LingoDrop
German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "neben" in German?
NAY-bn. A long 'ay' and an ending that collapses onto the n with no vowel left.
NE- is the louder half, with the ending swallowed. As a preposition it gives most of its weight to the noun phrase behind it, but the long vowel keeps its full quality — German does not reduce vowels in unstressed function words the way English reduces the vowel in from or to.
Listen: neben
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Die Bank ist neben der Post.
The bank is next to the post office.
Listen: Die Bank ist neben der Post.
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Die Bank ist neben der Post uses the dative for a location, which is why Post takes der rather than die. Bank has the velar nasal before its k, and Post has a plain st because the two letters straddle a syllable rather than opening the word — 'PAWST', not 'PAWSHT'.
Where English speakers slip
English readers shorten the e on the model of never, giving 'NEB-en'. The syllable is open, so the vowel is long. The ending is the second habit: giving -en a full vowel makes the word sound spelled out. Let the n take the syllable and the word compresses to two clean beats.