German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "zusammen" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce zusammen in German?

zusammen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /tsuˈza.mən/. It means “together.” tsoo-ZAM-en. The z at the front is 'ts', the s in the middle buzzes, and the beat is on ZAM.

tsoo-ZAM-en. The z at the front is 'ts', the s in the middle buzzes, and the beat is on ZAM.

zusammen /tsuˈza.mən/

Because zu- works as an unstressed prefix here, the middle syllable gets the weight. That gives the word a light-heavy-light shape, and it is a good example of how German handles prefixed adverbs: the recognisable root takes the weight and the prefix simply leads into it.

Listen: zusammen

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Sound it out

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

s Voiced, because it opens a syllable in front of a vowel — so it buzzes like English z, in contrast to the ts at the start of the word.

a Short and open, kept short by the doubled m, and carrying the main stress.

mmen One m plus an unstressed ending that reduces toward a syllabic n.

Hear it in a sentence

Gehen wir zusammen?

Shall we go together?

Listen: Gehen wir zusammen?

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Gehen wir zusammen? is a suggestion rather than a plain question — putting the verb first with wir is how German says 'shall we'. There is no equivalent of English shall, so the word order alone carries the meaning, which is worth noticing as much as the pronunciation.

Where English speakers slip

Three things typically go wrong: the z gets read as an English z, the middle s gets hissed instead of buzzed, and the stress goes on the front. Take them in order — 'ts' at the start, a buzz in the middle, and the weight on ZAM. The word is a useful demonstration that German's two s-like sounds can appear in the same short word.