German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "das Fahrrad" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce das Fahrrad in German?

das Fahrrad is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /das ˈfaːɐ̯ˌʁaːt/. It means “bicycle (pl. Fahrräder).” dass FAHR-raht. A compound with two r's meeting at the seam, and a final d that hardens into a t.

dass FAHR-raht. A compound with two r's meeting at the seam, and a final d that hardens into a t.

das Fahrrad /das ˈfaːɐ̯ˌʁaːt/

Fahr- gets the primary beat and Rad a secondary one, as in every German compound. The plural Fahrräder fronts the second element's vowel to ä and adds a softened ending, so the change happens in the unstressed half of the word.

Listen: das Fahrrad

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Sound it out

Fahr A long open a with a silent h, then a vocalised r that ends the first element on a dark 'uh'.

r The second element's r, and this one is a real scraped consonant because a vowel follows. Two r's of different types meet here, and German keeps both audible.

ad A long open a and a written d that devoices to t at the end of the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich fahre mit dem Fahrrad.

I go by bike.

Listen: Ich fahre mit dem Fahrrad.

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Ich fahre mit dem Fahrrad uses mit with the dative, and German says with the bicycle where English says by bike. The verb fahre shares its root with the first half of the noun, so the sentence contains the same fahr- twice with different jobs.

Where English speakers slip

The doubled r at the seam gets collapsed into one by English speakers, which blurs the compound boundary. German keeps both: a vocalised one ending Fahr and a scraped one starting Rad. The final d is the other correction, hardening to t as it does in Land, Kind and Hund.