Chapter1: What You Already Know

Yt nthr snd shft?

Consonants are only half the fun.
Vowels are the "significant others" in languages such as German and English.
So, yes, there is: Yet another sound shift.
We'd like you to accompany us on this lesson. You'll speed up your learning process.

Speaking of sound shifts, you've already seen some hints about the consonant relationships.
Well, there are also vowel relationships.
We'll give you only the most important ones so that you can find your way easily.

ACTIVITY 4

If you'd like to guess what the sound-shift pattern is, try 4a). If you'd like to see the pattern straight away, go to 4b)

4a)

Try to guess. To make the sound shift clear, there are two pairs of words for each pattern.

Drag an English word underneath the appropriate German one. Try to deduce the sound-shift pattern.
Drag the appropriate sound-shift underneath each pair of answers.

Correct answers will immediately appear.

4b)

Please click anywhere on a line to reveal the English equivalent of the German letter shown.

ACTIVITY 5

Please give English equivalents of the following words.
Try to guess before looking at the pattern above.
Correct answers will turn green.

How to pronounce German?

If while working on the sound-shift activities you became curious about how German words are pronounced, check the following website:

Gary Smith's German pronunciation.

You may enter the site now or return to it later.

We have designed this course primarily to help you attain reading competence, but we understand that some students would also like to hear the texts read aloud. Therefore, we will provide sound files of the texts that you'll be working on later.