Capital t in German. German alphabet and pronunciation
German alphabet was created on the basis of the Greco-Roman alphabet, table German alphabet includes: lowercase and uppercase letters German alphabet, pronunciation German alphabet, transcription of letters German alphabet. Why is it worth learning the German alphabet? A clear knowledge of the German alphabet and transcriptions is a key factor when using dictionaries, writing and reading texts. Everything is very simple, because in order to master the German language, you should also know the German alphabet in order to be able to read and quickly navigate in the dictionary. In addition, when talking on the phone, you can often hear the following phrase: "buchstabieren Sie bitte!", Which means something like this: "I can not understand your foreign pronunciation, please spell it," which once again proves the need to study the German alphabet. We will talk about the spelling of the German language and the main rules of reading on the pages of our site, and now we will return to the German alphabet itself. Names of letters, i.e. the sounds that we pronounce when naming the letters of the German alphabet, as well as in English, differ significantly from other languages and the original ones - Latin. As well as for English and French, the basis for the German alphabet are Latin letters: A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z, besides them there are also umlauts : Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü and the ß ligature. In total we get 26+3+1= 30 characters. I want to note that umlauts and ligatures are not considered letters, so the correct answer to the question “how many letters are in the German alphabet?” will be - 26. The English and German alphabets have a lot in common, since the languages \u200b\u200bhave the same roots and belong to the same language group. If you are familiar with the English alphabet, then learning the German alphabet will be much easier. Despite the fact that the sounds denoting letters in the two languages are different, reading the letters of the German alphabet is much easier than reading English. The table of the German alphabet shows the Russian and classical transcriptions. The Russian version is not entirely correct and rather serves as a hint. Most letters of the German alphabet have a constant sound correspondence, so transcription is not used as often as in English. We suggest you learn the German alphabet with the help of a fun video at the end of the article. Thus, we got acquainted with the German alphabet, as well as the umlauts of the German language.
Letters of the German alphabet
Pronunciation table of the German alphabet
Umlauts Ä, Ö, Ü.
Umlauts or umlauts?
Often the question arises how to write "umlauts" or "umlauts"? In fact, this is true, and so, everything will depend on how you read the word Umlaut. The most commonly used word "umlaut", and we will take it for the truth.
So what is an umlaut if not a letter?
Omitting scientific terms and definitions, an umlaut can be called a sound phenomenon, which consists in changing the sound and timbre of vowels.
There are three umlauts in German Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü.
As you can see, they are distinguished from ordinary vowels by the presence of two dots above the letter.
In order to correctly pronounce the sounds of the German alphabet when reading umlauts, remember the following rules:
- Ä. If you see this symbol after a vowel or at the beginning of a word, it will read - "E", and if it comes after a consonant, then - "E".
- Ö. Tongue in position as in the pronunciation of "E", lips as in "O"
- Ü . Tongue in position as in the pronunciation of "I", lips as in "U"
A few examples:
Die Hande
Die Ahre
Osterreich
Zwolf
Wunderschön!
Die Ubung
Zu kussen
Kuhl
Die Manner
Hauser
Die Hofe
Die Bucher
Die Gaste
How individual umlaut characters are read like this:
- "ä" - a-umlaut
- "ü" - u-umlaut
- "ö" - o-umlaut
More about umlauts:
- In some cases, for example, if there is no German keyboard layout, umlauts can be replaced with digraphs (two letters):
ä - ae
ü – ua
ö-oe
- In the German alphabet, umlauts come immediately after the corresponding vowels, which will come in handy when looking up dictionary entries.
- How to insert an umlaut sign if there is no German layout on the keyboard? In addition to buying a keyboard, there is another way:
Ä - Hold down the "Alt" key and press "0228" in turn
Ü - Hold down the "Alt" key and press "0252" in turn
Ö - Hold down the "Alt" key and press "0246" in turn
Don't forget to switch the keyboard layout to English.
Ligature ß (es-cet)
Another sign requiring special attention in German alphabet is an escete. This is not quite a letter, an escet is a ligature, or, more simply, a sign that combines two letters " f" and " S»:
f+s= ß
In words, the escet is read as a long " WITH". For instance: weiß - weiss, groß - gross, Straße [strasse]
A few examples:
der Floss
der Fuss
die Gröse
der Grüss
das Mass
die Muse
die Strasse
die Sauce
der Stoss
More about the ß sign:
- "scharfes s" - the second name of ß
- If you do not have a German keyboard layout, ß can be safely replaced with ss.
