German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "die Uhr" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce die Uhr in German?

die Uhr is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /diː uːɐ̯/. It means “clock / watch (pl. Uhren).” dee OOR, or 'OO-uh'. A long rounded 'oo' with a glottal catch in front, a silent h, and the r melting into a vowel.

dee OOR, or 'OO-uh'. A long rounded 'oo' with a glottal catch in front, a silent h, and the r melting into a vowel.

die Uhr /diː uːɐ̯/

What looks like a vowel plus a consonant is really two vowel sounds running together. The plural Uhren adds a syllabic-n ending, which puts the r in front of a vowel and turns it back into a real scraped consonant — so the plural has an audible r and the singular does not.

Listen: die Uhr

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

U A long, firmly rounded 'oo', preceded by a light glottal stop since the word begins on a vowel.

h Silent. It marks the vowel as long and contributes no sound of its own.

r Vocalised into a dark 'uh', so the word finishes on a two-part vowel with no consonant at all.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich habe eine neue Uhr.

I have a new watch.

Listen: Ich habe eine neue Uhr.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Ich habe eine neue Uhr gives neue the feminine accusative -e ending. There is a glottal catch before Uhr, so eine neue Uhr has a small break before the noun rather than gliding into it — three vowel-adjacent words in a row, each kept separate.

Where English speakers slip

Pronouncing the h adds a breath German does not have, and an American r turns the ending into a curled consonant. Both need removing. It is also worth knowing that this word does the work of English o'clock — drei Uhr is three o'clock — so it appears far more often than the English word clock does.