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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

Intonation: 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?