German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "die Seife" in German?

dee ZY-fuh. The s buzzes like a z, the ei is 'eye', and the final e is a schwa.

die Seife /diː ˈzaɪ̯.fə/

Weight on the diphthong, nothing on the ending. The plural Seifen replaces the schwa with a syllabic n, so the rhythm holds steady — and unlike most of the household nouns nearby, there is no umlaut waiting in the plural to surprise you.

Listen: die Seife

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Sound it out

S Voiced before a vowel at the start of a word, so it buzzes like the z of zebra.

ei Pronounced 'eye', which is what ei says in every German word without exception.

f A plain f, top teeth against the lower lip.

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

Hear it in a sentence

Die Seife ist im Bad.

The soap is in the bathroom.

Listen: Die Seife ist im Bad.

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Die Seife ist im Bad uses im, the contraction of in and dem, and Bad shows final devoicing: the written d comes out as a t, giving 'baht'. So the sentence has a voiced s at the start and a devoiced d at the end, which are the two halves of German's voicing system.

Where English speakers slip

A hissed s gives 'SY-fuh' and reading ei as 'ee' gives 'ZEE-fuh'. Both are common and they can happen independently. Buzz the s, make the diphthong a full 'eye', and finish on a colourless schwa rather than silencing the ending.