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German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "klar" in German?

KLAHR, or 'KLAH-uh'. A long open a with the r melting into a vowel behind it.

klar /klaːɐ̯/

As an interjection meaning of course it takes heavy emphasis with a falling pitch, often standing alone as a complete answer. Used as an ordinary adjective inside a sentence it is much lighter, so the same word ranges from shouted to barely noticeable.

Listen: klar

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Sound it out

kl A k with a small puff of air, then a bright forward l.
a Open and drawn out — the a of calm with real duration.
r Vocalised at the end of the syllable into a dark 'uh', so the word ends on a vowel rather than a consonant.

Hear it in a sentence

Klar, das machen wir!

Sure, we'll do that!

Listen: Klar, das machen wir!

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Klar, das machen wir! uses colloquial fronting: putting das first pushes the verb machen ahead of the subject wir, which is why the sentence ends on the pronoun. Machen has the throaty ach-laut, so the exclamation closes with a back-of-throat scrape followed by a light pronoun.

Where English speakers slip

American speakers curl the tongue for the r and stretch the whole syllable into something like the English word car with heavy r-colouring. German holds the a long and pure, then lets the r fade into a vowel. Non-rhotic English speakers already do this in far, and that is very nearly the target sound.