Day 1: You can already read German
German spelling is honest. Unlike French, what you see is what you say — so the decoder below is the whole pronunciation system, and it fits on one page.
That leaves most of Day 1 free, and we spend it on something no French course can offer you: you already know several hundred German words. Section 6 hands them to you. You will finish today able to read words you have never seen.
1. The alphabet (26 + 4)
| Letter | Name | Letter | Name | Letter | Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | ah | J | yot | S | ess |
| B | bay | K | kah | T | tay |
| C | tsay | L | ell | U | oo |
| D | day | M | emm | V | fow |
| E | ay | N | enn | W | vay |
| F | eff | O | oh | X | iks |
| G | gay | P | pay | Y | IP-see-lon |
| H | hah | Q | koo | Z | tsett |
| I | ee | R | err |
Plus four that English does not have: ä (ah-umlaut) · ö · ü · ß (ess-TSETT).
★ E and I are swapped relative to English. German E is English "ay"; German I is English "ee". Spell your email out loud — if it contains an E or an I, you just found your first mistake.
2. The five letters that betray English readers
These are not new sounds. They are familiar letters pointing at different sounds, which is worse — your eye will read them the English way for weeks unless you burn them in now.
| Letter | Is actually | Example |
|---|---|---|
| w | English v | Wasser VAS-ser, was vass, Wein vine |
| v | English f | Vater FAH-tuh, vier feer, von fon |
| z | ts — never English z | Zeit tsite, zwei tsvy, Zug tsook |
| s before a vowel | English z | Sonne ZON-nuh, sieben ZEE-ben |
| j | English y | ja yah, Jahr yar, jetzt yetst |
Wein is vine, not ween. Vater is FAH-tuh, not VAH-ter.Those two words alone contain three of the five traps.
3. ★ ei / ie — the single most common reading error
There is one rule and it never fails:
Say the English name of the second letter.
| Spelling | Second letter | Sound | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| ei | i → "I" | eye | nein nine, Wein vine, drei dry, heißen HIGH-sen |
| ie | e → "E" | ee | Bier beer, vier feer, Liebe LEE-buh, sieben ZEE-ben |
⚠️ This pair decides real meanings. Wein (wine) and Wien (Vienna) differ by exactly this, and so do dozens of other pairs. Drill it until your eye stops asking.
Two more vowel pairs and you are done:
| Spelling | Sound | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| eu / äu | oy | Deutsch DOYTCH, neu noy, Häuser HOY-zuh |
| au | ow as in how | auch owkh, Haus howss, braun brown |
And the three umlauts
| How to make it | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| ä | just eh as in bet | Mädchen MET-khen, spät shpayt |
| ö | say eh, then round your lips without moving your tongue | schön shern, können KER-nen |
| ü | say ee, then round your lips without moving your tongue | fünf fewnf, über EW-buh |
★ ö and ü are the same trick twice: freeze the tongue, round the lips.They are the only two genuinely new sounds in the whole language for you.(If you have done any French: ü is French u, ö is French eu.)
4. ch, sch, st-, sp- — the consonant clusters
ch has two sounds, decided by the letter before it
| After… | Sound | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| a, o, u, au | back ch — a throat scrape, like Scottish loch | Buch bookh, acht akht, auch owkh, Nacht nakht |
| e, i, ä, ö, ü, and consonants | front ch — a hissed h, tongue high and forward | ich ikh, nicht nikht, Milch milkh, recht rekht |
⚠️ Never say English "k", and never say "ch" as in chair. ich is not ick; Buch is not book.
How to find the front ch: whisper the English word huge and hold the h. That hiss is it. For the back ch: start to gargle, then stop before the water.
Three quick ones
- sch = sh → Schule SHOO-luh, schön shern
- st- / sp- at the start of a word = sht- / shp- → Straße SHTRAH-suh, Sport SHPORT, sprechen SHPREKH-en
- chs = ks → sechs zeks, Fuchs fooks
5. Three endings that change the word's last sound
Final devoicing — b, d, g go hard at the end
| Written | Read as | |
|---|---|---|
| Hund | hoont | dog — the d is a t |
| Tag | tahk | day — the g is a k |
| halb | halp | half — the b is a p |
| und | oont | and |
The soft sound comes back when a vowel follows: Hund (hoont) → Hunde (HOON-duh).
