LingoDrop
German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "also" in German?
AL-zoh. A glottal catch, a short a, a buzzing s, and a long o — and be warned, it does not mean English also.
Front-stressed, though the word is often almost throwaway in speech, functioning as a filler while the speaker gathers their thoughts. In that use the whole thing flattens out, whereas when it genuinely means therefore it takes a clear beat on the first syllable and a small pause after it.
Listen: also
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Es regnet, also nehmen wir den Bus.
It's raining, so we're taking the bus.
Listen: Es regnet, also nehmen wir den Bus.
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Es regnet, also nehmen wir den Bus shows the word doing its real job — drawing a conclusion. Because it occupies the position before the verb, nehmen comes ahead of wir. Regnet has the uvular r and a d-less gn cluster, and den marks Bus as masculine accusative.
Where English speakers slip
This is the single most dangerous false friend for an English speaker learning German: it means so or therefore, never also. The English word also is auch. Beyond the meaning, the s in the middle buzzes rather than hisses, and the o at the end is long and steady rather than gliding into a w.