Pronunciation
Danish stød, and how to hear it
Published 10 October 2026
Say hun and you have said "she". Add a small creak near the end and you have said hund, "dog". That creak is stød, a brief squeeze of the voice on certain syllables, and Danish spelling never shows it. By the end of this page you will hear it, know where to expect it, and be able to make it.
hun [hun] hund [hunˀ]
Press a speaker to hear the word. The voice is Sara, Apple's synthetic Danish voice, not a recorded speaker.
Listen first
Two pairs where stød is the only difference
Play each pair in order. The second word of each pair has stød, marked ˀ in the transcription. The vowel and the consonants stay exactly the same.
If they sound identical, you are in good company. Plenty of learners hear nothing the first time. Play them again and listen to the end of the second word, where the voice tightens for a moment, like a car going over a small bump.
What it is
A creak, not a full stop
Stød is often translated as "glottal stop", and that name sends learners the wrong way. A full glottal stop is the gap in the middle of English uh-oh. Danes do go that far sometimes, when they speak slowly or stress a word. In ordinary speech the voice only tightens and goes briefly creaky, then lets go.
Phoneticians call that creaky voice. You don't need the term. You need the feeling of a voice that crackles for an instant, the way it does at the end of a long sentence when you are tired.
Spelling won't help you find it. Nothing about the letters of hund says it has stød, or that hun doesn't. That is why every transcription on this site marks it, with a small ˀ after the sound where the creak lands. If the brackets are new to you, there is a page on how to read the transcriptions.
How common
About one word in 3 has it
We counted the word list this site is built on. Of the 1,043 words with a transcription, 348 carry stød. Among the 100 most common, 30 do. You will meet it in the first minute of any conversation.
Count from two to five and you use it three times: to [ˈtˢoˀ] "two", tre [ˈtˢʁ̥ɛˀ] "three" and fem [ˈfɛmˀ] "five" all have it, while fire [fiːrə] "four" does not. The rest of the counting system has its own surprises: see how Danish numbers work.
It sits in everyday nouns and adverbs too: hus [ˈhuˀs] "house", by [ˈb̥yˀ] "town", tid [ˈtˢiˀð] "time", ud [uðˀ] "out". Other short words never take it, like ja [ja] "yes", nej [nɛj] "no" and tak [tak] "thanks".
Where it lives
Two patterns that tell you where to listen
No simple rule predicts stød every time. Two patterns get you most of the way.
It needs something to creak on
Stød only lands on a stressed syllable, and only one with a long vowel or a short vowel followed by a voiced consonant such as l, m, n, r, v or the soft d. A short vowel followed by p, t, k or s leaves the voice nothing to hold, so a word like tak [tak] can never have it.
One syllable often has it, two syllables often lose it
Short words with room for stød usually take it: land [lanˀ] "country", god [ˈɡ̊oˀð] "good", vin [viːˀn] "wine". Add an ending that makes a second syllable and it often goes away. Hus has stød and huse "houses" does not. Hund has it and hunde "dogs" does not.
The exceptions are real. hun [hun], man [man] and ven [vɛn] "friend" are short, have room for it, and still go without. So use the patterns to know where to listen, and let the transcription have the final word.
Try it
Make it yourself in thirty seconds
- Say uh-oh out loud and notice the catch in the middle. That is stød at full strength.
- Say it again, softly, so the catch turns into a quick crackle instead of a gap.
- Now say hun, and while you hold the n, add that soft crackle. You have just said hund.
- Press hund [hunˀ] and compare.
It will come out too strong at first, which is fine. Danes will understand you either way, because context does most of the work: nobody thinks you are taking your "she" for a walk. Getting stød right is about sounding natural, and about catching the difference when Danes talk fast.
Every word in the app comes with its transcription, so you can check for the ˀ as you learn each one. Practise the first 50 words
Good to know
Norwegian and Swedish sing where Danish creaks
Norwegian and Swedish have no stød. Many of the same words carry a melody instead, a difference in pitch called tonal accent. The two systems are related: broadly, the words that have stød in Danish are the words that take the first of the two tones in Norwegian and Swedish. If you already speak one of them, your ear for those words may give you a head start.
Inside Denmark, a belt of southern dialects manages without stød altogether. Standard Danish, the Danish of the news and of most teachers, uses it, and that is what this site follows.
Expect to hear stød before you can make it reliably. That is the normal order. The listening is what tells your mouth what to aim for.
Hear it in the words you will use first
30 of the 100 most common Danish words have stød. The app teaches those 100 first, in frequency order, and the levels page plays every word in its Ordliste.