German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "sich erinnern" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce sich erinnern in German?

sich erinnern is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /zɪç ʔɛɐ̯ˈʔɪ.nɐn/. It means “to remember.” zikh air-IN-un. The beat lands in the middle, on -IN-, and there is a small glottal catch between the prefix and the root.

zikh air-IN-un. The beat lands in the middle, on -IN-, and there is a small glottal catch between the prefix and the root.

sich erinnern /zɪç ʔɛɐ̯ˈʔɪ.nɐn/

Neither the reflexive nor the prefix takes any weight; it goes to the root syllable -in-, because er- is an inseparable prefix and inseparable prefixes are never stressed. That also predicts the participle: erinnert, with no ge- added, exactly like verstanden and bezahlt.

Listen: sich erinnern

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Sound it out

sich A voiced s and the soft ich-laut, unstressed. It rhymes exactly with ich.

er An unstressed inseparable prefix. The e is short and open and the r vocalises, so it comes out close to 'air' with no real r.

inn The stressed syllable: a short i preceded by a glottal stop, since the root begins on a vowel after the prefix.

ern The ending softens to 'un', with the r dissolving into a vowel.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich erinnere mich an dich.

I remember you.

Listen: Ich erinnere mich an dich.

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Ich erinnere mich an dich replaces sich with mich, since the reflexive pronoun has to agree with the subject. The verb then demands an plus the accusative — a fixed combination with no logic connecting it to English remember. The -ere ending in erinnere gives two schwas in a row, which German runs together lightly.

Where English speakers slip

Stressing the prefix produces 'ER-innern', which German does not do. Put the weight on the second syllable and keep a small glottal catch before it, so the prefix and root do not fuse into one blur. The grammar is equally demanding: the reflexive pronoun changes with the subject and the preposition an is not optional.