German orthography

German orthography is the system used for writing the German language. It is mostly based on the sounds of the words, but there are many spellings that come from history or follow patterns rather than exact sounds. If you know the spelling rules, you can usually figure out how to say a word, but it’s not always easy to guess the spelling from how it sounds.

Today, the rules for writing Standard High German are managed by a group called the Council for German Orthography. This group includes people from most of the countries where German is spoken.

Alphabet

See also: German alphabet

The modern German alphabet has twenty-six letters from the regular Latin alphabet, plus four special letters.

Basic alphabet

Special letters

German includes four special letters. Three of these are vowels with an umlaut sign (⟨ä, ö, ü⟩), and one is a special form of the letter s called ⟨ß⟩, also known as "Eszett" or "sharp s". These special letters have their own names.

• Capital ẞ became an official letter of the German alphabet on 29 June 2017. Before that, it was written as ⟨SS/SZ⟩.
• In the past, German also used a special form of the letter s called long s (ſ), similar to what was used in English and other European languages.

While experts agree that ⟨ä, ö, ü, ß⟩ are special letters, there is some debate about whether to count them separately. This means the German alphabet can be thought of as having between 26 and 30 letters, depending on how you count the special ones.

Use of special letters

Umlaut diacritic usage

See also: Umlaut (diacritic)

The letters ⟨ä, ö, ü⟩ are used to change the sound of certain vowels in German. Before printers used these special letters, writers would add an extra ⟨e⟩ after the vowel. Printers found a shorter way by putting a small mark above the vowel instead. In handwriting, this mark often looks like two small dots.

When these special letters cannot be used, such as on some keyboards, they are written as ⟨Ae, Oe, Ue⟩. For example, ⟨ä⟩ becomes ⟨Ae⟩. However, it’s best to use the correct letters when possible, especially in names.

Sharp s

Main article: ß

The letter ⟨ß⟩ makes the “s” sound and is used after long vowels. Before 1996, it was also used at the end of words. It is not used in Switzerland or Liechtenstein. When ⟨ß⟩ cannot be used, it is written as ⟨ss⟩. In all-capital letters, it is often written as ⟨SS⟩.

Sorting

There are three ways to handle umlauts (the special letters like ä, ö, ü) when putting words in order:

1. Treat them like their basic letters, as if the umlaut wasn’t there. This is often used in dictionaries, where words with umlauts like Füße (feet) appear near their basic form Fuß (foot).
2. Change them secretly to a vowel plus “e” (like turning ä into ae). This is often used in phone books, such as listing names like Müller and Mueller together.
3. Treat umlauts like extra letters, either placing them after their basic letters or at the end of the alphabet.

Windows computers in German let you choose between the first two ways when setting up the language.

The letter “ß” is sorted like “ss”. In French loanwords, accents are always ignored when sorting.

For personal names, umlauts and “ß” are written normally on passports but changed to ae, oe, ue, and ss in machine-readable areas. This can cause different spellings of the same name to appear on different documents, like Müller, Mueller, or Muller.

Features of German spelling

German spelling has special rules that make it mostly easy to guess how words sound. One key feature is that nouns usually start with a capital letter. Words can also be joined together to make very long words, like joining "house" and "door" to make "house door."

There are also special ways to show how long vowels sound, like adding extra letters or using special combinations. German also has some letters that only appear in words borrowed from other languages, keeping their original spelling. These rules help make German writing clear and predictable.

Grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences

This section explains how German letters and letter combinations are pronounced, using the International Phonetic Alphabet. It focuses on Standard German, which can sound a little different depending on where someone is from.

Double consonants are usually pronounced as single sounds, except when words are joined together.

Vowels

Short vowels

Sometimes, consonants are written twice to show that the vowel before them is a short sound, especially when that vowel is stressed. For example, in the word Wasser meaning "water," the double s tells us the a is short. Not all words follow this rule, like Drache meaning "dragon" and Sprache meaning "language."

Many one-syllable words ending in one consonant have long vowels, but there are exceptions such as an, das, es, in, mit, and von. Some endings like -in, -nis, -as, -is, -os, and -us have short vowels, and they change when making plurals: Leserin meaning "female reader" becomes Leserinnen meaning "female readers," and Kürbis meaning "pumpkin" becomes Kürbisse meaning "pumpkins."

• ⟨a⟩: [a] as in Wasser 'water'
• ⟨ä⟩: [ɛ] as in Männer 'men'
• ⟨e⟩: [ɛ] as in Bett 'bed';
• ⟨i⟩: [ɪ] as in Mittel 'medium'
• ⟨o⟩: [ɔ] as in kommen 'to come'
• ⟨ö⟩: [œ] as in Göttin 'goddess'
• ⟨u⟩: [ʊ] as in Mutter 'mother'
• ⟨ü⟩: [ʏ] as in Müller 'miller'
• ⟨y⟩: [ʏ] as in Dystrophie 'dystrophy'

Unstressed short vowels

The ⟨e⟩ in endings like -en is often silent, as in bitten meaning "to ask." The ending -er is often pronounced [ɐ], but in some places, it sounds like [ʀ̩] or [r̩]. The ⟨e⟩ in endings like -el and -em is pronounced as a schwa.

