https://www.thoughtco.com/pronunciation-and-alphabet-4076770?...

German for Beginners: Pronunciation

and Alphabet
It's important to learn how to pronounce German letters

by Michael Schmitz
Updated June 16, 2017

German is a much more phonetically consistent language than English. This means that
German words almost always sound the way they are spelled—with consistent sounds
for any given spelling. (e.g., the German ei — as in nein — spelling is always sounded
EYE, whereas German ie — as in Sie — always has the ee sound.)

In German, the rare exceptions are usually foreign words from English, French, or other
languages.

Any student of German should learn the sounds associated with certain spellings as
soon as possible. Knowing them, you should be able to correctly pronounce even
German words you have never seen before.

Now that you know how to pronounce the letters of the alphabet in German, let's talk
about some terminology. It is helpful to know, for instance, what diphthongs and paired
consonants are.

German Diphthongs
A diphthong (Greek di, two + phthongos, sound, voice) is a combination of two vowels
that blend and are sounded together. Instead of being pronounced separately, the two
letters have one sound or pronunciation.

An example would be the au combination. The diphthong au in German always has the
sound OW, as in English “ouch." The au is also part of the German word autsch, which
is pronounced almost the same as “ouch” in English.

1 of 6 12/19/2018, 1:56 PM
 https://www.thoughtco.com/pronunciation-and-alphabet-4076770?...

Grouped or Paired Consonants in German

While diphthongs are always vowel pairs, German also has many common grouped or
paired consonants that have a consistent pronunciation as well.

An example of this would be st, a very common combination of the consonants s and t,
found in many German words.

In standard German, the st combination at the beginning of a word is always

pronounced like scht and not like the st found in English “stay” or “stone.” So a German
word such as Stein (stone, rock) is pronounced schtine, with an initial sch-sound, as in
“show.”

Here are more examples of paired consonants:

Diphthongs

Diphthong Aussprache Beispiele / Examples

Double Pronunciation
Vowels

ai / ei eye bei (at, near), das Ei (egg), der Mai (May)

au ow auch (also), das Auge (eye), aus (out of)

eu / äu oy Häuser (houses), Europa (Europe), neu (new)

ie eeh bieten (offer), nie (never), Sie (you)

Grouped Consonants

Buchstabe Aussprache Beispiele / Examples

Consonant Pronunciation

ck k dick (fat, thick), der Schock (shock)

ch >> After a, o, u and au, pronounced like the guttural ch in Scot

"loch" - das Buch(book), auch (also). Otherwise it is a pala
sound as in: mich (me), welche (which),wirklich (really). T
If no air is passing over your tongue when you say a ch-sou

2 of 6 12/19/2018, 1:56 PM
 https://www.thoughtco.com/pronunciation-and-alphabet-4076770?...

you aren't saying it correctly. No true equivalent in English.

Although ch doesn't usually have a hard k sound, there are
exceptions: Chor,Christoph, Chaos, Orchester, Wachs (w

pf pf Both letters are (quickly) pronounced as a combined puff-

sound: das Pferd (horse), derPfennig. If this is difficult for yo
an f sound will work, but try to do it!

ph f das Alphabet, phonetisch - Some words formerly spelled

ph are now spelled with f:das Telefon, das Foto

qu kv die Qual (anguish, torture), die Quittung(receipt)

sch sh schön (pretty), die Schule (school) - The

German sch combination is never split, whereas sh usuall
(Grashalme, Gras/Halme; but die Show, a foreign word).

sp / st shp / sht At the start of a word, the s in sp/st has a sch sound as in
English "show, she." sprechen(speak), stehen (stand)

th t das Theater (tay-AHTER), das Thema (TAY-muh), topic -

Always sounds like a t (TAY). NEVER has the English th
sound!

