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German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "die Person" in German?
dee per-ZOHN. The stress is on the SECOND syllable and the s buzzes like a z.
Second syllable, which is where this word parts company with its English twin. German keeps the Latin stress pattern in this borrowing, so it is per-SON rather than PER-son, and the plural Personen keeps the weight in the same place with the ending added behind it.
Listen: die Person
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Sie ist eine nette Person.
She's a nice person.
Listen: Sie ist eine nette Person.
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Sie ist eine nette Person gives the adjective the -e ending for a feminine nominative noun. Nette has a short e held short by its doubled t, so the sentence contrasts that clipped vowel with the long o under the stress of Person a moment later.
Where English speakers slip
English speakers front-load the stress out of pure habit, producing 'PER-son'. Move the beat back. The s is the second correction, since English hisses it and German buzzes it in this position. Together the two changes make the word sound entirely different from its English relative, which is exactly right.