Pronunciation of v in German

The pronunciation of the letter v is one of the few cases of ambiguity in German orthography. The German language normally uses the letter "f" to indicate the sound /f/ (as used in the English word fight) and "w" to indicate the sound /v/ (as in victory). However, the letter "v" does occur in a large number of German words, where its pronunciation is /f/ in some, but /v/ in some other words.

In mediaeval German, the sound /f/ had been voiced in some dialects and was therefore written "v". Contemporary German has gone back to the unvoiced pronunciation, but kept the mediaeval spelling here and there. As a general (and defective) rule, we can thus say that "v" is pronounced /f/ in originally German words, and /v/ in words of foreign origin.

Rules

V is pronounced /f/

• in the name of the letter v /faʊ/.
• in the frequent prefix ver- and all words constructed with it, such as vergessen, Vertreibung etc. etc.
• in the following words and all their derivations: Vater (father), Veilchen, Veigerl (viola flower), Veitstanz (the neuropathy St Vitus Dance), Vers (verse), Vesper (snack, small meal), Vest, Veste (in geographical names: fortress), Vettel (sloppy old woman), Vetter (cousin), Viech (pejorative: animal), Vieh (cattle), viel (much, many), vier (four), Vize (vice-, deputy), Viztum (historic government official), Vlies (raw sheep wool), Vogel (bird), Vogt (historic rural administrator, reeve), Volk (folk, nation), voll (full), von (of, from), vor (before, in front of).
• by few (mostly less-educated) speakers in the words: Vikar (vicar), Viper (viper), Vitrine (closet, cabinet), as well as some others, while /v/ is clearly standard for these words.
• in the following given names: Eva, Veit, Veltin, Volbrecht and names beginning with Volk-, such as Volker.
• in the beginning of German family and place names, apart from names of foreign descent and few exceptions. (This often leads to mispronunciations among English-speakers, who falsely use /v/ in names like Vettel.)
• in the beginning of Dutch family and place names (even though word-initial v is widely pronounced /v/ in Dutch, and /f/ is used only in some regional accents).

V is pronounced /v/ (or /ʋ/)

• where it occurs in the middle of a word stem, i.e. following the stressed vowel, as in Leverkusen. However, exceptions to this rule are the plural word Nerven /nɛɐfn/ (nerves) and the name of the city of Hannover /hanoːfɐ/.
• in the beginning of words and given names other than those listed above, such as Vakuum, vage (all of which are of foreign descent, mostly Latin or French).
• in family and place names which are neither German nor Dutch.