LingoDrop
German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "gleich" in German?
GLYKH. A hard g, a bright l, the 'eye' diphthong, and then the SOFT ich-laut — not the throaty one.
A single beat with a lot packed into it. The word also works as an adverb meaning right away, and in that use it often goes unstressed inside the sentence — the same three sounds, delivered much more lightly, which is worth listening for since the two meanings are common in equal measure.
Listen: gleich
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Wir haben das gleiche Problem.
We have the same problem.
Listen: Wir haben das gleiche Problem.
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Wir haben das gleiche Problem takes the -e ending after das, and Problem is another borrowing that ignores the first-syllable rule, stressing its final syllable: pro-BLEM. So the sentence closes on a back-stressed noun immediately after a front-stressed adjective.
Where English speakers slip
The instructive contrast is with auch, which also ends in ch but takes the throaty version. The difference is entirely in the vowel before it: au ends back and rounded, ei ends front and unrounded. Learners who default to one sound for all ch spellings get one of the two wrong every time, so practise gleich and auch back to back.