BNA INDIA January/February 2015

LEARN GERMAN - LESSON 1
In order to make our Indo-German intercultural connection stronger,
we will give you a new lesson in German language and grammar
in every Edition. As the only ones we offer you the German lessons
in English and Hindi. Today we start with lesson 1 and you will learn
how to greet people in German and how to use articles and personal
pronouns.
But at first you will learn the German alphabet and some basic rules of
pronunciation:There are 26 Latin characters in German alphabet plus 4 special letters.
These special letters are ä, ö, ü and ß (these dots are called Umlaute).
The alphabet:
Aa - ah - as in “kal”
Bb - beh - as in “bet”
Cc - Tseh - as in “Cesar”
Dd - deh - as in “din”
Ee - eh - as in “mera”
Ff - eff - as in “fantasy”
Gg - geh - as in “guru”
Hh - ha - as in “halka”
Ii - ih - as in “pani”
Jj - yot - as in “yahan”
Kk - kah - as in “kaun”
Ll - ell - as in “lekin”
Mm - emm - as in “mein”
Nn - enn - as in “nahin”
Oo - oh - as in “cchota”
Pp - peh - as in “pagal”
Qq - kuh - as in “cool”
Rr - err - as in “roshni”
Ss - ess - as in “suraj”
Tt - teh - as in “tamil”
Uu - uh - as in “aloo”
Vv - fao - as in “fantasy”
Ww - weh - as in “wahan”
Xx - iks - as in “next”
Yy - oep-tzi-lon - as in “lyrics”
Zz - tsett - as in “sabzi”
Special letters:
Ää - as in “hai”
Öö - as in the Englisch word “turn”
Üü - as in “lyrics”
ß - as in “sabzi”
Also you will find a lot of diphthongs and digraphs
in German language, which are read and pronounced
as one sound:
ei - as in the English word “I”
au - as in the English word “cow”
eu - as in the English word “boy”
äu - as in the English word “boy”
aa - as in “kal”
ah - as in “kal”
äh - as in “hai” (long sound)
ch - followed by “a”, “o” or “u” a hard sound as in
“Khan”, followed by “e” or “I” a soft sound
sch - as in “chaar”
ph - as in the English word “fantasy”
ie - as in “bhi”
ee - as in “mera”
eh - as in “mera”
th - as in “theek”
ck - as in “kal”
sp - pronounced as “schp”
st - pronounced as “scht”
tsch - as in “shukriya”
52 BNA INDIA January / February 2015