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German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "anfangen" in German?
AN-fang-en. The prefix an takes the stress, and the ng in the middle is a single nasal with no hard g after it.
Primary stress on the prefix, secondary on the root — the classic separable-verb profile. Because the prefix is loud, the ear can predict what the grammar will do: this verb splits in a main clause and forms its participle as angefangen, with ge- wedged in between the two parts rather than tacked on the front.
Listen: anfangen
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Hear it in a sentence
Der Film fängt um acht an.
The movie starts at eight.
Listen: Der Film fängt um acht an.
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Der Film fängt um acht an leaves the prefix stranded at the very end, so the sentence's last word is a fragment of its verb. The root has umlauted to fängt in the third person, and acht carries the throaty ach-laut with a small glottal stop separating it from um.
Where English speakers slip
The English habit of releasing a hard g after ng — as in finger — turns this into 'an-FANG-gen'. German ng is the single nasal of singer. Separately, learners regularly forget to send the prefix to the end, which leaves the sentence ungrammatical; hearing that the prefix is the stressed syllable helps, because it explains why it needs a prominent final position.