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German · Pronunciation · A1 to B2

German intonation and sentence stress: the melody behind the words

Move the stress, change the meaning · tap a word
Neutral stress“I’m going to Berlin.”Neutral: the stress falls on the new information at the end.

Short answer: German intonation (the rise and fall of the voice) is close to English: statements and W-questions (questions with wer, was, wo…) fall at the end; yes/no questions rise. The bigger difference is stress: German words are almost always stressed on the first syllable of the root (AR-beit, FER-tig), and separable prefixes take the stress (AN-fangen). In a sentence, the main stress usually falls near the end, on the new information. Moving it to another word changes what you are contrasting, exactly as in English.

Three melodies

Fallend, steigend, schwebend

fallend ↘steigend ↗schwebend → Ich komme morgen.Wann kommst du?Kommst du morgen?Wenn du kommst, …
A rising W-question sounds like an echo (“Where did you say?”). Keep Wann kommst du? falling unless you’re asking someone to repeat.
Statement ↘
Dasthatistisgut.good
das ist GOOT · “That’s good.”Why: Falls on the last stressed word.
W-question ↘
Wowherewohnstlivedu?you
VOH VOHNST doo · “Where do you live?”Why: Falls, like English.
Yes/no question ↗
Wohnstliveduyouhier?here
VOHNST doo HEER · “Do you live here?”Why: Verb first, voice rising at the end.
Before a comma →
WennifichIZeit habe,time havekomme ich.come I
ven ikh TSAIT HAA-be, KO-me ikh · “If I have time, I’ll come.”Why: The voice stays level at the comma to signal “more to come”.
Word stress rules

ARbeit, verSTEhen, ANfangen

RuleExampleStressed
First syllable of the rootdie ArbeitAR-beit
Inseparable prefix (be-, ver-, ge-…) is unstressedverstehenver-STE-hen
Separable prefix takes the stressanfangenAN-fan-gen
Compounds: stress on the first partder BahnhofBAHN-hof
-ieren verbs: stress on -ie-studierenstu-DIE-ren
Loanwords often keep their stressdie Universitätu-ni-ver-si-TÄT
Stress on small words

Doch! Ja, ja.

doch! · yes (contradicting)
Kommstcomeduyounicht?not——DOCH!yes-I-do
KOMST doo NIKHT? DOKH · “Aren’t you coming? Yes, I am!”Why: Stressed doch contradicts a negative question.
ja, ja · impatient
Ja,yesja.yes
yaa YAA · “Yeah, yeah.”Why: A falling double ja sounds like “I’ve heard you already”.
schon · stressed vs unstressed
DasthatistisSCHONindeedgut.good
das ist SHOHN GOOT · “That is good (I admit).”Why: Stressed schon concedes a point; unstressed it softens.
Long and short vowels

Stadt or Staat?

German vowel length changes meaning. A vowel before a double consonant is short; before h, a double vowel or a single consonant it is usually long.

The little break before a vowel

be|achten, Spiegel|ei

German puts a tiny catch in the throat (a glottal stop) before a word or syllable starting with a vowel. English joins words (“an_egg”); German keeps them apart.

Between words
einan|Eiegg
ain | AI · “an egg”Why: No linking n: two separate syllables.
Inside a word
be|achtento-pay-attention
be | AKH-ten · “to pay attention”Why: be- and achten stay apart.
Compound
das Spiegel|eithe mirror-egg
das SHPEE-gel | ai · “fried egg”Why: Literally “mirror egg”.
Sentence
IchI|esseeat|Äpfel.apples
ikh | E-se | EP-fel · “I eat apples.”Why: Each vowel-initial word gets its own catch.
Keep going

Related guides

Pronunciation →Sounds, umlauts and ch.chParticles →doch, ja, mal, schon.dochSeparable verbs →Why AN-fangen is stressed first.anfangenQuestions →W-questions and yes/no questions.Wo?