German pronunciation is considerably more consistent than English's — most letters correspond reliably to specific sounds, which makes reading new words aloud far more predictable.
German has a specific, regular rule: voiced consonants (b, d, g) are pronounced as their voiceless counterparts (p, t, k) at the end of a word or syllable. This is why "Hund" (dog) ends in a "t" sound rather than a "d" sound despite being spelled with a "d" — a real, consistent phonological rule, not an exception.
German allows consonant clusters that can look intimidating in writing (words starting with "schw-," "pfl-," or "str-"), but each individual sound is learnable, and the clusters themselves follow consistent patterns rather than being random.
Ä, ö, and ü each have their own consistent pronunciation, distinct from a, o, and u — worth learning as genuinely separate sounds rather than "a with an accent" (see German Alphabet).
A regular rule where voiced consonants (b, d, g) are pronounced as their voiceless counterparts (p, t, k) at the end of a word or syllable — for example, "Hund" (dog) ends with a "t" sound despite being spelled with a "d."
Generally yes — most German letters map consistently to specific sounds, making it easier to predict a new word's pronunciation from its spelling than in English.
No — ä, ö, and ü are genuinely distinct vowel sounds, not simply accented variants, and mixing them up can change a word's meaning.
That's the plan, matching the audio-based approach already used in Tarc's existing courses.
See also: German Alphabet · German Listening & Speaking · Learn German