German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "ausgehen" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce ausgehen in German?

ausgehen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈaʊ̯sˌɡeː.ən/. It means “to go out.” OWS-gay-un. The stress sits on the prefix aus, not on the verb, and the h inside gehen stays silent.

OWS-gay-un. The stress sits on the prefix aus, not on the verb, and the h inside gehen stays silent.

ausgehen /ˈaʊ̯sˌɡeː.ən/

The prefix takes the primary beat, which is the audible signature of a separable verb — if the stress were on the root instead, the prefix would be inseparable and would never detach. That single rhythmic fact predicts the entire grammar of the word: it splits in main clauses and takes ge- in its participle, ausgegangen.

Listen: ausgehen

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

Sound it out

aus The 'ow' diphthong plus an unvoiced s, opening with a light glottal catch. As a separable prefix it carries the main stress of the whole word.

g Hard g starting the verb root.

eh Long 'ay' with a silent h marking its length.

en An unstressed ending whose vowel is a plain 'uh'.

Hear it in a sentence

Gehen wir heute Abend aus?

Shall we go out tonight?

Listen: Gehen wir heute Abend aus?

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

Gehen wir heute Abend aus? sends the prefix all the way to the end, where it lands as the final word of the question — a shape English has no equivalent for. Abend begins with a glottal stop and a long a, and its written d devoices to t, giving 'AH-bent'.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners keep the verb in one piece, producing gehen wir heute Abend ausgehen or leaving the prefix stranded next to the verb. German requires the split, and the prefix must reach the very end. On the sound side, learners often shift the stress onto gehen because it looks like the important part; the prefix is where the weight goes.