German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "werden" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce werden in German?

werden is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈveːɐ̯.dn̩/. It means “to become / will.” VAIR-dn. The w is a v, the e is long with the r softening into 'uh', and the ending collapses onto the n.

VAIR-dn. The w is a v, the e is long with the r softening into 'uh', and the ending collapses onto the n.

werden /ˈveːɐ̯.dn̩/

First syllable, though the vowel changes radically in the singular: wirst and wird have a short i and no long vowel at all. This verb does triple duty — become, the future auxiliary, and the passive auxiliary — and in all three roles it sits in second position and gives its stress to the words around it.

Listen: werden

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Sound it out

w A buzzing v. Whatever the spelling suggests, German w is never the glide English gives it.

er A long 'ay' with the r vocalised into a dark 'uh' behind it. Because a consonant follows, the r never becomes a real consonant here.

d A crisp d opening the second syllable.

en The e drops out and the n carries the syllable on its own.

Hear it in a sentence

Es wird bald kalt.

It's going to get cold soon.

Listen: Es wird bald kalt.

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Es wird bald kalt uses werden in its plainest sense, to get or become, and shows the third-person form wird with its shortened i. Bald ends in a devoiced d, so it sounds like 'balt', and kalt closes the sentence on a bare adjective with no ending, as predicate adjectives always do.

Where English speakers slip

Beginners produce 'WER-den' with an English w and a fully pronounced r, which gets both consonants wrong. The w is a v and the r is a vowel. The paradigm is the second obstacle: learners regularise it to 'werdet' or 'werdst' for du, when the actual forms wirst and wird have thrown away the long vowel entirely.