The “D” here sounds pretty much as you would expect. But, if it comes at the end of a word, at the end of a syllable, or before consonants that are voiceless, it is pronounced as “t.” When “D” comes at the beginning of a word, it sounds like its English relative. While English speakers pronounce this letter as “Dee,” Germans pronounce it as “Day.” The “C” here is pronounced as “ch” because this is a foreign word. “Cello,” which is the musical instrument you might see at the Opera. The “C” at the beginning here is pronounced as “ts.” “Celsius,” which is a degree for measuring temperature. “Cafe,” which is the same word as in English. If you feel confused, the following examples should help clarify matters up. For one thing, “C” is part of a couple of combined letters, which have their own unique pronunciation, but that will be explored later.Īssuming that “C” isn’t part of a combination, when it comes at the beginning of a word, it is pronounced as “k.”Ĭonversely, when “C” comes at the beginning of a foreign word, it can either have the sound of “ts” or “ch.” Also, if the letter following “C” is “E,” “I,” “Y,” “ä,” or “ö,” then it is pronounced as “ts.” This consonant can be a bit tricky when put in the middle of a word. The Germans pronounce it as “tsay,” but, again, this is a simple approximation. “Der Bruder,” which is German for brother. However, when “B” comes at the end of a word, it sounds more like “p.” When this letter comes at the beginning of a word or in the middle, it sounds the same as it would in English. We will discuss this more in-depth later on.Īn approximate pronunciation of “B” is “bay,” the same one you have in the word “baby.” The “A” in German is pronounced as “ah.” The closest English example that creates the same sound is the “a” in the word “father” or at the beginning of “astronaut.”īut, its pronunciation when placed in a world depends on several factors seeing as it is a vowel. For example, the letter “S” is pronounced one way in Germany and in a slightly different way in Austria.Įrgo, you might come across different pronunciations online than the ones detailed here, yet the differences will be regional. It should be noted that plenty of the pronunciations that follow are approximate.Īnother thing you should be aware of beforehand is that the pronunciations of letters differ from region to region. Once we’ve learned the name of the letter, we will learn how it sounds when used in the middle of a word, which can be different than the letter’s original name.Īgain, if we look at English, the pronunciation of the word “up” is quite different than the pronunciation of the letters making up the word, which are “you” and “pee.” For example, the English name for “T” is “tee,” and the English name for “U” is “you.” We will start by learning the German name for each letter. It’s interesting to note that these letters are also ordered the same way they are in English.Īs we learn the 26 letters, we will also learn their German names as well as how they sound when used in a word. Let’s start with the basic 26 before we move onto the Umlauts and the Eszett. Moreover, some countries consider the Eszett, ß, another letter, which would bring the grand total up to 30 letters. However, there are three extra Umlauts, which bring the total up to 29. There are 26 primary letters in the German language, the same 26 you’d find in English.

With that in mind, let’s explore the German alphabet with all its wonders.īefore getting mired in the nuanced details of spelling, pronunciation, and other quirky facts relating to the German language, we should start with the basics. However, seeing as these languages have taken different paths over the past few centuries, there were bound to be a few deviations here and there.

More importantly, these two West Germanic languages use almost the same Latin alphabet. English descends from Proto-Germanic, the same ancestor that birthed the modern German language.Įrgo, it should come as no surprise that both the English and German languages have plenty in common.Īside from the fact that both languages share plenty of words together, their grammar can be quite similar.

Spelling english alphabet letters