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German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "kalt" in German?
KALT with a short open 'ah' and a bright l — close to English cult but with the vowel of father.
Watch what the comparative does: kälter fronts the vowel to ä while leaving the stress alone. Because this adjective and its relatives appear constantly in weather talk, the l is worth drilling here specifically — it recurs in kälter, Kälte and erkälten with the same brightness required each time.
Listen: kalt
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Das Wasser ist kalt.
The water is cold.
Listen: Das Wasser ist kalt.
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Das Wasser ist kalt keeps the adjective bare after ist. Wasser demonstrates the w-as-v rule and the softened -er ending in one word, coming out 'VAH-suh', so the sentence pairs a consonant trap at the start with a vowel trap at the end.
Where English speakers slip
English cold and called both have a dark l that swallows the vowel in front of it, and importing that gives 'kawlt'. Keep the tongue tip on the ridge behind your teeth and the back of the tongue down. Test it by saying leaf, which has a bright English l, and transplanting that l into the German word.