American English Pronunciation Lesson for German Learners

Although German and English both belong to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages, there are still enough differences to make English a challenge for German speakers.

SEE ALSO: 5 Mistakes you are Probably Making in English Pronunciation

Sounds change relatively rapidly in languages, which is why a native speaker of present-day English would not understand a word if dropped off in Anglo-Saxon England.  It is therefore no surprise that speakers of German, although close linguistic cousins of English speakers, have their share of challenges like everyone else.  Below are examples of sounds that cause difficulty for German speakers.

1.  Dark /l/

This is the /l/ that you find at the end of a syllable in words like call and walrus.  There is nothing evil about dark /l/, so don’t look for any deep significance in the name.  It is pronounced a lot like clear /l/, except that the root (back) of the tongue is used in its articulation.  To get a feel for this, try pronouncing /l/ like you normally would, but keep the blade (front) of the tongue down in its resting position and only raise the back of the tongue.  Once you get used to this, you can relax the front of the tongue a bit, but it should only make light contact (and often no contact at all) with the roof of the mouth.  This raising of the back part of the tongue is what gives it the “dark” sound.

2.  /r/ at the end of a word

In American English, it’s important to pronounce /r/ at the end of a word (or syllable).  /r/ is challenging no matter where it occurs in words, so it’s understandable that students drop it when they can.  It’s easy to rationalize this; after all, the British do it, and don’t they speak the original English? The answer to this is that syllable-final /r/ has always been pronounced, so the North Americans speak the original (at least when it comes to this sound).  To be fair, however, British English also retains certain features that have been lost elsewhere in the English-speaking world.

3.  /w/ and /v/ get mixed up

The problem here is that these two sounds are perceived in the German speaker’s mind as the same sound.  It’s exactly the same problem Japanese students have with /l/ and /r/.  The student should study the way these two sounds are articulated, listen for the differences between them, and learn to distinguish one from the other.  This problem is largely psychological and less an issue regarding the ability to pronounce the two sounds.

4.  Word-final /b/, /v/, /d/, and /g/ are pronounced /p/, /f/, /t/, and /k/, respectively

This problem is due to the tendency in the German language (and many other world languages) for sounds to become devoiced (no vocal cord vibration) at the end of a word.  This is also more psychological than anything else; Germans more or less do it because it’s habitual, so they should simply learn to remain conscious of it and remember that no such change occurs in English.

5.  dh /ð/ and th /θ/

Nearly every student of English in the world has trouble with these two sounds, as both are relatively rare.  Both of these sounds are represented in English by th.  /ð/ is the sound found in brother and /θ/ is found in theme.  Germans usually replace these sounds with /z/ and /s/, respectively.  The reason for this is that they’re pronounced similarly, except that /ð/ and /θ/ are articulated with the tongue between the teeth, not behind them.