German Alphabet

das deutsche Alphabet

German uses the 26 letters of English plus ä, ö, ü and ß, usually taught as 30 letters. Spelling is fairly regular, w is said like v, and every noun starts with a capital letter.

Tap a letter to hear it; the small ▶ plays the example word. Practice mode hides names and sounds until you tap a card.

The 30 letters

The 26 basic letters, followed by the three umlauts and ß, the order in which German schools usually teach them.

A
/a, aː/like a in “father”, long or short
Apfelapple
Be
/b/like b in “bed”; like p at the end of a word
Buchbook
Ce
/k, ts/like k before a, o, u; like ts before e, i
alone mostly in loanwords; very common in ch, ck and sch
Computercomputer
De
/d/like d in “dog”; like t at the end of a word
Dorfvillage
E
/eː, ɛ, ə/long like a in “late” (no glide); short as in “bed”
unstressed e, as in bitte, is a weak “uh”
Eseldonkey
Ef
/f/like f in “fun”
Fischfish
Ge
/ɡ/like g in “go”, even before e and i
Gartengarden
Ha
/h/like h in “hat”; silent after a vowel
after a vowel it only shows that the vowel is long: gehen, Uhr
Haushouse
I
/iː, ɪ/long like ee in “see”; short like i in “bit”
Igelhedgehog
Jot
/j/like y in “yes”
Jahryear
Ka
/k/like k in “kite”
Katzecat
El
/l/like l in “leaf” (always a clear l)
Lampelamp
Em
/m/like m in “man”
Mondmoon
En
/n/like n in “net”
Nasenose
O
/oː, ɔ/long like o in “go” (no glide); short as in “lot”
Ohrear
Pe
/p/like p in “pen”
Papierpaper
Qu
/kv/always written qu and said “kv”
the name is said like Kuh (cow)
Quallejellyfish
Er
/ʁ/throaty, like French r; after a vowel almost “uh”
Regenrain
Es
/z, s/like z in “zoo” before a vowel, otherwise like s
Sonnesun
Te
/t/like t in “top”
Tischtable
U
/uː, ʊ/long like oo in “moon”; short like u in “put”
Uhrclock
Vau
/f/usually like f in “fun”
said v in many loanwords: Vase, Klavier
Vogelbird
We
/v/like v in “van”, never like English w
Wasserwater
Ix
/ks/like x in “box”
rare; mostly in loanwords
Taxitaxi
Ypsilon
/y/like German ü; like y in “yes” in some loanwords
mostly in Greek and English loanwords
Typtype
Zett
/ts/like ts in “cats”, even at the start of a word
Zugtrain
Ä
/ɛː, ɛ/like e in “bed”, long or short
a with umlaut: Apfel (apple), Äpfel (apples)
Äpfelapples
Ö
/øː, œ/no English equivalent; say “ay” with rounded lips
Öloil
Ü
/yː, ʏ/no English equivalent; say “ee” with rounded lips
Türdoor
Eszett
/s/like s in “sun”, never like z
never starts a word; the capital ẞ is rare, SS is usual
Straßestreet

Letter combinations

These groups are not letters of the alphabet, but each stands for one sound and is worth learning as a unit.

Schsch
/ʃ/like sh in “ship”
Schuleschool
Chch
/x, ç/after a, o, u like ch in Scottish “loch”
after e, i, ä, ö, ü and consonants a softer hiss: ich, Milch
Buchbook
Eiei
/aɪ̯/like i in “wine”
Eisice, ice cream
Ieie
/iː/like ee in “see”
Liebelove
Eu, Äueu, äu
/ɔʏ̯/like oy in “boy”
Freundfriend
Auau
/aʊ̯/like ow in “how”
Autocar
Sp, Stsp, st
/ʃp, ʃt/at the start of a word said “shp”, “sht”
inside a word they are usually a plain sp, st: Fenster
Stadtcity, town
Pfpf
/pf/p and f said together
Pferdhorse
Tztz
/ts/like ts in “cats”
Platzsquare, place

Things to know

26 letters plus four

German uses the 26 letters of the English alphabet plus ä, ö, ü and ß, and children often learn them as “30 letters”. We list the four extra letters after Z, as they are usually taught. In dictionaries ä, ö and ü are sorted together with a, o and u, and ß with ss.

Every noun has a capital letter

All nouns are written with a capital letter, not only names: der Hund (the dog), das Buch (the book), die Freiheit (freedom). The polite “you”, Sie, is capitalised too.

ß or ss

ß stands for an s sound after a long vowel or a diphthong (Straße, heiß), and ss after a short vowel (Fluss, küssen). Switzerland and Liechtenstein do not use ß and always write ss. A capital ẞ has been allowed since 2017, but in text written all in capitals SS is still the usual form: STRASSE.

Writing without umlauts

If you cannot type the umlauts, write ae, oe and ue instead: Mueller for Müller. Umlauts often mark plurals and other word forms: Apfel → Äpfel (apples), Buch → Bücher (books).

Long and short vowels

A vowel is usually long before a single consonant (Tal, Ofen), before a silent h (Bahn, Uhr) or when it is doubled (Boot, Meer), and short before two or more consonants (Bett, Mann). The pair ie is always a long “ee”.

Hard endings

At the end of a word or syllable, b, d and g are said like p, t and k: Hund (dog) sounds like “hunt” and Tag (day) ends in a k sound. In standard German the ending -ig is said like -ich: König (king).

Keep learning German

German word lists → Numbers Colors Greetings English → German dictionary German → English dictionary

Other alphabets

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Audio is synthetic speech generated with Google Cloud Text-to-Speech (Chirp 3: HD voices). Letter inventory checked against Unicode CLDR.