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Cyphernaut - German Alphabet

German is a West Germanic language that is related to English and Dutch. German has approximately 100 million native speakers and 80 million non-native speakers worldwide. It widely taught in universities around the world and is the official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Italian province of Bolzano-Bozen. It is a minority language in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Denmark and the Czech Republic. There are two main dialects: High German(southern and central Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and Low German(northern Germany). High German is the dialect most often taught in schools and universities and is generally considered the lingua franca of Germany.

This is a guide for learning the German alphabet. The German alphabet uses the Latin alphabet and consists of 22 consonants(22 standard, 1 extra) and 8 vowels(5 standard and 3 extra). In the browser, vowels are indicated with a reddish tint. Umlaut variations(i.e. vowels with umlaut marks over the letter, like ü) appear with a reddish tint as well. The ess-zett, ß, is used instead of ss after long vowels and dipthongs(i.e. fuß and heißen). The ss is used instead of ß in Switzerland. Generally speaking in German, a vowel is short if it is followed by more than one consonant or a double consonant. A vowel is long if it is followed by a single consonant, a silent h, or a ß. It is also long if the vowel is doubled(i.e. aa, ee, oo).

For an amusing satire of the pitfalls of learning German, The Awful German Language by Mark Twain is a must read.

das deutsche Alphabet
А:а ah a in father short vowel pronounced like a in cat vowel	Ä:ä ay ay in day short vowel pronounced like e in bet vowel	B:b bay b in bet at the end of word or syllable pronounced like p in grape	C:c say c in cat in foreign words before ä and e, pronounced like ts in rats	D:d day d in dog at the end of word or syllable pronounced like t in bat
E:e ay ey in they short vowel pronounced like e in best vowel	F:f eff f in fill	G:g gay g in get at the end of word or syllable pronounced like k in park	H:h hah h in hold silent when appearing after a vowel	I:i eeh ee in see short vowel pronounced like i in bit vowel
J:j yot y in yes	K:k kah k in kit	L:l ell l in let	M:m emm m in met	N:n enn n in net
O:o oh o in open vowel	Ö:ö ooh ur in fur the r is barely pronounced vowel	P:p pay p in pan	Q:q koo k in kit	R:r err r in rid always rolled when stressed
S:s ess s in see when before or between vowels, pronounced like z in zoo	ß ess- zett s in set only lower case; replaced by ss in some words; not used in Swiss German	T:t tay t in tip	U:u oo oo in boot short vowel pronounced like u in put vowel	Ü:ü uyuh ew in few vowel
V:v fow f in four in words of foreign origin, v in visa	W:w vay v in vest	X:x iks x in box	Y:y oop- see- lahn ew in few	Z:z zett ts in cats