LingoDrop
German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "die Ehefrau" in German?
dee AY-uh-frow. The same Ehe- as in Ehemann, then Frau with its 'ow' diphthong.
Primary stress on Ehe-, secondary on -frau, matching Ehemann exactly. The pair is a neat illustration of German compounding: one element supplies the category and the other the specifics, and the first one always wins the stress contest regardless of which carries more meaning for you.
Listen: die Ehefrau
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Seine Ehefrau ist Anwältin.
His wife is a lawyer.
Listen: Seine Ehefrau ist Anwältin.
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Seine Ehefrau ist Anwältin again omits the article before a profession. Anwältin opens on a glottal catch, has a short front ä in its stressed syllable, and closes with the feminine -in suffix — so the sentence contains three separate glottal onsets if you count the one at the start of Anwältin.
Where English speakers slip
The silent h between two vowels is the sound to get right, and English speakers regularly breathe it. The three-syllable count also surprises people, since Ehe looks like a single unit on the page but is genuinely two beats. Say 'AY' then 'uh' then 'frow', with a small catch before the first one.