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Interesting how some people find the sound of German natural. I find German sounds extremely difficult to pronounce with all these consonants next to each other

Interesting how some people find the sound of German natural. I find German sounds extremely difficult to pronounce with all these consonants next to each other. English is not the easiest to pronounce either but it seems easier than German. Dutch sounds like a clearer version of German but with a funny 'g' sound. Italian is so clean and simple, even if you don't speak it, you can probably tell each word apart. French is pretty clear and easy to pronounce, I rarely ever ask people to repeat themselves in French. It uses a broad sound spectrum with lots of open-mouth sounds (lots of vowels and vowel combinations which produce new sounds). It's very easy to start muttering in English because you barely need to open your mouth to speak it.

toabi 9y ago
As a German, the consonant distribution feels pretty balanced compared to for example Czech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strč_prst_skrz_krk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strč_prst_skrz_krk
GTP 9y ago
It probably depends on which your mother tongue is. I'm Italian and I find German easier to pronounce than English. Plus it has precisely defined and easy pronunciation rules, so when you know them you're able to correctly pronounce every german word. The same doesn't hold true for English.
dmichulke 9y ago
> French is pretty clear and easy to pronounce, After half an hour of French, I often have difficulties pronouncing properly the difference between en, on, un and in(-ternet). > I rarely ever ask people to repeat themselves in French Among the two other non-native langauges (EN, PT), it has been the hardest to understand for me because it's hard to map sounds back to writing.
- tnzn 9y ago
  A lot of French people pronounce un and in the same way
- btschaegg 9y ago
  > After half an hour of French, I often have difficulties pronouncing properly the difference between en, on, un and in(-ternet). I find this very interesting, mainly because I see similar effects when I'm using a foreign language :) For a long time, I felt that speaking in a certain language forces me to "shift" my language brain to a degree. German is my mother tongue, but I have trouble pronouncing e.g. German names correctly within an English sentence. The opposite - English words in German context - isn't really a problem, although that might be the product of modern German adopting more and more English words into the common vocabulary. I also recall having trouble with the German-style "R" in a french context. As a side note, I do hope they won't butcher all those English words in the future like they did the French ones :-/
Tomis02 9y ago
> I find German sounds extremely difficult to pronounce with all these consonants next to each other. Heh, have a look at Polish, it sometimes gives the impression it could do away with vowels altogether.
MagnumOpus 9y ago
German has fewer weird consonant clashes than English... Lots of common English words tend to lose their vowel sounds when spoken out loud - "squirrel" is notorious, but "turle", "hurdler", "wyrm" and suchlike are very light on vowel sounds compared to their German equivalents...
deleted 9y ago
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toabi 9y ago

As a German, the consonant distribution feels pretty balanced compared to for example Czech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strč_prst_skrz_krk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strč_prst_skrz_krk

GTP 9y ago

It probably depends on which your mother tongue is. I'm Italian and I find German easier to pronounce than English. Plus it has precisely defined and easy pronunciation rules, so when you know them you're able to correctly pronounce every german word. The same doesn't hold true for English.

dmichulke 9y ago

> French is pretty clear and easy to pronounce, After half an hour of French, I often have difficulties pronouncing properly the difference between en, on, un and in(-ternet). > I rarely ever ask people to repeat themselves in French Among the two other non-native langauges (EN, PT), it has been the hardest to understand for me because it's hard to map sounds back to writing.

tnzn 9y ago
A lot of French people pronounce un and in the same way
btschaegg 9y ago
> After half an hour of French, I often have difficulties pronouncing properly the difference between en, on, un and in(-ternet). I find this very interesting, mainly because I see similar effects when I'm using a foreign language :) For a long time, I felt that speaking in a certain language forces me to "shift" my language brain to a degree. German is my mother tongue, but I have trouble pronouncing e.g. German names correctly within an English sentence. The opposite - English words in German context - isn't really a problem, although that might be the product of modern German adopting more and more English words into the common vocabulary. I also recall having trouble with the German-style "R" in a french context. As a side note, I do hope they won't butcher all those English words in the future like they did the French ones :-/

Tomis02 9y ago

> I find German sounds extremely difficult to pronounce with all these consonants next to each other. Heh, have a look at Polish, it sometimes gives the impression it could do away with vowels altogether.

MagnumOpus 9y ago

German has fewer weird consonant clashes than English... Lots of common English words tend to lose their vowel sounds when spoken out loud - "squirrel" is notorious, but "turle", "hurdler", "wyrm" and suchlike are very light on vowel sounds compared to their German equivalents...

deleted 9y ago

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