Why Do German Speakers Have An Accent When Speaking English? | Improve Your Accent
Understand why German speakers have a German accent when speaking in English with the help of Angela Merkel and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Wie sich Deutsch anhört - und warum!
Speak clearly and confidently with my course: improveyouraccent.co.uk/engli...
00:00 - Intro
00:17 - V and W Sounds
00:58 - The NG Sound
01:29 - The NURSE Vowel
02:13 - More NURSE Vowels (Austria)
02:49 - Devoicing
03:49 - Plurals
04:33 - The TRAP Vowel
05:00 - The MOUTH Vowel
05:33 - Conclusion
Disclaimers
1. The example speakers in this video have been chosen because they exhibit the highlighted accent features to such an extent that it is easier for the viewer to hear. If speakers with "less strong" German accents were chosen, it would be harder for non-phonetically trained viewers to understand the points in the video.
2. Not all native German speakers will have the same accent features (or these features to the same degree) as those in the video. However, I have taught many German speakers who do have accents similar to the those in the video (even young people and even people who have lived in England for many years).
3. There are many accents (and dialects) in the German Sprachraum. When a native German speaker from Hanover speaks English, it will sound different to someone from Salzburg speaking English. There isn't just "one German accent", but this video summarises some accent features that most German speakers have (either when they started to learn English or even now after speaking English for many years).
4. I have not shown all potential accent features that German speakers may have.
5. Some topics have been simplified for a general audience.
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Speakers in the video
Angela Merkel (German Chancellor)
Gerd Müller (German politician)
Günther Oettinger (German politician)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Austrian actor and former politician/professional bodybuilder!)
Sounds from FreeSound.org
Slide Guitar 1 by Redafs, Bamboo Swing, B8 by InspectorJ, Cartoon Bounce by Alexir, Wind swish swoosh 2 by daalvinz
Background Music: Inevitable from KZhead Audio Library
Check out my Online English Pronunciation Course. It's tailored to your native language. Try a free lesson: improveyouraccent.co.uk/course/ The video states that words in German do not end in voiced consonants. This is not strictly true (words can end in /m/, /l/ and /n/ which are voiced sounds). A more accurate statement is that lenis stops and fricatives are realised as fortis when in syllable-final position.
I am from russia and read th as tch so with and witch are the same for me. The same is with gh.
Isn't the trap vowel [a] sometimes pronounced as [ɛ] in the USA? I think German people hear this and imitate it.
I think the accent of younger germans is a wild mix of british-English which we learn in school, american englisch because of the media and of course a typically German accent
Just call it genglish.
@@ltcasey6318 we call it Denglish sometimes, as Deutsch means German
Lol, we learned british english from class 5-7 and then american english from class 8-10. Where's the sence? I don't know.
@@agoodSlytherin2005 in the 6th grade we also learn Australian English... I don't understand why...
@Jade Fuchs danke für die Englischstunde Professor
All Germans in the comments: taking notes to improve their English accents Me: taking notes to improve my German impersonation
Ha! Me too. If people could trade accents, i would trade mine for a German/Southern German accent
@@arthurmsiska3800 I don't even know what my accent sounds like anymore. It feels I mimic whatever I happen to be watching lately.
@@JonatasAdoM I am trying to learn the Bavarian accent as well as the Swiss German accent 😂😂 my poor tongue
Alle die Deutsche: Notzen machen zu ihren Englisch akzenten verbessern. Mir, wem ist lernen Deutsch: Notzen machen zu meinem Deutsche verbessern
@@MandMs05 Alle deutschen: machen Notizen um ihren englischen Akzent zu verbessern Ich, der versucht Deutsch zu lernen: macht Notizen um sein Deutsch zu verbessern Good luck and have fun learning german! The format you used for you comment is really weird in german btw 😁
I know this video isn’t meant for me (a native English speaker from the US) but I thought I’d just remind everyone not to worry if you have an accent! If people understand you, that’s good enough! In my opinion, it gives you character!
Accents are cute
I was stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany in the late-70s. I thought I'd learn to speak German while there. Instead, I found that the vast majority spoke perfect English and many of them had almost no accent. It was my cue on how privileged we English speakers are, that we go to countries and expect them to accommodate our ignorance, then expect them to also speak English when they visit the US. Also, a great many of the older women in Germany were out early each morning, sweeping the curbs and streets around their house and their neighbors. Definitely helping them stay fit and beautifying the 'hood.
Yeah, the old ladies are always nice to talk too. They also make great sweets. Also, english is a second language that is a subject that you have to take in school, as such, they will obviosuly be good.
I feel it’s a bit of a shame that us native English speakers don’t really get brought up speaking a second language… we had French in secondary school (Highschool) but it wasn’t an opportunity everyone got, also it was the *only* option and not really any way to further that education to become fluent. It wasn’t important to learn in shorter words. Although I do feel lucky that most people in Europe can give me directions if I ever get lost there 😅
@@undeadwerewolves9463 Talk about lazy; I live less than 100km from the Mexico border yet I've never learned to speak Spanish. My granddaughters can, though and try to teach me.
