German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "dieser" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce dieser in German?

dieser is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈdiː.zɐ/. It means “this.” DEE-zuh. The ie is a long 'ee', the single s between vowels buzzes like a z, and the ending fades to 'uh'.

DEE-zuh. The ie is a long 'ee', the single s between vowels buzzes like a z, and the ending fades to 'uh'.

dieser /ˈdiː.zɐ/

The beat sits on DIE- and stays there through every form the word takes — diese, dieses, diesem, diesen all add unstressed syllables without disturbing the long vowel. That stability is typical of German determiners, which grow endings freely but never move their stress.

Listen: dieser

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Sound it out

d A clean d, touched and released without much breath after it.

ie Long 'ee'. Two letters, one vowel.

s Voiced here, because a single s between two vowels always is. Compare the doubled ss of dass, which stays a hiss.

er The unstressed ending softens to a dark 'uh' with no r consonant left in it.

Hear it in a sentence

Dieser Film ist gut.

This movie is good.

Listen: Dieser Film ist gut.

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Dieser Film ist gut uses the masculine nominative form, and the ending -er is exactly the one on the article der, which is the whole logic of this word class: dieser copies der's endings. Film keeps a short i despite the English spelling, and ist stays a plain st rather than 'isht'.

Where English speakers slip

Hissing the s is the near-universal slip, producing 'DEE-ser', because English does not voice s between vowels reliably. German does: one s between two vowels buzzes. The second issue is the ending, which English speakers give a full r; let it dissolve into a vowel instead, and the word will stop sounding like an English reading of German letters.