German grammar by topic › German pronunciation and spelling, explained

German pronunciation and spelling, explained

German is spelled much more regularly than English: once you know the rules, you can read almost any word aloud. The new things for English speakers are the umlauts ä, ö and ü, the two sounds of ch, and ß.

Vowels are either long or short, and the spelling usually tells you which: a double consonant after a vowel means it's short (Mitte), an h, a double vowel or ie means it's long (ihn, Staat, Miete).

The essentials

W sounds like English v, v usually like f, z like ts, and j like the y in yes: Wasser, Vater, Zeit, ja.
Ch after i, e, ä, ö, ü and consonants is soft, as in ich; after a, o, u and au it's the rough sound of Bach.
Ei sounds like English eye, ie like ee: mein, Wien. Eu and äu sound like oy: heute, Häuser.
Sp and st at the start of a word sound like shp and sht: Sport, Straße.
ß is written after a long vowel or a diphthong (Straße, heißen), ss after a short one (Fluss, muss). Switzerland writes ss everywhere.
Every noun starts with a capital letter, and most words stress the first syllable: Arbeit, Mittag.

Every lesson on this topic

Each lesson has a full explanation, examples you can listen to, and exercises with answers.

A0 (the A0 course)

The alphabet and the vowels: German letters, long and short vowels, and the umlauts ä, ö, ü
Consonants that surprise you: w, v, z, j, s, ß, sch, sp, st, the two ch sounds, and hard endings
Word stress and capital letters: Most words are stressed on the first syllable, and every noun has a capital

In the app, these lessons are taught one idea at a time with audio, practised with questions that explain the rule when you slip, and brought back for review on later days.

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German pronunciation and spelling, explained

The essentials

Every lesson on this topic

A0 (the A0 course)

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