German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "anders" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce anders in German?

anders is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈan.dɐs/. It means “different.” AN-duss. A glottal catch, a short open a, and an -ers ending that softens to 'uss'.

AN-duss. A glottal catch, a short open a, and an -ers ending that softens to 'uss'.

anders /ˈan.dɐs/

All the volume sits on AN-, and -ders trails off unstressed. This word is an adverb that never takes adjective endings, which sets it apart from andere — the two look related and are, but only one of them inflects, and their rhythms are different because of it.

Listen: anders

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Sound it out

a Short and open, preceded by a light glottal stop because the word begins on a vowel.

nd Run straight together with no vowel between them.

ers The r vocalises into a dark 'uh' and the s stays unvoiced, so the ending is a vowel plus a hiss rather than a full r plus a buzz.

Hear it in a sentence

Heute ist alles anders.

Today everything is different.

Listen: Heute ist alles anders.

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Heute ist alles anders puts two vowel-initial words in a row, alles and anders, so you can hear German inserting a small glottal catch before each of them rather than gliding them together. Heute contributes the oy diphthong, and alles keeps its l bright.

Where English speakers slip

The ending draws out an American r and a voiced s, giving something like 'AN-derz' — both wrong. German vocalises the r into a vowel and keeps the final s a clean hiss. The glottal catch at the start is the subtler point: without it the word glues itself to whatever came before, which is exactly what German avoids.