'fünf' is a difficult word with the lax ü vowel /ʏ/. Let's learn how to pronounce it correctly and naturally in German without tensing up your lips. :)
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Hey there, and welcome to Deutsch mit Benjamin! Want to improve your German pronunciation? Then you’re in the right place. Today, we’re going to learn how to pronounce the word 'fünf' in German.
First, let's take a close-up look at how I pronounce the word—but without sound. The word starts with the /f/ sound. To produce it, your upper front teeth need to touch your lower lip, allowing air to escape between them and create a strong friction sound. Notice that because of the following vowel, my lips are already slightly rounded when making the /f/ sound.
Next, we got the lax ü vowel /ʏ/. The tongue moves slightly upward in the front, and the lips are slightly rounded. The tongue tip rests behind the lower front teeth.
Then comes the /n/ consonant sound, where the tongue tip moves up behind the upper front teeth, and the air flows through the nose. For the /f/ sound, the tongue tip drops back down.
Many German learners pronounce the word as something like 'füünf,' 'fuunf,' 'funf,' or 'fjunf.' This means the biggest issue tends to be with the vowel. To correctly pronounce the lax /ʏ/ sound, you need to round your lips slightly and lift the front part of your tongue.
Make sure you’re not raising the back of your tongue—that would produce /u/ or /ʊ/. And don’t raise the tongue too high, or you’ll end up with /y/.
For this word, we need the vowel /ʏ/. The tongue position for this German vowel sound is quite similar to the tense ö as in 'schön' vowel /øː/.
I already have a video about the /øː/ 'schön' vowel on my channel. You can watch it here:
Watch this video again and practice saying the word until it feels natural.
How To Pronounce 'Fünf' In Common German Phrases
Now, let’s listen to some clips where we hear this word used in context. You can use these clips to practice with the shadowing technique. Just repeat after the speaker and match their pronunciation as closely as possible.
in fünf Jahren
in fünf Stunden
Ich bin fünf Minuten wieder zurück, ja?
The /nf/ consonant cluster is actually pretty rare in German, at least within a single syllable. In fact, there are only four German words that have it:
Fünf
Senf
Genf
Hanf
Because this consonant cluster is so rare in German, some native speakers don’t pronounce the word 'fünf' as /fʏnf/, but instead say /fʏmf/, replacing the /n/ with an /m/.
When saying '5' in numbers like 25, 35, 45, etc., we typically just say /fʏm/.
Jetzt haben wir also gerade das Jahr 2025.
2024 und auch 2025 wird der Mindestlohn weiter steigen.
Und man kann das auch noch ein Stückchen weiter reduzieren, das machen wir auch sehr häufig. Und zwar so, dass wir /m/ gleich mit für das „und“ sagen. Also wir verschlucken somit mit dem /m/ das „und“. Und dann sagen wir also 25, 35, 45 usw.
We can reduce this even further—something that happens a lot in spoken German. Instead of saying 'und' separately, we blend it into the /m/ sound. So instead of /ˈfʏnfʔʊntˌt͡svant͡sɪç/ or [ˈfʏmʊnˌt͡svant͡sɪç] it becomes [ˈfʏmˌt͡svant͡sɪç]
Jetzt ist das Jahr 2025.
ein Team von 45 Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern
Let me know in the comments if there are other words you’d like me to make a pronunciation video about.
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