The GERMAN Alphabet and its challenges (includes Ä, Ö, Ü)

MARTINA
Meine Adresse ist Heinle Straße 1.
(My address is Heinle Street 1.)

VANESSA
Kannst du mir das bitte buchstabieren?
(Can you spell that for me please?)

MARTINA
Oh, entschuldige. Ich habe das Alphabet noch nicht gelernt.
(Oh, sorry. I haven’t learned the German alphabet yet.)

To not be in the same situation as Martina, let’s learn the German alphabet together. If you don’t know me yet, Ich bin Spring German Lehrerin Denisa. Los geht’s! (I’m Spring German teacher Denisa. Let’s go!)

1. A, B, C, D, E, F, G

• “A” (A) like Ananas (ananas), Apfel (apple)
• “B” (B) like Banane (banana)
• “C” (C) like Computer (computer). “C” is mostly pronounced like “k” as in “Computer” because we mostly use it for foreign words.
• “D” (D) like Delfin (dolphin) or Denisa
• “E” (E) like Elefant (elephant)
• “F” (F) like Fisch (fish)
• “G” (G) like gehen (to go)

There is a song for children that starts like this: “ABCDEFG” (a-b-c-d-e-f-g) . At the end of this video, we can sing the whole song together. Now let’s look at the next letters of the German alphabet.

2. H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P

• “H” (H) like Haus (house)
• “I” (I) like Insel (island). Now that I think of it. An Island would be nice right now. Anyways, let’s go on.
• “J” (J) like Jäger (hunter)
• “K” (K) like Keller (basement)
• “L” (L) like Land (country)
• “M” (M) like Mama (mum)
• “N” (N) like naiv (naive)
• “O” (O) like Ofen (oven)
• “P” (P) like Papa (dad)

Chunk alert!

If you want to ask somebody how to spell something, you ask: Kannst du mir das bitte buchstabieren? (Can you spell that for me please?). Bitte (Please) means please in German.

VANESSA
Wie heißt du?
(What’s your name?)

DENISA
Ich heiße Denisa.
(My name is Denisa.)

VANESSA
Kannst du mir das bitte buchstabieren?
(Can you spell that for me please?)

Denisa
D-E-N-I-S-A.
(D-E-N-I-S-A.)

VANESSA
Super. Danke dir.
(Great. Thank you.)

What are chunks you ask?

Chunks are word combinations that natives use all the time and that you can learn by heart as a whole. Get the most important German chunks you need for a conversation in our free German essential chunking kit. The link is in the description.

3. Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

• “Q” like Qualität (quality). “Q” is only used with an “U” after it. Used in a word, you pronounce it like “K” and “W” together. “Qualität” (quality).
• “R”. Das “R” spricht man in Süddeutschland so aus: “R”. (The “R” is pronounced in the south of Germany like this: “R”) But in most of Germany, it should sound like this: “R”. If you want to practice your “R” sound, you can try to gargle with water or while brushing your teeth.

DENISA (gargles in her bathroom)

• “S” like Sonne (sun)
• “T” like Teller (plate)
• “U” like unten ( )
• “V” like Vogel (bird) or “Vanessa” (Vanessa) . You pronounce it like “F”, “Fisch” (fish) or like “W”, Wal (whale). That brings me to the next letter.
• “W” like Wal (whale)
• “X” like Xylophon (xylophone). We also use this only for foreign words. Just like “C”, “Computer” (computer).
• “Y” . It’s pronounced like “Jäger” (hunter) but an example to write “Y” is as in “Yoga” (yoga)
• “Z” like “Zelt” (tent)

So now you can sing the German alphabet song, too! It goes like this: (Denisa sings German alphabet song)

Let’s see how Martina is doing:

MARTINA
Meine Adresse ist Heinle Straße 1.
My address is Heinle Street 1.

VANESSA
Kannst du mir das bitte buchstabieren?
(Can you spell that for me please?)

MARTINA
H – E – I – N – L – E Straße 1.
( H – E – I – N -L- E Street 1 )

VANESSA
Danke dir. Bis später!
(Thank you. See you later!)

4.Umlaute

Other important letters in German are the so called “Umlaute”. These are vowels with dots on them.

There is:

• Ä like Äpfel (apples)
• Ö like Öfen (ovens) and
• Ü like Übung (exercise)

Ä and Ö are mostly used when nouns are plural.

DENISA
Gibst du mir die Äpfel bitte?
(Can you give me these apples please?)

VANESSA
Du meinst einen Apfel?
(You mean one apple?)

DENISA
Nein, die Äpfel. Mehrere.
(No, apples. More than one.)