German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "niemand" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce niemand in German?

niemand is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈniː.mant/. It means “nobody.” NEE-mant. The ie is a long 'ee' and the final d hardens into a t.

NEE-mant. The ie is a long 'ee' and the final d hardens into a t.

niemand /ˈniː.mant/

NIE- takes the weight and -mand goes unstressed — which is what you would expect from a compound whose first element carries the meaning. Its positive counterpart jemand has exactly the same shape and stress, so the two behave as a matched pair rhythmically as well as semantically.

Listen: niemand

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Sound it out

nie An n plus a long 'ee'. It is literally the word nie, meaning never, doing duty as the first half of this compound.

m An m exactly as in English — one of the few German consonants needing no adjustment.

and A short a, an n, and a written d that devoices to t at the end of the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Hier ist niemand.

There's nobody here.

Listen: Hier ist niemand.

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Hier ist niemand fronts the adverb, which pushes ist into second position and leaves the pronoun last. The word takes a singular verb despite referring to the absence of people, and the sentence closes on that devoiced t — a small consonant carrying the whole ending.

Where English speakers slip

The final d gets voiced by almost every learner, because it is written and because English would voice it. German hardens it to t. The ie is the second check, since reading it as 'eye' gives 'NYE-mand'. Both errors are systematic rather than specific to this word, which makes them worth fixing once and applying widely.