German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "das Wasser" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce das Wasser in German?

das Wasser is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /das ˈva.sɐ/. It means “water.” dass VAH-suh. The W is a V, and the -er ending is a soft 'uh' rather than an American 'er'.

dass VAH-suh. The W is a V, and the -er ending is a soft 'uh' rather than an American 'er'.

das Wasser /das ˈva.sɐ/

Two syllables, stress on WAS-, with -ser trailing away unstressed — the standard shape for German nouns of this build. The article das sits ahead of it as a separate, weakly stressed word, so the whole phrase runs light-heavy-light.

Listen: das Wasser

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Sound it out

W German w is always English v. This is the most reliable false friend in the alphabet — Wasser, was, wir and wie all begin with a v sound.

a Short and open, as in father but cut off quickly. The double s behind it is what keeps it short.

ss An unvoiced hiss. Written double because the vowel in front of it is short.

er The unstressed ending becomes a dark 'uh' vowel, close to the a in sofa. No r consonant survives in it at all.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich möchte ein Glas Wasser.

I would like a glass of water.

Listen: Ich möchte ein Glas Wasser.

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Ich möchte ein Glas Wasser shows a quirk of measurement phrases: Glas Wasser needs no preposition, unlike English 'glass of water'. Möchte has the front-rounded ö and a soft ich-laut ch, because ch after a front vowel is always the gentle one. And Wasser stays capitalised mid-sentence, as every German noun does.

Where English speakers slip

Reading W as an English w is close to universal at first, producing 'WAH-ser', which a German hears as foreign immediately. Set your top teeth on your bottom lip and buzz. The ending is the second half of the problem: English speakers pronounce a full r in -er, while standard German dissolves it into a vowel, so the word finishes on an open 'uh' with the tongue lying flat.