0.4 ch is two sounds — ach and ich — Epoché
What you will be able to do Produce the two sounds that ch stands for — the back one in Buch and Nacht , the front one in ich and Milch — and tell them apart by ear. Decide which of the two a written word calls for, without looking it up, by reading the vowel in front of them: auch against euch , Buch against Bücher . Keep chs and sch out of the way: sechs is [ks], Kirsche is [ʃ], and neither has anything to do with the two sounds of this lesson. Recognise that a large family of English words with gh in the spelling is the same family — Nacht , Licht , acht — and use that correspondence to guess meanings. Prerequisites : 0.3 — you need the two rounded front vowels, because the commonest demonstration in this lesson is a singular and a plural where adding the two dots to the vowel also changes the consonant after it. The length rule from 0.2 is assumed as well. There is one place where an English speaker's German is identifiable within a single word, and this is it. The letter pair in question is written the same way everywhere, it stands for two different sounds, and English has neither of them. Learners therefore substitute: they reach for k , or they reach for sh and the word for I comes out as ish . Both substitutions are understood, and both are audible at once. The good news is that this lesson is short on memorisation and long on mechanics. There are exactly two sounds. Which one a word takes is decided by a rule with no exceptions worth learning at this stage, and the rule is not arbitrary — it follows from the shape of your own mouth. And the family of words involved is a family English shares, which means you get vocabulary out of the deal as well as pronunciation. The consonant English used to have Start with the history, because it is the fastest way to make the sound feel familiar rather than exotic. Old English had this consonant, in both its front and its back variety, and it was common: the word that is now night was pronounced with it, and so were light , right , eight , daughter , thought , through , and high . Middle English scribes wrote it with the two letters gh , and that spelling is still on the page in every one of those words. Then, between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries, English lost the sound. In most words it fell silent, leaving the gh behind as a gravestone and often a lengthened vowel in its place. In a handful it hardened into [f] instead, which is why laugh , rough , and enough are spelled with letters that say nothing about how they sound. Every silent gh marks a spot where this German consonant used to live. German did not lose it. So the correspondence is nearly mechanical, and it hands you a set of words for free. German English — and what to notice Nacht [naxt] night — the gh is where the consonant was; the German vowel is short, the English one is long Licht [lɪçt] light — same word, same order of sounds, nothing dropped Recht [ʁɛçt] right — as a noun, a right (an entitlement) and the law; the direction is a different word, rechts acht [axt] eight — the numeral, with the consonant still audible Tochter [ˈtɔxtɐ] daughter — the English gh is silent, the German one is not dachte [ˈdaxtə] thought, as a past tense — the same consonant in the same slot durch [dʊʁç] through — the consonant survives; note that here a consonant, not a vowel, stands in front hoch [hoːx] high — the plainest case of all: English dropped it, German kept it Read that column of English words aloud and notice that you feel nothing at the gh . Your mouth passes straight over it. What this lesson asks you to do is put something back in that slot. Two sounds, and how to make each one The back one first, because it is the one with a reputation. It is written [x], it is the sound in the Scottish word loch and in the composer's name Bach , and it is made at exactly the place where you make k . Say k and hold the closure: the back of your tongue is pressed against the soft palate. Now let it down by a hair's breadth, so that air hisses through the narrow gap instead of building up behind a seal. That hiss is [x]. It is not made in the throat, it is not a growl, and it does not involve the vocal cords at all — if you feel vibration, you have added voice that should not be there. The front one is written [ç], and here is the part nobody tells you: you already produce something almost identical, many times a day. Say the English word huge , or human , or the name Hugh , and pay attention to the very first thing your mouth does. For most English speakers that initial sound is not a plain [h] at all but a friction made with the tongue up against the hard palate — which is [ç], or near enough that a German listener will accept it. So the method is: say hue , stop after the consonant, and hold it. If that does not work for you, there is a second route. Say the English word yes and hold the first sound. Now stop the voice — keep the tongue exactly where it is and just breathe through the same gap. Voiced becomes voiceless, and the result is [ç]. The rule: read the vowel in front The letters do not tell you which sound you get. The vowel before them does, and the division is between back vowels and everything else. What comes before Which sound, and examples the back vowels a , o , u , and the diphthong au the back one, [x] — Nacht , hoch , Buch , auch the front vowels, including the two from lesson 0.3 the front one, [ç] — ich , Licht , Bücher , Köche the diphthongs ei , eu , äu the front one, [ç] — leicht , euch , Bräuche a consonant — l , n , r the front one, [ç] — Milch , Mönch , durch the ending that makes a word small, -chen the front one, [ç], whatever stands before it — Mädchen Now the reason, because a rule you can derive is a rule you do not have to memorise. A back vowel is made with the tongue pulled back and raised toward the soft palate. A front vowel is made with the tongue forward and raised toward the hard palate. The consonant is friction between the raised tongue an