- For the case when you are in doubt whether to write "ss" or "ß", there is a rule: escet is written only after long vowels, in other cases double S is written.
When sorting dictionary entries, "ß" is equal to a double "S".
The ß is used only in Germany and Austria, in other countries it is replaced by "ss".
On June 25, 2008, the large letter "ß" was included in the technical standards. Prior to this, for 130 years there were disputes about whether the Germans needed a large es-zet. Let me remind you that ß can be either in the middle or at the end of a word.
We look at the material with the pronunciation of the letters of the German alphabet:
And one more video to fix the letters of the German alphabet:
The German alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet with diacritics for vowels ( ä , ö , ü ) and a letter ß , not used in other languages. There are alternative spellings for these letters: ae, oe, ue, ss, but their use loses its uniqueness.
2. Transliteration
Some of the German letters are translated into Russian unambiguously:
| b | → b | n | → n | t | → T | ||
| d | → d | p | → P | w | → v | ||
| f | → f | q | → To | x | → ks | ||
| g | → G | r | → R | y | → and | ||
| m | → m | ß | → With | z | → c |
3. J
Combinations j + vowel transferred like this:
At the beginning of a word and after vowels ja → I am, ja (je) → e, jo → yo, jo → yo, ju → Yu, ju → yuu: Jahns → Jens, Jul → july;
After consonants ja → ya, ja (je) → ye, jo → yo, jo → yo, ju (ju)→ ew: Lilje → Lilje.
Before a consonant and at the end of a word j → th.
4. Vowels and their combinations
German diphthongs are transmitted in transcription according to the following rules: eu → Oh, ei → ah, ie → and. A common tradition to pass eu (ei) → Hey (her) is considered obsolete today, although many names and surnames are transmitted according to these rules: Reuters → Reuters, Geiger → Geiger.
After vowels e (ä ) → uh, i → th. At the beginning of a word e (ä , ö ) → uh, ü → and.
In other cases, vowels are transmitted by transliteration: a → a, e (ä ) → e, i → and, o → O, ö → yo, u → at, ü → Yu, y → and.
5. S, C, H
letter combinations sch, chh, ch, ph, rh, th in transcription are transmitted, respectively: sch → w, chh → hg, ch → X, ph → f, rh → R, th → T.
Combinations tsch, zsch and chs wholly belonging to one syllable are transmitted according to the rules tsch (zsch) → h, chs → ks: Achslach → Axlakh, Zschopau → chopau. Sometimes the components of these letter combinations refer to different syllables, in which case they are transmitted independently: Altschul → Altshul.
Before front vowels ( i, e, in borrowings also y) With → c: Cilli → cilly. In other contexts c → To: Carl → Charles.
Before letters p and t at the beginning of a word or part of a compound word s → w: Spray → spree. Before vowels single s → h, otherwise s → With.
In a position between a vowel and a consonant (or between a vowel and e) h omitted in transcription. In other provisions h → X.
The tradition of transmitting everywhere h → G Today it is considered obsolete, but many names and surnames are transmitted precisely according to this rule: Tannhauser → Tannhäuser, Heisenberg → Heisenberg.
The "transcriptor" does not know how to divide German words into syllables and compound words into parts.
6. Consonants
letter combinations gk and tz passed according to the rules gk → G, tz → c.
doubled ll It is conveyed in different ways, depending on the position in the word:
between vowels ll → ll: Ellerbach → Ellerbach;
At the end of a word and between consonants ll → ll: Tellkoppe → Tellkoppe;
In other positions ll → l or eh.
Before vowels l → l, before consonants and at the end of words l → eh.
In German names and titles v → f: Volkmar → Volkmar. But in names of foreign origin v can be transmitted through v: Crivitz → Krivits.
"Transcriptor" always transmits v how f.
7. Double letters
Doubled (long) German vowels are always transmitted as one: Klopeinersee → Klopeinersee.
Doubled German consonants are transmitted as doubled and in transcription if they are in a position between vowels or at the end of a word. In other positions, doubled German consonants correspond to one consonant letter of transcription: Blatt → Blatt, Schaffran → Saffron.
letter combination ck corresponds kk in a position between vowels, otherwise ck → To: Becker → becker, Dick → Dick.
In the German alphabet, in modern times, there are 26 stem letters. In addition to them, there are 3 more umlauts (Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü) and ligatures (a combination of two letters, in German this is ß). The basis of German is the Latin alphabet.
It may seem that German is similar to other Latin-based languages. But, the pronunciation of letters in words, sounds, are very different.
