Alphabet & Pronunciation
Alphabet & Pronunciation
German uses the same 26 Latin letters as English, plus four extras (ä, ö, ü, ß), and — unlike English — spells almost everything exactly the way it sounds. Learn the sound rules here and you can pronounce nearly any German word correctly on sight.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
A phonetic language, unlike English
Fisch, Haus, Name, Wasser
fish, house, name, water
English spelling is famously inconsistent ("through," "though," "tough" all spell -ough differently). German spelling is highly regular: once you know the rules below, a given letter or letter-combination almost always makes the same sound, no matter the word. This makes German easier to read aloud than English, even for a total beginner.
Umlauts: ä, ö, ü
Mädchen, schön, müde
girl, beautiful, tired
English has no umlauts. ä sounds like the 'e' in "bed." ö has no true English equivalent — round your lips as if to say "o" but say "e" instead. ü works the same way — round your lips for "oo" but say "ee." These dots aren't decorative or optional: changing a vowel to its umlauted version can change a word's entire meaning or grammatical form, so treat ä/ö/ü as distinct letters, not typos of a/o/u.
The Eszett (ß)
die Straße, groß
the street, big
ß (called Eszett or scharfes S) looks unfamiliar but simply represents a sharp 's' sound — never a 'z' sound, despite resembling a capital B. It appears only after long vowels or diphthongs and is essentially a stylized "ss." Switzerland doesn't use it at all, writing "ss" instead. When reading, just pronounce ß as 's'.
False friends: letters that sound different than in English
Wasser, Vater, Zeit, ja, ich, nicht, Wein vs. Wien
water, father, time, yes, I, not, wine vs. Vienna
German 'w' sounds like English 'v' (Wasser = VAH-ser). German 'v' usually sounds like English 'f' (Vater = FAH-ter). 'z' is always pronounced "ts" (Zeit = tsyt). 'j' sounds like English 'y' (ja = yah). 'ch' after a/o/u/au is a soft throat-clearing sound; after e/i or consonants it's a hissier "sh"-like sound (ich = ish). And don't confuse the diphthong ei ("eye," as in Wein, wine) with ie ("ee," as in Wien, Vienna) — English speakers mix these up constantly since English spelling doesn't have this clean a rule.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| German | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| ä | eh | umlaut a, like 'e' in 'bed' |
| ö | ur (rounded lips) | umlaut o, no English equivalent |
| ü | ew (rounded lips) | umlaut u, no English equivalent |
| ß | ss | scharfes S / Eszett, always an 's' sound |
| ch (after a, o, u) | kh (back of throat) | as in Buch (book) |
| ch (after e, i) | ish | as in ich (I) |
| ei | eye | as in nein (no) |
| ie | ee | as in Sie (you, formal) |
| sp-, st- (word-initial) | shp-, sht- | as in sprechen, Stadt |
| w | v (English 'v' sound) | as in Wasser (water) |
| v | f (usually English 'f' sound) | as in Vater (father) |
| z | ts | as in Zeit (time) |