Read German aloud in a natural voice
Lullula reads German pages, Google Docs and PDFs with a neural German narrator and highlights each sentence as it's spoken. Long compound words are easier to hear than to parse. Free, no account needed.
Free · No account needed · Chrome, Edge and Firefox
Katja is one of Lullula's German narrators. Press play and she introduces herself in German. The other pills are the same engine in a few other languages, for comparison.
These are premium neural voices. The free plan includes 2,000 words a month of them, with no account needed, plus unlimited listening with the voices built into your browser.
How to have German text read aloud
Three steps, and nothing to set up beyond installing the extension.
Install Lullula
Add the free extension from the Chrome Web Store (Chrome, Edge) or Firefox Add-ons. No account needed.
Open something in German
A tagesschau.de article, a dw.com report, a German Wikipedia entry, or a text-based PDF from your course.
Press play
Lullula recognises that the page is German and reads it with a German narrator, highlighting each sentence. Adjust the speed, skip back a sentence, or switch narrator.
Where German text to speech helps
For learners, heritage speakers and anyone who reads German more slowly than they'd like to.
dw.com and tagesschau.de
DW's Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten already comes as audio. Everything else on dw.com, and all of tagesschau.de, is text, and there is far more of it. Lullula reads those articles with a German narrator at the speed you pick.
Long compound words
Arbeiterunfallversicherungsgesetz is a wall of letters on the page and one ordinary word when spoken. Hearing a compound said as a single word is often faster than parsing it, and the highlight keeps your eyes on the right sentence.
German Wikipedia
Long entries on history, science and technology, read at a steady pace, sentence by sentence. Ask for the AI summary first if you only need the gist.
German PDFs and Google Docs
A text-based PDF from a course or a Google Doc a colleague shared reads the same way as a web page, with the same highlighting and speed control.
What it can't do (yet)
Lullula reads text. A few limits are worth knowing before you install.
Mixed-language pages
Lullula picks one narrator per page from the page's language. A German article with a few English quotes is read by the German narrator throughout, and a mostly-English page with some German in it gets the English narrator. It doesn't switch voices mid-page.
Scanned PDFs
A PDF that is only a picture of a page — a scanned book, a photographed handout — has no text layer, so there is nothing to read. Text-based PDFs work; image-only scans don't.
DRM-protected books
E-books bought with copy protection, which includes most Kindle and store purchases, can't be opened. DRM-free EPUBs read fine, with the same highlighting and speed control as a web page.
Questions, answered
Do I need this for DW's slow news?
No. Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten already includes audio. The rest of dw.com, and all of tagesschau.de, is text, and that is where Lullula comes in.
How does it handle compound words?
As one word, the way a speaker says it. Katja is a neural voice, so common compounds come out naturally; an unusual coinage can occasionally get odd stress, as it might from a person reading it for the first time.
Can I slow it down for listening practice?
Yes. Speed runs from 0.5x to 2x. Skip back a sentence to hear it again, and Lullula remembers where you stopped, so you can come back to a long text later and carry on.
Which German narrator will I get?
Lullula chooses a German narrator automatically when it sees a German page. Several are available; Katja is the one in the sample above. Pick the one you like and it becomes your voice for German pages, separate from the narrator you use for English.
Is it free?
Yes. Listening with your browser's built-in voices is free and unlimited, and the free plan adds 2,000 words a month of premium neural voices like Katja, with no account needed. If you want more premium listening, Pro is $4.99 a month, or $4.17 a month billed yearly ($49.99 a year).
Does it work on my phone?
Not yet. Lullula is an extension for desktop Chrome, Edge and Firefox; there is no phone app.
Start listening in German
Install Lullula, open a German page, press play. Free, no account needed.
Other languages: Japanese, Spanish, French and Chinese — or see text to speech in 80+ languages. Lullula also reads Google Docs, PDFs and EPUBs aloud.
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