To learn German, you first need to memorize the alphabet. This is a very important element in learning a foreign language. Learn how to learn German.
Before you start learning the alphabet (below you will find the alphabet and its pronunciation video), remember that umlauts Ää Öö Üü - do not have names, their task is to designate sounds.
Sound Ää:
Sound Öö:
Sound Üü:
Escetom ß - denote double s (ss). It sounds like a Russian "s". It can be found only at the end or in the middle of the text. Also, escet is not used in writing.
Escet sounds like this:
Alphabet
Pronunciation of the letters of the German alphabet
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It's time to reinforce this skill on the other hand - learn how to write German letters by hand. Moreover, not printed letters, namely written ones.
What is it for?
- First, by writing words by hand, we connect motor memory to the learning process. This is a valuable resource when learning a foreign language, it must be used!
- Secondly, you are learning German not for virtual purposes, but for real life. But in real life, you really may need to fill out some forms, questionnaires in German, perhaps handwritten applications, etc.
And you will be partly right: of course, these are the same letters, but, as it should be for original cultures, there are some features in the German written font. And it is useful to know them so that when faced, to be able to read what is written.
And for many people, handwriting is far from the school norm, to put it mildly. And in order to understand this kind of handwritten "fonts", it is important to have your own writing skill that has evolved through different situations - writing in a hurry, on scraps of paper, in uncomfortable positions, on a school board with chalk or marker, etc. But most importantly, you need to clearly imagine to himself the original, which each hand-writer undergoes his own individual changes. This original will be discussed later.
German written fonts
At the moment, there are several written German scripts that are used for teaching in elementary school, and, accordingly, are used later in life. In one Germany, for example, there are several "standards" adopted at different times. Some federal states have clear guidelines for the use of a certain font in elementary school, while others rely on the choice of the teacher.latin script(Lateinische Ausgangsschrift) was adopted in Germany in 1953. In practice, it differs little from its predecessor of 1941, the most noticeable is the new look of the capital letter S and the new cursive spelling of the letters X, x (the horizontal dash in the center also left the capital X), plus the "loops" were abolished - in the center of capital letters E, R and in connecting dashes (arcs) of the letters O, V, W and Ö.
The GDR also made adjustments to the primary school curricula, and in 1958 the Schreibschrift-Vorlage script was adopted, which I do not show here, since it repeats the above version almost exactly, except for the following innovations:
- new cursive lowercase t (see next font)
- slightly modified spelling of the letter ß (see next font)
- the right half of the X, x is now slightly separated from the left
- dots over i and j became dashes, similar to dashes over umlauts
- the horizontal line at the capital Z disappeared
school writing font(Schulausgangsschrift):
Germany also went in the direction of simplification, having developed its own version of a similar font in 1969, which they called “simplified”. The innovation and feature of this font was that all connecting dashes were brought to the same level, to the rather "line" of small letters.
Simplified written font(Vereinfachte Ausgangsschrift):
In general, it is not the same as the "school" font above, although there are some stylistic similarities. By the way, dots over i, j have been preserved, while strokes over umlauts, on the contrary, have become more like dots. Notice the lowercase s, t, f, z (!), as well as the ß.
It is worth mentioning one more option, under the solid name "base font" (Grundschrift), all the letters of which, both lowercase and uppercase, are more similar to printed ones, and they are written separately from each other. This variant, developed in 2011, is being tested in some schools and, if adopted at the national level, could replace the above three fonts.
Austrian script fonts
To complete the picture, I will give two more variants of the capital German alphabet, which are used in Austria. I will leave them without comment, for independent comparison with the above fonts, drawing your attention only to a couple of features - in the 1969 font in lowercase t and f, the crossbar is written the same way (with a "loop"). Another feature no longer concerns the alphabet itself - the spelling of the number 9 differs from the version to which we are accustomed.Austrian school font 1969:
Austrian school font(Österreichische Schulschrift) 1995:
What written German font should I use?
With such a variety of "standard" fonts, a reasonable question is which one to follow in writing? There is no definitive answer to this question, but some recommendations can be made:- If you are learning German with the aim of applying it to a specific country, such as Austria, choose between the written samples of that country. Otherwise, choose between the German variants.
- For independent learners of German at a conscious age, I would recommend the "Latin" written script. This is a real classic and traditional German writing. For an adult, it will not be difficult to master it. One way or another, you can try each of the above options and choose the one that you like best.
- For children who are just learning to write letters and it is important to learn them faster, you can choose between "school" and "simplified" fonts. The latter is perhaps more preferred.