• ⟨e⟩: [ə] as in Ochse 'ox' or mute, making the following sound syllabic as in bitten [ˈbɪtn̩] 'to ask, request';
• ⟨er⟩ [ɐ] or [ɛɐ̯], as in Wasser 'water', [ə] in Österreich 'Austria' and derivatives

Long vowels

In certain situations, a vowel letter always stands for a long sound:

• being the final letter (except for ⟨e⟩)
• in a stressed open syllable as in Wagen "car"
• doubled as in Boot "boat"
• followed by a silent letter ⟨h⟩ as in Weh "pain", gehen "go"

Usually, a vowel is long when it is followed by only one consonant, like in bot "offered," and this continues in compound words such as Botschaft "embassy."

The German definite article has long vowels in forms like der, dem, den, die, but short vowels in das and des.

A vowel before two or more different consonants is usually short, but sometimes it is long, for example, in Mond meaning "moon."

Long vowels are generally pronounced with more tension than short vowels.

The long vowels sound like this:

• ⟨a, ah, aa⟩: [aː] as in Bahn 'railway'
• ⟨ä, äh⟩: [ɛː] or [eː] as in regelmäßig 'regularly'
• ⟨e, eh, ee⟩: [eː] as in Meer 'sea'
• ⟨i, ih⟩: [iː] as in wir 'we'
• ⟨ie, ieh⟩: [iː] as in riesig 'huge'
• ⟨o, oh, oo⟩: [oː] as in Sohn 'son'
• ⟨ö, öh⟩: [øː] as in Österreich 'Austria'
• ⟨u, uh⟩: [uː] as in Kuh 'cow'
• ⟨ü, üh⟩: [yː] as in über 'above/about'
• ⟨y⟩: [yː] (mostly in foreign words, very rare) as in psychisch 'psychical'

Diphthongs

• ⟨au⟩: [aʊ] as in laut 'loud'
• ⟨eu, äu⟩: [ɔʏ] as in Deutschland 'Germany'
• ⟨ei, ai, ey, ay⟩: [aɪ] as in Seite 'side'

Shortened long vowels

A long vowel before stress often becomes short, mostly when it is not stressed:

• ⟨i⟩: [i]
• ⟨y⟩: [y]
• ⟨u⟩: [u]
• ⟨e⟩: [e]
• ⟨ö⟩: [ø]
• ⟨o⟩: [o]

A vowel with secondary stress may also become short, like in Monolog 'monologue' [ˌmonoˈloːk]. These sounds are usually considered variations of the long vowels /iː, yː, uː, eː, øː, oː/ and mostly appear in words from other languages.

Unusual spellings in proper names

Some German place names have unusual spellings, for example, ⟨ui⟩ [yː] in Duisburg /dyːsbʊʁk/, and ⟨ow⟩ [oː] in Treptow /ˈtʁeːptoː/.

Punctuation

The period (full stop) is used at the end of sentences, for short ways to write words, and for special numbers, like der 1. for der erste (the first). We don’t put a period before another period at the end of a sentence.

The comma helps us separate things in a list (but we don’t use it right before the last item), before words that show contrast, after calling someone by name, for extra information, and in sentences with special verb forms. We can also use a comma to connect two full sentences without a connecting word. We don’t use a comma before someone’s exact words — instead, we use a colon.

The exclamation mark and the question mark are used for showing strong feelings and asking questions. Unlike in some languages, we don’t put a space before these marks. The exclamation mark can also be used when we start a letter.

The semicolon is used to separate bigger parts of a sentence than a comma would.

The colon is used before someone’s exact words, before lists (unless certain words come in between), before explanations, and after words in schedules or forms (for example, Vater: Franz Müller).

The em dash shows a sudden change in thought, separates words in a review, or marks a pause in speaking.

The ellipsis is used when a thought or quote is not finished.

The parentheses are for extra information that isn’t needed to understand the main sentence.

The square brackets are used when we put extra words inside other parentheses or quotes.

The quotation marks are written as »…« or „…“. We use them for someone’s exact words, titles of books or movies, and words that are used in a special way. When we put quotes inside other quotes, we use single quotation marks: ›…‹ or ‚…‘. If a quote ends with a period or a comma, the mark goes outside the quotation marks.

The apostrophe is used for short forms of words (like ’s for es) and for certain names ending in special letters.

History of German orthography

The oldest German texts date back to the 8th century. They were written in monasteries using different local dialects of Old High German. Early German writing used special letter combinations to show certain sounds, which led to the modern letters we use today.

By the 16th century, a new standard for German developed, influenced by important books like the Luther Bible and the growth of printing. This helped create a common language across regions. In the 19th century, efforts to standardize spelling grew, especially with the introduction of compulsory education. The Duden dictionary became a key guide for German spelling. In 1996, Germany and several other countries changed some spelling rules to make the language easier to learn, though people can still choose to use the old rules in everyday life.