German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Arzt" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Arzt in German?

der Arzt is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ aːɐ̯tst/. It means “doctor (pl. Ärzte).” dair AHRTST. A glottal catch, a long a darkened by the r, and then a t-s-t sequence to close.

dair AHRTST. A glottal catch, a long a darkened by the r, and then a t-s-t sequence to close.

der Arzt /deːɐ̯ aːɐ̯tst/

One long beat with three consonant sounds queueing at the end. The plural Ärzte fronts the vowel to a long ä and adds a schwa, which finally gives that cluster somewhere to release — so the plural is markedly easier to say than the singular.

Listen: der Arzt

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Sound it out

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

r Vocalised here, darkening the vowel rather than sounding as a consonant.

zt The z is already 'ts', and a t follows it — so the word ends on t, then s, then t, with no vowel to break them up.

Hear it in a sentence

Der Arzt kommt gleich.

The doctor is coming right away.

Listen: Der Arzt kommt gleich.

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Der Arzt kommt gleich closes on gleich, whose ch is the soft ich-laut because the ei in front of it ends on a front vowel. Kommt has a short rounded o, so the sentence moves from a long open vowel through a short rounded one to a diphthong.

Where English speakers slip

The zt cluster is the difficulty: since z is already an affricate, the word ends in three separate consonant sounds, and learners drop one to produce 'ahrst' or 'ahrt'. Slow it down and produce all three. The r before them should darken the vowel from the back rather than curling the tongue.