The Alphabet in German (das deutsche Alphabet)

In this lesson, you will be learning the alphabet in German, what the letters sound like and how they are written.

The Alphabet in German

The first step toward learning German is to learn the alphabet because it will allow you to speak and write correctly.

The German alphabet has 26 letters, from A to Z and it is pretty similar to their English counterparts. However, there are also four extra letters: Three of them is called “Umlaut” (Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü) and one is called Eszett or scharfes S (ẞ ß).

Consonants and vowels all have different sounds, so it is important to know them if you want to pronounce German words correctly. The table below will show all the letters, how they sound and how they are written:

Uppercase	Lowercase	IPA
🔊 A	a	[a:]
🔊 B	b	[be:]
🔊 C	c	[tse:]
🔊 D	d	[de:]
🔊 E	e	[e:]
🔊 F	f	[εf]
🔊 G	g	[ge:]
🔊 H	h	[ha:]
🔊 I	i	[i:]
🔊 J	j	[jοt]
🔊 K	k	[ka:]
🔊 L	l	[εl]
🔊 M	m	[εm]
🔊 N	n	[εn]
🔊 O	o	[o:]
🔊 P	p	[pe:]
🔊 Q	q	[ku:]
🔊 R	r	[εr:]
🔊 S	s	[εs]
🔊 T	t	[te:]
🔊 U	u	[u:]
🔊 V	v	[fau:]
🔊 W	w	[ve:]
🔊 X	x	[iks]
🔊 Y	y	[ypsilεn]
🔊 Z	z	[tsεt]
🔊 Ä	ä	A-Umlaut
🔊 Ö	ö	O-Umlaut
🔊 Ü	ü	U-Umlaut
🔊 ẞ	ß	Eszett

Notes:

• The letter ß does not exist in Swiss German and is therefore replaced by ss.
• Do not confuse the letter ß (Eszett) with the Greek letter β (beta).
• If your keyboard does not have ä, ö, ü and ß, you can use ae, oe, ue and ss respectively. However, it is still possible to write these letters with different alternatives on keyboard:

Alt + 0196 = Ä
Alt + 0228 = ä
Alt + 0214 = Ö
Alt + 0246 = ö
Alt + 0220 = Ü
Alt + 0252 = ü
Alt + 0223 = ß

German can be a tough language to learn for English speakers, especially when it comes to pronunciation. In the table below, some German words are given with pronunciation buttons.

German	English
🔊 Hotel	hotel
🔊 Alphabet	alphabet
🔊 Bus	bus
🔊 Ball	ball
🔊 Club	club
🔊 Hand	hand
🔊 Garage	garage
🔊 Gas	gas
🔊 Journalist	journalist
🔊 Land	land
🔊 Mineral	mineral
🔊 Museum	museum
🔊 Name	name
🔊 Pause	pause
🔊 System	system

Diphthongs in German

Diphthongs are a type of vowel sound that can be pronounced as two simple vowels without a break. This is different from a long vowel, which is a single sound.

That is why they are called Diphthongs – meaning “two sounds” in Greek.

The German language has four diphthongs: EI, IE, AU and EU. However, these sounds can vary in terms of pronunciation depending on the word’s meaning and dialect.

By learning how to pronounce these four letters in German, you can speak more fluently and with a better accent.

IE

The combination of German letters “e” and “i” produces a sound similar to the English word “sheep”.

🔊 viel	much
🔊 sieben	seven
🔊 Liebe	love
🔊 wie	how
🔊 Wien	Vienna

EI

“ei“diphthong is pronounced like the y in the English word of “my”.

🔊 ein	a
🔊 arbeiten	to work
🔊 dein	your
🔊 heiße	be called
🔊 Wein	wine

AU

a and u produces a sound similar to “ow” in the English word “now“

🔊 blau	blue
🔊 Frau	woman
🔊 bauen	built
🔊 Bauer	farmer
🔊 Auge	eye

EU (ÄU)

The combination of letters “e” and “u” gives a sound like the “oy” in the English word “boy”

🔊 heute	today
🔊 euere	yours
🔊 neu	new
🔊 freuen	be happy
🔊 Euro	euro
🔊 Fräulein	young lady

Consonant Combinations in German

We will explore the various consonant combinations in German and how they are pronounced.

tsch

The combination of letters “tsch” produces a sound similar to “ch” in the English word “which“

🔊 Deutsch	German
🔊 Deutschland	Germany
🔊 Dolmetscher	interpreter

dsch

🔊 Dschungel

jungle

sch

sch generates a sound of “sh” like in the English word “show”

🔊 Schule	school
🔊 Tisch	table
🔊 Türkisch	Turkish

chs

The combination of “chs” produces a sound similar to the letter “x”.

🔊 sechs	six
🔊 Fuchs	table
🔊 Wachs	wax

ch

🔊 ich	I
🔊 mich	me
🔊 Nacht	night

ck

🔊 Stück	piece
🔊 Sticker	sticker
🔊 Picknick	picnic

st

🔊 start	to start
🔊 Stadt	city
🔊 Straße	street

sp

🔊 Sport	Sports
🔊 Spanien	Spain
🔊 spielen	to play