Russian → German
German uses 43 sounds. You already own 21 of them from Russian. The other 22 are the work — and 17 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 → postalveolar
German: school · written "sch", "s in st-/sp-"
Your /s/ is the one in сон (sleep).
the move: velar → palatal
German: I · written "ch (after front vowels, consonants, in -chen)", "-ig"
Whisper a 'y' (as in yes) hard. Ich-Laut.
Your /x/ is the one in хорошо́ (good, well).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar
German: German · written "tsch"
Your /t͡s/ is the one in цена́ (price).
the move: longer
German: father · written "a (long)", "aa", "ah"
Your /a/ is the one in мать (mother).
the move: longer
German: lake · written "e (long)", "ee", "eh"
Your /e/ is the one in ме́сто (place).
the move: longer
German: love · written "ie", "i (long)", "ih", "ieh"
Your /i/ is the one in и́мя (name).
the move: longer
German: bread · written "o (long)", "oo", "oh"
Your /o/ is the one in дом (house).
the move: longer
German: good · written "u (long)", "uh"
Your /u/ is the one in рука́ (hand).
the move: rounded
German: five · written "ü (short)", "y"
Your /ɪ/ is the one in зима́ (winter).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
German: horse · written "pf"
Your /t͡s/ is the one in цена́ (price).
the move: open → open-mid
German: bed · written "e (short)", "ä (short)"
Your /a/ is the one in мать (mother).
the move: close-mid → open-mid
German: sun · written "o (short)"
Your /o/ is the one in дом (house).
the move: plosive → nasal
German: to sing · written "ng", "n before k"
No /ɡ/ after it, unlike English 'finger'.
Your /ɡ/ is the one in год (year).
the move: rounded, longer
German: beautiful · written "ö (long)", "öh"
Your /e/ is the one in ме́сто (place).
the move: rounded, longer
German: door · written "ü (long)", "üh"
Your /i/ is the one in и́мя (name).
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 мать (mother).
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 Russian 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.
cheese
Many speakers say /eː/.
Closest thing you own: — but open → open-mid, longer.
can
Closest thing you own: — but open → open-mid, rounded.
red
Uvular like French. Bavaria/Austria roll it.
Closest thing you own: — but retroflex → uvular.
new
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, close-mid → open-mid.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Russian | German | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Stress-timed, heavily reduced | Stress-timed |
| Stress | Contrastive, and NOT written. За́мок is a castle and замо́к is a lock. Worse, it moves within a word’s own declension — рука́ but ру́ку, окно́ but о́кна — so knowing the word is not the same as knowing where to hit it. Dictionaries mark it; native writing does not. | 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
25 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 Russian 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.
Other first languages: English · French · Spanish · Portuguese · Italian · Georgian · Hindi · Mandarin Chinese · Cantonese · Vietnamese · Korean · Japanese · Malay · Turkish