My German colleagues were laughing at the way I pronounce google, and it led to a discussion.
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With words like google, yahoo, poodle and loose, the oo has a sound similar to the German ü sound.
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With words like good and book, it is more similar to how Germans pronounce a oo sound.
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For words like door we are not sure if that is the same or different.
The Germans want to know what the pronunciation rules are so they can improve their English. I am guessing that there are no rules, and the pronunciation possibly comes from the original language that the word comes from.
Are there any rules? Is there any reason why there are two different pronunciations? Can non-native speakers work out the correct pronunciation by looking at the other letters in the word or the etymology?
Best Answer
I'd say that your German colleagues are mishearing the English pronunciations.
The German letter ü makes the sound [y], which does not occur in English.
The words loose, poodle, food, and most other words with oo have the vowel [u], which is usually spelled u or uh in German. Historically this is a long /o/ sound that was written with "oo", the pronunciation of which has shifted to [u] as a result of the Great Vowel Shift.
Some words with oo have instead the vowel [ʊ]: good, hood, book. There is no rule that predicts which words have this pronunciation, so you have to memorize it. The [ʊ] sound occurs in German as an allophone of /u/ in closed syllables. The vowel [ʊ] is shorter, more lax, and slightly centralized relative to [u]. This sound also tends to come from an older long /o/, though the reasons for this split are complicated and obscure.
A very small number of words with oo are pronounced with an [o] vowel: door, floor. These words always end in r, because the final r colors the preceding vowel. This is the same sound that is spelled o or oh in German.