German Alphabet

If you're trying to learn the German Alphabet you will find some useful resources including a course about pronunciation, and sound of all letters... to help you with your German grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and memorize the sounds. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn German. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!

German Alphabet

Learning the German alphabet is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. Without it, you will not be able to say words properly even if you know how to write those words. The better you pronounce a letter in a word, the more understood you will be in speaking the German language.

Below is a table showing the German alphabet and how it is pronounced in English, and finally examples of how those letters would sound if you place them in a word.

German Alphabet	English Sound	Pronunciation Example
A a	ah	as in Albert
Ä ä	ah Umlaut	as in Age
B b	beh	as in Berta
C c	tseh	as in Cäsar
D d	deh	as in Dora
E e	eh	as in Emil
F f	eff	as in Friedrich
G g	geh	as in Gustav
H h	ha	as in Heinrich
I i	ee	as in Ida
J j	yot	as in Julius
K k	kah	as in Kaufmann
L l	ell	as in Ludwig
M m	emm	as in Martha
N n	enn	as in Nordpol
O o	oh	as in Otto
Ö ö	oh Umlaut	as in Oops
P p	peh	as in Paula
Q q	kuh	as in Quelle
R r	err	as in Richard
S s	ess	as in Siegfried
ß	ess-testt	as in Super
T t	teh	as in Theodor
U u	uh	as in Ulrich
Ü ü	uh Umlaut	as if the U was double to UU
V v	fow	as in Viktor
W w	veh	as in Wilhelm
X x	iks	as in Xanthippe
Y y	upsilon	as in Ypsilon
Z z	tsett	as in Zeppelin

German Pronunciation

You saw how a letter is written and might be pronounced, but there is nothing better than hearing the sound of the letters in a video or audio. Below you will be able to hear how the letters above are pronounced, just press the play button:

German Pronunciation

German Diphthongs and Digraphs

Additionally to the Alphabet mentioned here [please link to the Alphabet-Lesson], the German language consists of various diphthongs, digraphs etc.

The diphthongs are:
ai ("Laib", "Mais")
au ("auch", "Ausdruck")
äu ("Bäumchen", "träumen")
ay (rarely used, see "ai")
oi (rarely used, see "eu")
ui (rarely used, see "eu")
ei ("eins", "zwei", "drei")
eu ("Euro", "Bedeutung", "Leute")

The digraphs are:
aa ("Aal", "Aas")
ah ( "Mahnung", "Ahnung", "Mahnmal")
äh ("gähnen", "Mähne")
ch ("ich", "-chen", "eiche"
ch ("ach", "dach", "Buch")
sch ("Scheibe", "Asche")
ng ("Zange", "Mangel")
ph (in foreign words, as in "Philosophie", "Pharmazeutika")
ie ("Tier", "Liebe")
ou (mostly in foreign words, as in "Route", "Dessous")
bb ("Ebbe")
dd ("Addition")
ee ("Leere", "Heer", "Meer")
eh ("dehnen", "Ehre", "mehr")
ff ("Affe", "Affinität")
gh (in some dialects, usually differed as "g-h", e.g. "Klug-heit")
th (in foreign words, as in "Theorie", "Theologie", "Asthma")
dh ("Buddhismus", otherwise differed as "d-h", e.g. "Feld-herr")
ck ("dick", "hacken")
kk (in foreign words, as in "Okkultismus", "okkult")
sp (merely at the beginning of a word, as in "Spanien", "sparen", "spiel"-Note: In some Northern dialects influenced by Lower German, this is not used)
st (merely at the beginning of a word, as in "Straße", "Stadt", "Stein"Note: In some Northern dialect influenced by Lower German, this is not used)
rr ("irren", "verwirrt", "Dürre")
ti (only within a verb followed by a vowel "Negation", "Proportion")
üh ("früh", "frühstück", "führen")
öh ("Föhn", "fröhnen", "Versöhnung")

The alphabet and its pronunciation have a very important role in German, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with German alphabet, you might want to check the rest of our German lessons here: Learn German. Don't forget to bookmark this page.