Georgian → English
English uses 43 sounds. You already own 14 of them from Georgian. The other 29 are the work — and 22 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: alveolar → dental
English: think · written "th"
Tongue between the teeth, no voice.
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
the move: labiodental → dental
English: this · written "th (function words, between vowels)"
the, this, that, they, mother, breathe.
Your /v/ is the one in ვაშლი (apple).
the move: close → near-close
English: sit · written "i", "y", "e (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in ის (he / she / it).
the move: open → near-open
English: cat · written "a"
Between /ɛ/ and /a/; mouth wide.
Your /a/ is the one in კარი (door).
the move: close → near-close
English: book · written "oo (book)", "u (put)", "oul (could)"
Your /u/ is the one in ღამე (night).
the move: without the aspirated part
English: pen · written "p", "pp"
Aspirated at the start of a stressed syllable: [pʰ].
Your /pʰ/ is the one in ფული (money).
the move: without the aspirated part
English: tea · written "t", "tt", "-ed"
American: [ɾ] between vowels (water, butter).
Your /tʰ/ is the one in თევზი (fish).
the move: without the aspirated part
English: cat · written "c", "k", "ck", "ch (Greek)"
Your /kʰ/ is the one in ქალი (woman).
the move: without the aspirated part
English: church · written "ch", "tch", "tu (nature)"
Your /t͡ʃʰ/ is the one in ჩაი (tea).
the move: longer
English: see · written "ee", "ea", "e_e", "ie"
Your /i/ is the one in ის (he / she / it).
the move: longer
English: law · written "or", "aw", "au", "al"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
the move: longer
English: food · written "oo", "u_e", "ew", "ou (soup)"
Your /u/ is the one in ღამე (night).
the move: unrounded
English: cup · written "u", "o (son, love)", "ou (young)"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
English: fish · written "f", "ff", "ph", "gh (laugh)"
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
the move: open-mid → open
English: hot · written "o", "a after w"
American: /ɑ/.
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
the move: plosive → nasal
English: sing · written "ng", "n before k"
Your /ɡ/ is the one in გული (heart).
the move: trill → approximant
English: red · written "r", "rr", "wr"
Silent after vowels in British English (car /kɑː/); pronounced in American.
Your /r/ is the one in რძე (milk).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: time · written "i_e", "igh", "y", "ie (pie)"
Your /a/ is the one in კარი (door).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: boy · written "oi", "oy"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: house · written "ou", "ow"
Your /a/ is the one in კარი (door).
the move: open-mid → mid, front → central
English: about · written "any unstressed vowel"
The commonest English vowel. banana = /bəˈnɑːnə/.
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
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 Georgian 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.
yes
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant, velar → palatal.
near
American: /ɪr/.
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, close → near-close.
water
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant.
car
Closest thing you own: — but open-mid → open, unrounded, longer.
make
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, open-mid → close-mid.
hair
American: /ɛr/.
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, open-mid → close-mid.
home
American: /oʊ/.
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, open-mid → mid, front → central.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Georgian | English | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, heavy clusters | Stress-timed |
| Stress | Weak and non-contrastive. Two-syllable words take it on the first syllable; longer words tend toward the third-from-last. No pair of Georgian words is distinguished by stress alone, which is why dictionaries do not mark it. To an English ear Georgian can sound evenly stressed, almost flat — that is correct, not a lack of expression. | 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
19 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 Georgian 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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