How to write a capital letter w in German. Pronunciation of German letters and letter combinations - German online - Start Deutsch

The German alphabet was created on the basis of the Greco-Roman alphabet. It consists of 26 letters, represented in the German alphabet table. As a rule, it includes lowercase and uppercase letters of the German alphabet, pronunciation, the Russian analogue of the pronunciation of letters of the German alphabet, and examples of German words in which one or another letter is clearly audible and clearly expressed.

When learning the German alphabet, it is important to pay attention to specific letters umlaut (umlaut, Umlaut), which are not in the standard Latin alphabet. We are talking about the letters ä, ö, ü, ß.

Lowercase letters of the German alphabet

For those who are starting to learn German, it is important to know capital letters of the German alphabet.

Each language has its own special sound structure, unique to it, which must be familiarized with, since a person who does not know the correct pronunciation will not be able to correctly perceive foreign speech by ear and will not be able to be correctly understood. The German language, along with sounds unique to it, has a number of sounds, the pronunciation of which practically coincides with the corresponding sounds of the Russian language.

In German 42 sounds, for recording which are used 26 letters Latin alphabet. Both in German and in Russian, vowels and consonants are distinguished. The German language has 15 simple vowel sounds, 3 complex two-vowel sounds (diphthongs) and 24 consonants.

German alphabet

Ha

upsilon

Additional German letters to the Latin alphabet:

a-umlaut

u-umlaut

o-umlaut

esset

Vowel sounds The German language has two features:

1. At the beginning of a word or root, vowels are pronounced with a strong attack, reminiscent of a light click, which gives German speech a jerky sound that is not characteristic of the Russian language.

2. Vowels are divided into long and short, which explains their greater number compared to the Russian language.

Long vowels are pronounced more intensely than the vowels of the Russian language, and do not change their character throughout the entire time of sounding. The consonant sound following a long vowel is freely adjacent to it, as if with a slight pause. When transmitting German sounds in Russian letters, the length of vowels is indicated by a colon after the corresponding letter.

Short vowels are pronounced more briefly than Russian vowels. The consonant sound following the short vowel is closely adjacent to it, as if cutting it off.

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The length and shortness of vowels often have a distinctive meaning and determine the general character and rhythm of German speech:

Vowel pronounced for a long time:

A. in an open syllable, i.e. a syllable ending in a vowel:

Vater f A:ta

Leben l e:Ben

b. in a conditionally closed syllable, i.e. a syllable that can be opened when the word is changed:

Tag T A:To

Ta-ge T A:ge

In writing, vowel length is indicated:

A. doubling a letter

Meer me:a

b. letter h after a vowel

Uhr y:a

V. letter e after i

Sie zi:

Vowel pronounced briefly, if followed by a consonant or group of consonants:

Consonants The German language has the following features:

A. they are pronounced more intensely than the corresponding Russian consonants;

b. German voiceless consonants p, t, k pronounced aspirated, especially at the end of a word;

V. German consonants, unlike the corresponding Russian consonants, are never softened;

d. in contrast to the Russian language, where a voiceless consonant is voiced under the influence of the following voiced consonant (from is tunnel, but: from from at home), in German the opposite phenomenon occurs: a voiceless consonant partially deafens the following voiced consonant, remaining voiceless (das Bad yes bpa:t).

Accent in German it falls, as a rule, on the root of the word or on a prefix, i.e. on the first syllable. When a word is changed, the stress does not change. The pronunciation of German words is conveyed in this manual in Russian letters without the use of generally accepted transcription signs. The transcription of the word and the stressed vowel are highlighted in different fonts. This transcription allows (with some exceptions) to pronounce German words and sentences quite correctly.

Please note that when you hover over the Russian transcription, the IPA transcription will be displayed. This is for particularly advanced students, if you don’t need it, use only Russian.

Pronunciation of German vowels

Sound indicated by letters A, ahh, ah, pronounced like Russian A(long) in the word "brother" or A(short) in the word "tact": baden b A: Dan,Saal for:l, Fahrt fa:at, Satz zats .

Sound indicated by letters ä , ah, pronounced like Russian uh in the word "era": Väter f e: that, wahlen V e: linen , Männer m uh on .

Sound indicated by letters i, ie, ih, pronounced like Russian And in the word "blue": mir mi:a, sieben h And:ben,Ihr and:a, Mitte m And te, Tisch hush .

Sound indicated by letters e, her, eh, pronounced like Russian uh or e in the words “these”, “believe”, “measure”: nehmen n e: Maine,See ze: gehen G e: en Geld Gaelt, sechs zex. In an unstressed final syllable (endings -en, -er), as well as in some prefixes (for example: be-, ge- etc.) this sound is pronounced unclearly and is similar to Russian uh in the word "should": fahren f A: ren, beginnen bag And Nan .

However, particularly attentive listeners may have noticed the overtone of the “i” sound in the words Leben and See. This sound does not exist in either Russian or English; pay attention to it when listening to German speech. Pronounce it like the Russian [e/e], and the position of the lips is like for [i]. You can also try to pronounce the diphthong [hey], without completely pronouncing the second part of the sound, i.e. the first part of the sound is [e/e], and the second [th], [th] is not pronounced until the end. Let's listen again:

Sound indicated by letters oh, oh, oh, pronounced like Russian O(long) in the word "will" or O(short) in the word "clown": Oper O :pa ohne O :ne ,Boot bo:t Rolle R O le .

Sound indicated by letters u, uh, pronounced like Russian at in the word "will": du do:, Uhr y:a, hundert X at ndat .

Sound indicated by letters ü, üh, is absent in Russian. It's pronounced like Russian Yu in the words "jury", "puree": führen f Yu: Ren, fünf fünf, Übung Yu:bun(g). Having rounded the lips, as for [u], we pronounce [and]. Although in Russian transcription it will be designated as [yu], with the sound [yu] it Not is.

Sound indicated by letters ö, oh, is also absent in Russian. Having rounded the lips, as for [o], we pronounce [e]. Reminds me of Russian e : schön w e: n, Sohne h e:ne, Löffel l e fael, öffnen e fnen . Although in Russian transcription it will be designated as [е], with the sound [е] it Not is.

ei, ai, pronounced like Russian ah in the words "give": drei drive Weise V A ize .

Diphthong denoted by letters au, pronounced like Russian aw in the word "howitzer": blau bl A at, Faust f A mouth .

Diphthong denoted by letters eu, äu, pronounced like Russian Ouch in the word "your": neu Noah, Нäuser X Ouch behind .

Pronunciation of German consonants

Many consonant sounds of the German language are pronounced almost the same as the corresponding sounds of the Russian language: b b, p P,w V,f f, s c or h(before a vowel or between two vowels), k To, g G, n n, m m, z ts.

Sound indicated by letters ch(after e, i, ö, ü and after l, m, n) pronounced like soft Russian xx in the word "chemistry": welche V uh lhe, richtig R And slightly , manchmal m A nkhmal .

The sound indicated by the letter h(at the beginning of a word or syllable) is pronounced as a noisy exhalation on the subsequent vowel. This sound is absent in Russian, however, it is enough to pronounce Russian [х] with a slight exhalation: halt halt,Herz Hertz .

Sound indicated by letters l, ll, pronounced like a mean between Russian soft l(in the word "summer") and hard l(in the word "varnish"): Ball bal, alt alto .

The sound indicated by the letter j, pronounced like Russian th before corresponding vowels (for example: "Christmas tree", "hole", "south"): Jacke ya ke,jemand yeah:manta ray .

Pronunciation R r

Consonant sound indicated by letter r, can also sound like a vowel sound, close to the Russian sound A.

1. After long vowels (except long "a") in stressed and unstressed syllables that are final, for example:
   Factor f A who:a,wir V And:A, Klavier clave And:A, Natur nat at:A .

   There may be exceptions:
   Haar ha:p, Ha: ; Bart Bart, ba:at ; Arzt artst, a:tst ; Quark quark, kwa:k ; Quarz quartz, kva:ts ; Harz hartz

2. In unstressed prefixes: er-, her-, ver-, zer-, for example:
   erfahren eaf A:ren , verbringen feabr And:n(g)en , zerstampfen ceasht A mpfen ,hervor heaf O:A .
3. In the final unstressed word – er, and also when it is followed by consonants, for example:
   Vater f A that,immer and:ma, besser b uh:sa,anders A ndas, Kindern To And ndan, auf Wiedersehen auf in And:daze:en .

In other cases it is pronounced as a consonant. There are three types of pronunciation of the consonant sound “r” (the 2nd option is now more common):

1. If you touch your fingers at the base of your neck and try to pronounce “r” so that your fingertips feel it, you will get the first “r”.
2. If you pronounce “g” and try to continue the sound (“gggggg..r..”), you will get a second sound (“tiger roar”).
3. The sound pronounced with the tip of the tongue is the “Russian” “r”.

