German grammar

Consonants.

Double consonants are pronounced as single ones (like in English) : nennen, kennen, fassen.

Other details :

- c is pronounced as ts before ä, e, i: Cäsar, Circe; c is pronounced k before other vowels and at the end of the word : Calau, Cabinda, Canasta (there are some exceptions)

- ch after a, o, u is pronounced as Scottish ch in loch ch: auch, Buch, Rachen; ch after eu, äu, e and other vowels it's soft (palatalized) : ich, dich, euch

- ch at the beginning of a word before ä, e, i it is pronounced as soft ch : ich, dich, euch, in other positions it's most often pronounced as k: Charakter

- ck is pronounced as English k: Nacken

- g in the suffix -ig is pronounced as soft ch’ : knackig

- h after a vowel is not pronounced at all : nehmen, nahe (exception: Ahorn), in other cases pronounced as English h : Habe, Haare

- ng is pronounced as ng in "singer, long, song": Gesang, singen

- ph is pronounced as English f: Photographie

- s at the beginning of a word and between vowels is pronounced as English z: Sahne, Sache, Hase; together with consonants other than t, p as English s: Sklave, Slowake, Slawe, Smoking

- sch is pronounced as English sh: schwarz, Schmelz

- ss is pronounced as English s in "soft, sign": lassen

- sp is usually pronounced as English shp: Spagat, spät

- st is usually pronounced as English sht: Stand, stehen

- ß is pronounced as English s: Faß, Maß

- tsch is pronounced as English cz: Deutsch

- th is pronounced as English t: Theater

- tz is pronounced as English ts: Katze

- v is usually pronounced as English f: vor, vergeben; only in loanwords it is sometimes pronounced as v: Violine

- y before a vowel : pronounced as English j: Yacht, in other, more numerous cases as ü: Ypsilon

- z is pronounced as English ts: Zustand, Zahn.

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