German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "die Leute" in German?

dee LOY-tuh. The eu is 'oy' and the final e is a schwa.

die Leute /diː ˈlɔʏ̯.tə/

The diphthong carries the beat and the ending falls away. This noun exists only in the plural, so there is no singular rhythm to compare it with — German uses Person or Mensch when it needs to talk about one, which means the word never changes shape.

Listen: die Leute

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Sound it out

L Light and clear — the opposite of the hollow English l in fill.

eu The vowel of noise, opening rounded and closing high.

t A crisp t with a light puff of breath after it.

e An unstressed schwa — the 'uh' at the end of sofa, quiet but always pronounced.

Hear it in a sentence

Hier sind viele Leute.

There are a lot of people here.

Listen: Hier sind viele Leute.

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Hier sind viele Leute gives viele the plural -e ending and takes the plural verb sind, which comes out 'zint' with a voiced s and a devoiced d. Fronting hier forces the verb ahead of its subject, so the noun lands last and takes the main stress.

Where English speakers slip

Reading eu as 'yoo' gives 'LYOO-tuh', which is the standard English misreading. It is 'oy'. The other thing to know is that there is no singular: ein Leute is not a word, and learners reaching for 'a people' have to switch to eine Person or ein Mensch instead.