German Alphabet and Letter Names · German Language

1.The 26 basic letters

German uses the 26 basic letters of the Latin alphabet:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

German writing also regularly uses the umlauts Ä Ö Ü and the letter ß (with an uppercase form ẞ).

Letter	German letter name	Name in IPA	TTS
A a	a	`[aː]`	a
B b	be	`[beː]`	be
C c	ce	`[tseː]`	ce
D d	de	`[deː]`	de
E e	e	`[eː]`	e
F f	ef	`[ɛf]`	ef
G g	ge	`[ɡeː]`	ge
H h	ha	`[haː]`	ha
I i	i	`[iː]`	i
J j	Jot	`[jɔt]`	Jot
K k	ka	`[kaː]`	ka
L l	el	`[ɛl]`	el
M m	em	`[ɛm]`	em
N n	en	`[ɛn]`	en
O o	o	`[oː]`	o
P p	pe	`[peː]`	pe
Q q	qu	`[kuː]`	qu
R r	er	`[ɛʁ]`	er
S s	es	`[ɛs]`	es
T t	te	`[teː]`	te
U u	u	`[uː]`	u
V v	Vau	`[faʊ̯]`	Vau
W w	we	`[veː]`	we
X x	ix	`[ɪks]`	ix
Y y	Ypsilon	`[ˈʏpsilɔn]`	Ypsilon
Z z	Zett	`[tsɛt]`	Zett

The IPA column shows the pronunciation of the letter name, not every sound that letter may represent inside words. At the beginning it is not necessary to memorise IPA: it is enough to recognise the letter, know its German name, and remember that the name and the sound in a word are different things.

2.Ä, Ö, Ü, and ß

Character	Name	TTS	What matters
Ä ä	Ä	Ä	An umlauted `a`; its own vowel form
Ö ö	Ö	Ö	A distinct vowel
Ü ü	Ü	Ü	A distinct vowel
ß / ẞ	Eszett / scharfes S	Eszett · scharfes S	A specifically German letter; `ẞ` is the uppercase form

An umlaut is often part of the word form itself — not optional decoration:

a → ä
o → ö
u → ü

Mann

Männer

Buch

Bücher

groß

größer

ß is called Eszett or scharfes S. It is not the same as B:

Straße

groß

heißen

The uppercase form ẞ exists, though it is less common.

3.Letter name and sound in a word

A letter name is how the written symbol is named when listing or spelling letters. A sound in a word is how that letter is pronounced in a particular word. These are not the same thing.

Letter	Name	Example	Typical sound
`J`	Jot	ja	`[j]`
`V`	Vau	Vater	`[f]`
`V`	Vau	Vase	`[v]`
`W`	we	Wasser	`[v]`
`Z`	Zett	Zeit	`[ts]`

Letters that often confuse beginners.

J (Jot) — often [j] in words:

Jahr

jung

V (Vau) — often [f]; in some loanwords [v]:

Vater

Vogel

vier

Vase

Video

W (we) — in ordinary German words usually [v]:

Wasser

Wort

wir

Z (Zett) — in words usually [ts]:

Zeit

zehn

Zimmer

Y (Ypsilon) — comparatively rare; often in loanwords, names, and international vocabulary.

Letter names are useful, but reading words also needs vowels, vowel length, diphthongs, and combinations such as ch, sch, sp, and st.

4.When letter names are needed

Letter names matter when a word or code has to be spelled out: a name, an e-mail address, a username, a code, a booking number, an unfamiliar word.

The key verb is buchstabieren (to spell letter by letter). Useful phrases:

Wie schreibt man das?

Können Sie das bitte buchstabieren?

Fast recognition and spelling drills belong in Practice.

5.Uppercase and lowercase

Each letter has an uppercase and a lowercase form (A a, B b, …). This matters especially in German because nouns are capitalized:

das Haus

die Sprache

der Name

Detailed capitalization rules belong to orthography; here it is enough to recognise both forms confidently.

Common early mix-ups:

confusing the names V (Vau) and W (we);
treating ß as a form of B;
replacing ä, ö, ü with a, o, u without reason.