German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "auch" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce auch in German?

auch is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /aʊ̯x/. It means “also / too.” OWKH. The au is 'ow' as in house, and the ch is the harsh throat sound, because it follows a back vowel.

OWKH. The au is 'ow' as in house, and the ch is the harsh throat sound, because it follows a back vowel.

auch /aʊ̯x/

This little adverb is a stress chameleon: normally it is swallowed into the sentence, but move it and it takes emphasis along with a change of meaning. Ich AUCH means me too; ich komme auch mit simply adds you to a group. Where it sits and how hard you hit it are two halves of the same decision.

Listen: auch

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Sound it out

au The 'ow' diphthong, opening with a small glottal catch.

ch The ach-laut. The diphthong ends in a back rounded vowel, which pulls the friction right back against the soft palate — the same sound as in Bach or Buch, not the soft hiss of ich.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich komme auch mit.

I'm coming along too.

Listen: Ich komme auch mit.

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Ich komme auch mit ends on the separable prefix mit, which has detached from mitkommen and travelled to the back of the sentence — so the final word is a prefix, not a preposition. Auch slots in just before it, and the two short words at the end give the sentence a distinctly German tailing-off rhythm.

Where English speakers slip

Two substitutions dominate. Learners either use the English church ch, giving 'owch', or drop the friction and say 'owk'. The correct sound is the throaty scrape, chosen automatically by the back vowel in front of it. Keep an ear on the near-neighbour auf as well, which shares the diphthong and differs only in that final consonant.