The German Alphabet
German uses the same twenty-six letters as English, plus four characters English does not have: ä, ö, ü and ß. That is the whole inventory, and once you know what the extra four do and how a dozen letter combinations are read, German spelling becomes about as predictable as a natural language gets. See a word written down and you can say it; hear it and you can usually spell it.
The four extra characters
A a
[aː] [a]
aberbut
B b
[b]
p at the end of a word
bitteplease
C c
[ts] [k]
alone only in loanwords; otherwise inside ch, sch, ck
Cafécafé
D d
[d]
t at the end of a word
dankethank you
E e
[eː] [ɛ] [ə]
an unstressed final e is a short uh, never silent
sehento see
F f
[f]
fürfor
G g
[ɡ]
k at the end of a word
gutgood
H h
[h]
silent after a vowel, where it only lengthens it (sehr)
Haushouse
I i
[iː] [ɪ]
ichI
J j
[j]
the English y in yes
jayes
K k
[k]
kommento come
L l
[l]
lebento live
M m
[m]
Mannman
N n
[n]
neinno
O o
[oː] [ɔ]
oderor
P p
[p]
Postpost, mail
Q q
[kv]
always qu, said kv
Quatschnonsense
R r
[ʁ] [ɐ]
in the throat; after a vowel it melts into a short uh
rotred
S s
[z] [s]
z before a vowel, sharp s elsewhere
sagento say
T t
[t]
Tagday
U u
[uː] [ʊ]
undand
V v
[f]
an f in native words, a v in loanwords (Vase)
vonfrom, of
W w
[v]
the English v, never the English w
waswhat
X x
[ks]
Taxitaxi
Y y
[ʏ] [yː]
said like ü; mostly Greek loanwords
Typtype; bloke
Z z
[ts]
always ts, at the start of a word too
Zeittime
Ä ä
[ɛ] [ɛː]
the e in bed
Männermen (plural of Mann)
Ö ö
[øː] [œ]
say e with your lips rounded for o
könnencan, to be able to
Ü ü
[yː] [ʏ]
say ee with your lips rounded for oo
überover; about
ẞ ß
[s]
always a sharp s; the capital is rare, SS is usual
großbig, tall
The umlauts are not decorations and they are not optional. They change the word. means already and means beautiful. A great many plurals are marked by an umlaut and nothing else: Vater, Väter (father, fathers); Mutter, Mütter; Garten, Gärten. Drop the dots and you have not been casual, you have said the singular.
Ö and ü are the two English speakers have to build from scratch, and the recipe is the same for both: set your tongue for one vowel and your lips for another. For ü, say ee and round your lips as if for oo. For ö, say e and round them as if for o. It feels ridiculous for a day. Ä is the easy one, the e in bed.
ß, the eszett, is a single letter, and it is always a sharp s. It looks like a capital B to an untrained eye, and it is not one. Since the 1996 spelling reform it follows a long vowel or a diphthong (groß, Straße), while a short vowel takes ss (dass, Fluss). Switzerland does not use it at all and writes ss everywhere, which is worth knowing before you decide a Swiss text is full of typos. A capital ẞ has been official since 2017, but in practice capitals still write SS: STRASSE.
If you cannot type them, the accepted fallback is ae, oe, ue and ss, which is why you see Muenchen in web addresses. That is a keyboard workaround, not a spelling; no German writes fuer by choice.
The whole alphabet
Every letter with its German name (how you spell your surname down a phone line), its sound in IPA, and an example. The underlined examples are words from the course and link to their pages.
