German Alphabet Pronunciation: All 30 Letters With Audio

German alphabet pronunciation is easier than it looks: the 30 German letters follow far more regular rules than English ones do. You need two things for each letter. The first is its name, which you say when spelling. The second is its sound, which you hear inside words. This page gives you both, with IPA and an English sound-alike for every letter.

Use the chart above to hear any letter. Below you will find the full table, the vowel and consonant rules that matter most, and the mistakes English speakers make again and again.

Letter names vs letter sounds

When a German spells a word aloud, they use letter names: ah, beh, tseh, deh. Most names follow two patterns. Vowels are simply said long (A is [aː], I is [iː]). Consonants either add a long “eh” after the sound (B is [beː], D is [deː]) or put a short “e” before it (F is [ɛf], M is [ɛm]).

The sound inside a word is a separate matter. The letter V is called “fow” [faʊ], yet in Vogel (bird) it sounds like English f. Keeping name and sound apart is the first step to good German alphabet pronunciation. If you mainly need names for spelling on the phone, see how to spell in German.

German alphabet pronunciation table: all 30 letters

The table lists each letter’s name, its main sound in words, and an example you can play. The English approximations are rough guides, not exact matches.

Letter	Name	Main sound	Example	Sounds like
A a	ah [aː]	[a] / [aː]	Apfel ▶	‘a’ in ‘father’
B b	beh [beː]	[b]; [p] at word end	Ball ▶	‘b’ in ‘bed’
C c	tseh [tseː]	[k] or [ts]	Computer ▶	‘k’ in ‘kit’ or ‘ts’ in ‘cats’
D d	deh [deː]	[d]; [t] at word end	Dach ▶	‘d’ in ‘dog’
E e	eh [eː]	[eː] / [ɛ] / [ə]	Esel ▶	‘ay’ in ‘say’ (no glide) or ‘e’ in ‘bed’
F f	eff [ɛf]	[f]	Fisch ▶	‘f’ in ‘fun’
G g	geh [ɡeː]	[ɡ]; [k] at word end	Garten ▶	hard ‘g’ in ‘go’
H h	hah [haː]	[h]; silent after a vowel	Haus ▶	‘h’ in ‘house’
I i	ee [iː]	[iː] / [ɪ]	Igel ▶	‘ee’ in ‘see’ or ‘i’ in ‘bit’
J j	yot [jɔt]	[j]	Jahr ▶	‘y’ in ‘yes’
K k	kah [kaː]	[k]	Katze ▶	‘k’ in ‘kite’
L l	ell [ɛl]	[l]	Licht ▶	clear ‘l’ in ‘leaf’
M m	emm [ɛm]	[m]	Maus ▶	‘m’ in ‘man’
N n	enn [ɛn]	[n]	Nase ▶	‘n’ in ‘net’
O o	oh [oː]	[oː] / [ɔ]	Ohr ▶	‘o’ in ‘go’ (no glide) or British ‘o’ in ‘off’
P p	peh [peː]	[p]	Papier ▶	‘p’ in ‘pen’
Q q	koo [kuː]	[kv] (always qu)	Qualle ▶	‘k’ + ‘v’
R r	air [ɛʁ]	[ʁ]; [ɐ] after vowels	Rose ▶	no English match: a soft gargle at the back of the throat
S s	ess [ɛs]	[z] before a vowel, else [s]	Sonne ▶	‘z’ in ‘zoo’ or ‘s’ in ‘sun’
T t	teh [teː]	[t]	Tisch ▶	‘t’ in ‘top’
U u	oo [uː]	[uː] / [ʊ]	Uhr ▶	‘oo’ in ‘moon’ or ‘u’ in ‘put’
V v	fow [faʊ]	[f]; [v] in loanwords	Vogel ▶	‘f’ in ‘fun’
W w	veh [veː]	[v]	Wasser ▶	‘v’ in ‘van’
X x	iks [ɪks]	[ks]	Xylofon ▶	‘x’ in ‘box’
Y y	Ypsilon [ˈʏpsilɔn]	[ʏ] / [yː]; [j] in some loanwords	Typ ▶	like German ü
Z z	tset [tsɛt]	[ts]	Zebra ▶	‘ts’ in ‘cats’
Ä ä	Ä (long eh) [ɛː]	[ɛː] / [ɛ]	Äpfel ▶	‘e’ in ‘bed’, held longer
Ö ö	Ö [øː]	[øː] / [œ]	Öl ▶	no English match: say ‘ay’ with rounded lips
Ü ü	Ü [yː]	[yː] / [ʏ]	Übung ▶	no English match: say ‘ee’ with rounded lips
ß	Eszett [ɛsˈtsɛt]	[s]	Straße ▶	‘s’ in ‘kiss’

A quick fact for perspective: E is by far the most frequent letter in German text, at about 17% of all letters, followed by N at about 10.5% (figures from a large corpus count by Stefan Trost Media). Getting the German E right pays off in nearly every word.

