The German alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It has the same 26 basic letters as English, plus the special characters Ä, Ö, Ü and ß. The table below shows the letters with simple pronunciation hints and a button to play each letter using your browser’s speech synthesis.
When you say the name of a capital letter in German, you can call it "Großbuchstabe …“, for example „Großbuchstabe A“.
| Uppercase | Lowercase | Pronunciation hint (English) | Play uppercase | Play lowercase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | “ah” (like in “father”) | ||
| B | b | “bay” | ||
| C | c | “tsay” (often like “ts” before e, i, ä, ö, ü) | ||
| D | d | “day” | ||
| E | e | short “e” (like in “bed”) or long “ay” | ||
| F | f | “eff” | ||
| G | g | “gay” (hard g, like “go”) | ||
| H | h | “hah” (h is often stronger at the start of words) | ||
| I | i | “ee” (like in “see”) | ||
| J | j | “yot” (like English “y” in “yes”) | ||
| K | k | “kah” (hard k) | ||
| L | l | “ell” (clear l, like in “light”) | ||
| M | m | “em” | ||
| N | n | “en” | ||
| O | o | rounded “oh” (like in “taught”, but shorter) | ||
| P | p | “pay” (less air than English p) | ||
| Q | q | “koo” (almost always “qu” = “kv” sound) | ||
| R | r | rolled / tapped r (especially in careful speech) | ||
| S | s | “ess”; often “z” at word start before vowels (Sonne = “ZON-ne”) | ||
| T | t | “tay” (soft t, little air) | ||
| U | u | “oo” (like in “boot”) | ||
| V | v | usually “f” (Vater = “FAH-ter”), sometimes “v” in foreign words | ||
| W | w | “vay” (pronounced like English “v”) | ||
| X | x | “iks” (like “ks”) | ||
| Y | y | “üpsilon” (often like long “ü” in German words) | ||
| Z | z | “tset” (sounds like “ts”) | ||
| Ä | ä | like “e” in “bed” (long: like “air” without the r) | ||
| Ö | ö | rounded “e”, like French “eu” (öfter, schön) | ||
| Ü | ü | rounded “ee”: say “ee” with rounded lips | ||
| – | ß | “Eszett” / “scharfes S”, like strong “ss” | – |