| Letter | Name | Sound (IPA) | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| A a | a | [aː] [a] | aberbut |
| B b | be | [b]p at the end of a word | bitteplease |
| C c | ce | [ts] [k]alone only in loanwords; otherwise inside ch, sch, ck | Cafécafé |
| D d | de | [d]t at the end of a word | dankethank you |
| E e | e | [eː] [ɛ] [ə]an unstressed final e is a short uh, never silent | sehento see |
| F f | ef | [f] | fürfor |
| G g | ge | [ɡ]k at the end of a word | gutgood |
| H h | ha | [h]silent after a vowel, where it only lengthens it (sehr) | Haushouse |
| I i | i | [iː] [ɪ] | ichI |
| J j | jot | [j]the English y in yes | jayes |
| K k | ka | [k] | kommento come |
| L l | el | [l] | lebento live |
| M m | em | [m] | Mannman |
| N n | en | [n] | neinno |
| O o | o | [oː] [ɔ] | oderor |
| P p | pe | [p] | Postpost, mail |
| Q q | ku | [kv]always qu, said kv | Quatschnonsense |
| R r | er | [ʁ] [ɐ]in the throat; after a vowel it melts into a short uh | rotred |
| S s | es | [z] [s]z before a vowel, sharp s elsewhere | sagento say |
| T t | te | [t] | Tagday |
| U u | u | [uː] [ʊ] | undand |
| V v | fau | [f]an f in native words, a v in loanwords (Vase) | vonfrom, of |
| W w | we | [v]the English v, never the English w | waswhat |
| X x | ix | [ks] | Taxitaxi |
| Y y | ypsilon | [ʏ] [yː]said like ü; mostly Greek loanwords | Typtype; bloke |
| Z z | zet | [ts]always ts, at the start of a word too | Zeittime |
| Ä ä | a-Umlaut | [ɛ] [ɛː]the e in bed | Männermen (plural of Mann) |
| Ö ö | o-Umlaut | [øː] [œ]say e with your lips rounded for o | könnencan, to be able to |
| Ü ü | u-Umlaut | [yː] [ʏ]say ee with your lips rounded for oo | überover; about |
| ẞ ß | Eszett | [s]always a sharp s; the capital is rare, SS is usual | großbig, tall |
Three rows to read twice. W is the English v, always: was is said "vass". V is usually an f: von is "fon", viel is "feel". Z is ts, even at the start of a word, so Zeit opens like the end of cats.
The letter combinations worth knowing on day one
Single letters are the easy part. What trips people up is a handful of combinations, and each one is read the same way every time.
| spelling | sound | how to say it | examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| sch | ʃ | the English sh | schon |
| ch (soft) | ç | after i, e, ä, ö, ü, , eu, äu or a consonant: a hiss, tongue high | ich, nicht, wirklich |
| ch (hard) | x | after a, o, u or au: the rasp in Scottish loch | nach, doch, auch |
| aɪ | the English eye | nein, mein, weil | |
| ie | iː | a long ee | die, wie, hier |
| eu, äu | ɔʏ | oy, as in boy | heute, Häuser (houses) |
| sp-, st- | ʃp, ʃt | at the start of a word or stem, the s becomes sh | sprechen (to speak), Stadt (town), verstehen (to understand) |
| s + vowel | z | a buzzing z | sagen, sehen, sein |
| z, tz | ts | ts, wherever it appears | Zeit, zu, jetzt |
against ie is the one everybody gets backwards, and there is a rule of thumb that almost never fails: say the English name of the second letter. ei ends in i, so it says eye; ie ends in e, so it says ee. Wein is wine, Wien is Vienna. The exceptions are a few borrowed words ending in -ie, where the e is said separately: Familie, Ferien, Italien.
The two ch sounds are the most awkward thing in German pronunciation for an English speaker, and the choice between them is automatic: the vowel in front decides. The soft one is roughly the sound at the start of huge said with more breath. Do not flatten either into a k: ich said as "ick" is the classic English speaker's tell.
Sp and st only turn into shp and sht at the start of a word or of a part of a compound, which is why verstehen has sht in the middle. Inside a stem they are plain: ist, Fenster.
Three rules that do the rest
- Final devoicing. B, d and g at the end of a word or syllable are said p, t and k. Tag ends in a k sound, und in a t. The spelling keeps the b, d or g because the plural brings it back: Tage.
- Doubled consonants make the vowel before them short; an h after a vowel makes it long. Mann is short, sehr and ihr are long, and the h itself is silent.
- Every letter is pronounced. German has almost no silent letters beyond that lengthening h, which is a real kindness after French. The final e in bitte and danke is a short uh, never dropped.
Test your ear
The drill below plays recordings of words from the course. Each one contains one of the spellings above, and your job is to pick which. The written word only appears after you answer, so this is your ear, not your eyes.
Listening drill
Which spelling did you hear?
You hear a word from the course. Pick the spelling that makes its special sound: an umlaut, ei or ie, eu, sch, or one of the two ch sounds. The word is revealed after you answer.
Ä and ß are not in the drill yet. You meet both early (heiße, weiß, später, dreißig), but the drill plays a small fixed set of course words whose recordings each show one spelling and no other, none of that set has either, and a question about a sound is only honest if the recording actually has that sound in it.
Capital letters do grammar
The thing that surprises every beginner: German capitalises every noun, not just proper ones. Not just names and the first word of a sentence, but every single noun, in the middle of a sentence, always: das Haus, der Tag, die Zeit.
It looks strange for a week and then becomes extremely useful, because it means you can pick the nouns out of a long German sentence at a glance. Given how long German sentences can get, that is a feature rather than an eccentricity. It also does one small job of disambiguation: sie is she or they, and Sie with a capital is the polite you.