The Umlaut in German | FluentU German Blog (2024)

The Umlaut in German | FluentU German Blog (1)

By The Umlaut in German | FluentU German Blog (2)Gayatri Tribhuvan Last updated:

The letters Ä, Ö and Ü look so similar to A, O and U… But, tempting as it might be, you can’t simply ignore those little dots—the umlaut in German—when writing or speaking.

This simple guide will show you how to recognize and use umlauts in German, whether you’re typing them out, conjugating verbs or trying to pronounce them the right way.

Contents

  • When Are Umlauts Used in German?
    • 1. Plural Nouns
    • 2. Comparatives and Superlatives
    • 3. Present Tense Modal Verbs
    • 4. Verbs in the Subjunctive
  • How to Pronounce Vowels with an Umlaut
  • How to Type Umlauts
  • And One More Thing...

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

When Are Umlauts Used in German?

Below are four very common scenarios where you’ll need to recognize umlauts in German. These of course aren’t the only scenarios where you’ll encounter umlauts, but they’re a great starting point to get comfortable with the concept.

1. Plural Nouns

Plural nouns are often the first places that German learners encounter the umlaut. Most commonly, when the noun contains “u,” “au,” or “o” in the stem, the plural forms have umlauts.

Or, sometimes the plural forms have an umlaut when the noun begins with a vowel.

Buch (Book) Bücher (Books)
Wort (Word) Wörter (Words)
Baum (Tree) Bäume (Trees)
Haus (House) Häuser (Houses)
Apfel (Apple) Äpfel (Apples)
Bruder (Brother) Brüder (Brothers)

2. Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparatives are words that show how one thing has more or less of a quality than another (e.g. “bigger” in English). A superlative shows that one thing has the most or the least of some quality (e.g. “biggest”).

In German, ifthere’s an “a” or an “o” in the stem of an adjective, rest assured there’s going to be an umlaut in the comparative and superlative forms (with a few exceptions, of course).

hoch (high) höher (higher) am höchsten (the highest)
lang (long) länger (longer) am längsten (the longest)
groß (big/tall) größer (bigger/taller) am größten (biggest/tallest)

3. Present Tense Modal Verbs

Modal verbs are auxiliary (or “helping”) verbs that are used alongside the main verb for a specific purpose—such as indicating permission, desire or ability to do something.

Some of the most important German modal verbs include können (can), sollen (should), müssen (must), dürfen (may) and wollen (to want).

The modal verbs that contain umlauts can be quite tricky to handle, because you’ll only see the umlaut in certain forms of the verb. For example, let’s look at the present tense conjugations of the modal verbkönnen.

ich kann I can
du kannst you [informal] can
er kann / sie kann / es kann he can/she can/it can
wir können we can
ihr könnt you [plural] can
Sie/ sie können you [formal]/they can

What we can see is that if the modal verb contains an umlaut in the infinitive form (e.g.können),then the wir, ihr and Sie/siepresent tense conjugations have an umlaut, but not the ich, du and the er/sie/es forms.

4. Verbs in the Subjunctive

Specifically, you’ll often find umlauts in the konjunktiv II präteritum (past subjunctive) form of German verbs.

This is notable because it makes it really easy to put these verbs into the past subjunctive. All you have to do is make small changes to the past tense form of the verb to make it a past subjunctive form.

Let’s take a look at the verb haben (to have) in the past tense.

ich hatte I had
du hattest you [informal] had
er hatte / sie hatte / es hatte he had/she had/it had
wir hatten we had
ihr hattet you [plural] had
Sie/ sie hatten you [formal]/they had

Now compare those forms to thekonjunktiv II präteritum.

ich hätte I would have
du hättest you [informal] would have
er hätte / sie hätte / es hätte he would have/she would have/it would have
wir hätten we would have
ihr hättet you [plural] would have
Sie/ sie hätten you [formal]/they would have

All we’ve had to do to form this is take thestemof theverb in thesimple past and add on an umlaut, sochange the ato aä.

The same goes formany verbs in thekonjunktiv II, such as the words below.

geben gäbe
kommen käme
tun täte
brauchen bräuchte
wissen wüsste
sein wäre

To see the different ways umlauts are used in German, you can look up examples on FluentU and listen to how native speakers say it.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

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How to Pronounce Vowels with an Umlaut

TheÄ sound is fairly simple. It sounds like “eh” in English. Practice with words like spät (late) and Universität (university). Check out how to pronounce the Ä in this video.

TheÖ pronunciationis somewhat similar to the above, except the lips should be shaped to create the letter O. Practice with words like Löwe (lion) and Möwe (seagull). There are more tips onhow to pronounce the Ö here.

The Ü sound can be pronounced by saying a long “ee” sound, and then closing your lips like you’re about to kiss someone.Practice with words like kühl (cool). Check out more on how to pronounce the Ü here.

Some common umlaut pronunciation mistakes include:

  • Not pouting the mouth enough for the Ö and the Ü
  • Simply not stressing the vowel enough

A sharp pout is the key to the air being pushed out of the mouth in the right manner, therefore giving the right touch to the umlaut pronunciation.

Here’s another video brings it all together so you can master Ä, Ö and Ü.

Need even more practice? Another useful idea is to make a list of common words in the form of flashcards that use the umlauts. Also try pronouncing this list below!

