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German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "die Frau" in German?
dee FROW, rhyming with English cow. The au is 'ow' and the r is a scrape at the back of the throat.
Emphasis goes to the noun, with the article passing lightly ahead. The plural Frauen adds an unstressed syllable after the diphthong without changing the vowel — no umlaut here, unlike Mann and Haus — so the singular and plural stay closely matched in sound.
Listen: die Frau
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Hear it in a sentence
Die Frau liest eine Zeitung.
The woman is reading a newspaper.
Listen: Die Frau liest eine Zeitung.
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Die Frau liest eine Zeitung has liest with a long 'ee', the vowel that replaces the infinitive's 'ay' in the third person of lesen. Zeitung packs a 'ts', an 'eye' diphthong and the -ung suffix into two syllables, which makes it a small pronunciation exercise in itself.
Where English speakers slip
Reading au as 'aw' gives 'fraw'. It is 'ow'. There is also a usage point that matters more than the sound: this word doubles as the title Mrs or Ms, so Frau Weber is how you address someone formally, and German has no living equivalent of Miss to choose between.