German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "schmutzig" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce schmutzig in German?

schmutzig is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈʃmʊ.t͡sɪç/. It means “dirty.” SHMOOT-sikh. sch runs into m, tz is 'ts', and the -ig ending is pronounced like ich.

SHMOOT-sikh. sch runs into m, tz is 'ts', and the -ig ending is pronounced like ich.

schmutzig /ˈʃmʊ.t͡sɪç/

SCHMUT- takes the beat and the -ig suffix takes none. What makes the word feel long is the consonant load rather than the syllable count: sh-m at the front and t-s in the middle mean there are five consonant sounds around two short vowels, which is a lot to fit into two beats.

Listen: schmutzig

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Sound it out

schm sh straight into m, another cluster English cannot begin a word with. Hold the sh, then close the lips for the m.

u Short 'oo' as in put, properly rounded.

tz 'ts'. German writes this spelling after a short vowel, so the tz itself confirms the u is short.

ig -ig closes on the ich-laut in standard German, though southern speakers say 'ik'.

Hear it in a sentence

Meine Hände sind schmutzig.

My hands are dirty.

Listen: Meine Hände sind schmutzig.

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Meine Hände sind schmutzig uses the umlaut plural Hände, where Hand fronts its vowel to a short ä — the vowel of English bed. Sind ends in a devoiced d, so it comes out 'zint' with a voiced s at the front and an unvoiced t at the back, a nice illustration of both s rules at once.

Where English speakers slip

'Smutzig' is what comes out when the shm cluster gets simplified, and it is worth attacking the same way as schnell and schlafen: hold the sh first. The ending then needs the palatal hiss rather than a hard g. Both errors are systematic rather than word-specific, so fixing them here pays off across dozens of words.