Your guide to the German alphabet

Your guide to the German alphabet

ABCDEFG, learning the German alphabet is key (to understanding the language).

Whenever you're learning a new language, one important step is getting to know its alphabet. In German, that sequence of letters is called das Alphabet. Studying each letter's sound in isolation can help with your pronunciation and understanding spoken German.

This guide has everything you need to know about the German alphabet!

What is the German alphabet?

While the number of letters in the alphabet is pretty straightforward for languages like English, Spanish, or French, things are a bit more complicated when it comes to German.

The German alphabet has 26 basic letters. In addition, it includes 3 umlauts ("ä," "ö," and "ü") and a letter called Eszett("ß"), which is pronounced like the "s" in the English word dress. Depending on whether these are counted as true letters or simply variations of other letters, the German alphabet can have up to 30 letters. However, most people refer to it as having only 26.

Uppercase letter	Lowercase letter	Example word
A	a	Apfel apple
B	b	Buch book
C	c	Clown clown
D	d	Dusche shower
E	e	Elefant elephant
F	f	Fisch fish
G	g	Gast guest
H	h	Haus house
I	i	Insel island
J	j	Jacke jacket
K	k	Katze cat
L	l	Löwe lion
M	m	Milch milk
N	n	Nase nose
O	o	Obst fruit
P	p	Post mail
Q	q	Quadrat square
R	r	Rose rose
S	s	Sonne sun
T	t	Tier animal
U	u	U-Bahn subway
V	v	Vogel bird
W	w	Wasser water
X	x	Xylofon xylophone
Y	y	Yoga yoga
Z	z	Zebra zebra

Aside from these 26 basic letters, the German alphabet also includes umlauts and the Eszett:

Uppercase letter	Lowercase letter	Example word
Ä	ä	Äpfel apples
Ö	ö	Öl oil
Ü	ü	Übung exercise
ẞ	ß	Fuß* foot

*There are no words that start with the letter "ß"! It can only appear in the middle or at the end of a word.

Historically, the umlauts were written as "a," "o," and "u" with a very small "e" placed directly above them. Over time, that little e evolved into the two dots we use today. If your keyboard doesn't have umlauts, you can write them as "ae," "oe," and "ue" instead. However, don't just use "a," "o," and "u" in place of umlauts! In German, they're entirely different letters and sounds, and swapping them can change a word's meaning. For example, while zählenmeans "to count," zahlenmeans "to pay."

All letters used in the German alphabet have a lowercase version, which are called Kleinbuchstaben, as well as an uppercase version, called Großbuchstaben. You might hear people refer to these as großes Avs. kleines a. Compared to other languages written in the Latin alphabet, German uses uppercase letters more often because it capitalizes all nouns (even verbs that are used as nouns!). So don't be surprised to see sentences like Meine Freundin hilft dem Kleinen beim Lernen(My girlfriend is helping the little one with studying).

If you're learning German, you might know that German has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The word for "letter" is masculine, so you'll say der Buchstabe. But the letters themselves are neuter: das D, das U, das O, and so on.

Some letters are used less frequently in German than others. For example, "q," "x," and "y" don't appear very often. And when they do, it's usually in loanwords from other languages-like in Quadrat(which comes from Latin), Xylofon(from Greek), or Yoga(from Sanskrit).

The pronunciation of the letter "v" can be a bit tricky because it has two possible sounds. It can sound like an "f" (as in Vater) or like a "w" (as in Vase). The "w"-pronunciation is typically used for words that are loanwords, like Klavier(from French) or Video(from English), and only if the "v" appears at the beginning of a word or syllable. If a "v" appears at the end of a word or syllable, it's always pronounced as an "f" (like in bravor kreativ).

Special letter combinations

In German, there are a couple of letter combinations that you should look out for because they get a special pronunciation.

Ch, ch

Generally, a combination of "c" and "h" is pronounced as a voiceless fricative sound. However, the exact pronunciation of "ch" depends on which letter comes directly before it. If "ch" is preceded by "a," "o," or "u," it has a darker, more throaty sound, as in Bach(stream), Loch(hole), and Buch(book). After all other letters and at the beginning of a word, "ch" has a lighter, softer sound, like in ich(I), Milch(milk), and Chemie(chemistry).

Note that the pronunciation of "ch" at the beginning of a word may differ depending on where in the German-speaking world you are. In southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, you'll often hear it pronounced as /k/ (Chemie). In northern Germany, it is more commonly pronounced as /sh/ (Chemie).

Sch, sch

Like "ch," "sch" is also a voiceless fricative. However, its pronunciation is much more straightforward: "Sch" is always pronounced the same, no matter where it appears in a word or which letter precedes it. So whether in Schule(school), waschen(wash), or mischen(mix)-the sound of "sch" never changes.

ck

In German, the combination "ck" is pronounced just like the letter "k" by itself. Its role is not to change the consonant sound, but to indicate the pronunciation of what comes before. The combination "ck" can only appear after a vowel, and it signals that the vowel is short, as in hacken(chop, hoe), rather than long, as in Haken(hook). This also means that "ck" never appears at the beginning of a word.

How to use the German alphabet

You might need to use example words if you want to spell something, like your name or your address. Especially if you're talking on the phone or if you're in a noisy place, it can be difficult to distinguish letters like "f" and "s," or "b" and "p."

While you can always come up with your own words to spell something, there are also different standardized ways to do this. One of them is an alphabet based on the names of German cities, set by the German Institute for Standardization. So if you wanted to spell the name Julia, you could say J wie Jena, U wie Unna, L wie Leipzig, I wie Ingelheim und A wie Aachen(J as in Jena, U as in Unna, L as in Leipzig, I as in Ingelheim, and A as in Aachen).

Knowing the German alphabet is also important for pronouncing abbreviations, such as die USA(the U.S.), das WC(the restroom), and die S-Bahn(commuter rail, short for "Schnellbahn").

Fun facts about the German alphabet

The German alphabet is unique in that it is the only alphabet in the world with the letter "ß." However, even within the German-speaking world, it's not used everywhere. Of the three countries where the majority of people speak German-Germany, Austria, and Switzerland-the Eszett is used only in Germany and Austria. In Switzerland, it's replaced by "ss."

And that's not the only difference between those three countries! Another variation is in the names of the letters. In southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, people often call the letter "j" j(/je/). You may also hear "q" referred to as q(/kve/) in Austria, where the Eszett is typically called scharfes S.

A, B, C-you're ready for the German spelling bee

Learning the German alphabet is an important step, but it's only the beginning! There are many ways to level up your German skills, and these guides are here to help:

• German plurals: rules, examples, and exceptions
• Dear Duolingo: Tell me everything about German sentence structure
• Dear Duolingo: How do you know the gender of German nouns?
• Dear Duolingo: Why are there so many German possessive pronouns?
• Beyond Schadenfreude: 7 unique German words you can't live without
• Why you should learn German and how to get started

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