The German Alphabet: How to Pronounce Every Letter (with Audio)
If you're learning German, the alphabet looks like good news at first, because most of the letters are the ones you already know. Then someone spells an email address or a booking code out loud, and you write down the wrong letter.
The names of several letters are different from English, and a few of them sound nothing like you expect.
Press a key below, or type on your physical keyboard, to hear a native speaker say the letter name. One hint before you start: German E sounds like the English letter A, and German I sounds like the English letter E. Listen for those two.
Once those names start sounding familiar, the rest is much easier to explain.
How many letters are in the German alphabet?
The German alphabet has the same 26 basic letters as the English alphabet, from A to Z. German learners usually count 30 letters because German also uses four more: Ä, Ö, Ü, and ß.
Ä, Ö, and Ü are called Umlaute (umlauts). They are not simply regular vowels with decorative dots. They make separate sounds, and they can change the meaning of a word.
For example, schon (already) and schön (beautiful) are different words. The dots matter.
The final extra letter is ß. It is called Eszett or scharfes S (sharp s). You will often see it in words such as Straße (street).
The German alphabet with pronunciation
This table shows the name Germans say when they spell a word. The English sound hints are approximate, but they will help you hear the important differences.
| Letter | Name | Sounds like | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | A | "ah" | Apfel (apple) |
| B | Be | "bay" | Buch (book) |
| C | Ce | "tsay" | Computer (computer) |
| D | De | "day" | Danke (thank you) |
| E | E | "ay" | Essen (food) |
| F | Ef | "eff" | Freund (friend) |
| G | Ge | "gay" | Garten (garden) |
| H | Ha | "hah" | Haus (house) |
| I | I | "ee" | Insel (island) |
| J | Jot | "yot" | Jahr (year) |
| K | Ka | "kah" | Kind (child) |
| L | El | "ell" | Lampe (lamp) |
| M | Em | "em" | Mutter (mother) |
| N | En | "en" | Nacht (night) |
| O | O | "oh" | Obst (fruit) |
| P | Pe | "pay" | Post (mail) |
| Q | Ku | "koo" | Quelle (source) |
| R | Er | "air", with the r in the throat | Regen (rain) |
| S | Es | "ess" | Sonne (sun) |
| T | Te | "tay" | Tisch (table) |
| U | U | "oo" | Uhr (clock) |
| V | Fau | "fow" | Vater (father) |
| W | We | "vay" | Wasser (water) |
| X | Ix | "iks" | Xylofon (xylophone) |
| Y | Ypsilon | "üpsilon" | Yoga |
| Z | Zett | "tset" | Zeit (time) |
| Ä | Ä | "eh", as in "bed" but longer | Äpfel (apples) |
| Ö | Ö | "ay" with rounded lips | Öl (oil) |
| Ü | Ü | "ee" with rounded lips | Übung (exercise) |
| ß | Eszett | "ess-tset" | Straße (street) |
The vowel letter names are the pure vowel sounds. German A, O, and U use those sounds directly. The two that need the most attention are E and I.
Which German letters confuse English speakers?
Are E and I swapped?
For English speakers, this is the most important difference to learn.
German E is said E (ay), like the English letter A. German I is said I (ee), like the English letter E.
So if a German speaker spells a name and says "ee," they mean I, not E. If they say "ay," they mean E.
This can cause real problems with names, email addresses, and codes. Practice these two until you can answer without translating in your head.
Why do V and W sound different?
German V is called Fau (fow). In most German words, it sounds like an English f.
Vater (father) begins with an f sound. So does viel (much). Some loanwords keep a v sound, such as Vase, but the f sound is the usual pattern.
German W is called We (vay), and it sounds like an English v. Wasser (water) sounds like "vasser."
Native German words do not use the English w sound. This means that V and W can feel reversed when you first hear them.
Why does J sound like Y?
German J is called Jot (yot), and it usually sounds like the English y.
Jahr (year) begins like "yar." Ja (yes) begins like "ya." The English j sound in "jam" appears only in loanwords.
Why does Z sound like TS?
