Deutsches Alphabet / German alphabet
The German alphabet, like English, is based on the Latin alphabet, but it also has
some differences that you need to know.
So, the German alphabet has 26 letters. Umlauts (vowels with dots, for example:
Ä-ä, Ö-ö, Ü-ü) and the ß ligature are considered a distinctive feature. Visually, it
looks like this:
Pronunciation of vowels and consonants
In some combinations not all letters are read the way they are written. Here are some rules for
reading German:
Rules for reading individual letters:
Before vowels
s = [ts] Sofa, so, Sonne
s = [s] At the end of a word/syllable Was, das, Haus
groß, Fußball, bloß
ß = [s] short
Hanna, haben, helfen,
h = [breathing out] At the beginning of a word or syllable, it is wohin sehen, jhm,
read as a light exhalation Bahnhof
у = [ju] Something as in the word muesli typisch, Gymnastik
r = [burry r] At the beginning of a word or syllable Renate, Regel,
Republik, geradeaus
wir, mir, Vergessen,
r = [а:] At the end of a word or syllable
Zimmer
x = [ks] Text, boxen
viel, verstehen, vor
V = [f] In most cases
V = [v] In loan words Verb, Vase
w = [v] Wo, wir, Wohnung,
Winter
c = [s] In loan words City
c = [k] In loan words Cafe, Computer
а = [e] As in the word “eleven” Hande, klaren
Können, Köln,
ö [«soft» о] As in the word “burn” Österreich
müde, müssen, fünf
ü [ «soft» u] is often pronounced as /jʊ/
We read the following combinations like this:
Buch, machen, lachen
ch = [hard "h"]
ch = [soft h] Before “i”, “e” Ich, mich, rechts
Schule, Tisch, schreiben
sch = [ʃ]
ck = [k] lecker, Scheck,
chs = [ks] sechs, wachsen
Ph = [f] Photo, Physik
qu = [kv] Quadrat, Quelle
th = [t] Theater, Thema
tsch = [ʧ] Tschechien, deutsch
Funktion, Produktion
tion = [sion]
pf = [pf] Pferd, Pfennig
sp = [ʃp] At the beginning of words and syllables Sport, sprechen
Stunde, verstehen
st = [ʃt] At the beginning of words and syllables
“ng” – Pronounced as “ŋ” in the back of your
ng = [ŋ] mouth, with the back of the tongue touching the
upper palate Übung, bringen, singen
ig = [ih’] richtig, wichtig
ei = [ai] mein, sein, Arbeit, Ei
ai = [ai] Mai, Main
ie = [i:] long Brief, hier,
Neu, deutsch, Euro
eu = [oy]
au = [oi] Räume, Häuser
au = [аu] Haus, braun