Äpfel (apple) hören (to listen)
Bäume (trees) Jäger (hunter)
Diät (diet) Käse (cheese)
föhnen (to blow dry) Lärm (noise)
Größe (size) Münze (coin)
nördlich (north of) Süd (south)
Öl (oil) Tür (door)
Rätsel (riddle) über (above)
Vögel (bird) Wörter (words)

How to Type Umlauts

Do you have an ordinary laptop and need to type umlauts?

For PCs, the quick hack is to use Alt key shortcuts. However, this can get cumbersome, so you might also want to keep a document handy with letters that have umlauts to copy-paste.

For Macs, you can just hold down the keys A, U and O for a second or so, and a menu will pop up with special characters including the umlaut. The same option is available for iOS and Android mobile devices.

On mobile devices, you can also often add additional keyboards, and adding in a German language one will mean you have all umlauts right there at your fingertips! No codes or extended taps necessary!

Most German beginners tend to ignore the fact that umlauts exist and try to pronounce them normally.

Well, by doing that, you’re robbing German of its very essence, and also leaving yourself open to being misunderstood! So pout those lips and get practising the umlauts in German.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And One More Thing...

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The Umlaut in German | FluentU German Blog (2024)

FAQs

What is the umlaut rule in German? ›

German orthography is generally consistent in its representation of i-umlaut. The umlaut diacritic, consisting of two dots above the vowel, is used for the fronted vowels, making the historical process much more visible in the modern language than is the case in English: ⟨a⟩ – ⟨ä⟩, ⟨o⟩ – ⟨ö⟩, ⟨u⟩ – ⟨ü⟩, ⟨au⟩ – ⟨äu⟩.

What is the German equivalent of the umlaut? ›

Umlauts appear on three German letters: ä, ö, ü. If typing non-English characters is difficult, you can substitute 'ae', 'oe', 'ue' respectively.

What do the two dots over a letter mean in German? ›

Properly speaking, only German and Hungarian words have these two dots over a vowel to indicate a change in sound (as in doppelgänger and über), but loosely, people sometimes refer to its twin, the dieresis (as in naïve) as an umlaut. The word is German and means "change of sound," from um, "about," and laut, "sound."

What does U mean in German? ›

A glyph, U with umlaut, appears in the German alphabet. It represents the umlauted form of u, which results in [yː] when long and [ʏ] when short. The letter is collated together with U, or as UE. In languages that have adopted German names or spellings, such as Swedish, the letter also occurs.

What is an example of a German umlaut? ›

How to pronounce the umlaut ä
UmlautEnglish exampleGerman example
Short äThe “a” in “apple”Bänke (benches)
Short äThe “e” in “get”Hände (hands)
Long äThe “a” in “mad”nächste (next)
Long äThe “ai” in “air”Mädchen (girl)
2 more rows
Jul 29, 2020

Why do Germans use umlauts? ›

More specifically, Umlauts are used to inject variety into the German vocabulary, making words more clearly distinct from one another.

What is the German umlaut replacement? ›

Use the following replacements:
  • Ä = Ae.
  • ä = ae.
  • Ö = Oe.
  • ö = oe.
  • Ü = Ue.
  • ü = ue.
  • ß = ss.
May 26, 2018

What is the difference between an umlaut and a diaeresis? ›

In German, if an umlaut appears in a combination of two vowels, it will go over the first vowel, and it indicates something important: a plural, say. A diaeresis always goes over the second vowel, and it means that the vowel is leading off a separate syllable.

Who invented the umlaut? ›

Jacob Grimm was not only a collector of fairy tales (along with his brother Wilhelm), but also one of the most famous linguists ever. In 1819 he described a sound-change process that affected the historical development of German. He called it umlaut from um (around) + laut(sound).

Is Zoë an umlaut or diaeresis? ›

The diaeresis mark is sometimes used in English personal first and last names to indicate that two adjacent vowels should be pronounced separately, rather than as a diphthong. Examples include the given names Chloë and Zoë, which otherwise might be pronounced with a silent e.

What is the difference between trema and umlaut? ›

A diaeresis makes you pronounce the vowel separately (so you don't pronounce naïve as nave), a trema forces the pronunciation of the previous vowel (so you pronounce the u in ambiguë and don't say 'ambig'), an umlaut changes the sound of the vowel ( the German a sounds a bit like the English a in bat, but ä sounds like ...

What do Germans say instead of how are you? ›

Wie geht es dir? This is the informal version of Wie geht es Ihnen? It's your standard way to ask how are you in German when you're talking to your friends, classmates, co-workers, or family members.

When a German says I like you? ›

I like you – Ich mag dich. This is the right expression to tell friends and acquaintances how much they mean to you. I like you a lot – Ich habe dich (sehr) gern.

What is the i-umlaut rule? ›

As it applies in West Saxon grammar, the i-umlaut rule can be stated as follows: 1) a basic back vowel is fronted, and o, ō are also unrounded; the short vowel that varies between a and o is fronted to e; 2) a basic short front vowel is raised (æ to e, e to i);

What is the difference between Ö and Ü? ›

– “ü” as in müde is like a Scottish person saying “grew” Make the sound “ee” as in “cheese” and then make your lips into an “o” shape. – “ö” as in blöd is like an English person saying “burn” Make the sound “a” as in the word “may” and then make your lips into an “o” shape.

References

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