- For language learners in a general education school, this issue is not particularly important, you need to follow the model that the teacher or textbook gives (and requires to follow). As a rule, in our schools this is the "Latin" script. Sometimes - his GDR modification of 1958, which gives out the way the lowercase t is written.
- You must decide on the German font that you will follow on the letter. Try different options and make your choice.
- You must learn to handwrite all the letters of the alphabet, uppercase and lowercase. Repeat the lesson, then practice writing all the letters of the alphabet (in order) from memory. When self-checking, carefully compare each of your strokes with the sample. Repeat this paragraph until you make a single mistake - neither in the spelling of the letters, nor in their order.
german letters based on the Latin alphabet, german letters- the topic of the article. 26 German letters present in German. Additional german letters, which are not included in the alphabet, but are often found in a variety of words, these are the three umlauts Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü and the ligature ß. Latest german letters obey alphabetical order, that is, in dictionaries they immediately follow A a, O o, U u and double ss, respectively. In some cases, additional variants of German letters are used, but this is typical only for some dialects and, in particular, for words of foreign origin. German letters can form different letter combinations in words, which obey certain reading rules. There are separate sounds that are transmitted by two, three or more German letters. At the same time, one German letter, when read, can give two sounds (affricate), while some German letters can denote different sounds depending on their position in the word and neighboring letters. All double consonant German letters convey one sound and at the same time indicate the brevity of the previous vowel sound, for example: rennen - rush, rush. All doubled vowels of German letters when read are one long sound, for example: der Aal [a: l] - eel. Standing after the vowels of the German letters h is never read, but only indicates the longitude of the previous vowel. To convey the Russian letters i, ё, u in writing, the letter combinations of the German letters ja, jo, ju are used, which most closely convey the sound of these letters that have no analogues in German, for example: Yura - Jura, Yasha - Jascha. The combination of two or more consonant German letters indicates the brevity of the previous vowel even in cases where these consonants denote one sound, for example löschen - go out, fade out, erase. German vowels that are at the beginning of a root or word are always pronounced much sharper, with a so-called hard attack, for example: der Alter [`altәα]. All consonants in German letters are solid, all voiced ones are muffled and pronounced semi-voiced, and at the end of words they are always completely deafened, for example: der Dieb vor. German consonants cannot be softened before vowels, as is done in Russian. In German, German consonants are always hard. Do not get too hung up on the written version of German letters, write as you like, the main thing is to be understood. Only approximate sketches of handwritten German letters are given here. Pay attention to the umlauts (umlauts) Ää Öö Üü - these are German letters "without a name", they only denote sounds.
Letters of the German alphabet
|
Letter of the German alphabet |
Traditional transcription |
Russian pronunciation |
Examples of words with this letter |
A a |
a mtlich - service, official | ||
Bb |
b elgisch - Belgian | ||
c c |
c chronisch - chronic | ||
D d |
d auerhaft - long, long | ||
e e |
e hrlich - frank, honest | ||
F f |
f uturistisch - futuristic | ||
G g |
g anzlich – whole, perfect | ||
H h |
(the sound [x] is like a very light exhalation) |
häufig - frequent, numerous | |
I i |
i nnerlich - internal | ||
J j |
j etzig - current, current | ||
K k |
k räftig - strong, big, strong | ||
l l |
lächerlich - funny, ludicrous | ||
M m |
m ißtrauisch - suspicious | ||
N n |
n eutral - neutral | ||
O o |
o rientalisch - eastern | ||
Pp |
p olnisch - Polish | ||
Q q |
q uellend - breaking through (about the source) | ||
R r |
r egnerisch - rainy | ||
S s |
s moken - to gather, gather | ||
T t |
tüchtig - skillful, efficient | ||
U u |
u rsprünglich - original, original | ||
Vv |
v erträglich - tolerable, tolerable | ||
Ww |
w ahnsinnig - crazy, crazy | ||
X x |
X enon-Scheinwerfer xenon headlights | ||
Y y |
[upsilon] |
d y namisch - dynamic | |
Zz |
z ynisch - cynical | ||
| Additional German letters to the Latin alphabet underlying the German language: | |||
Ä ä |
a-umlaut: |
ä rgerlich - annoying, annoying | |
Ö ö |
o-umlaut: like "ё" in the word "L yo nya" |
ö rtlich - local | |
Ü ü |
u-umlaut: like "yu" in "L" Yu sya" |
ü berflussig - redundant | |
ß |
like sound [s] |
Das Gescho ß - tier, floor | |
Thus, in this table, all existing German letters of the alphabet were considered, including four additional ones. Further, German letters can form different letter combinations in words, which obey certain reading rules. Let's try to present them also in the form of a visual table.
