German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "die Hose" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce die Hose in German?

die Hose is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /diː ˈhoː.zə/. It means “pants / trousers (pl. Hosen).” dee HOH-zuh. A breathed h, a long o, a buzzing s between vowels, and a schwa.

dee HOH-zuh. A breathed h, a long o, a buzzing s between vowels, and a schwa.

die Hose /diː ˈhoː.zə/

The long o carries the beat and the ending is a soft trailing vowel. What is more surprising than the rhythm is the number: this noun is singular where English uses a plural, so one pair of trousers is eine Hose and takes a singular verb throughout.

Listen: die Hose

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Sound it out

H A breathed h — a puff of air with no friction behind it.

o A long o that starts and finishes in exactly the same place.

s Voiced, because a single s between two vowels always is in German.

e A reduced schwa, carrying no stress and no colour, only a little breath.

Hear it in a sentence

Diese Hose ist sehr bequem.

These pants are very comfortable.

Listen: Diese Hose ist sehr bequem.

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Diese Hose ist sehr bequem uses the singular verb ist, which follows from the noun being singular. Bequem is worth a look on its own: the be- prefix is unstressed, qu is pronounced 'kv' in German, and the stressed vowel is a long 'ay' — 'buh-KVAYM'.

Where English speakers slip

An unvoiced middle s gives 'HOH-suh', when German buzzes a single s between vowels. The grammatical trap matters more, though: English speakers say diese Hosen sind for one garment, on the model of 'these trousers are'. German treats it as one object, so it is diese Hose ist.