German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "der Winter" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce der Winter in German?

der Winter is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /deːɐ̯ ˈvɪn.tɐ/. It means “winter.” dair VIN-tuh. The w is a v and the -er ending softens to 'uh' — the middle of the word is unchanged from English.

dair VIN-tuh. The w is a v and the -er ending softens to 'uh' — the middle of the word is unchanged from English.

der Winter /deːɐ̯ ˈvɪn.tɐ/

Two beats, the first clearly louder. This word is a good test of whether the -er reduction has become automatic, because everything else in it matches English exactly — so if the ending still sounds like an English -er, that is the only thing separating the two versions.

Listen: der Winter

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

W English v — the tongue plays no part, only the teeth and the lip.

i Short and lax, as in sit — the same vowel as the English word.

nt Run together with no vowel between them, and the t crisply released.

er Softened to a dark 'uh', with the r gone completely.

Hear it in a sentence

Im Winter ist es sehr kalt.

In winter it's very cold.

Listen: Im Winter ist es sehr kalt.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Im Winter ist es sehr kalt uses im, the contraction of in and dem, which is how German names a season. Fronting the phrase pushes ist ahead of es, and kalt closes the sentence with its bright l and released t.

Where English speakers slip

Both ends of the word need changing while the middle stays put: v instead of w at the front, and a plain dark vowel instead of an r at the back. Learners typically fix one and forget the other, producing either 'VIN-ter' or 'WIN-tuh'. Both halves have to move at once.