Letters of the German alphabet, forming characteristic letter combinations and rules for reading individual German letters
| letter combination | Sound features | transcr. | Russian reading | Word examples |
| combination of two vowels | der M ai n - Main (river) | |||
| long vowel low sound | der H Ah n - crane; rooster | |||
| before e, ö, i, y, ü one consonant gives an affricate sound | das C yklon - cyclone | |||
| in words borrowed from other languages, more often at the beginning of a word | die C ouch - couch | |||
| when placed after the vowels u, o, a; the place of sound formation is much lower in the larynx than in Russian [x] | die Bu ch e - beech | |||
| sometimes at the beginning of a word; the combination of two consonants produces one explosive voiceless consonant | das Ch lor - chlorine | |||
| after ä, i, ö, e, y, ü, as well as after m, r, l, n, the combination of two consonants gives one voiceless fricative consonant sound similar to the sound [x] in the word "cunning" | die Bu ch er – booksdie Mön ch e - monks | |||
| in loanwords | die Cou ch- sofa, couch | |||
| as an indivisible combination of letters within one syllable | der La ch s - salmon, salmon | |||
| the combination of two consonants produces one voiceless plosive consonant | der Zu ck er - sugar | |||
| short vowel sound in a closed syllable | h e ll - light | |||
| long vowel | Das M eh l - flour | |||
| diphthong | leise - quiet | |||
| diphthong | die W ie ge - cradle | |||
| diphthong | die L eu te - people | |||
| long vowel mid (rise) | der L Oh n - salary | |||
| der B oy kott boycott | ||||
| consonant voiced fricative sound | j awohl - yes, that's right | |||
| sonorous voiced consonant, which is something like a transition from Russian soft [l`] to Russian hard [l] within one sound | l eer - empty | |||
| this letter combination conveys a voiced sonorous nasal sound that is absent in Russian |
nasal ("on the nose") [n] |
si ng en - sing | ||
| this letter combination conveys two sounds: a voiced sonorous nasal sound, which is not in Russian + a deaf aspirated |
nasal + spirant [nk] |
si nk en - fall, sink, decrease | ||
| the combination of two consonants produces one consonant fricative sound | die Ph ysik physics | |||
| the combination of a consonant and a vowel gives a combination of two consonants | der Q ark - cottage cheese | |||
| combining two consonants at the beginning of a word produces one consonant sound | der Rh ytmus - frequency, rhythm | |||
| fricative voiced consonant if it is in front of a vowel or between two vowels | der Ka s e - cheesesüchtig - seized with some kind of passion | |||
| s conveys a fricative voiceless consonant at the beginning of a word/part of a compound word if it is followed by p or t | der Sp echt [ʃpәçt] - woodpecker das Statut [ʃtatu: t] - charter | |||
| three consonants make a fricative voiceless consonant | sch on [ʃon] - already | |||
| in other cases, except for the three listed above | der Po s ter - poster | |||
| two consonants make one stop voiceless consonant | die Th eorie - theory | |||
| four consonants make one affricate | der Deu tsch e - German | |||
| the combination of a vowel and a consonant produces a long vowel | der Uh u - eagle owl | |||
| combination of letters | die R ui ne - ruins, ruins | |||
| in foreign borrowings, a voiced labio-dental consonant | die V ariante - variant | |||
| otherwise, labial-dental voiceless consonant | die Vögel - birds | |||
| voiced labio-dental consonant | w ellig - wavy | |||
| der Lure x– lurex | ||||
| typical German sound, somewhere between y and y, like the "y" in "hatch", can be long or short | rh y tmisch - rhythmic ps y chisch - mental | |||
| one consonant makes an affricate | die Z erbe - cedar | |||
| die S au le - column | ||||
| there is no such sound in German, this combination of letters is used to convey the sound [u] in foreign words | der Bor Schtsch– borscht (soup) | |||
| there is no such sound in German either, the combination of letters conveys [g] in foreign words | Sh ukow [ʒukof] - Zhukov (surname) | |||
| transmits one fricative consonant voiceless sound; ß can either be replaced by ss, or ß is written only after letters that convey long vowels or diphthongs | la ss en - leave, leavebei ß en - to bite |
In the picture below you see handwritten German letters, but here it should be noted that everyone has their own handwriting and there can be many options.
Video with the pronunciation of the letters of the German alphabet:
And one more video for fixing:
