The ch Sounds: ich-Laut and ach-Laut

The digraph ch is one of the few German sounds that has no English counterpart at all, which is why beginners reach for the two sounds they do have — k and sh — and miss in both directions. In reality German ch covers two different fricatives: the soft ich-Laut [ç] and the hard ach-Laut. The reassuring part is that you almost never have to memorise which word takes which: the choice is decided automatically by the vowel that comes right before the ch. Once you internalise that one rule, ch becomes one of the most predictable letters in German — far more regular than English gh or ough.

The two ch sounds

Both ch sounds are fricatives — sounds made by forcing air through a narrow gap, like f or s, with no voice (your vocal cords don't buzz). The difference is where the gap is.

• ich-Laut [ç] — the soft ch. The gap is far forward, at the hard palate, with the tongue arched high as if for the y in yes. The easiest way in: whisper the h in English huge or hue — that breathy, hissing onset is the ich-Laut. Now hold it.
• ach-Laut — the hard ch. The gap is far back, at the soft palate or uvula, like a gentle gargle or the ch in Scottish loch. The tongue bunches at the back of the mouth.

Both are voiceless. Neither is k (which stops the airflow completely) and neither is sh (which is made with the tongue in the middle and the lips rounded).

The one rule: look at the vowel before ch

The choice between [ç] and is governed entirely by the sound immediately preceding the ch. There is no per-word memorisation.

The hard ach-Laut appears only after the back vowels a, o, u, and the diphthong au. Everywhere else — after the front vowels e, i, ä, ö, ü, after the diphthongs ei/eu/äu, and after consonants — you get the soft ich-Laut [ç].

A useful mnemonic: the back of your mouth makes the back vowels (a/o/u/au), and the same back position makes the hard ach-Laut. The tongue is already there, so it stays there.

ach-Laut examples (after back vowels)

ich-Laut examples (after front vowels and consonants)

The alternation in action: Buch vs Bücher

Because the rule keys on the vowel, the same word can switch ch sounds when its vowel changes. The classic case is Buch → Bücher: the singular has a back u and so takes the hard ach-Laut, but the plural umlauts to ü — a front vowel — and so flips to the soft ich-Laut. Same morpheme, two ch sounds, fully predictable.

chs = ks

When ch is followed directly by s within the same morpheme, the cluster chs is pronounced [ks] — neither ch sound, just a plain English x. This is a small closed set of common words.

Beware a false friend here: the [ks] reading only applies when the s is fused into the stem. In a word like nachschauen ('to check / look up'), the s belongs to a following syllable (nach-schauen), so you get a normal ach-Laut plus a separate sch — not [ks].

-ig pronounced as -ich

A high-frequency special case: word-final -ig is pronounced -ich [ɪç] in standard German, with the soft ich-Laut, not a hard g. This is a consequence of final devoicing (the g devoices) combined with the front vowel i (which selects the ich-Laut).

The hard g comes back the moment a vowel follows, exactly as with other devoiced consonants: König [ˈkøːnɪç] but Könige ('kings') [ˈkøːnɪɡə], wichtig but wichtige [ˈvɪçtɪɡə]. (Note: in some southern and Austrian speech -ig is pronounced with a hard [k]; the -ich version is the standard northern norm taught in dictionaries.)

Word-initial ch in loanwords

At the very start of a word, ch is almost always a borrowed spelling, and its sound depends on the source language:

• [ʃ] (sh) in French loans: Chef [ʃɛf] ('boss'), Chance [ˈʃãːsə] ('chance'), Champignon [ʃampɪˈnjõ].
• [k] in Greek loans: Charakter [kaˈʁaktɐ] ('character'), Chor [koːɐ̯] ('choir'), Chaos [ˈkaːɔs], Christ [kʁɪst].
• [ç] (the regular ich-Laut) in a few words, especially the prefix Chem-: Chemie [çeˈmiː] ('chemistry') in northern standard — though many speakers say [keˈmiː] or [ʃeˈmiː] regionally.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Two sounds: ich-Laut [ç] (soft, forward — like a held h in huge) and ach-Laut (hard, back — like Scottish loch).
• One rule: ach-Laut after back vowels a/o/u/au; ich-Laut everywhere else (front vowels, diphthongs, consonants, and always in -chen).
• The same word can switch (Buch → Bücher) because the rule follows the vowel.
• chs = [ks] (sechs, Fuchs); final -ig = -ich [ɪç] (König, wenig).
• The genuine exceptions are word-initial loanword ch: Chef = sh, Charakter = k.