Ach, welch’ schlechtes “ch” ich mach’

 

A while ago, I received an e-mail from a former student and singer who has now a Festvertrag at a German opera house, inquiring about the “ch” sound. Besides the combination chs which creates an x-sound like in wachsen (to grow) or Lachs (salmon) or the word for lynx, Luchs (not spelled Lux as I learned last night), there are two ch-sounds that interests us most:

– the one we generate in the back of the throat as if we want to get rid of a crumb, like in ach or in der Hölle Rache kocht;

– the one we generate behind our front teeth, not quite a sch like in “shoe”, more like the sound New Yorkers create when they roll their eyes and say the word “huge” to emphasize something really, really, really huge. We find it in ich, nicht or München.

The singer asked if there is “a rule allowing us to know which sound to make” when looking at a text.

Yes, there are several rules.

They have to do with vowels, umlauts and diphthongs preceding the ch.

We pronounce ch like in ach…

– when it is preceded by the vowels a, o and u like in Rache, Loch (hole) and suchen,

– when it is preceded by the diphthong au like in Bauch or rauchen (god forbit),

– never, when it is at the beginning of the word.

We pronounce ch like in ich…

– often when it is at the beginning of the word, like in China and Chemie, but not always. The ch of words like Chor or Cherub have a k-sound. We pronounce words of French origin like charmant or chic with the full sch-sound.

– when it is preceded by the vowels e and i like in Pech (bad luck) and Michael,

– when it is preceded by the diphthongs eu and ei like in meucheln (to murder) and schleichen (to sneak),

– in the diminuitive suffix chen like in Mädchen and Tischchen (try it: Tisch pause chen),

– when it is preceded by an umlaut like in rächen (to revenge), Köchelverzeichnis and schüchtern (shy). When a singular noun becomes plural, the ch-sound like in ach changes to the ch-sound like in ich, preceded by an umlaut: Dach (roof) and Dächer, Buch and Bücher, Loch and Löcher.

Be aware that there are words with two ch and both sounds, like Nachricht.

Practise: Manche Mädchen möchten lachen oder lächeln oder einfach lächerliche Sachen machen.

Video: Wagners Ring – Wo ist das Feuer jetzt?

The following video shows a projection of moving images onto the facade of Munich’s Nationaltheater on the opening night of a recent production of Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen”. The projection is called “Weltenbrand”. This word describes the destruction and horrors of a world war, a compound noun, consisting of Welten (plural of die Welt) and der Brand (fire). In dictionaries we find also the word “Weltbrand“. Weltenbrand is the “fire that engulfs the world”. According to the video description by the Bayerische Staatsoper, the projection is based on Wagner’s idea “of tearing down the opera house after the performance of the ‘Ring’ and burning the score”.

Watch this video, learn and practice the accusative and the dative by describing movement and location of an action. Below the video you will find questions.
First, let’s clarify words you might not know.

Places where an action takes place:
das Theater, das Dach (roof), der Giebel (gable), die Säule (column), plural: die Säulen; das Fenster (window), plural: die Fenster; der Eingang (entrance), der Boden (floor, ground)

Things that act (subjects):
die Flamme (flame), plural: die Flammen; das Feuer (fire), die Trümmer (as plural, debris), der Giebel (gable), der Wind (wind), die Worte (words)

Verbs that describe an action:
sein (ist, sind), fallen (fällt), gehen (geht), blasen (bläst, to blow), erscheinen (to appear)

Words that describe how a movement or another action takes place (prepositions):
auf, zwischen, nach, in, unter, über, unten (adverb: below), oben (adverb: above, up),

Please be aware that we set the destination of a movement, the object, in accusative (wohin):
der > den
das > das
die > die
die (pl) > die

On the other hand, the place where (wo) something happens, takes the dative:
der > dem
das > dem
die > der
die (pl) > den

Here we go.

Time           Question

0:12: Wo sind die Flammen?
Antwort: Die Flammen sind unter dem Giebel.

0:46 – 0:53: Was fällt wohin?
Antwort: ______________________________

1:02: Wo ist das Feuer jetzt?
Antwort: ______________________________

1:13: Wohin geht das Feuer jetzt?
Antwort: ______________________________

1:30: Wo sind die Flammen jetzt?
Antwort: ______________________________

1:56: Wohin bläst der Wind die Flammen?
Antwort: ______________________________

2:43: Wo erscheinen die Worte “Wagners Ring”?
Antwort: ______________________________

Next update: Sunday, February 26^th

Auf zur Oper – Prepositions

Staatsoper Berlin - under construction

 All roads lead to Rome. More roads lead to the opera house – if you let German grammar guide you.
Gehen wir in die Oper? Gehen wir zu der Oper? Gehen wir nach der Oper? Whenever will we be there?
Don’t worry. With two of these prepositions we will arrive at the opera house safely and in time. Even more, with in and zu, we will get even into the house and we won’t miss the performance.
in
The proposition in opens the door. With in we physically get into the building.
We also can say in when we announce our plan to see an opera tonight. “Heute Abend gehen wir in die Oper.”
The preposition in gives us a direction. We are not there, yet, but it is clear that we will enter the opera house, we’ll go in die Oper. When in gives a direction, the following noun, here Oper, is the object of our movement. It is in accusative.
Once we are inside the opera house, things change: in turns from a preposition of direction into a preposition of a location. “Wir sind in der Oper.” The article die has changed to der, telling us that the activity (sind) is taking place in the opera house. That’s called dative.
“Wir sind in der Oper” can also mean, that we are performing in that show.
zu
The preposition zu opens not only the door of the opera house, but opens up a lot of opportunities, too. Leaving your house, you can shout to your neighbor, “Ich gehe zu der Oper”, and he or she will understand perfectly where you are heading.
If you told this sentence to your parents in a conversation about your future, your parents knew that there is nothing they could do: You were going to have a career in opera.
Zu gives us a direction as well, but unlike in, it leads to an abstract place, to an institution (Musikschule, Rathaus, Universität) or to a person (Ich gehe zu Jonas) or to a person who represents a certain function. (Ich gehe zu dem Intendanten, ich gehe zu der Ärztin.) Zu also implies that you have some business at that place. Zu der Musikschule gehen means that you are a student or a professor at the music school; you go zu dem Rathaus to get a resident registration. As you might have noticed, zu is a preposition that leads to a dative.
Contraction
zu + der = zur
zu + dem = zum
nach
The preposition nach brings us to continents, countries or cities, not to opera houses.
Ich fliege nach Mexiko. Dort gehe ich in die Oper.
Ich fahre nach Berlin. Dort gehe ich zur Universitaet.
Nach leads to a dative.

Next update: Thursday, February 23^rd

Hello world! Hello singers!

Welcome to “Ach ich fühl’s – German for Opera Singers”
The title tells it all. When you are a singer with the desire to sing German opera, and maybe to sing in Germany, this blog might be helpful to you.
You will read …
– vignettes about the German language, customized to a singer’s needs;
– introductions to specific vocabulary or to new words,
– unusual easy explanations of grammar rules that usually make you feel uneasy,
– and translations and interpretations of arias.
You can …
– practice your German skills with exercises, based on opera plots, arias or the life of legendary singers and great composers,
– communicate with me and your fellow singers and language learners,
– and drop me a line if you are interested in a certain topic or couldn’t understand what I have written.
You will see videos and photos, and hopefully soon – with the help of a programmer – a little game where you can practice German stage directions. Step by step I will ad new sub-pages like “Grammar Parade”, “Aria Wortstudio” or “Excercizes”.
Stay tuned.