An umlaut changes a vowel's sound and can distinguish words or grammatical forms. Learn the spelling and sound together in a complete word.
The idea
For ö and ü, lip rounding matters: a useful starting exercise is to hold an e-like or i-like tongue position while rounding the lips. This is an approximation, so compare with reliable German audio. Ä has its own vowel realizations and may sound close to e in some contexts. Plurals such as Äpfel and Bücher show why the dots cannot be omitted.
Examples
- schon – schön
- Bruder – Brüder
- Mutter – Mütter
- Apfel – Äpfel
- Buch – Bücher
- Ofen – Öfen
Read-aloud uses a synthetic German voice available on your device. Voice quality and availability vary; it does not assess your pronunciation.
No German device voice is available. You can still read the text and use the linked listening resources.
Watch out
Schon and schön are different words, not interchangeable spellings. An optional device voice is synthetic practice support, not a pronunciation assessment.
Try it yourself
der Apfel → die ___
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Äpfel
The plural of Apfel is Äpfel.
das Buch → die ___
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Bücher
The plural of Buch is Bücher.
Wir sind ___ da! (schon / schön)
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schon
Wir sind schon da means we are already there. Schön would mean beautiful or nice in other constructions.
Practice round
Answer three questions, then rebuild three German sentences. We keep your score.
der Apfel → die ___
das Buch → die ___
Wir sind ___ da! (schon / schön)
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Tap the words in the right order.
Keep your progress
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Listen to a pair, pause and repeat it. Then write the word from memory and put it in a short sentence. Compare with a reliable pronunciation model.