German → English
English uses 43 sounds. You already own 27 of them from German. The other 16 are the work — and 12 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: labiodental → dental
English: think · written "th"
Tongue between the teeth, no voice.
Your /f/ is the one in Vater (father).
the move: labiodental → dental
English: this · written "th (function words, between vowels)"
the, this, that, they, mother, breathe.
Your /v/ is the one in Wasser (water).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar
English: measure · written "s (measure)", "si (vision)", "ge (beige)"
Your /z/ is the one in Sonne (sun).
the move: open → near-open
English: cat · written "a"
Between /ɛ/ and /a/; mouth wide.
Your /a/ is the one in Mann (man).
the move: longer
English: law · written "or", "aw", "au", "al"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in Sonne (sun).
the move: unrounded
English: cup · written "u", "o (son, love)", "ou (young)"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in Sonne (sun).
the move: voiced
English: judge · written "j", "g (e,i,y)", "dge"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in Deutsch (German).
the move: close, but not identical
English: water · written "w", "wh", "u (queen)"
Your /j/ is the one in ja (yes).
the move: front → central
English: bird · written "er", "ir", "ur", "ear (earth)"
American: /ɝ/ with the r.
Your /ɛː/ is the one in Käse (cheese).
the move: open-mid → open
English: hot · written "o", "a after w"
American: /ɑ/.
Your /ɔ/ is the one in Sonne (sun).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: home · written "o_e", "oa", "ow", "o (final)"
American: /oʊ/.
Your /ə/ is the one in bitte (please).
Words you may say identically
Two or more English sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
Genuinely new
Nothing in German sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
car
Closest thing you own: — but front → back.
red
Silent after vowels in British English (car /kɑː/); pronounced in American.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant.
make
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still.
hair
American: /ɛr/.
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| German | English | |
|---|---|---|
| Stress | Contrastive in a very German way: with separable-vs-inseparable prefix verbs, the stress tells you which grammar you are in — and therefore what the sentence means. Otherwise stress sits on the stem syllable, and the unstressed prefixes (be-, ge-, er-, ver-, zer-, ent-) never take it. | Contrastive, and unmarked in writing — the single most common cause of not being understood. Dozens of noun/verb pairs differ only in where the stress goes, and every unstressed vowel collapses to /ə/. |
What you have that English doesn't
16 sounds with no job in English. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your German has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned English from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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