German Pronunciation Pitfalls

Once you've mastered diphthongs and grouped consonants, the next item to
concentrate on is how to pronounce other letters and letter combinations found within
German words. For instance, a "d" at the end of a German word usually has a hard "t"
sound in German, not the soft "d" sound of English.

In addition, the fact that English and German words are often identical or very similar in
spelling can lead to pronunciation errors.

Letters in Words

Spelling Aussprache Beispiele / Examples

Pronunciation

3 of 6 12/19/2018, 1:56 PM
 https://www.thoughtco.com/pronunciation-and-alphabet-4076770?...

final b p Lob (LOHP)

final d t Freund (FROYNT), Wald (VALT)

final g k genug (guh-NOOK)

silent h - gehen (GAY-en), sehen (ZAY-en)

When h follows a vowel, it is silent. When it precedes a vowel (Hund), the h is

pronounced.

German th t Theorie (TAY-oh-ree)

German v f Vater (FAHT-er)

In some foreign, non-Germanic words with v, the v is pronounced as in

English: Vase (VAH-suh), Villa (VILL-ah)

German w v Wunder (VOON-der)

German z ts Zeit (TSITE), like ts in "cats"; never like

an English soft z (as in "zoo")

Similar Words
Pronunciation Pitfalls

Wort Aussprache Comments

Word Pronunciation

Bombe BOM-buh The m, b, and e are all heard

bomb

Genie zhuh-NEE The g is soft, like the s sound in

genius "leisure"

Nation NAHT-see-ohn The German -tion suffix is

nation pronounced TSEE-ohn

Papier pah-PEER Stress on the last syllable

paper

4 of 6 12/19/2018, 1:56 PM
 https://www.thoughtco.com/pronunciation-and-alphabet-4076770?...

Pizza PITS-uh The i is a short vowel because of

pizza the double z

Pronunciation Guide to German Letters

Here are some common German words that will give examples of how the letters of the
German alphabet are pronounced:

A - der Apparat, der Vater, ab, aktiv, alles

Ä - der Bär, der Jäger, die Fähre, die Ärzte, mächtig

B - bei, das Buch, die Bibel, ob, halb

C - der Computer, die City, das Café, C-Dur, die CD

D - durch, dunkel, das Ende, der Freund, das Land

E - elf, er, wer, eben, Englisch

F - faul, Freunde, der Feind, das Fenster, der Fluss

G - gleich, das Gehirn, gegeben, gern, das Image

H - haben, die Hand, gehen (silent h), (G - das Glas, das Gewicht)

I - der Igel, immer, der Fisch, innerhalb, gibt

J - das Jahr, jung, jemand, der Joker, das Juwel

K - kennen, der Koffer, der Spuk, die Lok, das Kilo

L - langsam, die Leute, Griechenland, malen, locker

M - mein, der Mann, die Lampe, Minuten, mal

N - nein, die Nacht, die Nase, die Nuss, niemals

O - das Ohr, die Oper, oft, das Obst, das Formular

Ö - Österreich, öfters, schön, die Höhe, höchstens

P - das Papier, positiv, der PC, der Papst, pur

R - das Rathaus, rechts, unter, rund, die Reederei

S - die Sache, so, das Salz, seit, der September

5 of 6 12/19/2018, 1:56 PM
 https://www.thoughtco.com/pronunciation-and-alphabet-4076770?...

ß/ss - groß, die Straße, muss, das, Wasser, dass

T - der Tag, täglich, das Tier, die Tat, die Rente

U - die U-Bahn, unser, der Rubel, um, der Jupiter

Ü - über, die Tür, schwül, Düsseldorf, drücken

V - der Vetter, vier, die Vase, aktiv, Nerven

W - wenn, die Woche, Treptow (silent w), das Wetter, wer

X - x-mal, das Xylofon, Xanthen

Y - der Yen, der Typ, typisch, das System, die Hypothek

Z - zahlen, die Pizza, die Zeit, zwei, der Kranz

6 of 6 12/19/2018, 1:56 PM