German → Korean
Korean uses 34 sounds. You already own 14 of them from German. The other 20 are the work — and 19 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: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: house · written "ㅈ (initial)"
Plain ㅈ — between English ch and j, with the tongue flat. Voiced to /d͡ʑ/ between vowels.
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in Deutsch (German).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: time · written "ㅅ before i, y-vowels"
The sh of Japanese shi, not the sh of English ship — tongue flat.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in Schule (school).
the move: near-close → close
Korean: milk · written "ㅜ"
Your /ʊ/ is the one in Mutter (mother).
the move: near-close → close
Korean: this; two; tooth · written "ㅣ"
Your /ɪ/ is the one in Kind (child).
the move: aspirated
Korean: arm; eight · written "ㅍ"
Aspirated — a strong puff of air. The p of English 'pot'.
Your /p/ is the one in Papier (paper).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: bread · written "ㅃ"
Tense: the throat stiffens, the release is sharp and there is no puff at all. The third kind of p. Also what plain ㅂ becomes after an obstruent (입구 ipk͈u).
Your /p/ is the one in Papier (paper).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: strawberry · written "ㄸ"
Tense t. 달 tal 'moon', 탈 tʰal 'mask', 딸 t͈al 'daughter' — one triplet to hear the three-way contrast on.
Your /t/ is the one in Tag (day).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: flower · written "ㄲ"
Tense k. Also what plain ㄱ becomes after an obstruent: 학교 hakk͈jo.
Your /k/ is the one in Kind (child).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: uncooked rice · written "ㅆ"
Tense s: longer, harder, no breath. 살 sal 'flesh; to live' against 쌀 s͈al 'rice'.
Your /s/ is the one in Straße (street).
the move: unrounded
Korean: Seoul · written "ㅓ"
An unrounded open o — the vowel of English 'cut' but further back. Romanised eo, which misleads everyone; it is one vowel.
Your /ɔ/ is the one in Sonne (sun).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: today · written "ㅗ"
Rounded, closed. Keep it apart from ㅓ: 손 son 'hand' against 선 sʌn 'line'.
Your /oː/ is the one in Brot (bread).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: yes · written "ㅔ", "ㅐ"
Two letters, one sound: ㅐ was the more open of the pair and Seoul has merged them. 개 'dog' and 게 'crab' are now homophones, and the spelling is memorised.
Your /eː/ is the one in See (lake).
the move: close, but not identical
Korean: why · written "ㅘ ㅝ ㅙ ㅞ ㅚ ㅟ (the w-)"
The w-vowels are written as two vowel letters stacked: ㅘ = ㅗ + ㅏ. ㅚ and ㅙ and ㅞ have all become /we/.
Your /j/ is the one in ja (yes).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal, aspirated
Korean: tea; car · written "ㅊ"
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in Deutsch (German).
the move: postalveolar → alveolo-palatal
Korean: to be salty · written "ㅉ"
Tense ㅈ.
Your /t͡ʃ/ is the one in Deutsch (German).
the move: near-close → close, unrounded
Korean: that; he · written "ㅡ"
Say /u/ and spread the lips. Romanised eu. The same vowel as Japanese u and Vietnamese ư.
Your /ʊ/ is the one in Mutter (mother).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Korean sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- t͡ɕ = d͡ʑ = t͡ɕʰ = t͡ɕ͈ → your t͡ʃ vs vs vs
- p = pʰ = p͈ → your p vs vs train this pair →
- t = tʰ = t͈ → your t vs vs train this pair →
- k = kʰ = k͈ → your k vs vs train this pair →
- s = s͈ → your s vs train this pair →
- u = ɯ → your ʊ vs train this pair →
- j = w → your j vs
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.
we; our
A tap, like Spanish single r or the t in American 'water'.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → tap.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| German | Korean | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Stress-timed | Syllable-timed, phrase melody |
| 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. | None at word level. No syllable is reduced and no vowel becomes a schwa; every syllable is said in full. What an English ear hears as stress is the phrase-initial rise. |
What you have that Korean doesn't
29 sounds with no job in Korean. 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 Korean from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
Other first languages: English · French · Spanish · Portuguese · Italian · Georgian · Russian · Hindi · Mandarin Chinese · Cantonese · Vietnamese · Japanese · Malay · Turkish