Remember the rules for reading some letter combinations:

ch after a, o, u reads like Russian X:Buch boo:x,Fach Fah; after all other vowels, as well as after l, m, n is read as xx: rect recht wichtig V And slightly , Milch miles .

chs, and also the letter X, read like Russian ks: wechseln V uh xeln .

ck reads like Russian To: Stuck piece, Ecke uh ke .

sch reads like Russian w: Schuh shu:,waschen V A: sheng .

st PC: Stella PC uh le .

sp read at the beginning of a word or root like Russian sp: Spiel spire, sprechen Sprächen .

tz reads like Russian ts: Platz parade ground, sitzen h And price .

ng reads like... the English sound [ŋ]. The back of the tongue closes with the lowered soft palate, and air passes through the nasal cavity. In order to achieve the desired position of the speech organs, you can inhale through your nose with your mouth wide open, then pronounce the sound [ŋ], exhaling air through your nose. In Russian transcription we will denote it as n(g), because G there they still sometimes pronounce it, as in the first word: Übung Yu:bung, verbringen feabr And:n(g)en , Ding din(g). This sound is also combined nk:Bank tank, links liŋx, tanken T Aŋken .

From letter to sound

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 languages ​​based on the Latin alphabet. 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. Find out how to master the German language.

Before you start learning the alphabet (below you will find the alphabet and a video of its pronunciation) remember that umlauts Ää Öö Üü - do not have names, their task is to designate sounds.

Sound Ää:

Sound Öö:

Sound Üü:

Escetome ß - denotes double s (ss). It sounds like the Russian "s". It can only be found at the end or middle of the text. Also, esset is not used in recipes.

This is how the essay sounds:

Alphabet

Pronunciation of letters of the German alphabet

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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 when using them, the uniqueness is lost.

2. Transliteration

Some German letters are transmitted unambiguously into Russian:

3. J

Combinations j + vowel transmitted this way:

At the beginning of a word and after vowels ja → I, jä (je) → e, jo → yo, jo → yo, ju → Yu, ju → yu: Jahns → Jens, July → Yule;

After consonants ja → ya, jä (je) → ye, jo → yo, jo → yo, ju (ju)→ yu: Lilje → Lilje.

Before a consonant and at the end of a word j → th.

4. Vowels and their combinations

German diphthongs are transcribed according to the following rules: eu → Ouch, ei → ah, ie → And. A common tradition is to transmit eu (ei) → Hey (to her) today is considered obsolete, although many first and last names are transmitted precisely according to these rules: Reuters → Reuters, Geiger → Geiger.

After vowels e (ä ) → uh, i → th. At the beginning of the 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 → e, 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 → xg, ch → X, ph → f, rh → R, th → T.

Combinations tsch, zsch And chs entirely belonging to one syllable are transmitted according to the rules tsch (zsch) → h, chs → ks: Achslach → Akslah, Zschopau → Chopau. Sometimes the components of these letter combinations belong to different syllables, in which case they are transmitted independently: Altschul → Altshul.

Before front vowels ( i, e, in borrowings also y) With → ts: Cilli → Cilli. 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: Spree → Spree. Single before vowels s → h, otherwise s → With.

In the position between a vowel and a consonant (or between a vowel and e) h omitted in transcription. In other positions h → X.

The tradition is to transmit everywhere h → G today it is considered outdated, but many first and last names 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 transmitted according to the rules gk → G, tz → ts.

Doubled ll transmitted differently, 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 l.

Before vowels l → l, before consonants and at the end of words l → l.

In German names and titles v → f: Volkmar → Volkmar. But in names of foreign origin v can be transmitted through V: Crivitz → Krivitz.

The "transcriptor" always conveys v How f.

7. Double letters

Doubled (long) German vowels are always rendered as one: Klopeinersee → Klopeinersee.

Doubled German consonants are also translated as doubled if they are located between vowels or at the end of a word. In other positions, doubled German consonants correspond to one consonant letter of the transcription: Blatt → Blatt, Schaffran → Saffron.

Letter combination ck corresponds kk in the position between vowels, otherwise ck → To: Becker → Becker, Dick → Dick.

