The German Alphabet and Sounds (ä, ö, ü, ß)
After this lesson you can spell your name out loud and pronounce the four letters English does not have.
Übungen
Eight exercises on what you just watched. Get 80% and the lesson is marked done and added to your A1 progress.
1 / 8 · Word order
Put the words in the right order.
How do you spell that?
2 / 8 · Word order
Put the words in the right order.
My name is Meier: M-E-I-E-R.
3 / 8 · Choose
How is the German w pronounced?
4 / 8 · Choose
How is the German v usually pronounced?
5 / 8 · Choose
How is the German j pronounced?
6 / 8 · Choose
How is the German z pronounced?
7 / 8 · Choose
How is ei pronounced?
8 / 8 · Choose
How is ie pronounced?
In short
German uses the same 26 letters as English plus four of its own: ä, ö, ü and ß. The umlauts change the vowel sound, and ß is a sharp s used after long vowels. German spelling is almost perfectly phonetic — once you know the letters, you can read any word aloud.
How it works
German gives you something English never does: reliable spelling. Letters make the same sound almost every time, so once you have the alphabet you can pronounce a word you have never seen. There is no German equivalent of "though", "through" and "tough".
Four characters are new. The umlauts — ä, ö, ü — are not decorated versions of a, o and u but separate sounds. Ä is close to the e in "bed". Ö has no English equivalent; round your lips as for "o" and say "e". Ü is the same trick with "ee". And ß, called Eszett or scharfes S, is a sharp s: it appears after long vowels and diphthongs, as in Straße and weiß.
A handful of letters trip English speakers because they look familiar but sound different. W is pronounced like an English "v" — Wasser is "vasser". V is pronounced like an English "f" — Vater is "fahter". J is like an English "y" — ja is "yah". Z is "ts" — Zeit is "tsite". And R is made at the back of the throat, closer to French than to English.
| Letter | Sounds like | Example |
|---|---|---|
| w | English v | Wasser (vasser) |
| v | English f | Vater (fahter) |
| j | English y | ja (yah) |
| z | ts | Zeit (tsite) |
| s (before a vowel) | English z | sagen (zahgen) |
| ei | eye | nein (nine) |
| ie | ee | vier (feer) |
| eu / äu | oy | neun (noyn) |
| ch (after a, o, u) | throaty h | Buch, acht |
| sch | sh | Schule |
| Character | Name | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| ä | a-Umlaut | like e in "bed" | Mädchen |
| ö | o-Umlaut | no English twin | schön |
| ü | u-Umlaut | no English twin | für |
| ß | Eszett / scharfes S | sharp s | Straße |
| Character | Write instead |
|---|---|
| ä | ae |
| ö | oe |
| ü | ue |
| ß | ss |
Examples
- Wie schreibt man das?How do you spell that?
- Mein Name ist Meier: M-E-I-E-R.My name is Meier: M-E-I-E-R.
- Können Sie das bitte buchstabieren?Could you spell that, please?
- Wasserwater — the w sounds like v
- Vaterfather — the v sounds like f
- jayes — the j sounds like y
- Zeittime — the z sounds like ts
- Straßestreet — ß after a long vowel
- schönbeautiful — the ö has no English twin
- fürfor — the ü has no English twin
Mistakes to avoid
✗ Pronouncing w as English w
✓ Pronouncing it as v
Wasser is "vasser", wo is "vo", wir is "veer". This single letter fixes a large slice of an English accent.
✗ Treating ä, ö, ü as decoration
✓ Treating them as different letters
They are separate sounds, and they change meaning: schon (already) versus schön (beautiful), Mutter (mother) versus Mütter (mothers).
✗ Reading ei and ie the same way
✓ ei = "eye", ie = "ee"
The second letter tells you the sound. nein rhymes with "nine"; vier sounds like "feer".
✗ Writing ss for ß in Germany
✓ Using ß where it belongs
ss is the accepted substitute if you cannot type ß — but note Switzerland abolished ß entirely, so Swiss texts always write Strasse.
Wortschatz
The words from this lesson.
| das Alphabet | alphabet | |
| der Buchstabe | letter (of the alphabet) | |
| buchstabieren | to spell | |
| schreiben | to write | |
| sprechen | to speak | |
| der Umlaut | umlaut | |
| das Eszett | the letter ß | |
| die Straße | street | |
| schön | beautiful, nice | |
| die Aussprache | pronunciation |
Kulturnotiz
German has a spelling alphabet used constantly on the phone and at counters — A wie Anton, B wie Berta, M wie Martha. If you are giving your name or a reference number, you will hear it, and using it yourself marks you out immediately as someone who has done this before. And in Switzerland the ß simply does not exist: Strasse, gross, weiss. It is not a typo.
Common questions
+How many letters does German have?
The same 26 as English, plus ä, ö, ü and ß — thirty characters in total, though the four extras are not counted as separate letters in the alphabet itself.
+What do I do if I cannot type umlauts?
Write ae, oe, ue and ss. These are the accepted substitutions and every German reader understands them — Maerz for März, Strasse for Straße.
+When is ß used and when ss?
ß after a long vowel or diphthong (Straße, weiß); ss after a short one (Fluss, muss). And never in Switzerland, which dropped the letter entirely.
+Is German spelling really phonetic?
Very nearly. Once you know which letters make which sounds, you can read any German word aloud correctly — including one you have never seen. This is the one place German is genuinely easier than English.