German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "schwach" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce schwach in German?

schwach is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ʃvax/. It means “weak.” SHVAKH. sch is sh, w is v, and the ch at the end is the throaty one because it follows an a.

SHVAKH. sch is sh, w is v, and the ch at the end is the throaty one because it follows an a.

schwach /ʃvax/

A single beat that begins at the front of the mouth and ends at the very back, which makes it a surprisingly athletic word for its length. The comparative schwächer fronts the vowel and, importantly, changes the ch to the soft variant along with it — proof that the ch sound follows the vowel rather than the spelling.

Listen: schwach

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Sound it out

sch An sh sound, with the lips slightly rounded and the tongue pulled back.

w English v, so the word opens on an 'shv' cluster that English does not have.

a Short and fully open, never the flat English vowel of cat.

ch The ach-laut, made far back against the soft palate — the same sound as in Bach.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich fühle mich heute schwach.

I feel weak today.

Listen: Ich fühle mich heute schwach.

Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.

Ich fühle mich heute schwach is an outstanding drill sentence. Ich and mich both end in the soft ich-laut, fühle has a long front-rounded ü, and then schwach finishes on the throaty ach-laut. Moving between the two ch sounds within one sentence is the fastest way to internalise the difference.

Where English speakers slip

The opening cluster gets smoothed into 'shw' with an English w, and the final ch gets replaced by a k. Both need separate attention. Note also that the comparative schwächer takes the soft ch, which surprises learners who assume a word keeps one ch sound forever — the vowel in front decides, and here it changes.