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German (Germany)

German pronunciation: every letter and sound

German is spelled far more regularly than English: once you know the rules, you can read almost any word aloud. The things to learn are long and short vowels, the umlauts, the two ch sounds, the R, and a handful of letters that mean something different from English. Tono scores German against the standard of Germany.

Long and short vowels

German vowels come in long and short pairs. A vowel is usually long before a single consonant, when it is doubled, or before h; it is short before two consonants.

  • a · aa · ah/aː/A long “ah”, as in “father”.Name, Haar, Bahn Practice
  • a/a/The same vowel, short, before two consonants.Mann, Stadt, kalt Practice
  • e · ee · eh/eː/A long, closed e, like “ay” without the glide at the end.leben, Tee, sehr Practice
  • e · ä/ɛ/A short, open e, as in “bed”.Bett, essen, Äpfel Practice
  • e/ə/In unstressed endings such as -e and -en, a weak “uh”.bitte, Name, haben Practice
  • ä · äh/ɛː/A long, open e. Many speakers say it like the long e.Käse, spät, Mädchen Practice
  • i · ie · ih/iː/A long “ee”. ie is always long.Kino, Liebe, ihr Practice
  • i/ɪ/A short i, as in “bit”.Fisch, mit, Kind Practice
  • o · oo · oh/oː/A long, rounded o with no glide to w at the end.Brot, Boot, Sohn Practice
  • o/ɔ/A short, open o.Sonne, kommen, doch Practice
  • u · uh/uː/A long “oo”.gut, Uhr, Buch Practice
  • u/ʊ/A short u, as in “book”.Mutter, und, Hund Practice

Umlauts ü and ö

Rounded front vowels: the tongue says “ee” or “ay” while the lips round as for “oo”.

Diphthongs

Three vowel glides. Two of them are spelled in ways that mean something else in English.

  • ei · ai/aɪ/Like “eye”. ei is never “ee”.nein, Wein, Maiei is “eye” and ie is “ee”: Wein (wine) and Wien (Vienna) differ only in this. Practice
  • eu · äu/ɔʏ/Like the “oy” of “boy”.neu, heute, Häuser Practice
  • au/aʊ/Like the “ow” of “how”.Haus, auch, Frau Practice

Consonants that differ from English

Most German consonants are close to English. These are the ones that are not.

  • ch/ç x/The soft ich sound after e, i, ä, ö, ü and after consonants; the back ach sound after a, o, u and au.ich, Milch, Buch, Nacht Practice German CH guide
  • r/ʁ ɐ/A soft back R at the start of a syllable; at the end, a vowel-like “uh”.rot, Straße, Wasser, hier Practice German R guide
  • w/v/Always the English v, never w.Wasser, wie, Wagen Practice
  • v/f/Usually an f in German words.Vater, viel, vierIn loanwords it is a v: Vase, Klavier. Practice
  • z · tz/ts/Always “ts”, as at the end of “cats”, even at the start of a word.Zeit, zehn, Katze Practice
  • s/z s/A buzzing z before a vowel; a sharp s at the end of a word or before a consonant.Sonne, lesen, Haus Practice
  • ß · ss/s/Always a sharp s. ß follows a long vowel or a diphthong, ss a short vowel.Straße, heiß, essen Practice
  • sch/ʃ/The sh of “she”.Schule, schön, Tisch Practice
  • sp · st/ʃp ʃt/At the start of a word or word part, the s is said “sh”.sprechen, Stadt, verstehen Practice
  • j/j/The y of “yes”.ja, Jahr, jung Practice
  • qu/kv/“kv”, not “kw”.Quelle, bequem, Quatsch Practice
  • pf/pf/p and f together in one quick movement.Pferd, Apfel, Kopf Practice
  • -ig/ɪç/At the end of a word, -ig is said like ich in standard German.richtig, wenig, König Practice

Final devoicing and silent h

Two rules that change how the end of a syllable sounds.

  • b · d · g at the end/p t k/At the end of a word or syllable, b, d and g lose their voice: Hund ends in t.gelb, Hund, Tag Practice
  • h after a vowelsilentSilent. It only shows that the vowel before it is long.sehr, Uhr, gehen Practice

Keep going

How to pronounce ü and ö The German ch sounds How to pronounce the German R German minimal pairs German tongue twisters German pronunciation practice