German Z is called Zett (tset), and it sounds like "ts."
Zeit (time) starts with this sound. Zucker (sugar) sounds like "tsucker." When you hear Zett in a spelling situation, write Z.
How is German R pronounced?
German R is called Er (air). The r sound is made at the back of the throat, a little like a soft gargle.
At the end of a word, it becomes softer and can sound like "ah." Mutter (mother) ends almost like "mutta."
You do not need a perfect German r sound to be understood. Still, it is one sound that clearly shows an English accent, so it is worth listening for.
What about Y?
German Y is called Ypsilon (üpsilon). It is rare and appears mostly in loanwords such as Yoga and Typ (type).
In words such as Typ (type), it sounds like ü. Since it is not common, you will hear it less often than most other letters.
What are Ä, Ö, Ü and ß?
The three letters with dots are Umlaute (umlauts). Each one has its own sound.
Ä is close to the e in "bed," often held a little longer. You can hear it in Äpfel (apples).
To make Ö, say "ay" and round your lips as if you were saying "oh." You can hear it in Öl (oil) and schön (beautiful). Ö is often the hardest umlaut for English speakers.
To make Ü, say "ee" and round your lips as if you were saying "oo." You can hear it in Übung (exercise) and über (over).
The letter ß is Eszett, also called scharfes S (sharp s). It is a sharp, unvoiced s sound, like the ss in "kiss."
German uses ß after long vowels and after double vowels. Straße (street) and heißen (to be called) use ß. After short vowels, German writes ss instead, as in Fluss (river).
ß never starts a word. Switzerland does not use ß and writes ss instead.
If your keyboard does not have umlauts, you can replace them with ae, oe, ue, and ss. This is accepted in email addresses and web forms. So you can write schön (beautiful) as schoen, and Straße (street) as Strasse when needed.
How do Germans spell words out loud?
For many everyday situations, the letter names are enough. At a hotel, for example, you may need to spell your surname or a booking code one letter at a time.
On the phone, Germans may use a spelling alphabet. They say the letter, then a word that begins with that letter. The pattern is A wie Anton (A as in Anton).
You do not need to memorize this whole list. It is useful to recognize the pattern, because it helps you understand someone who is spelling slowly and carefully.
| Letter | Word | Letter | Word |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Anton | N | Nordpol |
| B | Berta | O | Otto |
| C | Cäsar | P | Paula |
| D | Dora | Q | Quelle |
| E | Emil | R | Richard |
| F | Friedrich | S | Samuel |
| G | Gustav | T | Theodor |
| H | Heinrich | U | Ulrich |
| I | Ida | V | Viktor |
| J | Julius | W | Wilhelm |
| K | Kaufmann | X | Xanthippe |
| L | Ludwig | Y | Ypsilon |
| M | Martha | Z | Zacharias |
So B wie Berta means B, and W wie Wilhelm means W. If you understand the pattern, you can also invent your own words when you spell.
Why are Y and Z swapped on German keyboards?
German keyboards use the QWERTZ layout. On this layout, Z is in the easy position in the top row where English keyboards have Y.
Z is common in German, while Y is rare, so German keyboards put Z in that easier position. The keyboard above uses this layout, which is why you may notice that Y and Z are swapped.
German keyboards also have separate keys for Ä, Ö, and Ü on the right. The ß key sits next to zero.
What is the old German alphabet?
You may see older German writing that looks very different from modern print. Kurrent and its later version Sütterlin were handwriting styles taught in German schools until the 1940s.
Printed books from that period often used Fraktur (blackletter). These styles used the same letters, but the letter shapes were different.
You do not need to learn them for modern German.
What should you do next?
Use the keyboard above until the letter names feel automatic. Give special attention to E (ay), I (ee), V (fow), W (vay), J (yot), and Z (tset). Then spell your own name and email address out loud in German, because that is the situation where you will actually need this.
For the full list of letters with audio and pronunciation notes, use our German alphabet page. When you want to use these letters in real words, try the Buchstabensalat word scramble game, where you rearrange German letters into words you know.