Ä, Ö, Ü and ß: the letters English lacks

Two dots that change the word

German has three more vowels: ä, ö and ü. The two dots are called the Umlaut. They are not decoration: ä, ö and ü are sounds of their own, and a missing pair of dots makes a different word. schon means “already”, schön means “beautiful”. Mutter is one mother, Mütter are several. And there is one more letter, ß, called “ess-TSET”: a sharp s that never starts a word.

ä sounds like the e of “bed”; when long, like “air” without the r. Write the a first, then two short dots side by side above it, the left one first.

ö: round your lips as for “o” and say “e” through them. It is the o with two dots on top, left dot first.

ü: round your lips as for “oo” and say “ee” through them. It is the u with two dots on top.

ß, the “ess-tset”, is a sharp s. One stroke: a long post that starts below the line, a small bump at the top, then a bigger bump down to the bottom. It never starts a word.

When do you write ß and when ss? Listen to the vowel in front. After a LONG vowel, or after a pair like ei, the sharp s is ß: Straße, Fuß, groß, heiß. After a SHORT vowel it is ss: Wasser, Tasse. Two more facts: in Switzerland people write ss everywhere and never use ß, and in words written all in capitals ß usually becomes SS: STRASSE.

Der Bär ist müde.The bear is tired.

Die Straße ist schön.The street is beautiful.