The letters of the German alphabet
Like English, the German alphabet has 26 letters. The names for each letter are in many cases slightly different to their English equivalents or are pronounced in a different way. These letters and their names are listed in the table below. Click on the sound icon to the right of each letter to hear it being spoken by a native speaker.
The letters of the German alphabet |
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ah |
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beh |
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tseh |
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deh |
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eh |
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eff |
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geh |
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hah |
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eeh |
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yot |
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kah |
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ell |
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emm |
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enn |
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oh |
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peh |
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kuh |
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err |
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ess |
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teh |
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uh |
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fau |
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weh |
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iks |
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üppsilon |
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tsett |
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German umlauts and the eszett
The German alphabet song
To help you remember the letters of the German alphabet, there is a handy rhyme which is sung to the same tune as its English equivalent, although it has to be modified slightly to rhyme in German. Click either here or on the sound icon on left to listen to this song being sung by a native speaker. The text of the song is given in the box below:
Sounds 2: The German alphabet song |
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a, b, c, d, e, f, g |
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h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p |
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q, r, s, t, u, v, w |
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q, r, s, t, u, v, w |
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x, y, z - juchhe! |
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Das ist das ganze ABC! |
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(a, b, c, d, e, f, g |
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h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p |
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q, r, s, t, u, v, w |
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q, r, s, t, u, v, w |
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x, y, z - hooray! |
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This is the whole ABC!) |
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Alternative version of the song
If you wish to practise this as a group in class, click either here or on the sound icon on the left for a slower version of the same alphabet song. This version of the rhyme stops after each line to give you time to repeat it before moving on to the next line. And below are a number of further exercises to help you master the German alphabet and German pronunciation in general.
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Alphabet and Pronunciation Exercises |
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German alphabet and pronunciation exercises |
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Alphabet exercises |
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Spelling your name |
Listen to some German names being spelled and see if you can write them down. |
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German abbreviations |
Read out some German abbreviations and then hear how they should sound. |
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MFG - mit freundlichen Grüßen |
Watch a video for a German rap video made up of abbrevations and then sing along to the instrumental! |
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Pronunciation exercises |
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Anglicized German words |
How to pronounce German words that have made their way into the English language. |
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Similar words in English and German |
These words in this exercise may look familiar to us, but are spoken very differently in German. |
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Anglicized German names |
How should the names of these famous people from the German-speaking countries actually be pronounced? |
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German names for cities |
How do native German speakers refer to the following towns and cities? |
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German tongue-twisters |
Listen to and then try to repeat a collection of German tongue-twisters. |
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