German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "gehen" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce gehen in German?

gehen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈɡeː.ən/. It means “to go / walk.” GAY-un. Two syllables, and the h is completely silent — it exists only to mark the vowel as long.

GAY-un. Two syllables, and the h is completely silent — it exists only to mark the vowel as long.

gehen /ˈɡeː.ən/

First syllable, with the second reduced. The interesting rhythm here is that the two vowels do not merge: German holds the boundary between the long 'ay' and the schwa, so the word stays audibly two beats even though nothing consonantal separates them.

Listen: gehen

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Sound it out

g Hard g, made at the back of the mouth with the voice on.

eh A long 'ay' held flat. The h is a length marker and is never pronounced between vowels.

en A separate unstressed syllable with a schwa, kept distinct from the vowel before it rather than gliding into it.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich gehe jetzt nach Hause.

I'm going home now.

Listen: Ich gehe jetzt nach Hause.

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Ich gehe jetzt nach Hause uses the fixed phrase nach Hause, which means homewards and appears in this exact form regardless of whose house it is. Jetzt opens with a y sound, since German j is always y, and ends in the cluster tzt. Note that Hause begins with a real, breathed h, unlike the silent one inside gehen.

Where English speakers slip

Two opposite errors are common. Some learners pronounce the h, giving 'geh-hen' with an audible puff in the middle; German h after a vowel is always silent. Others collapse the word into one syllable, producing 'gain'. Aim for two clean beats with a silent gap where the h is written, and note the contrast with word-initial h, which really is breathed.