Sounds, Spelling, and the Capital Letter

The alphabet

1.German writes the twenty-six letters of the Latin alphabet and four more: ä, ö, ü and ß. The first three are a, o and u carrying the Umlaut; the fourth is called Eszett or scharfes s.

Äpfel

apples

öffnen

to open

Schlüssel

key

Straße

street

The vowel ä

2.Short ä is [ɛ], the vowel of English head, and is identical with short e. Long ä is [ɛː] in the prescribed standard, though over much of the north it is said the same as long e.

Äpfel

apples — short ä

Mädchen

girl — long ä

Nähe

nearness

• [1] The [ɛː] pronunciation is most often kept where it distinguishes a subjunctive from an indicative — gäbe against gebe.

ä before r

3.Where r follows, ä is heard as the vowel of English air.

Ärztin

doctor (woman)

März

March

The vowel ö

4.ö is a front vowel said with rounded lips: the tongue stands as for e, the lips as for o. It is [øː] when long and [œ] when short — the vowel of French peu.

schönen

beautiful (inflected) — long ö

öffnen

to open — short ö

fröhlich

cheerful

The vowel ü

5.ü is a front vowel said with rounded lips: the tongue stands as for i, the lips as for u. It is [yː] when long and [ʏ] when short — the vowel of French mur.

Mühle

mill — long ü

Müller

miller — short ü

Schlüssel

key

The letter ß

6.ß stands for a voiceless s. It follows a long vowel or a diphthong, and so never opens a word; after a short vowel the same sound is written ss.

Straße

street

Fuß

foot

Spaß

fun

• [1] Switzerland makes no such distinction and writes ss throughout.

The capital that opens a sentence

7.The first word of a German sentence carries a capital letter, whatever part of speech it belongs to.

Mein Name ist Hans.

My name is Hans.

Dein Buch ist interessant.

Your book is interesting.

The capital that marks a noun

8.Every noun carries a capital letter, wherever it stands in the sentence and without exception. A word standing in lower case inside a sentence is therefore not a noun.

Der Mann liest ein Buch.

The man is reading a book.

Ich mag die Katzen.

I like the cats.

ch as the ich-Laut

9.After the front vowels i, e, ü and ö, after l and r, and in the suffix -chen, ch is the ich-Laut [ç], close to the sh of English ship.

mich

me

Licht

light

Milch

milk — after l

echt

genuine

ch as the ach-Laut

10.After the back vowels a, o and u, ch is the ach-Laut [x], the other of the two values the pair carries (¶9).

Buch

book

doch

after all

Achtung

attention

The diphthong eu, äu

11.eu stands for [ɔʏ], the vowel of English boy, and not for the ew an English reader would supply. äu spells the same diphthong.

Euro

euro

Leute

people

Mäuse

mice

Häuser

houses

• [1] The two spellings are distributed by derivation rather than by sound: äu appears where the word is related to one with au — Haus, Häuser; Maus, Mäuse.

The diphthong ei, ai

12.ei stands for [aɪ], the vowel of English eye. ai spells the same diphthong.

mein

my

Seite

page, side

Mai

May

Kaiser

emperor

The spelling ie

13.ie is not a diphthong: it stands for a single long [iː], the vowel of English see. It is the usual spelling for that vowel.

Lied

song

Sieg

victory

Miene

facial expression

• [1] The order of the two letters decides the sound, and the two orders are two different words: Miene [iː] against meine [aɪ] (¶12).

The diphthong au

14.au stands for [aʊ], the vowel of English mouse.

Haus

house

laut

loud

Frau

woman

Vowel length and the consonants after it

15.A vowel is short before a doubled consonant and usually short before a cluster of consonants; before a single consonant it is usually long. ß counts as a single consonant, which is what Fuß against Fluss rests on (¶6).

bitte

please — short before tt

Klasse

class — short before ss

geben

to give — long before a single b

Tag

day — long before a single g

Fuß

foot — long; ß counts as one consonant

Fluss

river — short before ss

• [1] The cluster rule has common exceptions which keep a long vowel: Art, Mond, Jagd, atmen. An inflected or derived form also keeps the length of the word it comes from — Tag, Tags; lösen, löste.

Length written into the spelling

16.A long vowel can be marked by a silent h after it, especially before m, n, l and r, or by doubling the vowel letter. A vowel standing alone at the end of a word is long.

fahren

to travel

Höhle

cave

Schnee

snow

Saal

hall

du

you

wo

where

b, d and g at the end

17.At the end of a word or syllable, and before a consonant, b, d and g are said as [p], [t] and [k]. Elsewhere — at the start of a word, or between vowels — they keep their English values.

Sieb

sieve — [p]

Rad

wheel — [t]

Zug

train — [k]

sagt

says — [k] before a consonant

geben

to give — [b] between vowels

• [1] Across the northern two-thirds of Germany a final g is widely said as the ach-Laut or the ich-Laut instead — Zug, sagt (¶9, ¶10). This is not the prescribed standard.

The ending -ig

18.In the ending -ig the g is said as the ich-Laut [ç] (¶9), not as [k].

König

king

sandig

sandy

billig

cheap

The letter s

19.At the start of a word before a vowel, and between vowels, s is voiced [z]. Everywhere else it is [s].

suchen

to look for — [z]

lesen

to read — [z] between vowels

Haus

house — [s] at the end

lassen

to let — [s]

sp and st at the start of a word

20.At the start of a word, sp and st are said [ʃp] and [ʃt] — the s becomes the sh sound.

spielen

to play

Spaß

fun

Straße

street

Student

student

The pair ng

21.ng is always [ŋ] alone, never [ŋg]. German Finger has the ng of English singer, not the ng of English finger.

Finger

finger

Achtung

attention

singen

to sing

The letters v, w and z

22.Three letters carry values an English reader will not expect: w is [v], v is [f], and z is [ts].

Wasser

water — w = [v]

wann

when — w = [v]

Vogel

bird — v = [f]

Zeit

time — z = [ts]

• [1] In loan-words that are not final, v keeps [v] — Vase, Klavier.

Word stress

23.In most native German words the stress falls on the first syllable, and it stays on that syllable whatever endings are added to the word.

Monat

month

Bruder

brother

Arbeit

work

Glaubhaftigkeit

credibility — still the first syllable

• [1] The prefixes be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, ver- and zer- are never stressed, so a word carrying one is stressed on the syllable after it — verstehen, Geschichte. The suffix -ei is always stressed: Bäckerei.
• [2] The commonest native words that break the first-syllable rule are Forelle, Holunder, Hornisse, Kartoffel, lebendig and Wacholder.