A

The first letter of the German alphabet, written in the Latin script.


X

The twenty-fourth letter of the German alphabet, written in the Latin script.


t

The twentieth letter of the German alphabet, called te and written in the Latin script.


F

The sixth letter of the German alphabet.


A diacritical mark of the Latin script, called Umlaut (“umlaut”) in German, and found on Ä/ä, Ö/ö and Ü/ü.

A diacritical mark of the Latin script, called Trema in German, and found on Ë/ë and Ï/ï.


B

The second letter of the German alphabet, called be and written in the Latin script.


L

The twelfth letter of the German alphabet.


D

The fourth letter of the German alphabet, called de and written in the Latin script.


E

The fifth letter of the German alphabet, written in the Latin script.


J

The tenth letter of the German alphabet, called Jot and written in the Latin script.


R

The eighteenth letter of the German alphabet.


G

The seventh letter of the German alphabet.


C

The third letter of the German alphabet, called ce and written in the Latin script.


N

The fourteenth letter of the German alphabet.


P

The sixteenth letter of the German alphabet.


V

For the origin of the letter, see v.
Orthography and pronunciation
Germanic f was pronounced [v] in some dialects of Middle High German and was predominantly spelt v. This voicing was later reversed stem-initially in most dialects and stem-internally in some (including Standard German). In inherited words, the spelling mostly switched back to f accordingly. This always happened before l, r, u, ü, but otherwise there remains a number of relicts. These are the prefix ver-, the words Frevel, Vater, Vetter, Vieh, viel, vier, Vogel, Volk, voll, von, vor, and their derivatives.
In native German proper nouns, initial V is always /f/, but the internal pronunciation is hard to predict and differs by region. For example, it is usually /f/ in northern German placenames (e.g. Hannover, Havel, Jever), but /v/ in western ones (e.g. Grevenbroich, Leverkusen, Overath).
V was retained in words of foreign origin and its pronunciation varied. The contemporary standard is normally /v/, but always /f/ in Eva, Vau, Veilchen, Veit, Vettel, Vlies, Vogt. The words Vers, Vesper, Vize have /f/ in Germany, but usually /v/ in Austria. Both ways are de-facto standard in Evangelium, hieven, Larve, Nerven, Pulver (though dictionaries may recognise only one form or the other).

The twenty-second letter of the German alphabet, called Vau and written in the Latin script.


W

The twenty-third letter of the German alphabet.


K

The eleventh letter of the German alphabet.


Y

The twenty-fifth letter of the German alphabet, called Ypsilon.


H

The eighth letter of the German alphabet.


Z

The twenty-sixth and last letter of the German alphabet.


T

The twentieth letter of the German alphabet.


U

The twenty-first letter of the German alphabet.


M

The thirteenth letter of the German alphabet.


Q

The seventeenth letter of the German alphabet.


S

es (last only when stressed, which is rare)

For the origin of the letter, see s.
Orthography and pronunciation
Single s in prevocalic position is pronounced /z/, except when it follows an obstruent within the word stem (e.g. Achse, bugsieren, Lotse, schubsen). /s/ is usually retained in recent borrowings from English (e.g. Sex), to a lesser degree also in recent borrowings from other languages (e.g. Salsa). Words from the classical languages and pre-1900 loanwords behave like native words.
Stem-initial st and sp are pronounced /ʃt/ and /ʃp/ in native words. The same is generally true for classical and pre-1900 loanwords, though in this case we find some exceptions which are at least optionally pronounced with /st/, /sp/ (e.g. Stil, Stola). Recent borrowings tend to retain the original sounds. Again, this tendency is stronger with English than with other source languages (cf. e.g. Spaghetti with /ʃp/).
The trigraph sch is pronounced /ʃ/, except when there is an intervening morpheme boundary, which normally happens only with the diminutive suffix -chen (cf. e.g. Häuschen).
Otherwise, pre-consonantal and word-final s is always pronounced /s/. This also includes st, sp when they are not stem-initial. The same is generally true for doubled ss. There are, however, a few words in which ss may – optionally – be pronounced /z/ (e.g. Fussel, Massel, quasseln, Schussel). For the orthographic choice between ss and ß, see the latter.

