German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "die Toilette" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce die Toilette in German?

die Toilette is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /diː toaˈlɛ.tə/. It means “toilet (pl. Toiletten).” dee toa-LET-uh. A French borrowing with the beat on the third syllable and an oi that is not the German 'oy'.

dee toa-LET-uh. A French borrowing with the beat on the third syllable and an oi that is not the German 'oy'.

die Toilette /diː toaˈlɛ.tə/

Put the punch on the third syllable, following the French original. Like Restaurant and Büro, this word announces its borrowing status through its rhythm — anything stressed away from the front in German is worth suspecting of foreign origin, and with it foreign spelling values.

Listen: die Toilette

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Sound it out

Toi Not the German 'oy' of eu — this keeps its French flavour and comes out as two quick vowels, 'toa'. It is one of the few places where oi appears in German at all.

le A bright l and a short open e, carrying the stress.

tte A single t and an unstressed schwa.

Hear it in a sentence

Wo ist die Toilette, bitte?

Where is the toilet, please?

Listen: Wo ist die Toilette, bitte?

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Wo ist die Toilette, bitte? is a set question worth memorising whole. Wo opens with a v sound and a long o, ist keeps a plain st, and the polite bitte comes after a comma at the end — the same slot it occupies in Einen Kaffee, bitte.

Where English speakers slip

German learners apply the eu rule and produce 'TOY-lette', which gets both the vowel and the stress wrong. The oi here is French and the beat is on LET. English speakers also front-load the stress out of habit, since the English word toilet is stressed at the start — the German one is not.