147 - 10 Words a Day: German Words in English (1-10)

It's story time! Welcome to a true story about my friend, Nina, who is from Berlin, Germany. In the story of our friendship you'll learn 10+ German loanwords in English. A loanword is a words borrowed from a foreign language.

American English has many German words; how do we pronounce them?  Well, I know a lot of you are saying we butcher them, that's okay (I don't disagree with you!) In general, the pronunciation of a words depends on how popular / common a word is. If a German word is common in American English, naturally, there's an expected way to pronounce it, even if it's not how it is pronounced normally in German. 

The goal of this episode is to teach you how we pronounce the common ones and what to do when you come across uncommon loanwords. Here is a sample of some of the words in today's episode. 

1. doppelgänger
2. wanderlust
3. schadenfreude
4. Volkswagen
5. kindergarten
6. Rottweiler
7. gesundheit!
8. fest 
9. angst or angsty
10. waltz
11. über
12. kaput

Note: German loanwords in English follow English rules! While nouns are capitalized in German, in English, they are lowercase UNLESS they are proper nouns like Volkswagen OR if they derive from a proper noun, such as Rottweiler. Diacritical marks, such as the umlaut, are optional! 

*****
Premium Content: This episode is part of Season 3. By purchasing Season 3 transcripts, you'll be able to access the full episodes, the full PDF transcripts for episodes 101 - 150, an Mp3 download  and the premium podcast player to work on your pronunciation.  

• Get ALL PREMIUM CONTENT FOR SEASONS 1 - 3  (with 5 in-depth courses to improve your English,  includes all transcripts + mp3s)
• Get ONLY the Transcripts for Episodes 001 - 150
• Get the Free E-Book: 101 American English Slang Words 

*****

Support the show

Support the show

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices