German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "zurückkommen" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce zurückkommen in German?

zurückkommen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tsuˈʁʏkˌkɔ.mən/. It means “to come back.” tsoo-RUEK-kom-en. The main beat lands on RÜCK, and the two k's meeting in the middle are held slightly longer than one.

tsoo-RUEK-kom-en. The main beat lands on RÜCK, and the two k's meeting in the middle are held slightly longer than one.

zurückkommen /tsuˈʁʏkˌkɔ.mən/

The prefix zurück is itself made of two parts, and the stress lands on its second piece rather than its first — so the loudest syllable is in the middle of the word, not at the front. The root kommen then follows unstressed, which is the standard pattern for separable verbs built on multi-syllable prefixes.

Listen: zurückkommen

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Sound it out

zu 'ts' plus a short u, unstressed. Even inside a longer word the z keeps its ts value.

rück The uvular r, then a short front-rounded ü, then a k. This syllable takes the main stress of the whole verb.

kk Two k sounds meet at the seam between prefix and root. German holds the closure a fraction longer rather than merging them into one, so you can hear the join.

ommen A short rounded o with the ending reducing toward a syllabic n.

Hear it in a sentence

Ich komme gleich zurück.

I'll be right back.

Listen: Ich komme gleich zurück.

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Ich komme gleich zurück breaks the verb apart and sends the whole prefix, both of its syllables, to the end of the sentence. Gleich contains the soft ich-laut after the 'eye' diphthong, so the sentence is a good workout: a soft ch in the middle and a rounded ü at the very end.

Where English speakers slip

The ü is the recurring obstacle, and here it sits in a short, closed syllable where there is little time to get the lips into position — many learners default to 'roock' or 'rick'. Practise the vowel in isolation before the word. The doubled k is a quieter issue: English simplifies such seams to a single sound, while German keeps the closure long enough that the boundary is audible.