German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "letzte" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce letzte in German?

letzte is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈlɛt͡s.tə/. It means “last.” LETS-tuh. The tz is 'ts', so the middle of the word is a ts landing straight onto a t.

LETS-tuh. The tz is 'ts', so the middle of the word is a ts landing straight onto a t.

letzte /ˈlɛt͡s.tə/

LETZ- gets the punch, with the ending falling away — but the interesting part is the consonant traffic in the middle. Three obstruent sounds queue up between the two vowels, and German gives each its own moment rather than merging them, which is what makes the word feel slower to say than its two syllables suggest.

Listen: letzte

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Sound it out

l A forward l. Letting the back of the tongue rise would darken the vowel in front of it.

e An open short e. Lengthening it changes the word's rhythm and sometimes its meaning.

tz 'ts', the same sound German writes as z at the start of a word. The spelling tz is used after a short vowel.

te A crisp t and an unstressed schwa ending.

Hear it in a sentence

Das ist das letzte Stück.

That's the last piece.

Listen: Das ist das letzte Stück.

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Das ist das letzte Stück takes the -e ending because Stück is neuter and follows the definite article das. Stück begins with the 'sht' cluster and holds a short front-rounded ü before its final ck, so the sentence ends on one of the vowels English speakers find hardest.

Where English speakers slip

The tzt run gets simplified: learners drop one of the t sounds and produce 'LES-te' or 'LET-se'. Slow it right down — ts, then t — and speed up from there. The ending is the second thing to watch, since English instincts turn a final e into either silence or 'ay', where German wants a colourless schwa.