Orthography
The German Alphabet
German uses the exact same variation of the Latin script as English but with the addition of four special letters. Three of these letters (the umlauts) are formed by placing two dots on the letters a, u, o and the other one was historically formed as a ligature from a long S and Z.
| Letter | Name (IPA) |
|---|---|
| A a | /aː/ |
| B b | /beː/ |
| C c | /t͡seː/ |
| D d | /deː/ |
| E e | /eː/ |
| F f | /ɛf/ |
| G g | /ɡeː/ |
| H h | /haː/ |
| I i | /iː/ |
| J j | /jɔt/, /jeː/ |
| K k | /kaː/ |
| L l | /ɛl/ |
| M m | /ɛm/ |
| N n | /ɛn/ |
| O o | /oː/ |
| P p | /peː/ |
| Q q | /kuː/, /kveː/ |
| R r | /ɛʁ/ |
| S s | /ɛs/ |
| T t | /teː/ |
| U u | /uː/ |
| V v | /faʊ̯/ |
| W w | /veː/ |
| X x | /ɪks/ |
| Y y | /ˈʏpsilɔn/, /ʏˈpsiːlɔn/ |
| Z z | /t͡sɛt/ |
| Ä ä | /ɛː/ |
| Ö ö | /øː/ |
| Ü ü | /yː/ |
| ẞ ß | /ɛsˈt͡sɛt/, /ˈʃaʁfəs ɛs/ |
Grapheme to Phoneme Correspondence
German is a largely phonemic language, meaning that letters or groups of letters consistently correspond to specific pronunciations.
| Grapheme(s) | Phoneme(s) | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| A a | /a/, /aː/ | Katze /kat͡sə/ Tal /taːl/ |
| Aa aa | /aː/ | Saal /zaːl/ |
| Ä ä | /ɛ/, /ɛː/ | ändern /ɛndɐn/ wäre /vɛːʁə/ |
| B b | /b/ initially or before vowels /p/ at the end of syllables | Bombe /bɔmbə/ grob /gʁoːp/ |
| C c | /t͡s/ before ä, e, i, ö /k/ otherwise | |
| Ch Ch | /x/ after a, o, u /ç/ after other vowels or consonants /k/ or /ç/ initially in words of Ancient Greek origin /ç/ in the suffix -chen /tʃ/ or /ʃ/ in some loanwords and foreign proper names | Fach /fax/, Doch /dɔx/, Buch /bʊx/ Becher /beçɐ/, solcher /zɔlçɐ/ |