German Alphabet

a ah j yoht s ess

b bay k kah t tay

c tsay l el u oo

d day m em v fow

e ay n en w vay

f eff o oh x eeks

g gay p pay y irp-se-

h hah q koo z tset

i ee r ehr

Unique Characteristics of the German Alphabet

 More than 26 letters in the alphabet - German has a so-called

extended Latin alphabet
 The extra letters are ä, ö, ü and ß
 The pronunciation of some of these letters do not exist in the
English language
 Several letters are pronounced more from the back of the throat:
g, ch, r (though in Austria the r is trilled).
 The W in German sounds like the V in English
 German Alphabet

 The V in German sounds like the F in English

 Most of the time the S in German sounds like Z in English when
placed at the beginning of a word followed by a vowel.
 The letter ß will never appear at the beginning of a word.
 German has its own phonetic spelling code used to avoid
confusion when spelling words on the phone or in radio
communication.

Upper Case Lower Case Name

Ä ä ä similar to the e in melon

Ö ö ö similar to the i in girl

Ü ü ü no equivalent in English

ẞ ß ß double s sound

Grüße -greetings
Guten Morgen –good morning
Guten Tag- good day
Guten Abend –good evening
Gute Nacht –good night
Auf wiedersehen – goodbye,see you again
Entschuldigung – excuse me/ sorry
Danke schön – thanks/ thank you
 German Alphabet

Bitte schön- please/ welcome

Wie geht’s? – how are you?
Tschüss -bye
Wie bitte? - pardon
Wie geht es Ihnen?