German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Abend" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Abend in German?

der Abend is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ ˈaː.bn̩t/. It means “evening (pl. Abende).” dair AH-bnt. A glottal catch, a long open a, and the final d hardening into a t.

dair AH-bnt. A glottal catch, a long open a, and the final d hardening into a t.

der Abend /deːɐ̯ ˈaː.bn̩t/

The weight is on A- and the second syllable is heavily compressed — three consonant sounds and no vowel at all in ordinary speech. The plural Abende restores a vowel and with it the voicing of the d, so 'AH-bnt' becomes 'AH-ben-duh', which sounds much softer.

Listen: der Abend

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Sound it out

A Long and open, preceded by a light glottal stop because the word begins on a vowel.

b Fully voiced. The devoicing rule leaves it alone in this position.

end Reduces to a syllabic n plus a devoiced t, so the word finishes 'bnt' with no vowel in the ending.

Hear it in a sentence

Am Abend lese ich meistens.

In the evening I usually read.

Listen: Am Abend lese ich meistens.

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Am Abend lese ich meistens contracts an and dem into am, which is compulsory. There is a small glottal catch between am and Abend, so the two do not fuse. Meistens has the 'eye' diphthong and a plain st, since the letters straddle a syllable rather than opening the word.

Where English speakers slip

Learners read the spelling and voice the final d, and the glottal catch after am gets dropped by learners speaking fluently. Both are audible. German hardens the d to t and keeps a small break before the vowel, which is why the phrase sounds like two separate words rather than 'a-mah-bend'.