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| 1. Definition of the Alphabet 2. How to pronounce the letters of the german Alphabet 3. German phonetics; vowels and consonants 4. German monophthong, diphthong and triphthong sound 5. Tips on how to pronounce a german word correctly |
From the definition of the Oxford dictionary, the alphabet is a characterized set of letters and/or symbols in a fixed order that is used to represent the basic set of speech sounds of any language. German language has one alphabet that is comprised of 30 character or letters.
The German or Deutsch alphabet is closely related to that of English with 26 similar characters or letters like in English, together with 4 additional characters called umlaut and ligature which are not found in the English alphabet. This gives a total of 30 letters. The three umlauts are typically obtained from the plain letters but with two dots above it. The ligature which is also called scharfes s is often used in english as ss. The letters are shown below.
| Aa/a:/–ah Dd/deɪ/–day Gg/geɪ/–gay Jj/jɔt/–yot Mm/em/ Pp/peɪ/–pay Ss/es/ Vv/faʊ/–fow Yy/ʊɛːpsilɔːn/–upsilon Ää/æ/–eh | Bb/beɪ/–bay Ee/eɪ/–ay Hh/ha:/–hah Kk/kɑː/–kah Nn/en/ Qq/kʊ/–koo Tt/teɪ/–tay Ww/veɪ/–vay Zz/tset/ Öö/ʊɜː/–or | Cc/tseɪ/–tsay Ff/ef/ Ii/i:/–ee Ll/el/ Oo/əʊ/–oh Rr/ɜː/–err Uu/uː/–who Xx/ɪks/–eeks ß/eset/ Üü/ijuː/–eew |
As seen in the picture above, the pronunciation of the German alphabet has been simplified in two ways — the layman’s way and the oral transcription for a better understanding.
Since pronunciation is a very important part of any language, German in particular has an intriguing layout. As a matter of fact, it is much simpler than English 🤷♀️. I say this because German is a straight forward language. The rules are straight, simple and very easy to follow unlike English.
To pronounce in German, a distinct knowledge of two things is required;
- The letters/characters of the alphabet
- The sounds/ phonetics of the alphabet
The letters of the alphabet are just the patterns or characters of the alphabet that can aid spelling and writing while the phonetics of the alphabet are the sounds produced by those letters. This is what is necessary for pronouncing a German word even though some names of letters are the same as their sound. Nevertheless, it is the sound that is used for pronunciation. The phonetics of the German alphabet is divided into three; Monophthong, Diphthong and Triphthong.
A Monophthong is the Sound produced by a single letter of the alphabet. There are two types of this sound;
- Vowels/ Vokale
- Consonants/ Konsonanten
A Diphthong on the other hand is the combination of two sounds which blend together to become one unique new sound. These sounds combination can be between two vowels or two consonants or even a vowel to a consonant. The diphthongs in German are; /au/, /äu/, /eu/, /ei/, /ai/, /ie/, /ch/, /sp/, /pf/, /st/, /qu/, /ig/, /ss/, /ng/, /ts/, /ps/ and /th/.
A Triphthong is the combination of three sounds. German language has just one of this sound which is “sch”. See guide on how to pronounce these sounds below.
Vokale (vowel sounds)
Vowel sounds are those that are made with ease and without obstruction of the vocal cord. These sounds play vital roles in German pronunciation. There are nine vowel and letters in German are described in the picture below.
| Vokale | Corresponding sound in English |
|---|---|
| Aa /a:/- (ah) Ää /æ/- (eeh) Ee /eɪ/- (ay) Ii /i:/- (ee) Oo /əʊ/- (oh) Öö /ʊɜ:/- (oer) Uu /u:/- (who) Üü /iju:/- (eew) Yy /ʊɛː/ (ooe) | article ant ace eat boat poor boot brew would |
One beautiful thing about German vowels is that they have the same sounds as the name of the letters. This makes the difference in English. To perfectly master the sounds in German is to perfectly master the letters of the alphabet.
**Note that the names of the letters are used for spelling out a word while the sounds are used for pronunciation.
Konsonanten (consonant sounds)
Consonant sounds are produced by closing the vocal tract. In simpler terms, they are every other sound in the German alphabet that is not a vowel. The German alphabet has 21 vowels. Unlike the vowels, the consonants produce sounds that are different from the names of the letters. Nevertheless, it is the sound produced that is used for pronunciation. Below are the consonant sounds in German;
| Konsonanten | German words | Corresponding sound in English |
|---|---|---|
| /Bb/ /Cc/ /Dd/ /Ff/ /Gg/ /Hh/ /Jj/ /Kk/ /Ll/ /Mm/ /Nn/ /Pp/ /Qq/ /Rr/ /Ss/ /Tt/ /Vv/ /Ww/ /Xx/ /Zz/ /ß/ | Buch Caritas Dorf Fisch Gast Hals Jacke Kabel Lampe Mann Nagel Papier Quark Sehr Salz Tafel Vogel Wasser Xylofon Zettel Begrüßung | Book Carbon Door Fish Girl Hat Young Kite Lamp Man Nail Pay Guava Earth Zinc Tissue Fan Van Books Bats Sun |
Pronunciation Rules
After learning the alphabet correctly, it is very important to note the fundamental rule of pronouncing a German word;
The sound of every letter, most especially the vowels must be pronounced out individually except it is a diphthong or a triphthong.
