Unique Characteristics of the German Alphabet:
1. German has a so-called extended Latin alphabet. The extra letters are (Umlaut) ä, ö, ü and (esszet) ß.
2. The pronunciation of some of these letters do not exist in the English language.
3. Several letters are pronounced more from the back of the throat: g, ch, r (though in Austria the r is trilled).
4. 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.
Now we will visit each alphabet separately and learn their pronunciation with example(s). Each alphabet are in the order:
Letter Pronunciation of letter name Sound of Letter - as pronounced in Examples
Letter: A a Pronounced as: ah As pronounced in: astronaut For example: der Apfel(apple)
The rest of the alphabets are also similarly structured.
B b approximate: bay baby der Bruder (brother)
C c approximate: stay Celcius Celcius
D d approximate: day dollar der Dienstag (Tuesday)
E e approximate: ay elegant essen (to eat)
F f eff effort der Freund (friend)
G g approximate: gay gorgeous gut (good)
H h has hammer der Hammer
I I eeh Igor der Igel (porcupine)
J j you yellow das Jahr (year)
K k kah camel das Kamel, der Kuchen (cake)
L l ell love das Land (land)
M m em man der Mann
N n en nice nicht (not)
O o oh oven Ostern (Easter)
P p approximate: pay party die Polizei (police)
Q q koo coral das Quadrat (square)
Note: All German words that start with qu (kw - sound)
R r approximate: er rich der Rücken (the back)
S s es zoo, shine, mouse die Maus
T t approximate: tay tyrant acht (eight)
U u ooh ou sound in you die Universität (university)
V v fow father der Vogel (bird)
W w approximate: vay van die Wange (cheek), das Schwein (pig)
X x ix sounds like kz das Xylophon, die Hexe (witch)
Y y uep-si-lohn yellow die Yucca (a type of plant)
Z z tset sounds like ts die Zeitung (newspaper)
Umlaut + ß (esszet)
ä similar to the e in melon die Äpfel (apples)
ö similar to the i in girl öffnen (to open)
ü no equivalent sound müde (tired)
ß double s sound heiß (hot)
Now that we all know how we pronounce each alphabet we can try spelling our names. For e.g. My name is Ana. Mein Name ist Ana. If someone was to ask me to spell my name. "Can you spell your name?" (Könnten Sie es buchstabieren?) My answer should be "A (aa), N (en), A (aa)" or we can also answer it as "A wie Apfel, N wie nicht, A wie Apfel." It means A for Apple, N for not, A for apple.
As an exercise you can try spelling out your names or any object like an apple.
You must have noticed der, die, and das. These are definite articles like 'the' in English only in german they differ for each gender Masculine (der), Feminine (die), and Neutral (das). Every noun has its own gender. So, whenever you come across a noun make sure to learn it with its gender. e.g. der Apfle, die Frau(woman), das Mädchen(girl).
We will come back to this topic later. For now bis später.
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