Alphabet & Pronunciation
ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆ ಮತ್ತು ಉಚ್ಚಾರಣೆ
German is written with the Latin alphabet plus four extra letters (ä, ö, ü, ß) that Kannada script doesn't have — but German spelling is far more consistent than English's, so once you learn the rules, reading aloud becomes predictable, much closer to how Kannada's own phonetic script behaves.
Grammar Comparison
ವ್ಯಾಕರಣ ಹೋಲಿಕೆ
German is phonetic, close to Kannada
Wie es geschrieben wird, so wird es (meistens) gesprochen.
ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಕ್ಷರಗಳು ಬರೆದಂತೆಯೇ ಉಚ್ಚರಿಸಲ್ಪಡುತ್ತವೆ.
Kannada script is close to fully phonetic — what's written is what's said, every time. German is far more consistent than English for the same underlying reason: 'ei' is always pronounced like Kannada's ಐ, 'ie' is always a long ಈ. Unlike English, you rarely have to guess a German word's pronunciation from its spelling once you've learned a handful of rules.
Sounds neither language has
ü (as in müde), ch (as in ich) — no Kannada equivalent
ಟ, ಣ, ಳ (retroflex consonants) — no German equivalent
German's umlaut vowels (ä/ö/ü) and its soft 'ch' sound (as in ich, a breathy hiss made behind the tongue) don't exist in Kannada. Going the other direction, Kannada's retroflex consonants — ಟ, ಣ, ಳ, formed by curling the tongue back — don't exist in German either. Both directions require training your mouth into genuinely new positions, not approximating with the closest sound you already know.
Vocabulary
ಪದಗಳು
- Kannada
- ಐai
- English
- as in nein ('no')
- Kannada
- ಈii
- English
- as in sie ('she/they')
- Kannada
- ಎe
- English
- as in Mädchen ('girl')
- Kannada
- ——
- English
- as in schön ('beautiful')
- Kannada
- ——
- English
- as in müde ('tired')
- Kannada
- ಖ (softened)kha
- English
- as in Bach
- Kannada
- ——
- English
- as in ich ('I')
- Kannada
- ಶsha
- English
- as in schön
- Kannada
- ಟ್ಸ್ts
- English
- as in Zeit ('time')
- Kannada
- ವva
- English
- as in wir ('we')
- Kannada
- ಫ್f
- English
- as in Vater ('father')
- Kannada
- ಸ್s
- English
- as in Straße ('street')