German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Herbst" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Herbst in German?

der Herbst is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ hɛʁpst/. It means “autumn / fall.” dair HAIRPST. The written b comes out as a p, and four consonant sounds pile up after the vowel.

dair HAIRPST. The written b comes out as a p, and four consonant sounds pile up after the vowel.

der Herbst /deːɐ̯ hɛʁpst/

The word is one syllable, and almost all of it is consonant — a single short vowel with four sounds queued up behind it, which makes this one of the more crowded syllables in everyday German. There is no plural, so the cluster never gets a following vowel to release into.

Listen: der Herbst

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Sound it out

H A full h. Unlike French, German pronounces this letter at the front of a word.

e A brief open e, close to the vowel in French mère but shorter.

r Before a consonant the uvular r darkens the vowel from the back of the throat.

b Devoiced to p, because the consonants behind it strand it at the end of the syllable.

st A plain s plus t. The 'sht' rule applies only at the start of a word or stem, and this is the end of one.

Hear it in a sentence

Im Herbst wird es kühl.

In autumn it gets cool.

Listen: Im Herbst wird es kühl.

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Im Herbst wird es kühl uses wird, the third-person form of werden with its shortened vowel, and closes on kühl with a long front-rounded ü and a bright l. So the sentence pairs the most consonant-heavy noun in the chapter with one of its hardest vowels.

Where English speakers slip

The b gets pronounced as a b by learners reading the spelling, when it hardens to p in front of the s. Then the st gets over-corrected into 'sht' by anyone who has just learned that rule — it applies only at the start of a word or stem. Say 'HAIRPST' with all four final consonants audible.