German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "acht" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce acht in German?

acht is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /axt/. It means “eight.” AHKHT. This is the harsh ch, made deep in the throat like the end of Scottish loch — never the soft hiss of ich.

AHKHT. This is the harsh ch, made deep in the throat like the end of Scottish loch — never the soft hiss of ich.

acht /axt/

A single closed syllable with a short vowel, which makes it one of the most abrupt numbers in the set. When it grows into achtzehn or achtzig the stress stays on ACHT- and the ch keeps its throaty quality, unlike the softening that happens in sechzehn.

Listen: acht

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

a A short, open 'ah', with a small glottal catch before it because the word starts on a vowel.

ch The ach-laut. Following the back vowel a, the friction happens far back against the soft palate. Think of clearing your throat gently, or the ch in Bach.

t Fully released, straight after the friction with no vowel between.

Hear it in a sentence

Der Laden öffnet um acht.

The shop opens at eight.

Listen: Der Laden öffnet um acht.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Der Laden öffnet um acht has öffnet with the front-rounded ö and a double f marking that vowel short. There is a small but audible glottal stop between um and acht, which stops them running together as 'u-macht' — German keeps vowel-initial words separate from what precedes them.

Where English speakers slip

Having met ich first, most learners apply its soft hiss here too, which is the wrong end of the mouth entirely. The rule is mechanical: after a, o, u or au the ch is throaty; after e, i, ä, ö, ü, ei, eu and consonants it is the soft ich-laut. The other shortcut people take is substituting a plain k, giving 'akt' — which is a different German word altogether, meaning act.