German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "jeder" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce jeder in German?

jeder is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈjeː.dɐ/. It means “everyone / each.” YAY-duh. The j is a y, the e is long, and the -er ending softens into a dark 'uh'.

YAY-duh. The j is a y, the e is long, and the -er ending softens into a dark 'uh'.

jeder /ˈjeː.dɐ/

The long vowel at the front is the loud one, and it stays there through every form the word takes — jede, jedes, jedem, jeden all add unstressed endings. Like dieser and welcher, this word copies the endings of der, so its whole paradigm shares one rhythm.

Listen: jeder

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

j The y of yes — German j is always this glide, never the j of judge.

e A long 'ay', held flat with no glide. The open syllable je- stretches it.

d Voiced, since the syllable break falls in front of it rather than behind.

er A dark 'uh' with nothing consonantal in it — non-rhotic English speakers already do this.

Hear it in a sentence

Jeder hat eine Meinung.

Everyone has an opinion.

Listen: Jeder hat eine Meinung.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Jeder hat eine Meinung takes a singular verb, since the word means each one rather than all. Meinung carries the 'eye' diphthong and the -ung suffix with its velar nasal, and eine marks it as feminine accusative — the object of having.

Where English speakers slip

The j gets read as an English j by anyone who has not yet absorbed the rule, giving 'JAY-der'. It is a y. Then the ending needs no r at all. Both errors are the standard German pair, and hearing them fixed in this word carries straight over to jemand, Jahr and jung.