German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "die Tasche" in German?

dee TASH-uh. A short open a, sch as sh, and a real schwa at the end.

die Tasche /diː ˈta.ʃə/

Loud on TA-, quiet on -sche. The plural Taschen swaps the schwa for a syllabic n, so nothing rhythmic changes — and compounds like Handtasche and Hosentasche put the primary stress on their first element, leaving this root unstressed inside them.

Listen: die Tasche

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Sound it out

T An aspirated t, released firmly.

a Short and open, kept short by the sch behind it.

sch An sh sound, with the lips slightly rounded and the tongue pulled back.

e The soft neutral ending vowel — the second syllable of English butter.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich habe meine Tasche vergessen.

I forgot my bag.

Listen: Ich habe meine Tasche vergessen.

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Ich habe meine Tasche vergessen is in the perfect tense, and vergessen shows an inseparable prefix at work: because ver- is already there, the participle adds no ge-. The verb also sits at the very end, which is where German always parks a participle.

Where English speakers slip

Dropping the final schwa gives 'tash', which is not a word. German needs the second syllable. The other thing to guard against is the near-neighbour Tasse, meaning cup — one letter apart on the page and a completely different consonant in the mouth, sh against a plain unvoiced s.