At the beginning of a word, s sounds like an English z:
| Sie sind | you are |
But at the end of a word, when doubled, or when combined with another consonant, s sounds like an English s:
| Haus | house |
| essen | to eat |
| Post | post |
The combinations st and sp at the beginning of a word sound like English sht and shp:
| Student | student |
| sprechen | to speak |
ß is a special letter, the equivalent of ss, and is used after long vowels:
| Straße | street |
z always sounds like English ts:
| zehn | ten |
sch sounds like English sh:
| schnell | fast |
| Flasche | bottle |