German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "neu" in German?

NOY, rhyming with English boy. The letters eu always say 'oy'.

neu /nɔʏ̯/

The diphthong owns the word — there is nothing else in it. When adjective endings arrive the extra syllables are unstressed schwas: neue, neues and neuen all keep the beat on the diphthong and let the ending fade away behind it.

Listen: neu

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Sound it out

n The n of no, unchanged from English.

eu The 'oy' diphthong of boy. German gives these two letters exactly one value, unlike English, which reads the same pair as 'yoo' in feud and neutral.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich habe ein neues Auto.

I have a new car.

Listen: Ich habe ein neues Auto.

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Ich habe ein neues Auto shows the adjective doing gender work the article cannot. Ein gives away nothing about whether the noun is masculine or neuter, so neues has to carry the -es that marks Auto as neuter. The noun itself begins with a glottal catch and the 'ow' diphthong.

Where English speakers slip

The pull toward English new is strong, and it produces 'nyoo' — wrong vowel, and with a y-glide German does not have. Say boy and take off the b. It is also worth keeping this word distinct from neun, meaning nine: they share the diphthong and differ only in the final n, so a mumbled ending can turn new into a number.