German Alphabet & Pronunciation Guide

How to use this lesson

Use the player above: tap a letter to hear its name, tap the round button to hear an example word, open Sounds for the pronunciation rules, Spell it to hear any name spelled, and Quiz to train your ear. Choose Slow while you are learning.

The voices come from your device, so they may sound slightly different on every phone. If a letter sounds odd, repeat it in slow mode and compare it with the hint.

1. The alphabet at a glance

German has 26 letters like English, plus ä, ö, ü (Umlaute) and ß (Eszett).

Letters	Names
A B C D E	ah, beh, zeh, deh, eh
F G H I J	eff, geh, hah, ih, jott
K L M N O	kah, ell, emm, enn, oh
P Q R S T	peh, kuh, err, ess, teh
U V W X Y Z	uh, fau, weh, iks, üpsilon, zett

Letter names are used when you spell: Mein Name ist Meier, M-E-I-E-R (emm, eh, ih, eh, err).

2. Vowels: long or short

• Long when doubled (Boot), followed by h (Bahn), written ie (Liebe), or often before a single consonant (Tag, Name).
• Short before two or more consonants (Mann, Bett, Hund, kommen).

The length can change the meaning: Staat (state) is long, Stadt (city) is short.

3. Umlauts and ß

Letter	Sound	Example
ä	like e in bed	Mädchen
ö	say eh with rounded lips	schön
ü	say ee with rounded lips	Tür
ß	sharp s	Straße

When you cannot type them, write ae, oe, ue, ss: Mueller, Strasse. Use ß after long vowels and diphthongs (Fuß, heißen) and ss after short vowels (dass, muss).

4. Combinations of vowels

Spelling	Sound	Examples
ei	like English eye	nein, Zeit
ie	long ee	Liebe, Tier
au	like ow in cow	Haus, Baum
eu, äu	like oy in boy	neu, Häuser

Memory trick: ie sounds like English ee (the e is only a length mark), and ei sounds like English eye. Compare Wein (wine) with Wien (Vienna).

5. Consonant rules

Spelling	Sound	Examples
sch	sh	Schule
sp, st (start of a word)	shp, sht	sprechen, Stein
ch after a, o, u, au	rough sound in the throat	Buch, machen
ch after other letters	soft sound, like a whisper of y	ich, Milch
pf	p + f	Apfel
qu	kv	Quelle
ng	one nasal sound	lang
tz, ck	short vowel before	Platz, Rock

6. Letters that look English but differ

Letter	Sound	Example
w	like English v	Wasser
v	usually f	Vater
z	ts	Zeit
j	like y in yes	Jahr
s before a vowel	voiced, like z	Sonne
r	back of the throat; soft at the end	Rose, Uhr

7. b, d, g at the end of a word

At the end of a word (or syllable) they are pronounced p, t, k: Korb (korp), Hund (hunt), Tag (tak). The spelling comes from the plural: Körbe, Hunde, Tage.

8. Word stress

• Usually the first syllable: Zimmer, Lehrer, Arbeit.
• The prefixes be-, ver-, ent-, er-, ge- are not stressed: Besuch, verstehen.
• Separable prefixes are stressed: aufstehen, einkaufen, anrufen.

9. The spelling alphabet for phone calls

Traditional names used to avoid confusion on the phone:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
Anton	Berta	Cäsar	Dora	Emil	Friedrich	Gustav	Heinrich	Ida

J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R
Julius	Kaufmann	Ludwig	Martha	Nordpol	Otto	Paula	Quelle	Richard

S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
Samuel	Theodor	Ulrich	Viktor	Wilhelm	Xanthippe	Ypsilon	Zacharias

Example: Mein Name ist Meier: M wie Martha, E wie Emil, I wie Ida, E wie Emil, R wie Richard.

10. Practice plan

1. Listen to all letters in slow mode, then in normal mode.
2. Say each letter after the voice (shadowing).
3. Spell your own name and your city in the Spell it tab.
4. Play the Quiz until you reach 10 correct answers in a row.
5. Practise the difficult sounds: ü, ö, ch, w, z, sch.