German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "trinken" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce trinken in German?

trinken is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈtʁɪŋ.kn̩/. It means “to drink.” TRING-kn. The n turns into the 'ng' of sing before the k, and the ending swallows its vowel.

TRING-kn. The n turns into the 'ng' of sing before the k, and the ending swallows its vowel.

trinken /ˈtʁɪŋ.kn̩/

First syllable throughout the present tense, with the past forms trank and getrunken swapping the vowel while leaving the stress alone. The unstressed ending is what does the shrinking — in relaxed speech the whole second syllable is barely more than a hum behind the k.

Listen: trinken

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

Sound it out

tr A t followed immediately by the uvular r. The r stays brief here, more of a rasp than a full scrape.

i The i of ship, cut off quickly by the consonant behind it.

nk The n assimilates to the k and becomes 'ng', exactly as in English drink.

en Reduces to a syllabic n, so a k is released straight into a nasal.

Hear it in a sentence

Trinkst du einen Kaffee?

Are you having a coffee?

Listen: Trinkst du einen Kaffee?

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

Trinkst du einen Kaffee? starts with the verb because it is a yes-no question, and there is no equivalent of English do to help. Einen marks Kaffee as masculine accusative. German also has no progressive tense, so this single form covers both 'do you drink' and 'are you having'.

Where English speakers slip

The tr cluster is where an English accent shows most clearly: English pairs t with its own bunched r, which makes the whole cluster sound distinctly foreign in German. Keep the t crisp and put the r at the back of the throat. The other habit is giving the -en ending a full vowel, which makes the word sound spelled out rather than spoken.