🇩🇪 German for beginners (A1) · Chapter 1

German sounds: the alphabet, umlauts and pronunciation

German is spelled the way it sounds: learn about a dozen rules this week and you can read a Munich train announcement aloud before you understand a word of it.

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The basics

German pronunciation is far more regular than English: once you know about a dozen rules, you can read almost any German word aloud correctly, even one you have never seen.

The problem it solves: if you read German with English habits, you say Wasser as 'wasser' and Zug as 'zug', and nobody in Munich understands you. Fixing sounds on day one is far cheaper than unlearning them in month six.

The mental model: German is spelled the way it sounds. Most letters behave like English, four letters swap sounds (W → v, V → f, Z → ts, J → y), and a few letter groups are fixed packages (ei, ie, eu, sch, ch). Learn the packages and every new word becomes readable.

Explained

Read this aloud: Wie viel Wein? (How much wine?)

If you said 'wee feel wine', English got there first. A German says vee feel vine — and that one phrase already shows three rules: W is v, V is f, and ei is 'eye' while ie is 'ee'.

German is spelled the way it sounds. Learn the rules once and you never have to guess again.

The consonants that change sides

W  → v    Wasser (VAH-ser) water, wie (vee) how
V  → f    Vater (FAH-ter) father, vier (feer) four
Z  → ts   Zug (tsook) train, zehn (tsayn) ten
J  → y    ja (yah) yes, Juli (YOO-lee) July
S + vowel → z   Sonne (ZON-nuh) sun, sieben (ZEE-ben)
ß  → ss   Straße (SHTRAH-suh) street
sch → sh  Schule (SHOO-luh) school
st-/sp- → sht/shp   Stadt (shtat), sprechen (SHPREH-khen)

End-of-word hardening: b, d, g at the end become p, t, k — Hund (dog) is 'hoont', Tag (day) is 'tahk'.

h after a vowel is silent and just makes the vowel long: sehr (zair), Uhr (oor).

The vowel packages

letters   sounds like        example
-------   ----------------   -------------------------
ei / ai   eye                drei (dry), Mai (my)
ie        ee                 vier (feer), Liebe (LEE-buh)
eu / äu   oy (as in boy)     neu (noy), Häuser (HOY-zer)
au        ow (as in how)     Haus (house), Frau (frow)
ä         e in 'bed'         Käse (KAY-zuh), Männer
ö         'ay' + round lips  schön, Köln, hören
ü         'ee' + round lips  Tür, müde, München

The rule for ei / ie is the only one you must drill: say the second letter. ei ends in i, so it says 'eye'. ie ends in e, so it says 'ee'.

Sounds you already have in Hindi and Urdu

You have an advantage most English speakers do not.

• ch after a, o, u — Buch, Bach, acht — is the ख़ of Urdu khana, khush, khud. Throaty, with friction.
• ch after e, i, ä, ö, ü — ich, nicht, München — is softer: the hiss at the start of English 'huge'. Smile slightly and whisper it.
• German R at the start of a syllable is made at the back of the throat, close to ग़ in ghazal. At the end of a word it melts into 'uh': Vater ≈ FAH-tuh.
• t and d use the tongue position of त / द (behind the teeth), never the curled-back ट / ड of Indian English.
• ü: say 'ee', then round your lips as if to whistle, without moving the tongue.

The alphabet — for spelling your name

A ah     B beh    C tseh   D deh    E eh
F eff    G geh    H hah    I ee     J yot
K kah    L ell    M emm    N enn    O oh
P peh    Q koo    R err    S ess    T teh
U oo     V fow    W veh    X iks    Y ÜP-see-lon
Z tset
Ä ah-umlaut   Ö oh-umlaut   Ü oo-umlaut   ß ess-tset

The ones that trip Indians spelling names: J = yot, V = fow, W = veh, E = eh (not 'ee'), I = ee (not 'eye'). Rajiv is spelled err-ah-yot-ee-fow.

Spelling your name at the Bürgeramt

Tuesday, 9:40, the city office in Stuttgart. You are registering your flat.

Beamtin: Wie heißen Sie?

You: Venkatesh. Priya Venkatesh.

Beamtin: Wie schreibt man das?

You: Fow, eh, enn, kah, ah, teh, eh, ess, hah.

Beamtin: Mit V? Nicht mit W?

You: Ja, mit V.

Beamtin: Danke. Und der Vorname?

You: Peh, err, ee, ÜP-see-lon, ah.

Why did she ask V or W? Because to a German ear, the English 'v' sound in Venkatesh is the letter W. Spell it, never assume.

Wie schreibt man das? = How do you spell that? Vorname = first name.

Wie viel Wein? — 'vee feel vine'.

That one line holds four rules: W is v, V is f, ie is ee, ei is eye.

Add Zug = tsook (Z is ts) and ja = yah (J is y) and you have every letter that swaps sides.

For ei vs ie: say the second letter.

Mistakes Indian learners make

• One sound for v and w. Indian English often uses one in-between sound for both. German needs two clean ones: W = v (Wasser), V = f (vier).
• Flipping ei and ie — Bier said as 'byer', mein as 'meen'. Say the second letter.
• Retroflex t and d (ट, ड). Use dental त, द: Tag, Deutsch.
• Dropping the final -e — Schule is SHOO-luh, not 'shool'; Danke is DAHN-kuh.
• English z in Zug. It is always ts.
• Writing ß as B. ß is a sharp s; if you cannot type it, write ss — never B.
• Lower-case nouns. ich trinke wasser is wrong; Ich trinke Wasser.

Words to know

In two minutes

• German spelling is phonetic: one spelling, one sound, with very few exceptions.
• Four letters swap sounds compared with English: W says v, V says f, Z says ts, J says y.
• ei sounds like 'eye' and ie like 'ee' — always say the second letter.
• The umlauts ä, ö, ü are separate sounds that change meaning; ß is a sharp ss.
• sch is 'sh', and st / sp at the start of a word are 'sht' / 'shp'.
• ch is a throaty ख़ after a, o, u (Buch) and a soft hiss after e, i (ich).
• b, d, g at the end of a word harden to p, t, k; final -e is always pronounced.
• Every noun is capitalised, and stress usually falls on the first syllable.

Test yourself

There are 10 questions, 4 puzzles and 5 recall cards for this lesson in the app — the recall cards come back on later days, just before you would forget.