@@undeadwerewolves9463 high school is too late to learn another language. In Germany we learn English in 5th grade and another language by the 7th depending what kind of school you go to.
"we go to countries and expect them to accommodate our ignorance" ?? except you did precisely the opposite of that. you went there expecting to learn german.
I was so sure you would bring up Öttinger. His bad English is a running gag here in Germany😂😂
Konstdieduschen
Ze risk ov kreddit kransch
Danke dass du das sagst
Kann er überhaupt ne Sprache normal sprechen?
@@p3chv0gel22 Schwäbisch, wenn man dass als Sprache bezeichnen kann
Me as a German: Of course I know how the english 'w' is pronounced, 'ng' sound? easy! ....wait, what? there is a difference between 'er' and 'ö'? damn, I have probably said that wrong all my life
The English "er" sound has the same quality as the German unstresed "e" as in "bitte", but it’s long and stressed.
You need to put your face in the right position, like an English speaker - with your lips and cheek muscles all floppy and relaxed. I'm learning German and the opposite is the case for me. Before I mastered the facial position, my "oe" and "ue" sounds were never the same twice.
After "me as a German" I really unconsciously read the rest of the words in German accent lol
it's ok in many dialects of English, the nurse vowel is *actually* rounded (such as in Australian English) so neh it's ok
American er or British er? Totally different.
Probably for the same reason why native English speakers have an accent when speaking German. As a German I love to have a certain accent when speaking in foreign languages because this helps me to be perceived as an educated alien who is able to speak English or French at a conversational level rather than being misperceived as a fellow-countryman with basic grammar or vocabulary issues. So I always focus on my text and never on my accent. What should it be good for to loose my accent?
Interesting point. I only see an issue with accent when it interferes with comprehension. I like it otherwise ^^.
Accent also changes with exposure. I'm Dutch, grew up with American tv and first learned English through that. I then moved to Scotland and lived there for 5 years, changing my accent in English to include some Scottish/Northern sounds. When people hear me speak nowadays they are quite confused where my accent is from. I'd say it sounds mostly neutral like an American accent, with hints of Dutch and Scottish and slowly more English sounds as I now live in England haha
Dear “Improve Your Accent”, I am an American living in Germany and struggling with the German language. I have often heard a particular reoccurring mistake made by most Germans I have met when they speak English. As you have already described, the german “w” is pronounced as an english “v”, that being the typical error. What I often hear is more puzzling. Germans who have learned to make the english “w” often use it when saying words in english that begin with “v” such as: “willian” ” for “villain”, “wolcano” for “volcano” etc. I ask them: “Why do you make a “w” sound for and english “v” when you are perfectly capable of making the sound as it is the same as a german “w”. They never give me a meaningful answer or say something like: “We can barely hear the difference.”. I suffer from a analogous problem while speaking german. In the beginning I struggled with the german “ch”. English speakers tend to make an english “sh” sound when attempting the german “ch” as the german “ch” doesn’t exist in english. I now often make the german “ch” sound in words that contain “sch” which should be pronounced like english “sh” which I am of course perfectly capable of making. My hypothesis is that when, for example, a native german speaker is learning english and often makes the classic error of pronouncing english “w’s” like german “w’s” , the student is corrected over and over. I think then the brain comes upon an english “v” but has been told through this relentless correction the “vee” sound is wrong! and automatically substitutes the now heavily reinforced english “w” even though it should be a “vee” as in “vase”. I can’t convince anyone that I am correct but I am sure of it! I have witnessed this exchange so often in myself and others and I know what is going on in my confused brain. One has over practiced and been over corrected to avoid the typical error leaving the automatic vocal machinery sometimes confused. I think that a better approach to teaching new students could prevent this conflict. This problem is ubiquitous and I believe the fault lies with the method of instruction. This reoccurring mistake rarely if ever seems to go away completely no matter how fluent the non-native speaker becomes. It has somehow been unintentionally reinforced and becomes an automatic reflex. (pain avoidance!) I would be very interested to hear what a language expert thinks about this phenomenon. Thank you. And yes, as you said: learning to speak a foreign language, particularly as an adult, is very difficult!
It's interesting that you bring this up, because the german equivalent to "volcano", "vulkan" is pronounced with an english w sound.
I’m not sure about the v and w thing with German speakers that you mentioned but just in case you were interested, the German “ch” actually does exist in English. It’s in the form of “H” in words like “human” and “huge”.
I‘m from Germany and I noticed the exact same thing!
sometimes it is a case of allophones in German but aren't in English. A good case of allophones though recognizing it that my accent of English has is the Japanese u and normal /u/ where it has complimentary distribution. Or swedish /y/ I mistaken heavily for /i/.
