Appendix:German pronunciation

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents German pronunciations in Wiktionary entries.

See German phonology at Wikipedia for a more thorough look at the sounds of German.

Consonants
IPA	Examples	English approximation
b	Ball	ball
ç	ich, durch	hue
d	dann	done
dʒ	Dschungel	jungle
f	Fass, Vogel	fuss
ɡ	Gast	guest
h	hat	hut
j	ja	yard
k	kalt	cold
l	Last	last
m	Mast	must
n	Naht	not
ŋ	lang	long
p	Pakt	puck
pf	Pfahl	p + f
ʁ	Rast	like a French R (a voiced uvular fricative)^[1]
s	Wasser	fast
ʃ	Schal, Stein	shall
t	Tal	tall
ts	Zahl	cats
tʃ	Matsch	match
v	was	vanish
x	Bach^[2]	loch (Scottish)
z	Hase	hose
ʒ	Genie	beige, measure
ʔ	beamtet^[3] ([bəˈʔamtət])	the glottal stop in uh-oh!
Stress
ˈ	Bahnhof (IPA: [ˈbaːnˌhoːf])	as in battleship [ˈbætəlˌʃɪp]
ˌ	Bahnhof (IPA: [ˈbaːnˌhoːf])	as in battleship [ˈbætəlˌʃɪp]

Vowels
IPA	Examples	English approximation
Monophthongs
a	Dach	bra (but shorter)
aː	Bahn	bra
eː	Beet	face
ɛ	Bett, hätte	bed
ɛː	wähle^[4]	as above but longer; like RP English bared
iː	viel	meet
ɪ	bist	sit
oː	Boot	somewhat like bone
ɔ	Post	boss
øː	Öl	somewhat like hurl; French deux
œ	göttlich	close to hurt or French sœur
uː	Hut	true
ʊ	Putz	took
yː	Rübe	French rue
ʏ	füllt	much like the above but shorter
Diphthongs
aɪ	weit	tie
aʊ	Haut	how
ɔʏ	Heu, Räuber	boy
Reduced vowels
ɐ	Ober	fun
ə	halte	comma
Semivowels
ɐ̯	Uhr	comma
i̯	Studie	magnolia
u̯	aktuell	visual
Unstressed full vowels
e	Methan	(short IPA: [eː])
i	vital	city (short IPA: [iː])
o	Moral	(short IPA: [oː])
ø	Ökonom	(short IPA: [øː])
u	kulant	virtue (short IPA: [uː])
y	Psychologie	(short IPA: [yː])

Notes [edit]

^ In Switzerland, Bavaria, and Austria often [r], the voiced alveolar trill.
^ IPA: /x/ is realized as a uvular fricative [χ] after [a], [aː], and often [ʊ], [ɔ], and [aʊ].
^ In many varieties of German except for Swiss Standard German, all initial vowels are preceded by ʔ.
^ [ɛː] is often replaced by [eː].