German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "das Hotel" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce das Hotel in German?

das Hotel is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /das hoˈtɛl/. It means “hotel (pl. Hotels).” dass ho-TEL. A genuinely breathed h and the beat on the second syllable.

dass ho-TEL. A genuinely breathed h and the beat on the second syllable.

das Hotel /das hoˈtɛl/

The second syllable takes the weight, following the French original. The plural Hotels takes an -s ending, another borrowing marker, and compounds like Hotelzimmer keep the primary stress on this word's stressed syllable while adding a secondary one on the second element.

Listen: das Hotel

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Sound it out

H A real, breathed h. German pronounces it even though the word came in from French, where it is silent.

o A short unstressed o, light and quick before the stressed syllable.

tel A short open e and a bright, forward l, carrying the beat.

Hear it in a sentence

Unser Hotel ist sehr schön.

Our hotel is very nice.

Listen: Unser Hotel ist sehr schön.

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Unser Hotel ist sehr schön closes on schön with its long front-rounded ö. Unser is a possessive with no ending before a neuter nominative noun, and sehr contributes a long 'ay' with a vocalised r — so the sentence ends on two of German's more demanding vowels.

Where English speakers slip

The stress placement matches English closely enough, so the real adjustments are the h and the l. German breathes the h fully, where French drops it and English varies. And the l at the end stays bright and forward, rather than darkening the way English hotel does in most accents.