*Why do German speakers sound German?* *Ah yes, the floor here is made of floor*
XD
Oh god! The air is made of air!
I mean seriously what kinda bullshit question is that 😂
@@caleidozkopie8344 It's not. Since 'because they're Germans' is not an appropriate answer in linguistics.
@@wariofat it is...
Everybody has an accent if English is not their native language. The title seems odd.
I have an accent and English was my native accent.
@@bsixnshtns891 good observation :)
If British English is the standard, then the guy should make a video about all different accents in the US, in the UK itself, or Australia, NZ and Canada... To me it doesn't make much sense to do this.
English speakers told me, I sound like an american... when drunk.. I’m German
Yes everyone who isnt a native speaker has an accent. The title is saying why do they have accents; what causes it. It isnt singling out germans this is a series and this is just the german episode. Read the title as "Why do Germans have trouble pronouncing English words" or something along those lines. Its a video about specifically what causes the accent not "They have an accent because it isnt their first language"
Thank you a lot! This video is so helpful to me. I've been searching for something like this for a long time. I tried to improve my accent through close listening and imitation. Now I also have a theoretical background and thus I can understand on which sounds I have to improve exactly.
Honestly, this is literally every single one of my classmates speaking English in class and it makes me cry🥲
I'm a learner of English since school and had never realised that all those final "s" in plurals are voiced 😯
Not all
If the sound before an s is voiced than it turns into a zed
@@milosm9280 Thats a Z (Zee) if you're learning American English. Same sound the letter just has a different name. (Im talking to OP just replying to this comment since its the related comment)
Also when you say cats the ts turns into a single sound(like the z in Zeit)
@@milosm9280 I mean, technically ts isn't a single sound though, it still consists of t and s.
However, a German accent can easily lead to fatal misunderstandings like that: The captain of a boat radios to the German coast guard: "Mayday, mayday, we're sinking, we're sinking!" The German coast guard replies: "What are you sinking about?"
Good advert knowledge.
Die Werbung kennt nun wirklich jeder.
funny
@@artanis122 ehm ne nicht wirklich. Das hab ich noch nie gehört.
My English teacher in 7th grade showed us this advertisement (or whatever it is) in our first lesson with him and for the next tree years, at least one person asked "What are you sinking about?" when somebody pronounced thinking wrong.
This was my first video from and I really enjoyed it (I am from Austria ;-) ). What I really like about this video is, that you do not hurry when talking. You give yourself breaks and a pause between sentences. This is great, since this gives a relaxed surrounding and one can follow your ideas mich better. Subscription done!
Thanks for this video! I had to give a presentation on an accent (could be an English or a foreign one) for a Diction course in college and this was basically my source (as well as the book Learner English). Great material!
0:47 god the cringe is unbearable as a German😩
Isso😂
"wwwannn wörlt" wonderful
Same💀 And my name's Lina as well :)
Ja 😭😂
Italians: first time?
0:53 English pronunctiation isn't the only thing Günther Oettinger has no clue about
absolutely right!
wow this is explained really well and detailed, perfect examples too. Nice
As a Ukrainian, who learns German, I find this video very helpful for me as well!
Dude in this video: "Not all languages have the same phonology as your native language." Americans: "I'll pretend I didn't hear this."
Americans don't have a native language also that applies to the English because they anglicise words where is most people just get on with the word. People like to think of English as refined it isn't it's just they shoot you if you don't speak it it's popular by brute force like Spanish nothing to do with any valid reason to speak one language over another what's more technically native English language should be Welsh but that hasn't been the case for a few thousand years outside Wales which itself is anglicanized nonsense Cymru is what the countries called.
This goes the other way for English-speakers when they speak German: --the German "u" with an "umlaut" is a sound that doesn't exist in English. English-speakers just pronounce it like an English "u", when it's more like a French "u". --Germans "roll" their "r's" from deeper in their throats than English-speakers, hence the stereotype of Germans coughing up a lot of phlegm when they speak. --German spelling is for the most part phonetic...the words look just like they're pronounced. English spelling is a mess, due to centuries of English inaction in keeping it up to date with pronunciation.
I know an English bloke who has the opposite problem. He makes out of every "u" an "ü". The normal "u" is the challenge for him. But thats probably because of his regional accent.
Is there a video addressing this?
@@Bobby-ud4xk Is he from Yorkshire by any chance?
@@tomtom1501tm not quite, Norfolk
@@callmecopycat7797 which is exactly what they wrote? They probably could not type the actual ü and therefore put ‘umlaut u’ instead
3:53 seeing that all the examples are from one Öttinger statement made me really laugh out loud! Made my day! 4:37 the 'a' sound is also a funny situation: In German, we would pronounce it pretty much the same as the correct (British) English pronunciation, but when we Germans speak English, we suddenly turn it into either this "ey" or our German "ä" sound. Maybe we feel the need to change the vowel sound to not sound German, or it's because we hear a lot of American English in our day to day lives and lean on that rather than British English. I know I learned much more English from American media, than I learned from school and British media combined.
