[align=left]Diphthongs
Note: these combinations are not always used as diphthongs. At syllable boundaries and sometimes even in a syllable, they are spoken as separate vowels (e.g. soeben — zoh-AY-ben)
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au
like 'ow' in "how"
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ae
transcription for 'ä' if not available on a keyboard or in URLs
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ah
like 'a' in "bar", longer than 'a'
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äu
like 'oy' in "boy"
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ei
like 'i' in "wine"
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eu
like 'oy' in "boy"
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eh
long 'e'
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ie
like 'ee' in "week", longer than 'i'
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ieh
like 'ee' in "week", longer than 'i', fundamentally no difference to 'ie'
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oe
transcription for 'ö' if not available on a keyboard or in URLs
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oh
like 'oo' in "door", longer than 'o'
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ue
transcription for 'ü' if not available on a keyboard or in URLs
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uh
like 'ou' in "youth", longer than 'u'
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ch after 'a', 'o' and 'u'
like 'ch' in Scottish "loch", spoken in the throat, like 'j' in Spanish
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ch after 'i' and 'e'
like 'h' in "huge"
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ch at the beginning of a word
like 'ch' in "character"
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ck
like 'ck' in "blocking"
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ng
like both 'ng' in "singing", never like 'ng' in "finger"
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ph
like 'f' in "fish"
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sch
like 'sh' in "sheep"
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sp at the beginning of a word
like 'shp' in "fish pool"
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ss
like 'ss' in "hiss", in contrast to 'ß', makes the preceding vowel shorter. Also used as transcription for 'ß' in URL or on foreign keyboards.
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st at the beginning of a word
like 'sht' in "ashtray"[/align]