German · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "öffnen" in German?

Q: How do you pronounce öffnen in German?

öffnen is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈœf.nən/. It means “to open.” UF-nen with a short ö — say the 'e' of bed and round your lips. A small glottal catch opens the word.

UF-nen with a short ö — say the 'e' of bed and round your lips. A small glottal catch opens the word.

öffnen /ˈœf.nən/

Weight on the short ö, and the fn cluster in the middle is what makes this word awkward for learners — there is no vowel to soften the transition. German simply runs the f into the n, and the stress stays anchored on the short ö at the front no matter how many endings pile on behind it.

Listen: öffnen

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Sound it out

ö Short and front-rounded: tongue where it goes for the e in bed, lips pursed. The doubled f keeps it short, and a light glottal stop precedes it.

ff Written double, said once. The doubling exists to mark the vowel short.

n A clean n, air flowing through the nose.

en An unstressed ending with a schwa, giving the word an unusual double-n shape.

Hear it in a sentence

Öffne bitte das Fenster.

Open the window, please.

Listen: Öffne bitte das Fenster.

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Öffne bitte das Fenster is an imperative with the -e ending kept, which sounds slightly more careful than dropping it. Fenster contains an st at a syllable boundary rather than at the start of a stem, so it stays a plain st: 'FEN-stuh', not 'FEN-shtuh'.

Where English speakers slip

Learners produce 'OFF-nen' with a plain o, losing the fronting entirely, or import the English vowel of burn, which brings an r along with it. Neither is right: the tongue goes where it sits for bed and the lips round. The glottal catch at the start also matters — without it the word smears into whatever precedes it.