By Joe Warnimont Last updated: November 29, 2023

7 Lifesaving German Audio Dictionaries for Learning out Loud

Having a German audio dictionary as part of your language learning arsenal can be hugely beneficial.

If your pronunciation is as accurate as possible, it helps you to not only be understood, but to understand what other people are saying with ease.

Keep on reading to find out about seven great German audio dictionaries that you can use to help perfect your pronunciation and improve your German skills.

Contents

• 1. Dict.cc
• 2. Lexilogos
• 3. Im Translator
• 4. Forvo
• 5. German Dictionary — Translation & Pronunciation
• 6. German Dictionary English Free with Sound
• 7. Bravolol

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

1. Dict.cc

The Dict.cc website is a valuable tool that you can bring up on your smartphone, tablet or computer. It supports a wide range of languages, but we linked directly to the German dictionary for a quicker process. Type in a German or English word in the top search bar to see the results. It will provide translations, if you’re trying to also look up the meaning of a word, and find translations in German.

Audio pronunciations are given in both English and German, along with synonyms, common phrases and compound words. What’s especially interesting is that users can submit their own pronunciations, so if you see a word that you think should be said differently, go ahead and record it.

2. Lexilogos

The Lexilogos audio dictionary pulls from dozens of other sources across the Internet. It’s a great place to start if you’re interested in seeing how various dictionaries differ from each other. All you have to do is type in a word you’re having trouble with and select the dictionary that you find most useful.

Most of the links have audio pronunciations, and you’ll find that some of the dictionaries we link to here are actually included in the list.

3. Im Translator

The Im Translator site serves as an audio dictionary and text-to-speech translator. This means that you can punch in longer phrases to see how they sound in a German voice. Therefore, typing in an English sentence is fine, because it will convert it to German. After that, you’ll hear the German version of the sentence spoken to you.

Just be aware that some of your longer sentences will give you results similar to those you find on a tool like Google Translate. However, the voices sound authentic and can prove helpful in some situations.

4. Forvo

Forvo is definitely one of the more popular audio dictionaries on the market. If nothing else, it’s certainly the cleanest-looking site to go to for audio. They even have iPhone and Android apps for you to bring along with you during your travels. We enjoy the interface because it offers new words that you may want to pronounce, along with the most popular terms that people are searching for right now.

Translations are provided if you type in a word in English, and a map is shown to give you audio clips of how people say the particular word in varying dialects. For example, someone in Bavaria may sound a little different than someone living in Berlin.

5. German Dictionary — Translation & Pronunciation

Here’s another option if you’re one of those folks who likes having a solid app on your phone for these situations. The German Dictionary app has translations and pronunciations, all of which can be searched for on the mobile interface. An iPad app is offered as well, for studying your pronunciations on the couch.

The app works like a regular dictionary, listing parts of speech, synonyms and phrases with the word. Each of the German translations and phrases include links to audio clips, directly improving your understanding of the German language from your phone.

6. German Dictionary English Free with Sound

Since we live in a mobile world, it makes sense to recommend a few German audio dictionary apps. That way, you can select the one that seems best for your needs. The German Dictionary English Free with Sound app has a simple search bar for discovering both English and German words. Dozens of results come up for each inquiry, along with an audio reading.

We like that you can change around the settings, making the voices speak faster, slower, louder or in a different pitch.

7. Bravolol

Bravolol has both an iPhone and Android app, and it contains over 300k German words and phrases. Example sentences are provided, and the audio pronunciations are clear and accurate. The flexible search is completed in either English or German. Spelling suggestions are interesting for those who are trying to write in German as well.

Although they say German pronunciations are often similar to English, constantly thinking that can get you in a bit of trouble.

So give these resources a try, and next time you get the chance, you can make people think you’re a German native!

On top of these audio dictionaries, you can also check out FluentU’s multimedia dictionary, which includes both audio and video.

FluentU is one of the best websites and apps for learning German the way native speakers really use it. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

Watch authentic media to simultaneously immerse yourself in the German language and build an understanding of the German culture.

By using real-life videos, the content is kept fresh and current. Topics cover a lot of ground as you can see here:

Vocabulary and phrases are learned with the help of interactive subtitles and full transcripts.

Hovering over or tapping on any word in the subtitles will automatically pause the video and instantly display its meaning. Interesting words you don’t know yet can be added to a to-learn list for later.

For every lesson, a list of vocabulary is provided for easy reference and bolstered with plenty of examples of how each word is used in a sentence.

Your existing knowledge is tested with the help of adaptive quizzes in which words are learned in context.

To keep things fresh, FluentU keeps track of the words you’re learning and recommends further lessons and videos based on what you've already studied.

This way, you have a truly personalized learning experience.

Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or practice anytime, anywhere on the mobile app for iOS and Android.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)