German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Bruder" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Bruder in German?

der Bruder is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ ˈbʁuː.dɐ/. It means “brother (pl. Brüder).” dair BROO-duh. A throaty r after the b, a long rounded 'oo', and an -er ending that softens to 'uh'.

dair BROO-duh. A throaty r after the b, a long rounded 'oo', and an -er ending that softens to 'uh'.

der Bruder /deːɐ̯ ˈbʁuː.dɐ/

Front-stressed. The plural Brüder fronts the long u to a long ü and adds nothing else, so the two forms share their rhythm exactly and differ only in the roundedness and frontness of the stressed vowel — which is precisely the sound English speakers find hardest to produce on demand.

Listen: der Bruder

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Sound it out

Br A b followed immediately by the uvular r, which stays brief in this cluster.

u A long, firmly rounded 'oo'.

d Fully voiced, because it opens a syllable rather than closing the word.

er An unstressed dark vowel where the r is written — nothing is curled or trilled.

Hear it in a sentence

Mein Bruder wohnt in Köln.

My brother lives in Cologne.

Listen: Mein Bruder wohnt in Köln.

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Mein Bruder wohnt in Köln has wohnt with a silent h and a long o, and Köln with a short front-rounded ö. So the sentence puts a back rounded vowel and a front rounded vowel a few syllables apart, which is a useful way to feel the difference between them.

Where English speakers slip

The word contains two r sounds in different roles: a real scraped consonant after the b, and a vocalised one at the end that is not a consonant at all. English speakers make both of them the same bunched r. Beyond that, the plural Brüder demands the long ü, which is the sound to practise deliberately rather than approximate.