German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "denken" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce denken in German?

denken is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈdɛŋ.kn̩/. It means “to think.” DENG-kn. The n turns into the 'ng' of sing before the k, exactly as it does in English think.

DENG-kn. The n turns into the 'ng' of sing before the k, exactly as it does in English think.

denken /ˈdɛŋ.kn̩/

Stress on DEN-, and it holds through the conjugation even though the past tense throws the vowel around: dachte and gedacht replace the whole nasal cluster with the throaty ach-laut. The stressed syllable stays in the same slot while the sounds inside it change completely.

Listen: denken

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Sound it out

d A crisp d, tongue on the ridge behind the top teeth.

e The e of bet, kept short. It never drifts toward the 'ay' of bay.

nk The n assimilates to the k and becomes 'ng'. English does this automatically in bank and think, so no new gesture is needed.

en Reduces to a syllabic n, giving a k released straight into a nasal.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich denke oft an dich.

I often think about you.

Listen: Ich denke oft an dich.

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Ich denke oft an dich fixes this verb to the preposition an with the accusative — denken an is a set combination that has to be learned as a unit, since no logic connects it to English think about. Oft begins with a small glottal stop, which stops it running into denke.

Where English speakers slip

The sounds are largely familiar, so the errors are elsewhere. Learners map English think about onto denken über, which is wrong; the verb takes an plus the accusative. On the sound side, the danger is the neighbouring word danken, meaning to thank — one vowel apart — so the short open e needs to be clearly distinct from a short a.