German Alphabet Table
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Learn German Alphabet – German Language Alphabet Letters & Chart

The German alphabet is part of Germanic language that’s origins trace back to early 700s. German contains the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet and adds the extra letters ä, ö, ü and ß. All German letter have upper and lowercase version except for ß. The letter ß will never be at the start of a word.

German is sometimes viewed by non-native German speakers as a harsh sounding language.

The German language is a more consistent phonetically language than English.

German Alphabet Table

German Alphabet Table
German Alphabet Table

Learn German Alphabet Pronunciation

Some German Letters are pronounce way different then their English counterparts. For example, the German W sounds like English V, and German V sounds like the English F. 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. Learn German Alphabet letters g, ch, and r are pronounce mostly in the back of the throat. The pronunciation of some of these German letters do not have an English counterpart (Like “ü” for example”).

Learn German Alphabet Diphthongs and Grouped Consonants

Diphthongs are combinations of two vowels(and only vowels) that are combined and sounded together. Consonants can be grouped together this way as well. Instead of each letter being pronounced separately, the two letters have combined pronunciation and sound. Example of German Alphabet Diphthongs and Group Consonants below.

German Diphthong Examples
German Diphthong Examples

German Alt Codes

To do the extra German letters without using German keyboard. Alt code can be used. Alt code is when you press then hold down the Alt key on your keyboard then type in numbers on your num pad then release the alt key.

German Useful German Alt Codes
German Useful German Alt Codes

The German Alphabet plays a very important role in learning German, especially when it comes to pronunciation. So make sure to practice pronouncing the German Alphabet multiple times often. Whenever you can.

Interested in further study into German or confused on where to start? I recommend reading our German Beginners Guide

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About Sally Morgan

My name is Sally Morgan, I'm American and currently a Language Teacher in New York State Schools for French and Spanish. I have studied Foreign Languages, translation and teaching at the Columbia University in New York. I lived for 3 years in Europe including France, UK and Italy.

I am a passionate linguist and love how speaking another language opens the doors of communication and therefore a whole world.

Please ask me any questions below

9 thoughts on “Learn German Alphabet – German Language Alphabet Letters & Chart”

  1. I was offered this language to study in my University here in Nigeria , but I don’t have a knowledge of it and I want to learn it. I have passion for this language. Am also studying French. I need ur help for these two languages. Please teach me . thanks .

    Reply

  3. I have to learn it cause I want to go Germany . there my husband lives. for God sake someone can help me it’s pronunciation is so hard

    Reply

  4. Your pronunciation for “ess-tset” in your visual is wrong, I suggest you revise it, unless I’m mistaken. (it’s an “s set” so to speak.)

    Reply

  6. Hi! What made you treat the ess-tset as a weird B, rather than putting it at the end of the alphabet like they do in Germany?

    Reply

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