"trap" vowel: yes, German has it, the "a" sounds almost the same in "apple" and "Apfel": I think they must learn English pronunciation from the upper classes of the 1940s, like Celia Johnson and Her Majesty.
@@georgebattrick2365 Wait, "trap" is also such a word, isn't it?
@@saskia4219 :-)
As a German that grew up bilinguar, I gotta say: that video is insanely accurate and the transitioning sounds are wonderful xD
Today I learned: I am kinda good at hiding my accent.
same
Same
Same lol
Same
Not that difficult compared to the alten Säcke from CDU/CSU
How did you find all these German people that we are not proud of when speaking English 🤣
Angela Merkel is very difficult to find ;)
Old people tend to be worse at english and they tend to be better knewn on a global scale
I am Not proud If old people Like this Guys speak german
Angelica Merkel never speak English at all . To conpair her to young peopl is realy stupid . Most of them lived in Areas were you didnt had english lesens at all .
@@xythiera7255 them not usualy haveing ben tought english in their youth is the reason for the quality of their english. I do think that you still can compare old people to younger ones, since compareing is usualy the way we formulate how good or bad something is since we lack an objektive framework. Therefor we for the most part have to make comparative descriptions of qualitys like "old people tend to be worse at english(in comparison to the average goodness at english of the population)".
My best friend is German and I LOVE his accent! I hope it never changes 😉
Thank you for the clarification. By now and after 40 years speaking English with a strong German accent, I am proud to have come so far and I love to hear back the voice imitations of sounds I have produced. I get the same smile on my face when playing games with characters, which have that accent. A German accent can be cute to the ears of Germans, if combined with a good dose of humour. And Elder Scrolls for example has it 😄
I used to work in a large multinational company In south Tyrol, a german-speaking region in Italy. Meetings were usually attended by native German speakers, native Italian speakers and sporadically also by Americans , Japanese and Chinese colleagues Man, accents got so messed up some times
do chinese people have a strong accent ?
Yeah, cause they must speak more languages than you do, soooo yeah, they could have some Problems with there accent
@@siaphorus7606 You are everywhere
In south Tyrol we like to hear the Mountain Sound
@@hansymillery8309 It was part of Austria up until 1919 or so and was taken from Austria after WWI. People there are Austrian/German and they still identify themselves as Austrian of course.
3:46 "You can't moof" thank you Arnold XD
Ahahaha
i actually cant hear a difference between Arnold and the other guy..
I am german and I try my best to not sound german by pronouncing the sounds you mentioned here the correct, english way. I think I'm doing a good job so far. But it's really hard to completely "kill off" the german accent, so to speak, considering I don't have many reasons to speak english in my daily life here in germany.. I'd love to travel to Britain someday and maybe even stay and work there permanently. :)
Wow that was helpful! Thank you so much!
The accent the English have when speaking German is A LOT stronger than the accent Germans have when speaking English.
that depends when they learn german. I know an american that learned german as his second language and i can barely hear an accent. Most germans are good with english because we learn it very early at school.
You don't start learning German as a child usually. I started learning english as a toddler
You should do a video about that. Then we can learn too.
Are there brits that can speak other languages??? Ahah
thanks for your opinion, but in fact i wonder who asked. (btw english, in contrast to german, is a global language) Grüße!
I would say the hardest sound for us germans to make is "th". Most germans pronounc it as "s".
Guess I'm lucky that I speak german , cuz I literally can't do "th" sound.
@@ThomasHametner I guess you can touch the tip of your front teeth with the tip of your tongue 😉
@@djgenetic111 How did you know that I have a long tongue?
@@ThomasHametner ok, maybe it is too long for the "th" 😷
@@djgenetic111 Bro you just made me realise something I didn't even know about myself.
Your channel is so underrated. I wish I can support you more.
For me as a German this was interesting, as it gives me some hints on where I might fail in pronunciation without noticing it. Thanks!
Me beeig German, watching that video: "I know there is a difference between w and v in englisch, yet I am unable to can audibly tell them apart." Btw, German politicians in that age are most likely the worst representatives for Germans speaking English. I am also rly greatfull, that you didn't touch on the "th" problem most Germans have, took me years to get it somewhat right.
To pronounce "th“ isn’t even that hard I don’t know why so many germans find it hard to pronounce words like "the". I hate it when I hear germans pronounce it awkwardly with the letter “s". Ich meine ich finds ja nicht schlimm wenn man „th“ nicht aussprechen kann, aber anstatt das mit nem „d“ auszusprechen was viele Briten selber tun. „De house“ hört sich viel besser an als „se house“ .
Merkel is doing pretty well, actually. Her first foreign language was russian, after all. Öttinger doesn't have this excuse, though...
