German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Vater" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Vater in German?

der Vater is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ ˈfaː.tɐ/. It means “father (pl. Väter).” dair FAH-tuh. German v is pronounced f, the a is long, and the -er ending softens to 'uh'.

dair FAH-tuh. German v is pronounced f, the a is long, and the -er ending softens to 'uh'.

der Vater /deːɐ̯ ˈfaː.tɐ/

VA- gets the punch and -ter gets none. The plural Väter fronts the a to a long ä without adding anything, so the change is purely in the vowel — and because the stressed syllable is the one that changes, the difference between singular and plural is immediately audible.

Listen: der Vater

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Sound it out

V Pronounced f in native German words, and this one is as native as they come.

a Long and open, as in father. The open syllable Va- stretches it.

t An aspirated t opening the syllable that follows.

er Reduced to a dark 'uh', with no r consonant surviving.

Hear it in a sentence

Mein Vater arbeitet viel.

My father works a lot.

Listen: Mein Vater arbeitet viel.

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Mein Vater arbeitet viel has arbeitet opening on a glottal catch, and the verb takes an inserted helping e in its ending because the stem finishes in t. Viel is pronounced 'feel', so the sentence contains two written v's and not a single English v sound.

Where English speakers slip

The cognate relationship with English father makes this word easy to remember and easy to mispronounce, because the English word has a real v-like consonant and the German one does not. It is an f. Add the softened -er ending and the word sounds entirely German rather than like an English word with an accent.