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Unique German letters
umlaut letters
Note that umlauts were originally written as 'ae', 'oe', and 'ue'.
Ä (ah-umlaut)
Long ä pronounced similar to long e 
(ay)
Äu (ah-umlaut-oo) Pronounced like 'oi' in 'oil'
Ö (oh-umlaut)
No English equivalent sound (see 
below)

---

Ü (oo-umlaut)
No English equivalent sound (see 
below)
the former ligature ß
ß (ess-tset or sharfes ess)
Pronounced like 's' in 'set' or 'c' in 'nice'; see below for 
uses.
combined letters
ch
(tsay-hah)
Pronounced various ways (see 
Konsonanten
sounds below)
ck
(tsay-kah)
tz
(tay-tset)
ie
ei
eu
au
dt
st
sp
sch
(ess-tsay-hah)
tsch
dsch
zsch, tzsch
Pronounced like 'ch' (only used in geographical and family 
names)
ph
pf
qu
...
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Das Alphabet
oder 
Das ABC
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Die Umlaute
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Deutsche Aussprache ~ German Pronunciation Guide
Vokale ~ Vowels
German vowels are either long or short, but never drawled as in some English dialects. A simple 
method of recognizing whether a vowel is likely to be long or short in a German word is called the 
Rule of double consonants
. If a vowel is followed by a single consonant — as in 
h
a
ben
(have), 
d
i
r 
(you, 
dat.
), 
P
e
ter
(Peter), and 
sch