German alphabet A to Z, pronunciation and reading rules with explanations

german alphabet

Introduction to the German alphabet – important first step towards learning german. Let's dive into learning the German alphabet and find out, what letters are and how they are used to form words.

German alphabet, like english, comprises 26 letters: A-Z (we speak german “A to Z”). Letters are pronounced differently, than in English, but not much. You can easily remember them, if you practice often.

Two main differences between the German alphabet and English:

  1. Three additional letters, which exist only in German: ä (the letter a with umlauts or two dots above it), ö (letter o with umlauts or two dots above it) and ü (the letter u with umlauts or two dots above it);
  2. The pronunciation of some letters differs from English.
A a[a]atheAdler – eagle
B b[bε:]it wastheButterbrot – bread and butter, sandwich
With c [tseː]tsedieClamb – cream
D d [deː]as welltheDelephant – dolphin
And and[E] edieErdbyesre– strawberry
F f[eph]ef dieFgreedy – flag
G g [geː]getheGgift – a gift
H h[haː]yes theHuhn – chicken
I i[iː]and theIllusionist – illusionist
Not a word[jot] yottheJoga– yoga
K k[kaː]katheKrushes– wild boar
L l[hell]aledieLilie– the lily
M m[ɛm]drugtheMarienkäfer– ladybug
N n[and]mostdieNugh – Walnut
the the[oː]aboutdieOlive – olive
P p[peː]whether thePfirs – peach
Q q[to the]ku dieQoh well – jellyfish
R r[ɛr]mantheRad – wheel
S s [ess]celldieSokay – sock
T t [teː]themthe Tepic – carpet
U u[uː]intheUhu – owl
Vv[faʊ]fautheVhuge – volcano
W w[go]andtheWagen – machine
X x[one]xtheXylophon – xylophone
and and['ʏpsilon]epsilontheYeti – big Foot
Z z [t͡set] cettheZebra – zebra
Ä ä[ɛː] edieÄchange – change
ö[a]soft abouttheÖl – oil
Ü Ü[yː]soft ytheÜsplit – transition
ß [it’s’t͡set]cellthe footßball – football

Pronunciation of German vowels

The German language has sixteen distinct vowels., which consist of six short vowels, five long vowels and five diphthongs.

In short, that:

A [a], O [o], E [e], U [in], I [and] so they read.

Vowels Ö and Ü with umlaut (two dots above the letter) pronounced with a narrower mouth, than their corresponding vowels without an umlaut.

And now we will analyze in more detail each German vowel.

All sounds associated with the letter A

  1. “A” articulated the same, like we have “a” - drawn out, as in the word “brother”, or fast, as in the word “tact”.

Try to repeat after the speaker, keeping the length of the letter “A”:

  • baden [from]
  • Hall [hall]
  • Drive [faat]
  • Sentence [item]

2. The letters Ä and ÄH sound like a sound “E” in a word “era”.

Listen and repeat to practice:

  • fathers[feeta]
  • choose [more]
  • Manner [me].

Letter I in German and its variations

Sound [i] in German writing you can meet in such variations: I, IE, IH.

The whole thing is pronounced like a normal sound “I”. Listen and repeat:

  • Mir[mia]
  • Seven[beautiful]
  • Her[yes]
  • Not[mite]
  • Tisch[tooth].

German e sound

The sound in the letter can be indicated by the letter combinations E, EE, EH.

It will be pronounced like “is” or “e”, depending on the word. We train:

  • take[neme]
  • See[yawns]
  • go[Mrismost]
  • Money[gelt]
  • six[zex]
  • drive[faarena]
  • to start[bagandvery].

Nevertheless, you may have noticed the presence of sound “i” in See words. In our language there is no analogue of such a sound, so be careful, when you hear german speech. Let's hear that sound again:

  • Life [Leeben]
  • See [yawns]

Letter O in German and its variations

  1. Sound “ABOUT” on the letter you can meet it in variations: ABOUT, OO, OH. For example:
  • Oper[aboutOh well]
  • Оhne[aboutone]
  • Boot[boot]
  • Rolle[roll].

2. Also in German there is a sound, reminiscent sound “Or” or “JOH” in Ukrainian (as in the word “non-ferrous” for example). Indicated in writing as Ö and ÖH. For example:

  • Schön[shororn]
  • sons[withheryes]
  • Spoon[lorfel]
  • Open[orfnen].

The vowel U in German

  1. Can be written as U and UH, but pronounced like ours “U” in a word “will be”:
  • Of[two]
  • Clock[whoah]
  • Hundred[inndat].

