German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Monat" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Monat in German?

der Monat is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ ˈmoː.nat/. It means “month (pl. Monate).” dair MOH-naht. A long, pure o under the stress and a short a in the unstressed ending.

dair MOH-naht. A long, pure o under the stress and a short a in the unstressed ending.

der Monat /deːɐ̯ ˈmoː.nat/

Front-stressed, which is worth noting because the word looks Latin and Latin borrowings usually take their stress further back. This one has been in German long enough to be fully naturalised, so it follows the native pattern — unlike Person or Familie in this same chapter.

Listen: der Monat

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Sound it out

M An m, identical to the English sound.

o A pure long o — no diphthong, no drift at the end.

n An n as in English, voiced and unremarkable.

at A short a and a fully released t. The syllable is unstressed but keeps a real vowel rather than reducing to a schwa.

Hear it in a sentence

Wir bleiben einen Monat.

We're staying for a month.

Listen: Wir bleiben einen Monat.

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Wir bleiben einen Monat states a duration in the bare accusative with no preposition at all, which is how German handles stretches of time. Einen carries the masculine accusative ending, and the sentence needs nothing equivalent to English for.

Where English speakers slip

English month and the Latin look of the word both push learners toward 'mo-NAHT' with the stress at the back. German puts it at the front. The unstressed second syllable is the other detail: it keeps a full short a rather than collapsing to a schwa, so it is 'naht' and not 'nut'.