German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "schwierig" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce schwierig in German?

schwierig is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈʃviː.ʁɪç/. It means “difficult.” SHVEE-rikh. sch is sh, w is v, ie is a long 'ee', and the -ig ending sounds like ich.

SHVEE-rikh. sch is sh, w is v, ie is a long 'ee', and the -ig ending sounds like ich.

schwierig /ˈʃviː.ʁɪç/

Front-loaded, with -ig unstressed as always. The word is a good illustration of how German keeps its long vowels long even in longer words: the stressed 'ee' does not shorten just because two more syllables follow it, which is where German rhythm differs from English.

Listen: schwierig

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

Sound it out

schw sh followed directly by a v sound. English has no such cluster, so it needs practice: hold the sh, then bring the teeth to the lip.

ie A long 'ee' — the e after the i is a length marker, nothing more.

r A full uvular consonant here, since a vowel follows it.

ig The -ig ending, pronounced exactly like the word ich rather than with a hard g.

Hear it in a sentence

Deutsch ist nicht schwierig.

German is not difficult.

Listen: Deutsch ist nicht schwierig.

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

Deutsch ist nicht schwierig contains three ch spellings with two different values — the affricate that ends Deutsch, and the soft hisses in nicht and in the -ig ending. Working through the sentence slowly is a compact lesson in why the letters ch cannot be given a single pronunciation.

Where English speakers slip

The opening cluster gets simplified to 'sv' or 'shw', both of which miss the target: it is sh followed by a genuine v. Then there is the ending. Learners either give it a hard g or, having heard Bavarian and Austrian speakers, settle on 'ik'. That regional form exists, but the standard taught pronunciation is the hiss of ich.