German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "die Reise" in German?

dee RY-zuh. A throaty r, the 'eye' diphthong, a buzzing s between vowels, and a schwa.

die Reise /diː ˈʁaɪ̯.zə/

REI- is loud and -se is not. The plural Reisen swaps the schwa for a syllabic n without changing anything else, and the verb reisen has an identical shape — so the noun and the verb are rhythmically indistinguishable.

Listen: die Reise

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Sound it out

R The uvular r at the start of a word — a light scrape at the back of the mouth.

ei The diphthong of pine. Reading it as 'ee' is the commonest German vowel error there is.

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

e A colourless final vowel. It is never silent and never 'ay'.

Hear it in a sentence

Gute Reise!

Have a good trip!

Listen: Gute Reise!

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Gute Reise! is a fixed wish with no verb, and gute takes the -e ending because the phrase descends from a fuller accusative construction. Saying it as one unit rather than two words is what makes it sound like a real send-off.

Where English speakers slip

A hissed middle s gives 'RY-suh', when a single s between vowels buzzes in German. Reading ei as 'ee' gives 'REE-zuh', the other standard slip. And the initial r wants to be a back-of-throat scrape, which is a third change — three corrections in a five-letter word.