LinguaTwo letters, one sound
German often writes one sound with two letters. There are four vowel pairs, and once you know them you can read thousands of words. ei sounds like English “eye”: mein, Wein. ie is a long “ee”: Bier, Wien. eu and äu both sound like “oy” in “boy”: neu, heute, Häuser. au is the “ow” of “now”: Haus, Frau, auch. A trick for ei and ie: say the English name of the SECOND letter. In ei it is i, “eye”; in ie it is e, “ee”.
Write the two letters close together, as one unit: e, then i with its dot. Said “eye”.
The same two letters the other way round: i first, then e. Said as one long “ee”; the e is not heard on its own.
Two spellings of the same “oy” sound. äu appears when a word is related to one with au: Haus, Häuser.
a, then u, written close together. Said like “ow” in “now”, starting with an open a.
| Pair | How it sounds | Words |
|---|---|---|
| ei | “eye” | mein, dein, klein, Wein |
| ie | long “ee” | Bier, lieb, Wien |
| eu, äu | “oy” | neu, heute, Leute, Häuser |
| au | “ow” | Haus, Frau, auch |
The classic trap is Wein and Wien. Wein, with ei, is wine, said “vine”. Wien, with ie, is Vienna, the capital of Austria, said “veen”. Swap the two letters and you change the place into a drink. Fittingly, Vienna even has vineyards inside the city.
Mein Haus ist klein.My house is small.
In Wien trinkt man Wein.In Vienna people drink wine.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| mein | my | Das ist mein Ball. That’s my ball. |
| dein | your (to a friend) | Ist das dein Haus? Is that your house? |
| klein | small, little | Das Zimmer ist klein. The room is small. |
| der Wein | wine | Der Wein ist rot. The wine is red. |
| Wien | Vienna | Wien liegt in Österreich. Vienna is in Austria. |
| das Bier | beer | Ein Bier, bitte! A beer, please! |
| lieb | dear, sweet, kind | Oma ist so lieb. Grandma is so sweet. |
| neu | new | Das Buch ist neu. The book is new. |
| heute | today | Heute ist Montag. Today is Monday. |
| das Haus | house | Das Haus ist alt. The house is old. |
| die Leute | people | Die Leute sind nett. The people are nice. |
| die Frau | Mrs, Ms; woman | Frau Klein ist neu hier. Ms Klein is new here. |
| auch | also, too | Ich trinke auch Tee. I drink tea too. |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- trace the letter: 3
- fill the gap: 2
- match the pairs: 1
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
Which word is the name of the capital of Austria?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.