German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "groß" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce groß in German?

groß is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ɡʁoːs/. It means “big / large.” GROHSS. A hard g, a throaty r, a long pure 'oh', and the ß as a plain hissing s.

GROHSS. A hard g, a throaty r, a long pure 'oh', and the ß as a plain hissing s.

groß /ɡʁoːs/

The ß is the spelling's way of telling you the vowel inside is long — that is the whole modern rule for choosing ß over ss. Endings do not disturb it: großes and großen both keep the long o under the beat while the ending stays unstressed.

Listen: groß

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Sound it out

g Hard g as in go. German never softens g before a vowel.

r The uvular r, scraped at the back and kept brief because it is wedged between g and a vowel.

o A long, steady 'oh' with no glide off the end. The ß after it confirms the length.

ß An unvoiced s. Never a b, never a buzz.

Hear it in a sentence

Sie wohnen in einem großen Haus.

They live in a big house.

Listen: Sie wohnen in einem großen Haus.

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Sie wohnen in einem großen Haus has in taking the dative because nothing is moving, which produces einem and the matching adjective ending -en. Haus carries the 'ow' diphthong and an unvoiced final s, so the sentence ends with the same hiss the adjective started with.

Where English speakers slip

The ß reads as a capital B to newcomers, which is the first thing to unlearn. The second is vowel length: English readers see a doubled-looking consonant and shorten the vowel to the 'o' of gross, but German does the reverse here — ß signals a long vowel, so the o is genuinely held. Say it as a sustained note before the s arrives.