2. Also available in German Ü and Üh. It is pronounced like the sound.

  • To lead[fijuren]
  • Five[funf]
  • A practice[iyubung].

German diphthongs

  1. Diphthong, lettered NO и AI we will pronounce with a sound“moon”.
  • Drei dry
  • way вayes.

2. Let's pronounce the diphthong AU as “oh”, for example:

  • blau blain
  • Faust фamouth.

3. The diphthong EU and ÄU will be pronounced as oh”

  • neuNoah
  • Hauserpthoughtfor.

Pronunciation of German consonants

  • W[V] reads like “V”: was? [you] - What?
  • Z[cet] reads like“h”: Goal [cil] – target
  • S[cell] reads like“with”: Haus [house] - house, but if S is before or between vowels, it reads like“with”: Sofa [sofa] – sofa, lesen - to read.
  • ß[esthete] - it's basically double“with” and read accordingly.: Street [strasse] – street.
  • F[ef] and V[fau] are read as“f”: Fuchs [fuchs] – fox, Volk [folk] - people. In borrowed words, V is read as “V”: Vase – a vase.
  • L[ale] - reads like “l”, medium between soft and hard“l”, but closer to soft: Lampe [lamp] – a lamp.
  • Sound, denoted by the letter H [yes] (at the beginning of a word or syllable), articulated with the addition of a light exhalation. Let's listen:
  • halt
  • Herz is cruel.
  • J[yot] – sound “and”, pronounced like “and” before vowels, for example:
  • Jacketyeswhat
  • someoneyeah:Mant.

As you already noticed, many consonants, widespread in German, pronounced almost the same, like in english: b, p, w, f, s, k, g, n, m, z. But there are a number of consonants, which need special attention.

  1. Sound, abbreviated CH, articulated as soft x [h].
  • which вelhe
  • right рandhtikh
  • sometimes maperfume.

2. Sound, denoted by the letters I, LL, pronounced soft L. For example:

  • Ball ball
  • alt alt.

3. CHS reads like “Fr”: Fuchs[fuchs] –fox

4. SCH is read as “sh”: Schrank [drawer] – cabinet,

5. SP / ST at the beginning of a word or at the beginning of a root are read as “sp”: spon [spontaneous] – spontaneous /Stuhl (a chair) - chair,

6. CH reads like solid “h”:It gavech[deutsch] – German, Viach [quack] – nonsense,

7. CK reads like hard “To”: drückin [druken] - crush,

8. QU is read as “sq”:Whatatsch[quack] – nonsense,

9. Suffix-tion (always percussive) reads like a cross between “cion” and “tson”: Station[station] – station.

And finally, how to correctly pronounce german “R”?

As you can see from the previous examples, the letter r can often be pronounced in German as “a”, but only at the end of the word. For example, in the words factor faWho:a, we вand:a, Klavier claveand:a, Natur natin:a.

In other cases “r” pronounce the sound of a burr”r”. How to do it?

great way, is to make a sound “Mr” lengthening it: “gggggggg” and get the sound we want ("roar of the tiger"). Or to better understand this sound, you can take water in your mouth and try to gargle - and it will become more clear to you how to pronounce this sound.

Reading rules in German

One of the most important rules for correct reading in German is understanding, that vowels are pronounced differently, than their English equivalents. For example, letter “a” in German it is pronounced like ours “a”, not like his American pronunciation “e”. Besides, short vowels are pronounced faster and sharper, as a result they sound almost jerky.

Another key principle of German pronunciation is that, that some combinations of letters form new sounds, which are not in English (for example, “st” and “sch”). Besides, special attention should be paid to complex words (words, made up of single words), because the Germans often combine several words into one big word with a hyphen (for example: “house hallway”). When such compound words occur in reading exercises, they need to be separated into separate components, before speaking out loud.

Finally, the study of common suffixes can help in tracking the gender changes of nouns in any text. In particular, knowledge of such common suffixes, How -ung (denoting action) or -father (denoting quality), can help readers quickly and accurately identify gender change, while maintaining a shared understanding of any narrative.

By following these steps and remembering the above pronunciation guidelines, even beginners learn german on your own be able to deal with short stories or articles with relative ease! With practice and determination, everyone can learn to understand the meaning of German texts.. Helps to improve the rules of reading and pronunciation in German by ear - watching movies and cartoons in german. So why not try?

And if you want to learn German faster?, that…

Sign up for our German course!

Scroll up