German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Freund" in German?

dair FROYNT. The eu is 'oy' and the final d hardens into a t.

der Freund /deːɐ̯ fʁɔʏ̯nt/

One beat on the noun. The plural Freunde adds an unstressed schwa, which puts the d in front of a vowel and restores its voicing — so the singular ends hard and the plural ends soft, a difference you can hear clearly between Freund and Freunde.

Listen: der Freund

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Sound it out

Fr An f followed by the uvular r, short in this cluster.

eu 'Oy' — never the 'yoo' that English gives eu in feud.

n A clean n, air flowing through the nose.

d Written d, said t — final devoicing applies without exception.

Hear it in a sentence

Er ist mein bester Freund.

He's my best friend.

Listen: Er ist mein bester Freund.

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Er ist mein bester Freund uses the superlative bester with the masculine nominative ending -er, which the adjective must supply because mein carries no ending of its own. The whole phrase is idiomatic and very common, worth learning as a block.

Where English speakers slip

Reading eu as 'yoo' gives 'froynd's rival 'fryoond', and voicing the final d compounds it. It is 'oy' and a hard t. There is also a meaning ambiguity German lives with: mein Freund can mean my friend or my boyfriend, and only context or a phrase like ein Freund von mir resolves it.