LingoDrop
German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "die Stadt" in German?
dee SHTAT. St at the start of a word is always 'sht', and the doubled t keeps the a short.
Vowel length is the thing to control here, not placement. Vowel length carries a real distinction here: Stadt with a short a means city, while Staat with a long a means state. The doubled consonant and the doubled vowel are the spelling's two opposite signals, and mixing them up changes the word entirely.
Listen: die Stadt
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Die Stadt ist sehr alt.
The city is very old.
Listen: Die Stadt ist sehr alt.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Die Stadt ist sehr alt keeps the adjective bare after ist. Sehr contributes a long 'ay' with a vocalised r, and alt closes on a bright l and a released t — so the sentence contrasts the clipped vowel of the noun with the long one in the middle.
Where English speakers slip
Leave the s alone and you get 'stat', which is what English eyes supply. Say sh, then t. The vowel length is the second and more consequential issue, because Stadt and Staat are a genuine minimal pair — one is a city and the other is a country's government, and only duration separates them.