Das englische W wird fast wie ein ua -Sound ausgesprochen, als uuaaater anstatt von water. Stell dir vor du hast dabei einen grossen Kaugummi im Mund. Das englische V wird eigentlich wie unser W ausgesprochen oder unser V wie in Wörtern wie Vase, Violine und nicht wie in Vater oder Vogel.
@@gerdforster883 As far as know he went to an "altsprachlichen Gymnasium", meaning he would have learned Latin and Greek as his foreign languages with English being a possible third language.
@@danielaschulz795 Ich krieg es einfach nicht hin TH auszusprechen :/ vorallem bei "i think" und "three" wirds sehr problematisch. Ich gucke auch viele übungsvideos dazu, aber ich schaff es einfach nicht. Ich versuche es deshalb irgendwie mit einem D zu überspielen
This is a great video for those who want to "sound German" when speaking English! Hehe...
Why would you?
@@user-te7ti3wv8u why not?
@@user-te7ti3wv8u To intimidate people of course.
@@user-te7ti3wv8u I've been told my german accent is sexy, so there's that.
@@timokohler6631 I've been told that my German accent sounds terrible. But by other Germans. So maybe it doesn't
I learned a lot while watching this video. Thank you!
ohh my god the devoicing one is so eye-opening! definitely something I’ll concentrate on reducing in the future.
I was tortured in Englisch because of my german accent. But no matter how much I read aloud, I couldn't improve. Because my mistakes just remainded the same and the teachers couldn't help me. But videos like this help me so much. So a HUGE sänk ju. :) Also learning a third language helps a lot. In my case portuguese. It really helps to reflect on your way of speaking and pronunciation.)
Accents are cute, imagine a world without it, it would be extremely boring.
@Z.K. Yeah of course. When do we start?
Recently, I was holding a presentation in English classes and when the teacher asked the others if they got any questions left, one raised her hand and said "You did really well and you're talking without any accent at all" - that quite surprised me in that moment- I didn't think about the fact that I am talking English to my international online and irl friends in VCs, as well as to myself on a daily basis, so I probably improved my pronounciation along the way. Yes, I am talking to myself, you should really try it, never had a more understanding talk Partner before!
Haha yep this
Same People in MW2 can't tell I'm not American when I'm calling them names kek
“Why do Germans people sound German” Cus their german
We are below a video about language... So it's THEY'RE!!1 for me as a german it always triggers me, it's like an insider for some of us that many english speakers cannot differenciate between some words sounding similar xd
*they‘re
Cus Their German. What German ?
Ffs read the comment then you'd know everyone already made this "joke".
BLESS YOU FOR THIS!
Because zey ahhh Dschörmen
Yess, zat iss ze reason!
Ze germans ahh talking like zis
*Dschörmen
Zhat is nott Tru
Lmao 😂
1:13 Excuse moa? The most people can prounounce it, but the alte Säcke from the CDU/CSU aren't good in English, sry
Ich kann nicht !!! Junge 😂😂😂😂
I´m dead
@@tamtam4494 Whyyy
I've had a fair share of classmates who sounded as terrible as the old white men in our government, so there's that...
@@leDespicable Yeah, I'm always surprised by how terrible some young people here are at English. I thought that the stereotypical German accent in movies was exaggarated or a joke or something, but... yeah I heard enough people who actually sound like that by now.
This just helped me improve my accent, 11/10 Channel Name Accuracy Thanks. I always wondered if my English sounded a lil german, and turns out about a quarter of the videos topics I pronounce as every german person would.
Thank you for this lesson
I had a French 'assistant' teacher from Alsace. Our teacher told us he had a German accent when he spoke French, we couldn't hear it at all. We pupils asked him to say something in English, he said 'Vot do you vant me to tsay?'. I said 'That's fine.'.
So then he wasn't French but German/Elsässer.
The w and v thing actually goes the other way as well. Sometimes germans get mixed up and pronounce theirs v-s like a w. Also interesting is that this happens with s and th sounds.
It's called overcompensation. People work hard to learn a sound that doesn't exist in their language and then it occasionally slips into places where it shouldn't be.
@@gerdforster883 except that if every German I've ever met says “wideo” and “willage”, then it's definitely a problem with the education and not just over compensation
@@polymath6475 are you from the usa or uk?
@@Jack_TheFlipper Neither.
"Dars Wader" is my favourite.
Thank u for explaining my language to me .... I am doing all of those mistakes and now have a reason to better myself (hopefully)
Some might say I'm lazy but I simply came to the conclusion to accept my accent and rather learn more words instead of improving my pronunciation. Apart from "are you German?" I didn't encounter any issues at all and no one had trouble to understand me regardless if they were from America, England or had English as their second language. Furthermore I find it easier to understand people simply going along with their accent (especially if it's their second language) opposed to them trying to speak accent free.
If that is the case, you're probably not part of the targeted audience for this video, which is btw fine, but other people like me do wish to improve.
