German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "kaufen" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce kaufen in German?

kaufen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈkaʊ̯.fn̩/. It means “to buy.” COW-fn. The au is the 'ow' of house, and the ending collapses onto the n.

COW-fn. The au is the 'ow' of house, and the ending collapses onto the n.

kaufen /ˈkaʊ̯.fn̩/

The diphthong in the first syllable takes the beat and holds it throughout the conjugation — kaufst, kauft, gekauft. This is also the root inside verkaufen, meaning to sell, where the inseparable prefix ver- steals nothing rhythmically because it is unstressed: the beat stays on the same diphthong in both verbs.

Listen: kaufen

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

Sound it out

k A k released with a small puff of air, as in English kite.

au The 'ow' diphthong of house, opening wide and gliding toward 'oo'.

f An f — teeth on lip, breath only, no buzz.

en A syllabic n — no vowel, just the nasal doing a whole syllable's work.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich kaufe Brot und Milch.

I'm buying bread and milk.

Listen: Ich kaufe Brot und Milch.

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

Ich kaufe Brot und Milch strings together three quiet pronunciation lessons. Brot ends in a t. Und comes out 'oont' with its d hardened. And Milch ends in the soft ich-laut, because ch after the consonant l takes the front variant rather than the throaty one.

Where English speakers slip

The au reads as 'aw' to English eyes, giving 'kawfen'. It is 'ow'. Worth pairing with the Milch in the example sentence, since that word catches learners the other way round: having been told the throaty ch exists, they use it after l, where German actually wants the soft one. The vowel or consonant before ch is what decides.