German pronunciation for Finnish speakers

German spelling is fairly regular, but unlike Finnish one letter is not always one sound. This page collects the points where a Finnish speaker most easily slips: letter combinations, vowel length, stress and a few letters that sound different from Finnish.

Vowels and length

Finnish writes a long vowel with two letters. German does not show length directly, but three clues cover almost every case:

Clue	Vowel is	Example	Meaning
vowel + h (the h is silent)	long	fahren, Sohn, Uhr	to drive, son, clock
double vowel (aa, ee, oo)	long	Haar, See, Boot	hair, lake/sea, boat
ie	long i (not i + e!)	Liebe, vier, sie	love, four, she/they
vowel + one consonant	usually long	Name, gut, rot	name, good, red
vowel + two consonants (tt, ck, mm, ss …)	short	Mutter, Zucker, kommen, essen	mother, sugar, to come, to eat

Unlike Finnish. A doubled consonant (Mutter) is not a long consonant in German but a sign that the preceding vowel is short. Finnish mutteri and German Mutter therefore sound different: in German the t is spoken once.

ä, ö, ü and y

Letter	Pronunciation	Example
ä	like Finnish e or ä; when long, close to e (spät)	Mädchen, spät, Äpfel
ö	like Finnish ö	schön, Öl, können
ü	like Finnish y	über, Tür, fünf
y	mostly like ü (Typ); in names and loanwords like i or j	typisch, Yoga

Diphthongs: ei, ai, eu, äu, au

Spelling	Sound	Example	Meaning
ei, ai	[ai] — never e + i	nein, mein, Mai	no, my, May
eu, äu	[oi]	neun, heute, Häuser	nine, today, houses
au	[au] as in Finnish	Haus, Frau, laufen	house, woman, to run
ie	long i, not a diphthong	sieben, Brief	seven, letter

⚠ The most common Finnish mistake: nein is [nain], not [nein]; heute is [hoitə], not [heute].

Consonants that differ from Finnish

Letter	Pronunciation	Example
w	like Finnish v	Wasser, wir, wo
v	usually like f (Vater, viel); in loanwords like v (Vase)	Vater, vier, Vase
z, tz	[ts] — always, also at the start of a word	Zeit, zehn, Katze
s before a vowel	voiced [z] (buzzing)	sie, Sonne, lesen
ss, ß	voiceless s as in Finnish; ß only after a long vowel or diphthong	essen, Straße, heißen
sch	[š] like English sh	Schule, schön, Tisch
sp, st at the start of a word	[šp], [št]	sprechen, Stadt, Stuhl
ch after a, o, u, au	throaty [x], as in Scottish loch	Buch, acht, auch
ch elsewhere (e, i, ä, ö, ü, l, n, r)	soft [ç], like a strong h in Finnish hiiri	ich, nicht, Milch, Mädchen
-ig at the end of a word	[iç]	zwanzig, lustig
chs, x	[ks]	sechs, Fuchs
j	like Finnish j	ja, Jahr
r	in the throat (German r); final -er is almost [a]: Mutter [mutta]	rot, Bruder, Lehrer
h at the start of a word	spoken; after a vowel it only lengthens	Haus / fahren
qu	[kv]	Quatsch, bequem
pf	p + f together	Apfel, Kopf
b, d, g at the end of a word	harden to [p], [t], [k]	halb, Hund, Tag

Stress

Stress is normally on the first syllable, as in Finnish: Mutter, arbeiten, Haustür. Exceptions:

Inseparable prefixes be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent-, emp-, miss- are unstressed: besuchen, verstehen, Gemüse.
The prefix of a separable verb carries the stress: aufstehen, mitkommen (see separable verbs).
Loanwords are often stressed towards the end: Student, Musik, Familie, telefonieren.

Unstressed e

An unstressed e at the end of a word and in endings (-e, -en, -er, -el) is a weak [ə], not the full e of Finnish: bitte, haben, Bruder, Apfel. A stressed e is as in Finnish: geben, sehen, zehn.

The alphabet

The letters are named like this (useful when spelling a name): a [a], b [be], c [tse], d [de], e [e], f [ef], g [ge], h [ha], i [i], j [jot], k [ka], l [el], m [em], n [en], o [o], p [pe], q [ku], r [er], s [es], t [te], u [u], v [fau], w [ve], x [iks], y [ypsilon], z [tset], ä, ö, ü, ß [estset].