German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "die Musik" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce die Musik in German?

die Musik is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /diː muˈziːk/. It means “music.” dee moo-ZEEK. The stress is on the second syllable, the s buzzes like a z, and the i is long.

dee moo-ZEEK. The stress is on the second syllable, the s buzzes like a z, and the i is long.

die Musik /diː muˈziːk/

The second syllable is the loud one, following the Latin pattern rather than the German default. That places this word alongside Musik's neighbours in the borrowed vocabulary — Person, Problem, Moment, Idee — all of which resist the front-stress habit and all of which learners front-load out of instinct.

Listen: die Musik

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Sound it out

Mu A short unstressed 'oo' after the m.

s Voiced, because it opens a syllable in front of a vowel — so it buzzes like English z.

i A long 'ee', carrying the beat.

k A crisp k closing the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich höre jeden Abend Musik.

I listen to music every evening.

Listen: Ich höre jeden Abend Musik.

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Ich höre jeden Abend Musik uses the bare accusative jeden Abend to express a repeated time, with no preposition at all. Höre has the long front-rounded ö, so the sentence pairs a difficult rounded vowel in the verb with a long 'ee' in the noun.

Where English speakers slip

English music is front-stressed with a y-glide at the start of its vowel; German is back-stressed with a plain 'oo'. Learners produce 'MU-sik' and hiss the s on top of it. Move the beat to the back, buzz the s, and hold the 'ee' long — three changes, and the word becomes unrecognisably German.