabic names have 3 components: The name of the father, the grandfather and the personal name. Our computers dont't like 3 names. I remember 4 brothers - 2 of them in my class, that our computer system at school got with the same name. You cam imagine the chaos. Now most of the refugees take the name of the father as last name and drop the name of the grandfather. The Russian and Slovakian ladies have -va at the end of their names. In Germany they drop it,too.You definitely can't have a last name in the US nobody can pronounce because of the ü....;o))
Danke schön. I start to learn " German " language, I'm appreciated you told it online.
How do you pronounce Muenster cheese? Is that an example of “ü” being spelled “ue”?
Isn't this the name of the cheese in English? In English the un sound is like under..
It is one of those examples! Münster is a city in Germany so yes, you'd pronounce the ue like the ü in this case.
The name of the cheese is entirely unrelated to the German city Münster though.
@@MartinWauligmannThere’s several Münsters. In this case it is related to the German city “Münster im Elsass”.
This video is very helpful with pronouncing the words with the umlaut! I've gotten down the ö pretty well after saying "Danke schön" quite often on my last trip to Austria and Germany a few years back, but this really helps with the ü. I'll have to remember this video the next time I go there!
It feels like tongue placement is vital! Also using the back of your throat for specific pronunciation is key. At least for me. I know you are not a fan of Rammstein, but for me listening to them helps greatly with pronunciation of German. And when I look up the translation of song lyrics to English further helps. 😁
You're absolutely right, without changing the tongue position you can't change from vowel to umlaut.
Das hast du wirklich gut erklärt!
I recently discovered these videos and they're awesome. This umlaut video reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend about pronoun gender agreement in a sentence like "Da ist das Mädchen. (Sie oder Es?) hat schöne Haare." On one hand "es" seems like it might be grammatically correct (at least by English grammatical standards), but on the other it just sounds weird to me. (Disclaimers: Sorry this is off topic or if it was previously covered. And mein deutsch ist nicht so gut aber ich lerne...) Anyone more in-the-know have any thoughts on this?
Also I love the "maintain the shape but say an 'e' tip.. what's hardest for me is getting those sounds out properly when they are so close to other sounds (e.g. Mädchen again) but I guess that just boils down to muscle memory...
Das Mädchen - es hat blondes Haar - sie hat blondes Haar: spoken language: you can say „sie“. Written language: clearly a grammatical fault, if you take „sie“. I‘m teacher, I whould mark the mistake in an school essay.
@@tinytinky9975 It's because diminutives are neutral in German, as in Dutch.
Great video. The only thing I wish you had done is pronounce the ö and ü back to back without any other words. So like this: " ö (pause) ü (pause) (then repeat around 10 times) "
My favorites city in Germany is like a fairy tale City. Rothenburg. My favorite castle in the world is also in Germany like a fairy tale Castle. Neuschwanstein. My favorite car in history came from Germany. And the list goes on and on. I grew up in Cincinnati and that was once the most German of all cities in America.
Frankenmuth, Michigan still has quite a few people who still speak fluent German and some can trace their roots back to Germany.
@@berniej.rucker4252 and Frankenmuth is my favorite city in Michigan. I have been there a few times. Sadly I heard the brewery was destroyed by a tornado. That city is very beautiful.
I have really enjoyed the teaching of yours guy
and I feel you keep up helping us from so far, I love it guy
When I learned the very similar sounds in Danish, I learned to make the sounds further back in my mouth. But then, people say Danish sounds like a throat disease 😕
ive been trying to learn Danish for a couple of decades but my hearing is shot and i have a very hard time hearing even whether a C is pronounced like D or B or G...
that and i dont know if i have the capability to learn another language...
Thanks for reminding me that i only seem to say o umlaut in the short way. need to get better at that to sound more natural
I’m from USA and I love the German language. When I’m super angry or upset I always say scheisse
Hello, I am from Iraq, looking for a girl to marry and live in peace, I am 22
thank you a lot for this video!! As a Turk,pronouncing ''ü'' and ''ö'' is easy for me(they are also in our alphabet) but I'm struggling to pronounce other vowels.I hope I can get better as I practice more.
You need to do a video on how to curse/insult people in German.
ps FELI for PRESIDENT!
th-cam.com/channels/jGgnggAF5CaELqjKA_lkPA.html
th-cam.com/channels/jGgnggAF5CaELqjKA_lkPA.html
To insult it is more efficient to use dialect. For instance Johnny Depp whould have chosen another last name, if he whould have had a Bavarian auntie I bet.
@@tinytinky9975 ???
@@johnvelas70 Because "Depp" is the most popular insult in Bavaria.... ;)))) Known throughout the whole German speaking world...... Meaning something like idiot: Person with no brain or unpolite, unfitting, unpleasant behaviour. Or simply: unlikable person. Funny, if one of your favourite actor has this as a last name.