How to pronounce the word "sprechen"

How do i pronounce the word sprechen? I cant seem to nail it. Any hints?

Here's the link for the pronounciation from dict.leo.org

yeah ive heard it plenty of times and can tell as soon as the word exits my mouth that ive said it wrong. I asked my sister to say and she said it perfectly just like a german. So i know its within my reach to pronounce it better. I was hoping someone else had difficulty and had overcome it.

EDIT: I have Connecticut accent if that makes a difference.

The hardest part probably is the "ch". It's quite similar to the sound of an angry cat. Try to emulate this sound.

Michael Thomas on his CDs teaching German dedicates a good bit of time to this. The CH sound isnt one we have in english really. Ich and sprechen are the best examples.

He suggests thats it quite like telling someone to "shhhh" but with a C. Ive tried that a few times and I think I got it down.

I don't think its pronounced the same Germany-wide. For example, in Köln, it sounds more like spreshen, with a soft c... so you could always move to somewhere you can pronounce it

Ok if this doesn't sound daft what I think you could also try for words like ich and sprechen is to lift the tip of your tongue up in your mouth a little and let the CH sound roll over top of your tongue.

I know lots of English speakers have problems with this. I think I was lucky with German pronunciation as a lot of it is similar to Welsh I didn't really realise this until I heard my boyfriend (who is also Welsh) speaking German too. His German is not so good but pronunciation of 'ich' is excellent

Can you pronounce "the Loch Ness Monster"? - The "ch" in "loch" is as near enough to the "ch" in "sprechen".

Only in Swiss German ...

Thou jests. Not only the Swiss Germans but nearly everywhere south of the Donau pronounces it with the soft "ch" of loch. Bei den Sau-Preußen ist es vielleicht anders

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/loch

But we do have it in Cymraeg (Welsh)!

Unless you want to speak an alemannic dialect (which you probably don't), there are two different "ch" sounds, depending on which vowel preceeds: compare "ach!", "kochen" and "kuchen" to "ich" and "sprechen". When saying "ach!", the back part of the tongue lightly touches the throat, and the air passing through creates a rough sound that resembles the sound in scottish "loch". Same with "kochen" and "kuchen".

In contrast to this, when you form the vowels "i" and "e", you open your mouth as if you wanted to smile, which means the teeth are barely parted, and the tongue is flat and presses against the sides of the lower row of teeth. Then, when you say "ich", the air passes laterally and creates a softer sound than in "ach!".

But as others have said, you can pretend speaking the Cologne dialect or also Hessian, where people speak "föschterlisch" (fürchterlich).

That´s called "Fernsehhessisch" ... there´s actually no single Hessian dialect spoken by all Hessians

What the hell is a Connecticut accent? Is it like a Boston accent? I was born in New Haven, and as far as a remember Connecticut was fairly free of both a strong Boston or New York accent.

I say it like "spreshen". I live in Hessen, and everyone says it that way.

Once you can do sprechen try Eichörnchen.

Hochdeutsch: Shpre-hen

If you can say this... llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (note the 'chs'), then 'Sprechen' is a walk in the park!

Wow And what does it mean? It doesn't sound very friendly ...

say the name 'Hugh', and list the sound at the beginning as the air passes over the tongue.
the tip of your tongue needs to be touching your bottom teeth, other wise you get an 'SH' sound.

it's a frontal CH as opposed to a back CH like in 'Buch'

It is a town in Wales.

As unfriendly as

Personvereinzelungsanlage or Unkrautvernichtungsmittel perhaps? I am sure I could find some others in German...

The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio By the Red Cave is the exact translation

Purple Muffin, nice translation and although it is right it is not the correct translation

chwyrn translates as rapid not fierce, so this would be the right way:

Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave.

can we get a sound clip of that?!

yeah there it is the longest named town on Wales.

here you go:

http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyr...es/llandad4.wav

spoken in rather affected Goggish.