Ü

Probably the most difficult is the ‘Ü’-sound. You can start with the German
‘I’ (or English ‘ee’ like in ‘meet’) and then purse your lips until the sound
changes. There’s a German word with an ‘Ü’ in it you might have heard
before, it’s called ‘über’ (above) which has been translated to English as
‘ueber’. It’s often used in computer games for describing a very strong tool
(like an ‘ueber’-weapon as the strongest and most unfair one).
günstig (cheap), GUENS-tig
düster (dark), DUE-ster
Note: Sometimes if those vowels are not available (in certain fonts they
aren’t) they can also be written with their vowel-brothers followed by an
‘E’. So, an ‘Ä’ becomes ‘AE’, an ‘Ö’ becomes ‘OE’ and an ‘Ü’ becomes
‘UE’. If you take ‘Österreich’ (Austria) for example, it’s sometimes written
as ‘Oesterreich’ instead.
Pronunciation of vowels with an ‘H’ after them
In many cases, you’ll find a vowel followed by an ‘H’ and then a consonant
in the German language, like in ‘Mehl’ (flour). In most cases, the ‘H’ after
the vowel will simply prolong the vowel for a bit. So, in case of ‘Mehl’ the
length of the ‘e’ sound is longer. Easy, right? So, let’s try that with a few
examples:
Zahlen (numbers), TSAH-len
// the ‘Z’ sound is pronounced like a very strong ‘TS’ sound, like you would
take a strong ‘T’ and then add the beginning of the word ‘zoom’ after that.
The ‘ts’ in the word ‘cats’ comes close, or the ‘ts’ in ‘lots of’.
Uhr (clock), OOR
ohne (without), OH-ne
zählen (to count), TSAEH-len
// pronounce the ‘z’ as you would pronounce a strong ‘ts’. And yes, Ä/Ö/Ü
can be prolonged by an ‘H’ as well.Note: You won’t find a German word with an ‘I’
followed by an ‘H’ where
the ‘I’ is prolonged by that. There’s a special diphthong for this case, which
is written a little bit differently, see ‘IE’.
The following pronouns are exceptions to this: Ihn (EEN), Ihnen (EE-nen),
Ihr (EER), Ihre (EE-re), Ihren (EE-ren), Ihrem (EE-rem), Ihm (EEM)
The ‘Y’ (epsilon, or ‘Ypsilon’ in German)
In German the ‘Y’ is used either similarly to ‘Ü’, like in the German word
‘Thymian’ (thyme), or it sometimes is used as a ‘I’, like in ‘Playstation’,
especially when Germans pronounce words that were taken from foreign
languages.
Xylophon (xylophone), KSUE-lo-FON
// here the ‘Y’ is pronounced as a ‘Ü’, and the ‘PH’ is pronounced as ‘F’
(see consonants for an explanation)
Yoga (yoga), YO-ga
// here the ‘Y’ is pronounced similarly to a German ‘I’ or a ‘J’, they sound
very similar in German at times. Note: sometimes they spell it ‘Joga’ in
German, too
Baby (baby), BAY-bee
// here again the ‘Y’ is pronounced as an ‘I’. The ‘a’ is pronounced
similarly to the ‘a’ in the English word ‘amen’ to make it more similar to
the English pronunciation where German lent the word from.