- Final consonants are often pronounced voiceless (e.g. 'lieb' → /liːp/).
| Ä /ɛ/ | Bär (Bear) | K oder CK /k/ | Katze, backen (Cat, bake) |
| Ö /øː/, /œ/ | schön, öffnen (beautiful, open) | M /m/ | Mutter (Mother) |
| Ü /yː/, /ʏ/ | früh, fünf (early, five) | N /n/ | Nacht (Night) |
| CH (weich) /ç/ | ich (Ich) | NG /ŋ/ | singen (sing) |
| CH (hart) /x/ | Buch (book) | PF /pf/ | Pferd (Horse) |
| EU oder ÄU /ɔʏ̯/ | heute, Häuser (today, houses) | QU /kv/ | Quelle (Quelle) |
| EI /aɪ̯/ | Ei, mein (Egg, my) | R /ʁ/ | Rot (Red) |
| H /h/ | Haus (House) | S (am Wortanfang) /z/ | Sonne (Sun) |
| IE /iː/ | Liebe (Love) | V /f/ | Vater (Father) |
| J /j/ | Jahr (Year) | Z /ts/ | Zeit (Time) |
Exceptions!
- The 'r' is pronounced differently depending on the region – often as a tongue-tip 'r' in the south, and as a guttural sound in the north.
- Umlauts ä, ö, ü are independent vowels – they do not sound like simple variants of a, o, u and often change the meaning of a word (e.g. "schon" vs. "schön").