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German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "hoch" in German?

HOHKH. A long, pure 'oh' and then the throaty ach-laut.

hoch /hoːx/

The rhythm is the least interesting thing about this adjective — what matters is what happens when it inflects: the ch disappears entirely and is replaced by an h, giving hohe, hoher and hohen. So the base form and the inflected forms sound quite different, while the stressed long o survives unchanged through all of them.

Listen: hoch

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Sound it out

h A clearly breathed h at the front of the word.
o Long and steady with no glide off the end.
ch The ach-laut, made at the soft palate because the vowel in front of it is a back o.

Hear it in a sentence

Der Berg ist sehr hoch.

The mountain is very high.

Listen: Der Berg ist sehr hoch.

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Der Berg ist sehr hoch keeps the adjective bare, which is the only way you hear the ch at all — any ending would replace it. Berg ends in a devoiced g, coming out 'bairk', so the sentence contains two separate things happening to written g's: one hardens to k, and one is about to vanish.

Where English speakers slip

Substituting a k gives 'hoke', which is the standard first attempt. Keep the air flowing instead of stopping it. The inflection is the more surprising trap: learners produce hoche Berge, when German says hohe Berge — the ch only survives in the uninflected form, and that irregularity has to be learned rather than reasoned out.