🇩🇪 German Pronunciation
Practice german pronunciation using Web Speech API. Record yourself, get instant feedback on accuracy, fluency, and confidence.
Your Grade
Transcript (what we heard)
Word-level comparison
💡 German Pronunciation Tips
🎤 Umlauts & Special Sounds
Master umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and guttural "ch" sounds.
🗣️ Compound Words
Break long words into syllables and practice stress patterns.
📝 Daily Practice
Consistent practice internalizes German pronunciation naturally.
German rewards learning the rules
German spelling is highly regular. Once you know the letter-to-sound correspondences, you can pronounce almost any written word correctly, including long compounds you have never seen. The effort is front-loaded: learn about a dozen rules and the rest follows.
Sounds English does not have
| Sound | Spelling | How to make it | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
/x/ | ch after a, o, u, au | Friction at the soft palate | Bach, Mittwoch, Buch |
/ç/ | ch after e, i, ä, ö, ü, consonants | Friction at the hard palate — like an exaggerated h in hue | ich, nicht, Milch |
/y/ | ü, y | Tongue as for ee, lips rounded as for oo | über, Tür, typisch |
/ø/ | ö | Tongue as for eh, lips rounded | schön, können |
/pf/ | pf | A single affricate, not two sounds | Pferd, Apfel |
/ʁ/ | r before a vowel | Uvular, at the back of the mouth | rot, Frage |
/ɐ/ | r after a vowel | A vowel, not a consonant — close to the a in sofa | Vater, Donnerstag |
Final devoicing: the rule that catches everyone
German devoices b, d and g at the end of a word or syllable. Tag is
/taːk/, und is /ʊnt/, halb is /halp/. This applies even
though the spelling keeps the voiced letter, and it is one of the most reliable markers of a native accent.
The rule reverses when a vowel follows: Tage is /ˈtaːɡə/ with a genuine /ɡ/,
because the consonant is no longer at the end of a syllable.
Consonant letters that surprise English speakers
- w is
/v/: Wasser, Mittwoch, wir. - v is usually
/f/: Vater, viel, vor. - z is
/ts/: Zeit, zwei, Katze. - s before a vowel is
/z/: Sonne, sagen, Samstag. - st and sp at the start of a word are
/ʃt/and/ʃp/: Stadt, Sprache, Student. - ß is always
/s/and never/z/: Straße, groß. - j is
/j/, as in English yes: ja, Jahr.
Vowel length is phonemic
German distinguishes long and short vowels, and the difference changes meaning: Stadt (city) has a short vowel and Staat (state) a long one. Two spelling signals predict length reliably. A doubled consonant after the vowel means it is short (Sonne, Mitte). A doubled vowel, or a vowel followed by h, means it is long (Saal, Bahn, ihn).
Stress
German stresses the first syllable of the root in most native words: ARbeiten, MONtag. Separable prefixes take the stress (AUFstehen), while inseparable prefixes such as be-, ver- and ent- do not (verSTEhen). Borrowed words often keep the stress of the source language: StuDENT, MuSIK.
In-depth German guides
Each guide covers one part of the sound system in detail, with audio examples and a practice drill.
- German Pronunciation for English Speakers: The Complete Sound Guide
- German Umlauts: How to Pronounce Ä, Ö and Ü
- The German CH Sound: Ich-Laut and Ach-Laut Explained
- German Vowel Length: How to Tell Long and Short Vowels Apart
- German Final Devoicing: Why Hund Sounds Like "Hunt"
- The German R: Uvular R and Vocalic R Explained
- German Letters That Trip Up English Speakers: W, V, Z, S, SP, ST, EI and IE
- German Word Stress: Compounds, Prefixes and Loanwords
- Tool: Foreign Language Number Pronouncer
- Tool: Multilingual Dictation Trainer