Alphabet in German: interesting facts and features of the pronunciation of each sound! A little history and handy memories! And also about the role of umlauts and eszet! Read about all this in our material

In the beginning there were... runes

The first texts were created by German tribes on the basis of runic writing, for which there was its own alphabet " Futhorc" However, already in the era of feudalism, heterogeneous writing lost all meaning, because it was impossible to communicate in a language built on different alphabets. In the middle of the 8th century, the German alphabet began to acquire familiar Latin forms.

The formation of the alphabet and its specific components

The Latin alphabet, on which German is based, originally consisted of 21 letters.
In the first version, G, J, U, Y, W were missing. Their role was delegated to other letters, for example, “C” was used to indicate the sounds [k] and [g], and “I” included itself as the sound [i], so and [j].

FACT: With the development of languages ​​and alphabet, it became clear that the confusion among the peoples who borrowed Latin was due to the lack of certain sounds. Therefore, the number of letters gradually increased.

A separate achievement of the group of Germanic languages ​​was the letter “W”, included in the alphabet in the 16th century. For a long time, people had to use a combination of two “V” (digraph) in order to more accurately convey the desired sound.

Despite all the adjustments that happened in the Latin alphabet, the Germanic, Romance, Slavic and Finno-Ugric languages, which adopted Latin for their writing, were still forced to make additional changes to it.

Such as:
digraphs or letter combinations to indicate specific sounds
"th" - in English,
"sch" - in German or
"cz" - in Polish, or for example,
diacritics, which are very common in French (é, è, ê, î, û, ë, ç), they regulate the pronunciation of sounds depending on the sign written along with the letter
umlauts and ligatures (ß)

Let's look at all the letters of the German alphabet and pronunciation options!

There are 26 letters in the German alphabet + 3 umlauts and one ligature (Eszet)

A a [a] / a—der A dler (eagle).
In most cases, “A” is pronounced as a short open sound [a], but in some diphthongs it is pronounced differently. For example, in pairs « ah", "aa" the sound will be longer
—derW ah l (choice), die S ah ne (cream) / der S aa l (hall), das H aa r (hair).
In diphthong "ai" the letter "A" is included in the sound
[ai] as in der M ai(May).
In letter combination « au" the letter "A" makes a sound with "U"
[ау] : die M au s (mouse).

B b / b—das B utter b rot (bread and butter).
At the end of the word it loses its sonority and turns into the sound [p]: gro b(rude).

D d/de—der D elphin (dolphin).
At the end of the word it loses its sonority and turns into the sound [t]: das Lan d(country, land).

F f [ɛf] / ef- die F ahne (flag).

H h /ha—das H u h n (chicken).
In this word, two key features of the letter “h” can be noted at once: it is read like a softened Russian sound
[X] in cases where it is at the beginning of a word before a vowel - das H erz (heart), das H obby (hobby).
AND not pronounced if it is in the middle of a word after a vowel, thus, together with it forms a long sound: die W oh nung (apartment, housing).
Sometimes, for example, in the word haben [х] is pronounced softly. Sounds like breathing into a mirror with your mouth.

J j/yot – der J oga (yoga).
In combination with "a" and "e" it can be pronounced as a long vowel:
ja (Yes),
jemand , or as short:
die Ja cke (jacket), je tzt (now).

L l [ɛl]/ ale- die L i l ie (lily).
It is read softer than the Russian “l”, the sound is closer to [l’].
The double “l” is pronounced in the same way as the single one, but it is worth remembering that before combinations « LL", "MM", « TT" the vowel will always be pronounced short:der Fa ll(happening).

Nn[ɛn]/en- die N uß (walnut).
Reads like Russian [n].
In combination « ng" pronounced as a nasal “n”, omitting the [g] sound: die Übu ng.

P p/ne—der P firsich (peach).
Reads like a Russian “p”, in combination
with "f" - « pf" pronounced [pf]: die Pf anne (frying pan).
Together with the letter "h" - « ph" forms the sound [f] in borrowed words: die Ph iloso ph ie (philosophy).

R r [ɛr]/ er—das R ad (wheel).
Pronounced as [r] if the letter comes at the beginning or middle of a word before a vowel: b r aun (brown), die K röte (toad).
If « r" at the end of the word das Zimm er(room), then in combinations « ar", « er", « or", « ier", the sound [r] disappears and appears [a]!!!
Including the letter “R” can be found in combination with “h”: das Rh ythmus, in which case it will be pronounced as a simple sound [r].

T t / those—der T eppich (carpet).
It is read as Russian [te], also in the case of the combination « th":das Th ema (topic).
In a combination of consonants « tsch" pronounced like the Russian sound [ch], but a little harder: der Qua tsch(nonsense). At the end of a word in a letter combination « tion" makes the sound [tsyon]: die Lek tion(lecture), die Infek tion(infection).

