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German · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "von" in German?
FON. German v says f, and the o is short and open — nothing like the long vowel of English phone.
As a preposition, von hands its stress over to whatever noun follows and sits in the sentence as a light, quick beat. It also fuses with the dative article dem into vom, which is not optional in normal speech — vom Bahnhof, never von dem Bahnhof unless you are pointedly emphasising which station.
Listen: von
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Das ist ein Foto von mir.
That's a photo of me.
Listen: Das ist ein Foto von mir.
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Das ist ein Foto von mir uses von with the dative, which is why the pronoun is mir rather than mich. Foto takes its stress on the first syllable, FO-to, with a long o, and German prefers von mir where English can say 'of me' or 'of mine' — there is no possessive alternative here.
Where English speakers slip
Anyone who has heard aristocratic surnames like von Trapp in English films has learned the wrong consonant, because English speakers pronounce that v as a v. In German it is f every time. The vowel is the second correction: English readers stretch the o toward 'vohn', while German keeps it short, open and clipped, so the word is over quickly.