Yeah not here to ruin your ambitions just wanted to leave my 2 cents since the video got into my suggestions. Another phrasing would be that it's fine to have an accent people will still understand you and it's no hindrance for business either. Even translators for diplomats have quite often heavy accents. Doesn't mean it wouldn't be a great achievement to speak without any accent but you'll even have trouble finding a native speaker that doesn't have an accent himself.
It’s interesting! I hope that you'll make a video about Russian accent 😄🤞🏻
I will do at some point 😊
Yes, please. I guess you can find Putin's and Anna Netrebko's speeches and maybe other Russian speakers
@@ImproveYourAccent and Polish 😅
I'm a native Russian speaker and it would be nice to see why do I have an accent sometimes.
@@TheMetalBookTavern In German typical slavic sounds are with sh r and l
Dude, taking Günther Öttinger as an example is really important! He’s the pinnacle of german accents...
One of the best Videos if ever see as a german that video gives many Information of the german language and some german bangers great Video!
I think a Swiss German accent is distinct enough from a German accent that it deserves its own video.
Swiss german is unintelligible to me. I have an easier time understanding dutch.
my biggest problem is the "th" in words like "through", "birthday", "maths", "clothes", or "month"
in Iceland and Greece the alphabets have different letters for those sounds which clarifies how to pronounce things clearly, unlike English which even lacks basic accent marks never mind having separate letters for those sounds...
I too once. The best solution like with all languages: practice, practice, practice. I was very, very bad in English at school, because I didn't like the way it was taught. I'm somebody who learns best by practicing (no class-room, no teacher, no exercise-books, no boring learning of vocabulary), which includes reading books in English (almost all books I read are in English) and listening to TV, especially news-channels, but also sports with English speaking commentators. I learned 95 % of my English since I left school. At school, I almost had to do a year a second time because of my bad English exams, today I occasionally even do translation-work for money.
When I pronounce th-words slowly or with a little bit of effort it's not a problem, but when 'th' is followed by 's', as in 'maths' or 'months', it is nearly impossible for me to pronounce the ending properly. How in hell should I be able to pull back the tip of my tongue that fast, i.e. tongue between front teeth away from that gap/split? 😂
@@weirdowhisper I have the opposite problem as a native English speaker learning German. Words like "nichts" are really difficult
@@mtchllBarrett You may sail around this problem by shifting to "nix" (like nicks) for informal conversation, the more coloquial way to pronounce it for most native german speakers. Because while pretending to be exact and strict whith the rules to foreigners we are in fact lazy a.f. when we're amongst ourselfes.
For the fact alone that you have included Günther Oettinger, this video deserves a big like xD
As an Austrian I laughed my a* off when I watched this. Your observations are very accurate! I realised for the first time I was guilty of committing some of these pronunciation crimes myself 😅
I´ve now lived for 40 years in Germany and Austria and still speak German with an English-sounding accent - but I do a wicked good impression of a German trying to speak zee werry goed Enn-lisch !
Zis häs mäde mii incrädebly self-conciouz.
Zis has mäid mii inkrädibl selfconziös
@@WCiossek self-konshäss?
@@huawafabe self-konschißß
69
Och Leute hahahaha
Thank you my friend I am trying to master 6 accents and your channel is perfect. I will buy your course when I can. 👍🏽😎
Thank you for your help
I had kind of the opposite problem: Since I learned to copy English and American dialects as a German, I'm not even able to simulate a German accent anymore, because I only remember the correct pronunciation of most English words. Therefore, thank you for the video, and damn, Oettinger is such an embarrassing example
Kannst du mit einem britischen Akzent sprechen?
Hey wie hast du gelernt akzentfrei zu sprechen? Mein Englisch ist realtiv gut und ich habe einen großen Wortschatz aber mein deutscher Akzent zerstört sovieles 🥺
@@dilara1652 Ich bin vielleicht kein gutes Beispiel, aber ich klinge recht britisch, wenn ich Englisch rede. In meiner Erfahrung ist das einfachste, viel mit native speakern zu sprechen, dann kopiert man automatisch gewisse Aussprachen. Ansonsten würd ich einfach darauf achten, wie Worte in verschiedenen Ländern (Vor allem Großbritannien und Amerika) ausgesprochen werden. Die meisten Schulen bringen eher British Englisch bei (bei uns jedenfalls)
Ich bin Englisch-Muttersprachlerin, kann aber deutsch völlig fließend sprechen. Ich habe immer noch eine leichte Akzent auf Deutsch aber wenn ich versuche, auf Englisch mit deutschem Akzent zu reden, ist es völlig hoffnungslos 😂 obwohl ich französische, britische, und mehrere amerikanischen Akzenten schaffen kann...
