German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "noch" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce noch in German?

noch is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /nɔx/. It means “still / yet.” NOKH. A short rounded o and then the throaty ach-laut.

NOKH. A short rounded o and then the throaty ach-laut.

noch /nɔx/

A single beat, usually unstressed inside the sentence since the word is a small adverb of continuation. It is also one half of several fixed pairs — noch nicht for not yet, noch nie for never yet, immer noch for still — and in those combinations the second word normally carries the weight.

Listen: noch

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Sound it out

n An ordinary n, with the air passing through the nose.

o Short and rounded. English speakers under-round this vowel more than any other.

ch The ach-laut, made at the soft palate because the vowel in front is a back o. A sustained scrape, not a stop.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich bin noch nicht fertig.

I'm not finished yet.

Listen: Ich bin noch nicht fertig.

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Ich bin noch nicht fertig strings three different palatal and velar sounds together: the throaty ch of noch, the soft ich-laut of nicht, and then the -ig ending of fertig, which is another soft hiss. Saying the sentence slowly is a compact tour of everything ch can do in German.

Where English speakers slip

Substituting a k gives 'nock', which is the standard first attempt and loses the sound entirely. Keep the air flowing at the back of the mouth. It is also worth separating noch from nach carefully: they share the throaty ch and differ only in the vowel, but one means still and the other means to or after.