German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Lehrer" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Lehrer in German?

der Lehrer is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ ˈleː.ʁɐ/. It means “teacher (pl. Lehrer).” dair LAY-ruh. A long 'ay' with a silent h, a real scraped r in the middle, and an -er ending that softens to 'uh'.

dair LAY-ruh. A long 'ay' with a silent h, a real scraped r in the middle, and an -er ending that softens to 'uh'.

der Lehrer /deːɐ̯ ˈleː.ʁɐ/

LEH- is the loud syllable and -rer the quiet one. The plural Lehrer is identical to the singular, and the feminine Lehrerin adds an unstressed -in suffix, so all three forms share the same rhythm and only the article or the suffix distinguishes them.

Listen: der Lehrer

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Sound it out

L A bright l — the tongue tip touches and the back of the tongue stays down.

eh A long 'ay' with the h as a silent length marker.

r A full uvular consonant here, because a vowel follows it.

er Reduced to a dark 'uh' with no r consonant at all — the second r behaves completely differently from the first.

Hear it in a sentence

Unser Lehrer erklärt das gut.

Our teacher explains it well.

Listen: Unser Lehrer erklärt das gut.

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Unser Lehrer erklärt das gut has erklärt with the unstressed er- prefix and a long ä under the stress. So the sentence contains four written r's across three words, and they divide neatly into scraped consonants and vocalised vowels depending on what follows each one.

Where English speakers slip

The two r sounds are the whole exercise: the first is a genuine back-of-throat consonant because a vowel comes after it, and the second is not a consonant at all. English speakers make both the same bunched r. Pronouncing the silent h is the other habit, and it adds a breath German does not have.