The official language of Austria is German. The German alphabet is very similar to the English alphabet, except it has a few extra letters. In English, we have six vowels. They are a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. German has the same vowels, but it has three more vowels as well. They are ä, ö and ü. These vowels just look like the letters a, o and u with two dots on top. The dots are called an umlaut.
Here are examples of some words that have these vowels with an umlaut:
Bär = Bear
Österreich = Austria
Bücher = Books
The money used in Austria is called the Euro. It uses the symbol €. Many other countries in Europe also use the Euro. Can you imagine going to Nevada or Oregon and needing to use a different type of money? It wouldn't be very easy. That's why many countries in Europe use the Euro.
In the grocery store you can buy a bottle of water for about €0.35. It is more expensive to buy water at a restaurant or a food stand. More expensive water costs €1.50.
