German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "weil" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce weil in German?

weil is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /vaɪ̯l/. It means “because.” VILE. The w is a v, ei is 'eye', and the l stays bright and forward.

VILE. The w is a v, ei is 'eye', and the l stays bright and forward.

weil /vaɪ̯l/

One beat, unstressed as a subordinating conjunction. Its real effect is structural rather than rhythmic: weil sends the conjugated verb to the end of its clause, which means the sentence's rhythmic weight shifts to whatever word ends up last — usually the verb itself.

Listen: weil

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Sound it out

w Pronounced v, as German w always is outside a handful of foreign names.

ei 'Eye', as in the English word ice. This value is fixed for ei everywhere in German.

l A bright, forward l. This is exactly where English would darken it, as in mile, so it takes attention.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich gehe, weil ich müde bin.

I'm leaving because I'm tired.

Listen: Ich gehe, weil ich müde bin.

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Ich gehe, weil ich müde bin puts bin at the very end rather than after ich, exactly as the conjunction requires. The comma is compulsory in German. Müde holds a long front-rounded ü, so the clause ends with a difficult vowel followed by the smallest possible verb.

Where English speakers slip

Learners reproduce English word order after weil, producing weil ich bin müde, which is wrong — the verb must come last. On the sound side, the l is where an English accent shows: the English word vile has a dark, hollow l, while German keeps the tongue tip forward and the vowel bright right up to the end.