German Alphabet

Alphabet

The modern German alphabet consists of the twenty-six letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet plus four special letters.

	Name (IPA)	Spelling Alphabet
A	a	/aː/	Anton
B	b	/beː/	Berta
C	c	/t͡seː/	Cäsar
D	d	/deː/	Dora
E	e	/eː/	Emil
F	f	/ɛf/	Friedrich
G	g	/ɡeː/	Gustav
H	h	/haː/	Heinrich
I	i	/iː/	Ida
J	j	/jɔt/; in Austria sometimes /jeː/	Julius
K	k	/kaː/	Kaufmann; in Austria Konrad
L	l	/ɛl/	Ludwig
M	m	/ɛm/	Martha
N	n	/ɛn/	Nordpol
O	o	/oː/	Otto
P	p	/peː/	Paula
Q	q	/kuː/; in Austria /kveː/	Quelle
R	r	/ɛʁ/	Richard
S	s	/ɛs/	Samuel; in Austria Siegfried
T	t	/teː/	Theodor
U	u	/uː/	Ulrich
V	v	/faʊ̯/	Viktor
W	w	/veː/	Wilhelm
X	x	/ɪks/	Xanthippe; in Austria Xaver
Y	y	/ˈʏpsilɔn/; in Austria /ʏˈpsiːlɔn/	Ypsilon
Z	z	/t͡sɛt/	Zacharias; in Austria Zürich

Special Alphabet

German uses three letter-diacritic combinations (Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü) using the umlaut and one ligature (ß (called Eszett (sz) or scharfes S, sharp s)) which are officially considered distinct letters of the alphabet.

	Name (IPA)	Spelling alphabet
Ä	ä	/ɛː/	Ärger
Ö	ö	/øː/	Ökonom; in Austria Österreich
Ü	ü	/yː/	Übermut; in Austria Übel
ẞ	ß	Eszett: /ɛsˈt͡sɛt/ scharfes S: /ˈʃaʁfəs ɛs/	Eszett; in Austria and Southern Germany Scharfes S