German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "rechts" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce rechts in German?

rechts is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʁɛçts/. It means “right (direction).” REKHTS. A throaty r at the front, the soft ich-laut in the middle, and ts at the end.

REKHTS. A throaty r at the front, the soft ich-laut in the middle, and ts at the end.

rechts /ʁɛçts/

One beat that travels the whole length of the mouth: it starts as far back as German goes, moves to a hiss at the hard palate, and finishes on a cluster made at the teeth. That journey is why the word feels difficult despite having only one vowel in it.

Listen: rechts

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Sound it out

r The uvular r at the start of a word, at its most audible — a light scrape at the back of the mouth.

e Short, open and flat — nothing like the diphthong English gives the letter e in the alphabet.

ch The soft ich-laut, chosen by the front vowel before it.

ts The final s attaches to the t to give a 'ts' cluster, so the word ends on the same sound German writes as z elsewhere.

Hear it in a sentence

Biegen Sie rechts ab.

Turn right.

Listen: Biegen Sie rechts ab.

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Biegen Sie rechts ab is a formal imperative, which in German keeps the pronoun Sie right after the verb. Abbiegen is separable, so the prefix ab detaches and lands at the very end — meaning the direction word rechts sits in the middle, sandwiched between the two halves of the verb.

Where English speakers slip

Learners flatten the ch to a k and produce 'rekts', which loses the word's most distinctive sound. Keep the air flowing at the roof of the mouth. The r deserves separate practice too, because pairing a back-of-throat r with a front-of-mouth hiss inside one syllable is a genuine coordination problem — try each sound alone before joining them.