Portuguese → German
German uses 43 sounds. You already own 20 of them from Portuguese. The other 23 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: palatal → velar
German: to sing · written "ng", "n before k"
No /ɡ/ after it, unlike English 'finger'.
Your /ɲ/ is the one in vinho (wine).
the move: close → near-close
German: child · written "i (short)"
Your /i/ is the one in vida (life).
the move: close → near-close
German: mother · written "u (short)"
Your /u/ is the one in tudo (everything).
the move: longer
German: father · written "a (long)", "aa", "ah"
Your /a/ is the one in pá (spade).
the move: longer
German: lake · written "e (long)", "ee", "eh"
Your /e/ is the one in medo (fear).
the move: longer
German: cheese · written "ä (long)", "äh"
Many speakers say /eː/.
Your /ɛ/ is the one in pé (foot).
the move: longer
German: love · written "ie", "i (long)", "ih", "ieh"
Your /i/ is the one in vida (life).
the move: longer
German: bread · written "o (long)", "oo", "oh"
Your /o/ is the one in avô (grandfather).
the move: longer
German: good · written "u (long)", "uh"
Your /u/ is the one in tudo (everything).
the move: near-open → mid
German: please · written "e (unstressed, final -e, -en, -el)"
Your /ɐ/ is the one in cama (bed).
the move: postalveolar → palatal
German: I · written "ch (after front vowels, consonants, in -chen)", "-ig"
Whisper a 'y' (as in yes) hard. Ich-Laut.
Your /ʃ/ is the one in chave (key).
the move: close → near-close, rounded
German: five · written "ü (short)", "y"
Your /i/ is the one in vida (life).
the move: plosive → fricative
German: stream · written "ch after a, o, u, au"
Ach-Laut — from the back of the throat.
Your /k/ is the one in casa (house).
the move: plosive → affricate
German: time · written "z", "tz", "c (before e, i)", "-tion"
Your /t/ is the one in tudo (everything).
the move: fricative → affricate
German: German · written "tsch"
Your /ʃ/ is the one in chave (key).
the move: fricative → affricate
German: horse · written "pf"
Your /f/ is the one in falar (to speak).
the move: rounded, longer
German: beautiful · written "ö (long)", "öh"
Your /e/ is the one in medo (fear).
the move: rounded, longer
German: door · written "ü (long)", "üh"
Your /i/ is the one in vida (life).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
German: my · written "ei", "ai", "ey", "ay"
ei is always /aɪ/ (like English 'eye'), never 'ay'.
Your /a/ is the one in pá (spade).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
German: house · written "au"
Your /a/ is the one in pá (spade).
Words you may say identically
Two or more German 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 Portuguese 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.
house
After a vowel h is silent and lengthens it: sehen /ˈzeːən/.
Closest thing you own: — but labiodental → glottal.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Portuguese | German | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Stress-timed (Portugal) | Stress-timed |
| Stress | Contrastive and written. The default is the second-to-last syllable; anything else takes an accent, and the accent also picks between open and close vowels — avó /ɔ/ is a grandmother and avô /o/ is a grandfather. | 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. |
What you have that German doesn't
15 sounds with no job in German. 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 Portuguese has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned German 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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