German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Frühling" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Frühling in German?

der Frühling is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ ˈfʁyː.lɪŋ/. It means “spring.” dair FRUE-ling. A long front-rounded ü marked by the silent h, and -ling ends in the single nasal of sing.

dair FRUE-ling. A long front-rounded ü marked by the silent h, and -ling ends in the single nasal of sing.

der Frühling /deːɐ̯ ˈfʁyː.lɪŋ/

The -ling suffix never takes the beat, so the weight sits on the long ü at the front. That suffix appears across a family of German nouns — Schmetterling, Lehrling, Zwilling — and in every one it is the quiet tail behind a stressed root.

Listen: der Frühling

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Sound it out

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

üh Long and front-rounded, with the h as a silent length marker. Start from a long 'ee' and round the lips without moving the tongue.

l A forward l. Letting the back of the tongue rise would darken the vowel in front of it.

ing A short i and the single velar nasal. No separate g is released.

Hear it in a sentence

Im Frühling blühen die Blumen.

In spring the flowers bloom.

Listen: Im Frühling blühen die Blumen.

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Im Frühling blühen die Blumen contains two long front-rounded ü vowels, in Frühling and in blühen, both marked by a silent h. It is one of the best short sentences in the course for drilling that vowel, since it appears twice in five words.

Where English speakers slip

The ü is the whole difficulty, and English speakers substitute either 'oo' or 'ee' depending on whether they prioritise the lips or the tongue. Both have to happen together. The second, smaller error is releasing a hard g at the end on the model of English ring in some accents — German stops at the nasal.