Have you ever wondered how to type German characters on an English language keyboard? I have a PC and this is how I do it: 1) Go to control panel 2) Under Clock, Language, Region click on change keyboards 3) Go to keyboards and languages 4) Go to general 5) Click add 6) Click on the German. That should work. I also think this is a good opportunity to go over the German alphabet so we’ll be doing double duty today. First we’ll go over the German Buchstabe or letter and the Aussprache or pronunciation, then the English keystroke that produces that letter and some examples of German words that contain that letter.
a – pronounced as ah. Same as the English keystroke. (der Apparat) phone
ä – ay. It’s the quotation and apostrophe key. (die Fähre) ferry
b – bay. Same as English. (das Buch) book
c – say. Same as English. (die Änderung) change, alteration
d – day. Same. (dunkel) dark
e – ay. Same. (elf) eleven
f – eff. Same. (der Feind) enemy
g – gay. Same. (gleich) same, equal
h – haa. Same. (das Haus) house
i – eeh. Same. (immer) always
j – yot. Same. (das Jahr) year
k – kah. Same. (kennen) to know
l – ell. Same. (die Leute) people
m – emm. Same. (der Mann) man
n – enn. Same. (nein) no
o – oh. Same. (oft) often
ö – ooh. The semicolon key. (Österreich) Austria
p – pay. Same. (das Papier) paper
q – koo. Same. (der Quast) brush
r – err. Same. (rechts) right
s – ess. Same. (das Salz)
ß – ess-zett. Hyphen key. (groß) big, great
t – tay. Same. (der Tag) day
u – ooh. Same. (unter) below
ü – uyuh. Left Bracket key above the quotation key. (über) over, about
v – fow. Same. (der Vater) father
w – vay. Same. (die Woche) week
x – ixx. Same. (das Xylofon) xylophon
y – opp see lohn. The z keystroke. (der Typ) type
z – zett. The y keystroke. (das Zebra) zebra
