German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "rot" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce rot in German?

rot is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʁoːt/. It means “red.” ROHT with a long, pure 'oh' and a throaty r — closer to the French r in rouge than to the English r in red.

ROHT with a long, pure 'oh' and a throaty r — closer to the French r in rouge than to the English r in red.

rot /ʁoːt/

As a colour adjective this is usually the word the sentence peaks on, since it carries the new information. Endings leave it undisturbed — rote, roter and rotes all keep the long o under the beat and let the ending stay unstressed.

Listen: rot

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Sound it out

r At the start of a syllable the uvular r is at its most audible: a light gargle or scrape right at the back of the mouth. The tongue tip stays down and does not curl.

o A long, steady 'oh' with no glide off the end. The single t after it is what signals the length.

t Clearly released, with a small puff of air.

Hear it in a sentence

Der Apfel ist rot.

The apple is red.

Listen: Der Apfel ist rot.

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Der Apfel ist rot leaves the adjective bare, since adjectives after sein never inflect. Apfel begins with a glottal stop and contains the pf cluster, a genuinely German sound where p and f are produced in one motion; its plural Äpfel changes nothing but the vowel.

Where English speakers slip

Two things go wrong in three letters. The r comes out as an English red-style r with the tongue bunched in the middle of the mouth, when German makes it at the very back — this is the single sound that most marks an English accent in German. Then the vowel: English 'oh' drifts into a w at the end, while German holds one position throughout, so the word should sound almost like a held musical note.