German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "das Tier" in German?

dass TEER, or 'TEE-uh'. The ie is a long 'ee' and the r melts into a vowel.

das Tier /das tiːɐ̯/

The long vowel fills the word by itself. The plural Tiere adds a schwa, which puts the r in front of a vowel and turns it back into a real scraped consonant — so the plural has an audible r in the middle where the singular has none at all.

Listen: das Tier

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Sound it out

T A clean t. It never flaps into a d the way American English does between vowels.

ie A single long 'ee'. Two letters, one vowel.

r No consonant left: the r becomes a short, dark vowel of its own.

Hear it in a sentence

Im Zoo gibt es viele Tiere.

There are many animals in the zoo.

Listen: Im Zoo gibt es viele Tiere.

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Im Zoo gibt es viele Tiere uses es gibt, German's way of saying there is or there are, and it always takes the accusative — hence viele Tiere. Zoo is pronounced 'tsoh', with the z as 'ts' and a long o.

Where English speakers slip

American speakers curl the tongue for the r and produce something like the English word tier with full r-colouring. German dissolves it into a vowel. Reading ie as 'eye' is the other risk, giving 'tire' — it is a long, steady 'ee' with no movement in it.