Modern German Grammar: A Practical Guide, Second Edition

Könnten Sie das bitte anders sagen/formulieren?

Could you please say/formulate that in another way?

118.3 ‘Please spell!’

(a) There may be occasions (on the telephone, writing notes) when it is useful to ask

for a word or name to be spelt out. To ask someone to do this, one of the following

can be used:

Wie schreibt man das?

How do you spell that?

Wie schreibt sich das?

How is that spelt?

Könnten Sie (mir) das bitte buchstabieren?

Could you please spell that (for me)?

(b) The letters of the alphabet are listed below with an approximate pronunciation

in brackets (see also 1.4) and the identifying word which most Germans are likely to

use. Note that wie is used to introduce the identifying word:

A [ah] wie Anton

B [be:] wie Bertha

C [tse:] wie Cäsar

D [de:] wie Dora

E [e:] wie Emil

F [ef] wie Friedrich

G [ge:] wie Gottfried

H [ha:] wie Heinrich

I [i:] wie Ida

J [yot] wie Johann

K [ka:] wie Kaufmann

L [el] wie Ludwig

M [em] wie Martha

N [en] wie Nordpol

O [o:] wie Otto

P [pe:] wie Paula

Q [ku:] wie quer

R [air] wie Richard

S [es] wie Siegfried

T [te:] wie Theodor

U [u:] wie Ulrich

V [fau] wie Viktor

W [ve:] wie Wilhelm

X [iks] wie Xaver

Y [ipsilon] wie Ypsilon

Z [tset] wie Zeppelin

NOTE The letter ß is called Eszett.

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COMMUNICATION STATEGIES