German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "das Bett" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce das Bett in German?

das Bett is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /das bɛt/. It means “bed (pl. Betten).” dass BET, exactly like the English word bet. The doubled t is the spelling's signal that the vowel is short.

dass BET, exactly like the English word bet. The doubled t is the spelling's signal that the vowel is short.

das Bett /das bɛt/

Nothing to place — one short vowel, and the plural Betten simply adds an unstressed ending without touching the vowel. This is one of the few nouns in the chapter where nothing surprising happens in either form, which makes it a useful baseline against which to hear the umlaut plurals around it.

Listen: das Bett

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Sound it out

B A simple voiced b, released with less breath than the English one.

e An open short e. Lengthening it changes the word's rhythm and sometimes its meaning.

tt Written double, said once, and fully released at the end of the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich gehe früh ins Bett.

I go to bed early.

Listen: Ich gehe früh ins Bett.

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Ich gehe früh ins Bett uses ins, the contraction of in and das, with the accusative marking movement into the bed. Früh has a long front-rounded ü and a silent h, so the sentence's difficulty sits in the adverb rather than the noun.

Where English speakers slip

The sounds are almost identical to the English word bet, so the only pronunciation risk is the final t, which American speakers tend to glottalise or swallow. German releases it cleanly. The phrase ins Bett gehen is the more valuable thing to take away: German uses movement and the accusative where English says the flatter 'go to bed'.