-ig at the end = -ich
richtig RIKH-tikh · wenig VAY-nikh · zwanzig TSVAN-tsikh
The r you barely say
After a vowel, German r melts into a soft uh: Mutter MOOT-uh · Vater FAH-tuh · Bier BEE-uh · Uhr oo-uh
This is why Vater sounds nothing like father even though it is the same word.Do not curl your tongue back the way you do for an English R. Before a vowel (rot, Frau) it is a light throat scrape; after a vowel it is barely a vowel itself.
6. ★★ The cognate gift — several hundred free words
English is a Germanic language. Around 1,500 years ago the consonants drifted apart in a regular, predictable way. Learn the six swaps below and you can decode German words you have never met.
| English has | German has | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| t | ss / z / tz | water→Wasser · eat→essen · foot→Fuß · to→zu · ten→zehn · two→zwei · heart→Herz · salt→Salz |
| d | t | day→Tag · do→tun · drink→trinken · deep→tief · door→Tür · daughter→Tochter |
| th | d | thing→Ding · think→denken · thank→danken · three→drei · brother→Bruder |
| p | f / pf | ship→Schiff · help→helfen · sleep→schlafen · open→offen · apple→Apfel · pepper→Pfeffer |
| k | ch | make→machen · book→Buch · week→Woche · milk→Milch · seek→suchen |
| v | b | give→geben · have→haben · love→lieben · live→leben · seven→sieben · over→über |
Bonus: English gh is almost always German cht — night→Nacht · light→Licht · eight→acht · right→recht.
Try it before you read on. These four are new to you. Decode them with the table:Zunge · Pfad · Woche · Silber(tongue · path · week · silver)
⚠️ The gift has a limit. It works on the old everyday words — house, hand, water, drink. It does not work on the long abstract ones, and it never tells you the gender of a noun, which from Day 6 is the thing that actually matters. Wasser is free; das Wasser is not.
7. ⚠️ Falsche Freunde — the price of the gift
The cognates are free, but a handful of words look English and mean something else. These are the ones that actually cause trouble:
| German | Really means | Not… |
|---|---|---|
| Gift | poison ☠️ | a gift → Geschenk |
| bekommen | to receive | to become → werden |
| also | so, therefore | also → auch |
| Chef | boss | chef → Koch |
| Handy | mobile phone | handy → praktisch |
| fast | almost | fast → schnell |
| bald | soon | bald → kahl |
| Rock | skirt | rock → Stein |
| sensibel | sensitive | sensible → vernünftig |
| eventuell | possibly | eventually → schließlich |
"Ich bekomme ein Gift" is not "I'm getting a present." Please do not say it.
8. Every noun is capitalised — and that is a gift too
German capitalises all nouns, everywhere in the sentence: Der Mann trinkt Wasser in dem Haus.
It looks strange for two days, and then it starts working for you: in a wall of unknown German, the capital letters tell you where the things are. You can find the subject of a sentence before you know a single word in it.
9. Read aloud (3× each)
CAPITALS = the stressed syllable. German stresses the first syllable of a word — the same instinct as English, so unlike French this is not something you have to fight.
| German | Respelling | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Guten Tag! | GOO-ten TAHK | Good day / Hello |
| Wie geht's? | vee GAYTS | How's it going? |
| Ich heiße Alex. | ikh HIGH-suh A-lex | My name is Alex |
| Ich komme aus Amerika. | ikh KOM-muh owss a-MEH-ree-kah | I'm from America |
| Ein Kaffee, bitte. | ine KA-fay, BIT-tuh | A coffee, please |
| Danke schön. | DAHN-kuh SHERN | Thank you very much |
| Entschuldigung. | ent-SHOOL-di-goong | Excuse me |
| Ich verstehe nicht. | ikh fer-SHTAY-uh NIKHT | I don't understand |
| Sprechen Sie Englisch? | SHPREKH-en zee ENG-lish | Do you speak English? |
| Auf Wiedersehen! | owf VEE-duh-zayn | Goodbye |
★ One stress exception, and it matters from Day 20 on: verbs built on be-, ge-, ver-, ent-, er-, zer- never stress the prefix — verSTEhen, beKOMmen, EntSCHULdigung. That is why Ich verstehe nicht has its beat in the middle.