German alphabet pronunciation of the vowels

Each German vowel has a long and a short version, and the length changes meaning. Staat (state) has a long [aː], while Stadt (city) has a short [a]. A vowel is usually long when it is doubled (Boot), followed by a silent h (Sohn), or ends a stressed syllable. It is usually short before a double consonant (Bett, Mutter).

German long vowels are pure. English “say” and “go” end with a small glide; German [eː] and [oː] do not. Hold your tongue and lips still for the whole vowel.

The three umlauts are full letters with their own sounds:

• Ä [ɛː] is close to the “e” in “bed”, held longer: Käse ▶.
• Ö [øː] has no English equivalent. Say “ay” and round your lips as if to whistle: schön ▶.
• Ü [yː] has no English equivalent either. Say “ee” and round your lips tightly: müde ▶.

German vowels covers the length rules in depth.

Consonants: the hardest part of German alphabet pronunciation

Most consonants sound as you expect. A handful are false friends, and they cause more errors than anything else:

• W sounds like English v: Wasser is “VAH-ser”.
• V usually sounds like f: Vater is “FAH-ter”. Loanwords such as Vase keep a v sound.
• J sounds like English y: ja is “yah”.
• Z is always [ts], like the end of “cats”: Zeit ▶.
• S before a vowel is voiced [z]: Sonne starts like “zoo”. At the start of a word, sp and st become “shp” and “sht”: Straße ▶.
• ß is always a sharp [s]. Read more on the Eszett.
• R is made at the back of the throat [ʁ] in most of Germany. After a vowel it often softens to a vowel-like [ɐ], so Lehrer ends in something close to “uh”. See German R pronunciation.

The pair ch is not a separate letter, but you meet it constantly. After a, o, u and au it is the throaty [x] of Bach; elsewhere it is the softer [ç] of ich. English has neither sound. The ch guide walks through both.

Rules that apply across the alphabet

A few patterns shape the pronunciation of every letter:

• Final devoicing. B, D, G and S lose their voice at the end of a word or syllable. Hund (dog) ends in a t sound, Tag (day) in a k sound.
• Silent h after vowels. In Kuh or fahren, the h only shows that the vowel before it is long.
• Every letter counts. German has few silent letters. The k in Knie (knee) and the p in Psychologie are pronounced.
• Stress usually falls on the first syllable of native words: ARbeit, FENster. Prefixes like be-, ge- and ver- are unstressed, and many loanwords stress a later syllable.
• Glottal stop. Words that begin with a vowel start with a tiny catch in the throat, which keeps ein Ei from running together.

For symbols beyond this page, the German IPA chart lists every sound with examples.

Common mistakes

• Saying the English letter names when spelling. German E is “eh”, I is “ee”, A is “ah”; mixing these up is the classic beginner slip.
• Pronouncing W as English w. Wein (wine) should sound like “vine”, not “whine”.
• Reading Z as English z. Zoo in German starts with “ts”.
• Replacing ü with “oo” and ö with “o”. Mütter (mothers) and Mutter (mother) are different words.
• Gliding long vowels. See (lake) is one steady sound, not “say-ee”.
• Rolling every R like a Spanish trill. A trilled r is understood, but the standard sound is uvular and soft.

How to practice

Learn the names first, because you will need them to ask “Wie schreibt man das?” (How is that spelled?). Say the alphabet in order, then shuffle it. The German alphabet quiz plays a letter and asks you to pick it, which trains the ear rather than the eye. Once names feel automatic, move on to sounds inside words with short lists like the examples above. A printable German alphabet chart next to your desk helps for the first few weeks.

For a fuller background on spelling-to-sound rules, the Wikipedia article on German orthography is a reliable overview.

Frequently asked questions

What is the correct German alphabet pronunciation for each letter?

Vowels are said long (A “ah”, E “eh”, I “ee”, O “oh”, U “oo”). Most consonants add “eh” after them (B “beh”, D “deh”) or a short “e” before them (F “eff”, L “ell”). The odd ones out are J “yot”, Q “koo”, V “fow”, Y “Ypsilon” and Z “tset”.

Why is W pronounced like V in German?

In Standard German the letter W stands for the sound [v], so Wasser sounds like “vasser”. The letter V, meanwhile, usually stands for [f] in native words.

Is there an English sound for ü and ö?

No. Both are front vowels said with rounded lips, which English lacks. Say “ee” and round your lips for ü, or say “ay” and round them for ö.

How is the letter R pronounced in German?

Most speakers use a soft uvular sound made at the back of the throat [ʁ]. After a vowel, and in the ending -er, it often turns into a vowel close to “uh” [ɐ].

Are there silent letters in German?

Very few. The main one is h after a vowel, which only marks a long vowel, as in Kuh. Letters like the k in Knie are pronounced.

Sources

• Wikipedia: German alphabet
• Wikipedia: German orthography
• Stefan Trost Media: Character frequency in German

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