Language/German/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

German Alphabet & Pronunciation

Hello everyone,

In this lesson, we will explain the German alphabet and its pronunciation.

To learn the exact pronunciation, there is nothing better than listening to a native speaker.

I strongly suggest you to watch various videos of it.

I recommend you the YouTube channel "Deutsch für euch".

For example:

IPA table

Letter	A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
IPA	/aː/	/beː/	/t͡seː/	/deː/	/eː/	/ɛf/	/ɡeː/	/haː/	/iː/	/jɔt/; /jeː/	/kaː/	/ɛl/	/ɛm/	/ɛn/	/oː/	/peː/	/kuː/; /kveː/	/ɛʁ/	/ɛs/	/teː/	/uː/	/faʊ̯/	/veː/	/ɪks/	/ˈʏpsilɔn/; /ʏˈpsiːlɔn/	/t͡sɛt/

Letter	Ä ä	Ö ö	Ü ü	ẞ ß
IPA	/ɛː/	/øː/	/yː/	/ɛsˈt͡sɛt/, /ˈʃaʁfəs ɛs/

Alphabet explained in English sounds

The German alphabet contains 26 Letters, as well as four more letters (but for some reason they are not part of the regular alphabet).

I heavily advice you to listen to the sounds in YouTube videos. It's almost impossible to describe them properly. You must get a sense for it yourself. Nevertheless, here comes the four letters which are part of regular words, but aren't part of the alphabet.

It's really hard to describe it in letters, but I'll give it my best try:

A

this is like the a in garden. It's way more dark and deeper than the english a.

B

sounds like beh

C

sounds like tseh

D

deh

E

an e like in "exit", but a little longer and more open pronounced

F

sounds much like the English letter F

G

like Gordon

H

ha, like the English "huh?" sound, once more more open though

I

like in impress or "in", more open

J

the letter is called jot, pronounced as yot, the sound itself is y

K

kah

L

ell

M

emm

N

enn

O

almost like English o, but like the a before, more dark and deeper, it's not a swinging sound, it's pronounced kind of lazy, you don't say oh, but ooo

P

peh

Q

this has two used sounds, the first is kweh, the other is kuh, the u again a dark sound. Further explanation: The German sound of "Q-Tip" would be Kjuh-Tip, if you skip that j in the middle, you got it

R

err, the English R I'd write down phonetic as Rw. For example Richard sounds to German speakers like Rwicharwd. German doesn't have that w-swing, between words it bends more to an A than W. In the beginning its like rr, like a you do a horny sound.

S

ess

T

teh

U

as all the other vowels, it is deep and dark sounding, the German phonetic of the English U would be "juh", you must skip that j sound from the beginning

V

fau (au is a dipthong, a double sound, i explain further later)

W

weh

X

iks (a little bit like eeks, but the i does not equal ee entirely, it's a shorter and harder sound) ===Y üpsilonn / ipsilonn (Ü explanation coming soon)

Z

tsett

ß

this one is like a double s, it does not have a big writing, it only exists in the small form, if you have to write it in big, you do SS instead.

ö

if you make an O sound, put your tongue more forward to your lower teeth and sharpen your lips a bit

ü

probably the hardest one for English speakers,try it the same way as explained in Ö

ä

this comes close to the English a sound, but doesn't swing in voice so much, it's darker, it's almost like if you wondering "eeeehm?" The tongue does not go forward here, but rather a bit upward, not too much though

Now we are coming to Diphthongs and special sounds, which are very important. If two or three certain letters come together, they form a new sound.

Sch

is exactly the same like English sh. It is NOT like English "school", but it's like "chin"

Ch

this sound doesn't exist in English, it's a throaty one, imagine a cat making it's angry sound, like a cat roar/hiss, not so much pressure on it though

St

mostly becomes a spoken sch

ie

this only occurs in the middle of a word, never at beginning, it is called the "long i" or sometimes "mute e", so it's basically like a longer pronounced i

Ei

sounds a 100% like the English i

Ai

again like i

Au

is like a ow, like the sound you make if you hurt yourself

Äu

is like oi

Eu

the same again, oi

ee

is a longer stretched German e sound

aa

is a longer stretched German a sound

Examples

Here are some examples with the English equivalent:

• Das Haus (the house) sounds like "dass hows"

• Der Baum (the tree) sounds like "dare bowm"

• Das Tier (the animal) sounds like "dass teer"

• Der Mais (the corn) sounds like "dare mice"

• Das Paar (the pair) sounds like "dass pahr"

• Der Bär (the bear) sounds like "dare bare" (but the R sound is heavier)

• Die Straße (the street) sounds like "dee shdrrahseh"

• Vier (four) sounds like "fear" (but the R comes close to an A, so it could also be described as German fia)

Phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

	Front				Central		Back
	unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close		iː		yː				uː
Close-mid	ɪ	eː	ʏ	øː	(ə)		ʊ	oː
Open-mid	ɛ	(ɛː)	œ		(ɐ)		ɔ
Open					a	aː

Diphthongs

	Ending point
	Front	Back
Near-close	ʊɪ̯
Open-mid	ɔʏ̯
Open	aɪ̯	aʊ̯

Consonants

With around 22 to 26 phonemes, the German consonant system has an average number of consonants in comparison with other languages.

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Plosive	Fortis	p	t			k		(ʔ)
	Lenis	b	d			ɡ
Affricate	Fortis	pf	ts		tʃ
	Lenis				(dʒ)
Fricative	Fortis	f	s	ʃ	ç	(x)		h
	Lenis	v	z	(ʒ)	j
Liquid			l				r

German Online Virtual Keyboard