German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "weiß" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce weiß in German?

weiß is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /vaɪ̯s/. It means “white.” Identical to the English word vice. The w is a v, ei says 'eye', and ß is a plain hissing s.

Identical to the English word vice. The w is a v, ei says 'eye', and ß is a plain hissing s.

weiß /vaɪ̯s/

One beat, but the ß carries information beyond stress: it tells you the vowel before it is long or, as here, a diphthong. That distinction is why weiß and the verb form wisse look and sound different despite sharing a root, and why Swiss German writing, which drops ß entirely, loses a small piece of pronunciation guidance.

Listen: weiß

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Sound it out

w Say a v. German w is a v in every word and every position, with no exceptions.

ei The diphthong in my and eye. The second letter of the pair tells you the sound.

ß The Eszett, and it is only ever an unvoiced s. Modern spelling uses ß after a long vowel or a diphthong and ss after a short one, so the character itself is a length clue — here it confirms the diphthong.

Hear it in a sentence

Das Kleid ist weiß.

The dress is white.

Listen: Das Kleid ist weiß.

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Das Kleid ist weiß pairs the adjective with a neuter noun, and Kleid itself demonstrates final devoicing — the written d comes out as a t, so it sounds like 'klite'. The adjective stays bare after ist, so nothing softens the ß, and the sentence ends on a clean hiss.

Where English speakers slip

Two written characters mislead at once. The ß is regularly read as a capital B by people meeting it for the first time, producing something like 'vibe'; it is an s and nothing else. And ei drags English readers toward 'weece'. Say the English word vice and you already have the entire word — the only adjustment is keeping the s unvoiced right to the end.