German pronunciation

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1 The German alphabet
2 Notes for English speakers
3 Special Letter Combinations
4 Rules for whole words

The German alphabet

<td>house</td> <tr> <td></td> <td></th> <td></td> <td>silent behind a vowel</td> </tr> <tr> <td>I</td> <td>ih</td> <td>ɪ</td> <td>hit (short)</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>i</td> <td>meet (long)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>J</td> <td>jott</td> <td>j</td> <td>yes</td> </tr> <tr> <td>K</td> <td>ka</td> <td>k</td> <td>key</td> </tr> <tr> <td>L</td> <td>ell</td> <td>l</td> <td>love</td> </tr> <tr> <td>M</td> <td>emm</td> <td>m</td> <td>moon</td> </tr> <tr> <td>N</td> <td>enn</td> <td>n</td> <td>no</td> </tr> <tr> <td>O</td> <td>oh</td> <td>ɔ</td> <td>hot (short)</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>o</td> <td>French eau</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Ö</td> <td>öh</td> <td>œ</td> <td>French jeune (short), shorter than girl</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>ø</td> <td>French euro (long)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>P</td> <td>pe</td> <td>p</td> <td>pay</td> </tr> <tr> <td>QU</td> <td>ku</td> <td>k v</td> <td>kvetch (Q never occurs alone)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>R</td> <td>err</td> <td>ʀ</td> <td>rain (actually a uvular trill or voiced fricative)</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>ɐ</td> <td>gangsta (behind a vowel and preceding a consonant)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>S</td> <td>ess</td> <td>z</td> <td>zoo</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>s</td> <td>see (at the end of a syllable)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>T</td> <td>te</td> <td>t</td> <td>tea</td> </tr> <tr> <td>U</td> <td>uh</td> <td>ʊ</td> <td>put (short)</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>u</td> <td>fool (long)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Ü</td> <td>üh</td> <td>ʏ</td> <td>rounded variant of hit (short)</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>y</td> <td>French pure (long)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>V</td> <td>vau</td> <td>f</td> <td>fair</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>v</td> <td>vet (in foreign words)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>W</td> <td>we</td> <td>v</td> <td>vet</td> </tr> <tr> <td>X</td> <td>ix</td> <td>k s</td> <td>fax</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Y</td> <td>ypsilon</td> <td>ʏ</td> <td>rounded variant of hit (short)</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>y</td> <td>French pure (long)</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td>j</td> <td>yes (sometimes before a vowel)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Z</td> <td>zett</td> <td>ʦ</td> <td>nuts</td> </tr> </table>

Notes for English speakers

Ä is different from A, Ö is different from O, and Ü is different from U.
The letter S is pronounced /z/, except at the end of a syllable.
The letter Z is pronounced /ts/.
The consonant /z/ is written S and does not occur at the end of a syllable.
The consonant /s/ is written SS or ß and does not occur at the beginning of a syllable.
The letter V is pronounced /f/ except for words of foreign origin.
The letter W is pronounced /v/. The sound /w/ does not exist in German.
The letter Y is pronounced like the letter Ü, except sometimes before a vowel.
At the end of a syllable, a voiced consonant always becomes unvoiced.
Letter combinations not mentioned in the following list are pronounced as a combination of their individual letters. So the word Knopf is indeed pronounced /knɔpf/.

Special Letter Combinations

Double consonants (FF, LL, MM, NN, PP, RR, TT, rarely BB, DD, GG, KK, WW, ZZ) are always pronounced as one. They indicate that the preceding vowel is short. The only exception to this rule is SS.

Double vowels (AA, EE, OO) are pronounced as one, but long. An H behind a vowel has the same effect (AH, ÄH, EH, IH, OH, ÖH, UH, ÜH).
Apart from that, a vowel is usually short when preceding several consonants, long when preceding one consonant.

Letter	Name	IPA	Approximate English Sound
A	ah	a	cup (short), father (long)
Ä	äh	ε	get (or longer)
B	be	b	ball
		p	pay (at the end of a syllable)
C	ce	k	key
		ʦ	nuts (before E, I or Y)
D	de	d	day
		t	tea (at the end of a syllable)
E	eh	ε	get (short)
		e	French été
F	eff	f	fair
G	ge	g	go
		k	key (at the end of a syllable)
H	ha</th> <td>h

AI	a ɪ	eye
AU	a ʊ	cow
ÄU	ɔ ɪ	boy
CH	ç	voiceless variant of j, similar to ship
	x	Scottish loch, Spanish hijo (after A, AU, O or U)
	k	key (at the beginning of a word, but not before E and I)
CHS	k s	fax
CK	k	key
EI	a ɪ	eye
ER	ɐ	gangsta (at the end of a word with more than one syllable)
EU	ɔ ɪ	boy
IE	i	meet
IG	i ç	like German "ich" at the end of a word, but not in compounds
IGT	i ç t	like German "icht" at the end of a word
NG	ŋ	sing
NK	ŋ k	bank
PH	f	photo
RH/RRH	ʀ	pronounced like the letter R
SCH	ʃ	ship
SP	ʃ p	fish pond (at the beginning of a word)
SS/ß	s	see
ST	ʃ t	fish tank (at the beginning of a word)
TH	t	tea
TI	ʦ j	suits you (in words of Latin origin if the I is unstressed and it comes before a vowel)
TZ	ʦ	nuts

Rules for whole words

Please respect the following rules for word pronunciation in the given order:

Compound words are pronounced like their individual components, not bound.
- Example: Hausarzt is pronounced /ˈhaʊsʔaʶtst/, not /ˈhaʊzaʶtst/.
If a word starts with a prefix, the prefix and the rest are pronounced distinctly, not bound.
- Example: abarbeiten is pronounced /ˈapʰʔaʶbaɪtʰən/, not /abaʶˈbaɪtʰən/.
If a word starts with a vowel, you pronounce a glottal stop at the beginning to prevent the last letter of the previous word from influencing this word.
- Example: das Ei is pronounced /dasˈʔaɪ/, while da sei is pronounced /daːˈzaɪ/.
Words of foreign origin (especially loan words from English and French) are pronounced (almost) as in the original language. This does not apply to Greek and Latin words.
- Examples: Restaurant is pronounced /ʀɛstoˈʀɑ͂/, Manager is pronounced /ˈmɛnɛdʒɐ/.
In colloquial German, an E at the end of a verb can be dropped. The verb ending EN is sometimes shortened to N.