What this means is that if you have for instance the English word “meat” which consists of four letters, the four sounds of the four letters must sound out. In this instance, “meat” would be pronounced as “ME–AT” (mi-ah-t) if it were a German word or a word with a series of vowels e.g “Meier”, “Feier”, “Beeilen” etc. You pick out the possible German diphthong and monophthong and pronouns each individually. Hence, “Meier” is blendly pronounced as “Mei-e-r”.
Practice;
Try to pronounce the following English words assuming they are pronounced by German speakers.
| English words | As pronounced would be pronounced by a german speaker |
|---|---|
| Radio Information jug single break | rah-di-o in-for-maht-sion yuk zink-le bre-ahk |
In addition to this rule, the tips below would help.
| German sounds | Contrasting English sound | German examples | English transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
| w | v | Wand, Welt | /va:nt/, /velt/ |
| v | f | Va-ter, Vogel | /fa:-tɛː/, /fəʊ-gel/ |
| d | d (at the beginning of a word/syllable) t (at end of a word/syllable) | Dieb Land | /di:p/ /lant/ |
| s | z (as a monophthong) s (directly after ch) | Saft, Be-such Sechs, Wech-seln | /za:ft/, /beɪ-zukr/ /zeɪkrs/, /weɪkr- seln/ |
| z | ts | Zie-ge | /tsi:-geɪ/ |
| j | y | Jun-ge | /jun-geɪ/ |
| b | b (beginning of a word/syllable) p (at the end of a word/syllable) | Bett Be-trieb | /bet/ /beɪ-tri:p/ |
| g | g (at the beginning of a word/syllable) k (at the end of a word/syllable | Gar-ten Um-schlag | /ga:teɪn/ /um-ʃla:k/ |
| ei/ai/ay | eye | Reis, Bay-ern, Rain | /raɪz/, /baɪ-ɛːn/, /raɪn/ |
| eu/äu | oy | Eu-ro, Käu-fer | /ɔɪ-rəʊ/, /kɔɪ-fɛː/ |
| au | ow | Blau | /blaʊ/ |
| ie | ee yea (at the end of a word) | Tief Fa-mi-lie | /ti:f/ /fa-mi-liɛː/ |
| er/är | air | Bär | /bɛː/ |
| ig | ish (at the end of a word) | Le-dig, Ho-nig, Kä-fig | /leɪ-di:ʃ/, /həʊ-ni:ʃ/, /kɛːfi:ʃ/ |
| sp | shhp | Spaß, Sprach | /ʃpa:s/, /ʃpra:kr/ |
| st | shht | Stark, Stau-ung | /ʃta:k/, /ʃtaʊ-uŋ/ |
| th | dt | The-ma, Ryth-mus | /dti:-ma/, /rʊɛdt-muz/ |
| ß ss | sss (after a long vowel) sss (after a short vowel) | Grüß, Fuß-ball Schloss, Wa-sser | /grijuːs/, /fuːs-ba:l/ /ʃləʊs/, /va-sɛː/ |
| qu | kv | Be-quem, Qua-si | /beɪk-veɪm/, /kva-zi:/ |
| pf | ngf | Topf, Pferd | /təʊŋf/, /ŋfɛːt/ |
| ng | ng | Woh-nung, Sen-dung | /wəʊ-nuŋ/, /zeɪn-duŋ/ |
| ck | k | Zu-cker, We-cker | /tsu-kɛː/, /veɪ-kɛː/ |
| ch | krr (directly after a, o, u or au) k (directly befor s) | Bauch, Buch Sechs, Wechseln | /baʊkr/, /bukr/ /zəks/, /vəkseln/ |
| ch (short) sch (long) | shh (after all short vowels and consonants except a, o, u or au) shh | Ich, Licht, Milch, Mich, Reich, Feucht Schu-le, Schnei-den, Schlaf | /ɪʃ/, /lɪʃt/, /mɪlʃ/, /mɪʃ/, /raɪʃ/, /fɔɪʃt/ /ʃuː-leɪ/, /ʃnaɪ-den/, /ʃla:f/ |
| tsch | tshh | Deutsch | /dɔɪtʃ/ |
| Summary |
|---|
| 1. “s” is always pronounced as “z” but when it comes after “ch”, it is pronounced the same way as “ss” or “ß” as in the case of “sechs“ and “wechseln”. 2. “ss” and “ß” both have the same fluent “sssss” sound but are used under different circumstances. This is how they are distinguished; “ss” is used when preceding vowel sound is a short one e.g “Schloss” while “ß” is used when the preceding vowel is a long one e.g “Grüß”. 3. “t” is usually pronounced as “t” but in borrowed English or Latin words, it becomes “ts” e.g “Isolation” and “initiative” is pronounced as “ee-zoh-laht-sion” and “ee-neat-siah-tea-veh respectively. 4. Some borrowed words with “v” are pronounced as “v” instead of “f” e.g video, verb, november etc. |