Swap in your own country: aus England (owss ENG-lant), aus Kanada, aus Australien (owss ows-TRAH-lee-en), aus Irland, aus Korea (owss ko-RAY-ah).
10. Exercises
A. ei or ie? Read it out loud, then give the meaning.
- Bier 2. Wein 3. Zeit 4. Liebe 5. drei 6. sieben 7. heißen
B. Front ch or back ch?
- ich 2. Buch 3. Milch 4. auch 5. Nacht 6. richtig 7. sechs
C. Decode with the cognate table — no dictionary.
- Wasser 2. trinken 3. Apfel 4. Bruder 5. Woche 6. sieben 7. Nacht 8. Zunge
D. ⚠️ Falsche Freunde — what do these actually mean?
- Gift 2. bekommen 3. also 4. Handy 5. fast
E. What is the last sound you actually say?
- Hund 2. Tag 3. halb 4. richtig 5. Vater
F. Read these three aloud. Every trap from today is in them.
- Ich weiß es nicht. 2. Vier Bier, bitte. 3. Wir sprechen sehr wenig Deutsch.
Answers
A. 1. ie → beer (beer) 2. ei → vine (wine) 3. ei → tsite (time) 4. ie → LEE-buh (love) 5. ei → dry (three) 6. ie → ZEE-ben (seven) 7. ei → HIGH-sen (to be called) B. Front: 1, 3, 6 · Back: 2, 4, 5 · 7 is neither — sechs is chs = ks (zeks) C. 1. water 2. drink 3. apple 4. brother 5. week 6. seven 7. night 8. tongue D. 1. poison 2. to receive 3. so / therefore 4. mobile phone 5. almost E. 1. t (hoont) 2. k (tahk) 3. p (halp) 4. front ch (RIKH-tikh) 5. a soft uh — the r is barely there (FAH-tuh) F. 1. ikh VICE es NIKHT — ei=eye, w=v, ß=sharp s, front ch ×2
- feer BEE-uh, BIT-tuh — ie=ee twice, the r in Bier melts
- veer SHPREKH-en zair VAY-nikh DOYTCH — w=v, sp-=shp, s before a vowel=z, -ig=ikh, eu=oy
11. Today's 10 sentences (flashcards)
- Guten Tag! — Hello (GOO-ten TAHK)
- Hallo! — Hi (HA-loh)
- Danke. — Thank you (DAHN-kuh)
- Bitte. — Please / You're welcome (BIT-tuh)
- Ja / Nein. — Yes / No (yah / nine)
- Entschuldigung. — Excuse me (ent-SHOOL-di-goong)
- Ich verstehe nicht. — I don't understand (ikh fer-SHTAY-uh NIKHT)
- Sprechen Sie Englisch? — Do you speak English? (SHPREKH-en zee ENG-lish)
- Noch einmal, bitte. — Once more, please (nokh INE-mal, BIT-tuh)
- Auf Wiedersehen. — Goodbye (owf VEE-duh-zayn)
12. 📲 Upload to LangNote
Screenshot or copy section 9 (read aloud) and section 11 (the 10 sentences) and upload them → set the study language to German.
| Mission | What to do with it today |
|---|---|
| 🎧 Podcast | Listen to today's decoder rules while you're moving |
| ✍️ Dictation | Today's key mission. Hear what ei/ie, the two ch sounds and final devoicing actually sound like |
| 🗣 Shadowing | Repeat all 10 sentences → check your pronunciation score (your Day 30 baseline) |
| 📖 Vocab | Today's 10 sentences + the 8 cognates from exercise C |
| ❓ Quiz | ei/ie, the two ch sounds, falsche Freunde |
★ Screenshot your Day 1 pronunciation score. Reading these same sentences again on Day 30 and comparing the two numbers is the closing shot of this whole challenge.
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