A1 · Alphabet and pronunciation
The alphabet and spelling aloud
the letters and their names
Twenty-six letters plus four, and names that differ from the English ones.
German uses the same twenty-six letters as English, plus three vowels with two dots — ä, ö and ü, the umlauts — and ß, a sharp s. The umlauts are letters in their own right and not decorated ones: schon (already) and schön (beautiful) are two different words. Where a keyboard has no umlauts, German writes ae, oe and ue instead, so Müller becomes Mueller — never plain Muller.
The names of the letters are worth learning early, because they are what you say on the phone, at a hotel desk or in an office. Most are simply the sound plus a vowel: B is "bay", D is "day", K is "kah". The vowels are the trap: A is "ah", E is "ay", I is "ee", O is "oh" and U is "oo" — so an English speaker spelling out a name says E and I the wrong way round. Others to watch: J is "yot", V is "fow", W is "vay", Y is "üpsilon", Z is "tset" and ß is "ess-tset".
To ask how something is spelled, say Wie schreibt man das? or Können Sie das bitte buchstabieren? A double letter is spelled with Doppel- in front of it: Anna is A, Doppel-N, A. And an umlaut is named by its sound or with the word mit: Müller, mit ü.
The form
| the vowels: ah, ay, ee, oh, oo | A, E, I, O, U |
| the umlauts | Ä, Ö, Ü |
| the sharp s: ess-tset | ß |
| yot, fow, vay | J, V, W |
| üpsilon, tset | Y, Z |
| without an umlaut key | ae, oe, ue |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
The umlauts ä, ö and ü are letters of their own, and they change the word.
schön, schon; Bär, Barbeautiful, already; bear, bar
Without an umlaut key, ä, ö and ü are written ae, oe and ue.
Ohne Umlaut schreibt man Mueller.Without an umlaut you write Mueller.
The vowels U, I and E are named "oo", "ee" and "ay".
Ich heiße Luise: L, U, I, S, E.My name is Luise: el, oo, ee, ess, ay.
A double letter is spelled with Doppel-.
Anna schreibt man A, Doppel-N, A.Anna is spelled A, double N, A.
How to spot it
- ä
- ö
- ü
- ß
- Doppel-
- buchstabieren
Example sentences
Wie schreibt man das?How do you spell that?
Können Sie das bitte buchstabieren?Could you spell that, please?
Ich heiße Jana, mit J am Anfang.My name is Jana, with a J at the start.
Mein Nachname ist Müller, mit ü.My surname is Müller, with a u-umlaut.
Straße schreibt man mit ß.Straße is written with ß.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The commonest mistake is to drop the dots. Muller is not a casual way of writing Müller but a different name, and on a form or a ticket it is simply wrong. With no ü on the keyboard, the replacement is ue — Mueller — never a bare u. The same care applies when you spell aloud: the English names of E and I mean the opposite letters in German.
Ä, ö and ü are letters of their own — never drop the dots.
Your turn
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