Now I feel like my pronounciation is terrible.
don't worry, most Germans are VERY understandable and merely fact many of you can speak the amount of English you can impresses many Americans/Brits
Love the choice of music for the chapter titles, very fitting.
i frickin love the music, the examples and the little clips of angela merkel i didn't know were necessary but grew attached to
I sink you forrgot se "th" sound - e.g. Germans pronounce "smoothie" sometimes "smoosie" and/or "smootie"
Or "smoofie"
zmutie* da bitteschön xD
Th is really hard for German speakers… Everytime I try to do it my tongue capitulates and only wants to make an F.
It isn't only Germans. Most languages don't have the "th" sounds, so if you don't learn a language that does form early childhood, it is very difficult to learn how to say something like "this thing" past the age of around 10 or 12. Likewise, many languages other than English have rolled or trilled "r" sounds which Americans find impossible to pronounce.
The th sound is actually not that bad for me, as long as there are not like three th's shortly after one another, then I'm overwhelmed and one of them becomes a d ore something like that. But this v at the end of a word... I never realized that and actually I have no motivation to learn that, it is soo exhausting to do!
I really love how Arnold says "Talk to the hand". Happy to get improved mimicking Terminator.
when du hast started playing i seriously couldn’t hold my laughter in front of my whole class.
This video is just perfect to get rid of my pronunciation problems
The reverse is also true, You can always spot a texan speaking german. Our languages are so similar, yet fundamentally different.
Okay I swear that I must have the thickest of accents in German, your words are like I just slammed a keyboard when I am trying to use them. No offence, I just cant relate to this enough.
Their "fundament" really isnt that different.
Not really!
Very interesting, especially for me as a German. :) I'd love to see a part two, which covers the rest of the topic. For example the r and l-sounds you mentioned in the end.
That was really hilarous. Thank you.
Great video!!
Very interesting! I‘ve never heard of Germans mistaking the ö-sound for the nurse vowel. In university we only learned about the bird-vowel. You also should definitely do something about linking and weakening of Germans in English I personally believe this is one of the hardest parts in getting rid of an accent.
I'm German and that was so interesting, I learned a lot about English and German! Thank you!;)
This is amazing, I view this video a few days ago, and now, I've just recognized some features of german accent
Thanks for sharing
After this video I can't stop thinking about how strong of a German accent I have 🥴 I need to speak a native English speaker asap 😂
Love these videos! Native English speaker living abroad here, and it helps me to understand how to improve my pronunciation in the language where I live (the Netherlands). And some basic linguistics, which is always fun! Maybe you can do a Dutch one?☺️
Dutch is on my list 😊🇳🇱
Improve Your Accent I hope you don't forget about the short u sound. Dutch people often pronounce the word "Dutch" as "Dertsh." It's the cutest thing ever.
Thank you that video is very helpful! :)
Brilliant!
Such a good video! I am from Germany and now I know how to work on my accent
Pleased to hear it 😊 If you need more help, take a look at my course: improveyouraccent.co.uk/course/
Why do British speakers have British accents when speaking any other language if they speak any at all ? Brit immigrant in Germany
Perhaps because Brits aren't used to the german/french/spanish pronunciation of sounds? They hardly ever are very keen on learning foreign languages as they expect everyone to speak english, the language of the "great empire"? No idea, I can only guess.
@@magmalin That archetype of British people isnt quite true. Its just that the school systems start teaching languages a good 7 years too late. That decision is not based upon prudent nationalism or laziness, but of the governments failure to recognise a second language as an essential skill when outlying our curriculum because they think a second language is not essential to function in adult life. They believe, wrongly, that since English has been designated the spot of the international communication language, that languages can be an afterthought and to be pursued by only those who have an active interest. This view is shared by most english speaking governments and not just the UK. Good news though, in the UK they have begun to push the start of language learning back to the start of primary school. We are not there yet but hopefully it is the start of a larger shift. I love linguistics and languages.
@@smoogle3g4c37 I love languages as well but I do have sort of a "hate/love" feeling towards English. I grew up in Australia along time ago, so English, the British version - no Aussie dialect, is part of my life. I really like translating texts from German to English. There are such a lot of ways to express situations, feelings, etc. I love english grammar. What I don't like is the British arrogance I've experienced as a child in Australia as well as nowadays. All these rich Britons living in France and Spain without even trying to learn the language or understanding the local culture, just gives me the creeps. There are so many Brits in the French region Périgord for example, that It's not French anymore. This makes me feel really sad. French is a wonderful language as well as Spanish. Why should English be be superiour?
@@magmalin I agree that to live in a foreign country and make no effort to learn the language is kind of arrogant and Britons make up a large proportion of these people. I know what you talk of as my family and I are from the UK. My grandfather was a teacher and once talked about a conversation with the head teacher of the school he taught at. He once inquired why the school only taught latin as a language and the teacher replied that since English was so dominant and used as the international language, that all other languages were obselete and inferior therefore the best cause of action was to further ones understanding of their own (hence the latin.) I distinctly remember my grandfather calling this man 'pig headed' after telling me that story. The thing is, I dont like it when people make generalisations about entire populations. My grandmother was a french teacher, my father is trilingual and has a PhD in English literature and I am very interested in linguistics (hence me watching this video.) We are all British. I think the mental state of this nationalist superiority complex that some brits have is dying out as I have met very few brits below the age of 60 that truly reflect the nationalistic stereotype that you have seen. I apologise that you had to encounter such poor etiquette from other Britons. I can only hope things will change.