Vv/fau—der V ulkan (volcano).
IN in words of German origin the letter “v” is read as [fe], and in borrowed words as [ve]: das V erbrechen [ f](crime) / die V illa [ v](villa).
In the middle of a word of foreign origin the letter “v” will be read as [ve]: die Uni v ersität (university), das Sil v ester (New Year's Eve).
Words ending with - ive also include a voiced version of the letter “v”, that is [ve:]: die Perspekt ive(perspective).

X x/x—das X ylophon (xylophone). This letter conveys the sound [ks]: der Te x t (text).

Z z / tset—das Z ebra (zebra).
Pronounced like Russian [ts]: die Z unge (tongue), die Z eitung (newspaper), die Unterstüt z ung (support).

And now the umlauts:

Ä ä [ɛː] / e- die Ä nderung (change).
The letter characterizes the sound [e]: die Ä pfel (apples).
In position « ah" the sound becomes longer: die Z ah ne (teeth). Diphthong « äu" reads like [oh]: die H äu ser (at home).

Ö ö [ øː] / * —das Ö l (oil).
There is no direct analogue of the sound [øː], but the closest to it are [ё] and nasal [o]: die L ö sung (decision).

Ü ü / * —der Ü bergang (transition).
The letter conveys a sound that reminds a Russian speaker of something between soft Russian [у] and [у]: die M ü hle (mill).

Ligature Esset

ß [ɛs’t͡sɛt] / es— der Fu ß ball.
Reads like a short [s]: hei ß (hot), ma ß geblich (significant, important).

The role of umlauts in the German language

As we have already written, today the German alphabet contains only 26 Latin letters, but if you have ever encountered a text in German, you could not help but notice signs and letters that are not part of the main structure. The fate of those “left behind” befell umlauts and the ligature “ß”.

Umlauts "ä», « ö" and "ü» are of great importance in the morphology of the German language: they are involved in changing words

- When changing the number from singular to plural for nouns “das Wort” - “die Wörter”,
- when changing the degree of comparison of adjectives “kalt” - “kälter”,
- when forming the second and third person forms of strong verbs “fahren” - “fährst / fährt”),
- they also help in writing to distinguish words that sound similar but are spelled differently: “Eltern” - “Älter”.

But despite all this, umlauts are still not included in the main structure of the alphabet, but are designated as additional specific letters.

A similar fate befell German ligature "ß», formed from the Gothic combination of the letters “S” and “Z”.

It is worth noting that “ß” has gone through many reforms: in the 20th century, Switzerland abandoned it, and the Germans themselves often replaced the spelling of “ß” with a double “s”. However, the most significant event in the history of the ligature occurred in 2017, when Germany passed a law according to which “ß” received its own capital variant.

Not a single word in the German language begins with the ligature “ß”, which is why for many centuries it was written only in lowercase. But the problem with the “ß” ligature arose when, for example, it was necessary to write the entire word in capital letters, in the name of an establishment or street designation, then it turned out that all the letters were capital, but “ß” remained small “ STRAßE».

Another confusion reigned in the recording of surnames, which in German passports are written in capital letters and “ss” is used instead of “ß”, and in some other documents variants with the ligature “ß” may be recorded.

Therefore, in 2017, Germany recognized the spelling of the capital “ß”, although there are still many opponents of this innovation. For example, the famous German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung compared the capital “ß” to a not-so-sightly street lamp.

How to remember the alphabet

To be frank, straight There is no practical need to memorize the alphabet. Another thing is that by memorizing letters in an entertaining form, you will learn to read faster, because the harmony of how the letter looks and how it is pronounced will be imprinted in your head. It is for this purpose that we offer you one of many options for a memory rhyme.

ABCDE and F, wenn ich Teddybären treff,
GHIJK and L, schmuse ich mit Ihnen schnell.
MNOPQ and R, Teddybären lieb ich sehr,
STUVW and X, Teddybär schlaf ein ganz fix,
YZ mit mir in meinem Bett.

You can compose a similar verse for yourself, for example, write words for each letter in a row and learn them in text, or perhaps you can come up with a song: for many students, the alphabet is easier for them with a familiar melody. But you can learn the various subtleties of the sound of diphthongs and consonant combinations only in the process of reading.

Antonina Nikulina, Deutsch Online