Für die zweierlei S, das scharfe ß und das weiche, tönende s, sind die Zeichen s und ſ zu empfehlen. Letzteres wird im Französischen, Englischen, Holländischen, Polnischen, Madjarischen mit z bezeichnet, das wir nicht annehmen können, weil bei uns, wie schon bemerkt, z den Laut ts bezeichnet.

1877, Dr. Schröer, “Gelegentliche Bemerkungen über erhöhte Ansprüche, die nun an die Aufzeichnung mundartlicher Sprachproben zu stellen wären”, in Die deutschen Mundarten. Zeitschrift für Dichtung, Forschung und Kritik. Herausgegeben von Dr. G. Karl Frommann. Siebenter Band (neuer Folge erster Band), page 15:

The nineteenth letter of the German alphabet, called es and written in the Latin script.


O

The fifteenth letter of the German alphabet.


I

The ninth letter of the German alphabet.


a

The first letter of the German alphabet, written in the Latin script.


ß

Eszett (“sz”) or scharfes S, a German letter based on a ligature of ſ (long s) and z.


ẞ

(uncommon) Constructed capital form of ß, used in certain publications and proper names when set in all caps.


Ä

de-noun

Ä n (strong, genitive Ä or Äs, plural Ä or Äs)

Ä (genitive)
Äs (genitive)
Ä (plural)
Äs (plural)
Ä (nominative singular)
Ä (definite nominative plural)
Äs (definite nominative plural)
Ä (genitive singular)
Äs (genitive singular)
Ä (definite genitive plural)
Äs (definite genitive plural)
Ä (dative singular)
Ä (dative definite plural)
Äs (dative definite plural)
Ä (accusative singular)
Ä (accusative definite plural)
Äs (accusative definite plural)

* (letter) From Alemannic Middle High German aͤ, a representation of secondary umlaut [æ]. In Early Modern German, the letter spread to Central German, which did not have a special phoneme for secondary umlaut. Therefore, ä was seen there as a marker of umlaut as such, and was used analogously.
* (sound) Middle High German distinguished up to five stressed e-vowels: [æ], [ɛ], [ɛː], [e], [eː]. Through open-syllable lengthening, mergers, and analogy, this system was not just reduced but entirely altered. 19th-century Standard German generally retained only one short vowel, but distinguished [ɛː] from [eː]. All long ⟨ä⟩s were by then usually pronounced [ɛː], while ⟨e⟩ was [ɛː] in some words, [eː] in others. The choice between these, however, varied greatly from region to region, and was entirely absent in many Low German areas. Theodor Siebs therefore (consistently but rather arbitrarily) restricted [ɛː] to the spelling ⟨ä⟩ in his codification of stage and broadcasting German. Unintendedly, this reinforced the tendency towards total merger as the dialectal systems of distinction were disturbed.

a letter used in German spelling: most often an umlauted version of A


ſs

Das B o g e n b ü n d e l (fasciculus arcuatus) ist eine mächtige Schicht Belegungsmasse, welche an der äussern Fläche jeder Hemisphäre in gleicher Richtung mit der Zwinge, und als äuſsrer Gegensatz zu derselben, aus dem Unterlappen nach hinten und oben in den Hinterlappen, und, die Unterspalte umkreiſsend, durch den Oberlappen in den Vorderlappen strahlt.

1822, Carl Friedrich Burdach, Vom Baue und Leben des Gehirns, volume II, division iii: “Vom groſsen Hirne”, chapter iv: ‘Von der Belegungsmasse’, § 197: «Bogenbündel», page 153 [in Antiqua]

(please add an English translation of this quotation)

(obsolete, rare) alternative typography of ß


E.g. Freib͝g stands for Freiburg, not Freiberg.

(cartography) Used to abbreviate the common placename ending -burg ("castle") as ⟨-b͝g⟩. This prevents confusion with -berg ("mountain"), another common placename suffix.