German Alphabet

German has often been viewed by non-Germans as a harsh sounding language. That may be due in part to the more guttural pronunciation of certain German alphabet sounds and diphthongs and perhaps even a still lingering effect of old WWII movie stereotypes. Once non-German speakers familiarize themselves with German’s different sounds however, another kind of poetic beauty will unfold before them that has been revered worldwide in the works of many German greats, such as Goethe, Schiller through prose and song.

How does the German alphabet differ from the English alphabet?

Unique Traits of the German Alphabet:

More than 26 letters in the alphabet - German has a so called extended latin alphabet

The extra letters are ä, ö, ü and ß

The pronunciation of some of these letters do not exist in the English language

Several letters are pronounced more from the back of the throat: g, ch, r (though in Austria the r is trilled).

The W in German sounds like the V in English

The V in German sounds like the F in English

Most of the time the S in German sounds like Z in English when placed at the beginning of a word followed by a vowel.

The letter ß is the only letter that will never be at the beginning of a word.

 Das Deutsche Alphabet/ The German Alphabet

Buchstabe/ Letter	Aussprache des Buchstabenamens/ Pronunciation of letter name	Aussprache des Buchstaben - wie in/ Sound of Letter - as in	Beispiele/ Examples
A a	ah	astronaut	der Adler (eagle), Januar (January)
B b	approximate: bay	baby	der Bruder (brother), aber (but)
C c	approximate: tsay	creative, Celcius (soft c sound in German sounds like ts)	der Chor, der Christkindlmarkt (south German term for der Weihnachtsmarkt/ Christmas market), Celcius
D d	approximate: day	dollar	Dienstag (Tuesday), oder (or)
E e	approximate: ay	elegant	essen (to eat), zuerst (first)
F f	eff	effort	der Freund (friend), offen (open)
G g	approximate: gay	gorgeous	gut (good), gemein (mean)
H h	haa	hammer	der Hammer, dieMühle (mill)
I i	eeh	Igor	der Igel (porcupine), der Imbiss (snack), sieben (seven)
J j	yot	yellow	das Jahr (year), jeder (each)
K k	kah	camel	das Kamel, der Kuchen (cake)
L l	ell	love	die Leute (people), das Land (land)
M m	em	man	der Mann, die Ameise
N n	en	nice	nicht (not), die Münze (coin)
O o	oh	oven	Ostern (Easter),rot (red)
P p	approximate: pay	party	die Polizei (police), der Apfel
Q q	koo	coral	das Quadrat (square), die Quelle (source) Note: All German words start with qu (kw - sound)
R r	approximate: er	rich	der Rücken (the back), der Stern (star)
S s	es	zoo, shine, mouse	summen (to hum), schön (pretty, nice), die Maus
T t	approximate: tay	tyrant	der Tyrann, acht (eight)
U u	ooh	ou sound in you	die Universität (university), der Mund (mouth)
V v	fow	father	der Vogel (bird), die Nerven (nerves)
W w	approximate: vay	van	die Wange (cheek), das Schwein (pig, wieviel (how much)
X x	ix	sounds like kz	das Xylofon/ Xylophon, die Hexe (witch) Note: There are hardly any German words that start with X
Y y	uep-si-lohn	yellow	die Yucca, der Yeti Note: There are hardly any German words that start with Y.
Z z	tset	sounds like ts	die Zeitung (newspaper), der Zigeuner (gypsy)

Umlaut + ß

	Aussprache des Buchstaben/ Pronunciation of Letter	Beispiele/ Examples
ä	sounds similar to the e in melon	ähnlich (similar), gähnen (to yawn)
ö	sounds similar to the i in girl	Österreich (Austria), der Löwe (lion)
ü	no equivalent nor approximate sound in English	über (over),müde (tired)
ß (esszet)	double s sound	heiß (hot),die Straße (street)

As in English German vowels can be pronounced as long or as short ones. Often, it changes the meaning of the word entirely.
For example,
Kahn (boat) – kann ((I) can)
Offen (open) – Ofen (oven)
If there is a letter "h" used after the vowel, the vowel will be pronounced as a long one.
Diphthongs and Digraphs
Diphthongs are complex sounds. Basically, you pronounce two tones as one gliding from the first one tot he second, the first sound being highlighted.
There are a few Diphthongs in German. Please refer tot he table below.

Diphthong	Pronunciation
ei	It is pronounced as the English word "eye"
ai	Same as the above
au	It is pronounced as "ow" in the word "cow"
eu	It is pronounced as "oy" in the word "boy"
äu	Same as the above

Digraphs are two (or more) letters that are read/pronounced as one sound. Again, please refer tot he table below.

Digraph	Pronunciation
aa	Ah (as in the alphabet)
ah	Same as the above
äh	As "ä" in the alphabet (long sound)
ch	This one is a little tricky. After the letters a, o, u and the diphthong  au, it is pronounced similar to the guttural ch in Scottish "loch". Remember the Loch Ness Monster? After any other letter ch is a palatal sound. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent for this sound in English.
sch	As English "sh"
ph	Mostly in words with Greek origin, same as English "philosophy"
ie	It is pronounced as English "ee" in the word "green"
ee	Now, do not confuse this with the English "ee". This one is pronounced as a long sound "eh" (take the "e" from "red" and make it sound long)
eh	Same as the above
th	In some foreign words it is pronounced as "t" (for example, "Theater"). While it looks like an English word it does not sound the same way.
ck	It is pronounced as "k"
sp	It is pronounced as "shp"
st	It is pronounced as "st"
tsch	It is pronounced as "ch"

These are the basic rules of German pronunciation. Before we finish our first lesson I would like to draw your attention to a few more rules.
If the German word ends with b, d, g these letters are pronounced as sounds p, t, k respectively.
Examples:
Freund (friend)
Genug (enough)
Lob (praise)
Germanv is pronounced as English f. Please try not to confuse the two.
German w is pronounced as English v. Again, please try not to confuse the two.
German h is silent after the vowel (but we already figured that one our, didn't we?)
German z is pronounced as ts, and nothing like the English z.
Compare
English Zoo – German Zoo (Tsoh)