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German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "der Berg" in German?
dair BAIRK. The r darkens the e behind it and the final g hardens into a k.
Nothing competes for the beat in a one-syllable noun, but the plural changes the consonant. Berge adds a schwa, which puts the g in front of a vowel and restores its voicing, so the singular ends hard and the plural has a genuine soft g in the middle.
Listen: der Berg
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Hear it in a sentence
Wir wandern gern in den Bergen.
We like hiking in the mountains.
Listen: Wir wandern gern in den Bergen.
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Wir wandern gern in den Bergen uses the dative plural, which German marks with an added -n on the noun itself. That extra n is why the g in Bergen is fully voiced — the word no longer ends on it. Gern supplies the liking that German has no verb for.
Where English speakers slip
The final g gets pronounced as written by nearly every learner, giving 'berg' like the English word for a lump of ice. German hardens it to k. The vowel is a second point: the r after it should darken it from the back of the throat, not curl the tongue forward the way an American r would.