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German to IPA converter
Convert German text to IPA phonetic transcription. See the IPA, hear the word, and turn it into review-ready flashcards — without leaving what you are reading.
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German in IPA
9 worked examples, each chosen for a sound the spelling hides.
butterfly — sch, final -er as /ɐ/
squirrel — two ich-Laute in one word
book — the ach-Laut after u
church — ich-Laut plus final schwa
bread roll — long ö
Munich — short ü, not the long one
five — short ü
time — initial affricate
to speak — sp- said as /ʃp/
German sounds to know
The symbols that come up most often in German transcription, and what each one actually asks your mouth to do.
| Letter | Example | IPA | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| ch (after i, e, ä, ö, ü, ei, eu, l, n, r) | ich | /ç/ | The ich-Laut. Say the y of yes without voice — the tongue is in the same place. |
| ch (after a, o, u, au) | Buch | /x/ | The ach-Laut, made far back in the throat. Same two letters as /ç/; only the preceding vowel decides which one you get. |
| r | rot | /ʁ/ | A voiced uvular fricative at the back of the mouth, nothing like the English r. At the end of a syllable it turns into the vowel /ɐ/. |
| ü, y | über | /yː/ | Say /iː/ and round your lips without moving your tongue. English has no front rounded vowels at all. |
| ö | schön | /øː/ | The rounded partner of /eː/, built the same way as /yː/. |
| ä | Käse | /ɛː/ | A long open-mid front vowel. Many northern speakers merge it with /eː/, so the spelling is the only reliable guide. |
| z, tz | Zeit | /t͡s/ | One affricate, never the English /z/. It occurs word-initially, which English does not allow. |
| sch, st-, sp- | Schule | /ʃ/ | Also written as plain s before t or p at the start of a word: Stein and spielen begin with /ʃ/. |
| pf | Pferd | /p͡f/ | A single affricate, both consonants in one gesture, including at the start of a word. |
| -e (final) | bitte | /ə/ | Unstressed final e is a schwa, not the full vowel of the alphabet name. |
| -er (final) | Vater | /ɐ/ | Final -er is a vowel, not a consonant: an open central sound close to the a of English sofa. |
How German writing maps to sound
German writes with the Latin alphabet plus ä, ö, ü and ß. The spelling is far more predictable than English — but it does not mark vowel length directly (a doubled vowel, a following h, or a single consonant all signal a long vowel), and it does not show that a final b, d or g is said as p, t or k.
Which German do these transcriptions show?
Transcriptions follow Standard German as codified for the stage and for broadcast (the Siebs / Duden norm), which is what learners are taught. Austrian and Swiss Standard German differ in several vowels and in the -ig ending; southern accents also keep a rolled or tapped r where the norm has the uvular /ʁ/.
Why guess German pronunciation?
German spelling is more regular than English, but several traps remain: the ch sound has two distinct realisations, final consonants devoice, vowel length is contrastive, and the umlauts ä, ö, ü each carry sounds that English does not.
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