German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "heiß" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce heiß in German?

heiß is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /haɪ̯s/. It means “hot.” HICE — the English word ice with an h in front. The ei is 'eye' and the ß is a plain hissing s.

HICE — the English word ice with an h in front. The ei is 'eye' and the ß is a plain hissing s.

heiß /haɪ̯s/

One beat with the diphthong carrying nearly all of it. The ß is quietly informative about that: modern spelling uses ß only after long vowels and diphthongs, so seeing it in an unfamiliar word tells you the stressed syllable is a long one before you have heard it spoken.

Listen: heiß

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Sound it out

h An h with real breath behind it, as English gives it in hat.

ei The diphthong in my and eye. The second letter of the pair tells you the sound.

ß An unvoiced s. Its presence tells you what precedes it is long or a diphthong, which it is.

Hear it in a sentence

Die Suppe ist zu heiß.

The soup is too hot.

Listen: Die Suppe ist zu heiß.

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Die Suppe ist zu heiß uses zu in its degree sense, meaning too. Suppe begins with a voiced s that buzzes like z, keeps its u short thanks to the doubled p, and ends in a schwa — so the sentence has a voiced s at the start and an unvoiced one at the end, which is exactly the distinction German maintains.

Where English speakers slip

The ß gets read as a capital B, and ei gets read as 'ee' — the two most common German spelling misreadings, both present in a four-letter word. It rhymes with ice. Keep it distinct from heißen, meaning to be called, which shares the first syllable and trips learners up in listening more than in speaking.