If you have a word like 'Strasse' and it forms part of a street name for example, then I would assume that you still pronounce the word as though it were by itself.
But are there examples of when you wouldn't pronounce ST as SHT?
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Sign up to join this communityIf you have a word like 'Strasse' and it forms part of a street name for example, then I would assume that you still pronounce the word as though it were by itself.
But are there examples of when you wouldn't pronounce ST as SHT?
In standard German pronunciation, this happens when (and only when) st is the first part of a syllable.
Straße -- Stra·ße -- /ˈʃt/
verstehen -- ver·ste·hen -- /ˈʃt/
Kasten -- kas·ten -- /st/
bester -- bes·ter -- /st/
fast -- fast -- /st/
I'll add that there are a few loan words that can be pronounced without the SH sound, e.g. Star, Stimulus, Stracciatella, Spam, Stil. See the comments for some discussion on the subject.
Many people tend to pronounce Latin-derived words with sharp s, like Strategie, though it is still correct to pronounce it as sht. However, there are also many dialects, especially in Northern Germany, that always prounounce it as st, not sht.
On the other hand, I could think of a different case: Martinstrasse vs. Martinstraße (Martins-Trasse vs. Martin-Straße). Of course, in the first case, it's no longer Straße ;)