You guys don’t have a British accent when talking in German. Americans, Brits and Australians all have the same accent in German.
Please keep making such great videos
Also, there is no sound in the German language like the "th" in the English words "this" and "that". Germans will typically make a "z" sound for "th" and say "zis" and "zat".
That is just partly true. I have an old book in German from the 19th century. At that time the German language had the "th" as well. I think they changed it later into "d". By the way in that time they still used "c" like Latin and English. But it was also changed later into "k". The Germans use to update their way of writing every 20 or 50 years, to make it closer to the spoken language of current High German, witch of course is changing slowly. The advantage of this is, there is not such big difference between the way of writing and speaking the German language, like in e.g. French or English. But the distance on the other hand between German and English at least in the way of writing becomes bigger if one side updates their writing and the other not.
@@stoerg2012 Yes, the updates to the German language are known as the Rechtschreibung. There are still German words that start with 'th', such as "Theologie", "Thüringen", and "Therapie", but the 'th' in these words is pronounced like 't'. The point I was trying to make is that there is no equivalent sound in German to the English 'th', so German speakers will often compensate for this when speaking English and make a 'z', or even an 's' sound, for 'th'. For example, my German brother-in-law says Happy Birsday with an 's', instead of 'th'.
@@stoerg2012 there definitely wasn't a 'th' sound in the 19th century. Maybe in the middle ages, if even
I don't know how these two letters "th" were pronounced at that time. I just said that in former days in German we also had this letter combination in our own words, not only in words from other languages, like “Theologie” for instance. But I have to correct myself. The German “th” turned rather into “t” and not into “d”, as I said before. I am not an expert in languages. I don’t know much about these topics. I just found it remarkable as I saw these old German written language in this book, it looked for me closer to the English language than the current written German. By the way, if one would compare the old English (of King James for Instance) with German, it becomes even closer. One will find such remarkable words, like “thou” and “thee” and so on. Ones as a child I asked my English teacher about my observation, that those two languages seemed so similar on the one hand, but English appeared so simpler than German on the other hand. I learned Russian and French at the same time with English. He told me that German and English are related with each other and therefore were quite similar at a certain time in history. But with the time German developed and became more difficult why English was not developing so far. He thought that the old languages were easy and became more difficult or developed, like culture usually did. Later I found out, that this not the fact. When it comes to grammar, for instance, the old English was more complicated like German is still today. English became simpler with the time, while German did not change so much in that way.
@@stoerg2012 Old English is basically german, because it came from the Anglo-Saxons (Northern Germany). So it's not the german that was close to english, it was the english that was close to german. But it was influence by vikings (9th century onward) and then the french (11th century onward). As a german, i can understand old english quite well when written. But certainly, in the 18th and 19th century, both english and german were barely different from today, maybe some smaller pronunciations. But i'm 100% sure there was no 'th' sound in german, at least not in the last 600 years. The 'th' letter combination existed and still exists, but that's just what it is, a 't' and an 'h'. And that's how it's pronounced :)
Great material! One suggestion: It would help immensly for understanding if you let us hear how you perform both pronunciations.
You really got it on the point, wow
I try my best but I haven't yet managed to get rid of my accent completely. Voiced consonants at the ends of words are reaaaaaally difficult to always get right. So easy to slip up.
Final voiced consonants are tricky, but it's great that you're aware of them 👍 If you need more tips/practice, check out my online course: improveyouraccent.co.uk/course/
Same 😂
we have that as well, remember ß?
I'm Italian, but everyone keeps telling me i sound german, so here I am
wow i really have to grive props to my english teacher here in germany, he really did taught me correct pronunciation from a young age. (private english schooled) but in normal school this isn't taught for some reason. now i know the actual reason why people tell me that I DONT have a stereotypical german accent. this was really interesting.
I'm a German native speaker who is more or less fluent in English and I actually like having a bit of an accent. Idk, there's something fun about sounding a little different :)
What about the „Glottisschlag“, an almost inaudible click sound being made when the syllable starts with a vowel. I didn’t even realize that it exists and allegedly it’s something difficult to get rid of for native German speakers.
aka glottal stop
Some native English speakers also use glottal stops, e.g. someone with a cockney accent would pronounce *butter* to sound like *bu'uh*. In German however, every single word that begins with a vowel is introduced by a glottal stop, so people are usually not aware of the difference, which is why that feature is common even amoung experienced English speakers of German origin, especially where the first syllable is stressed (such as in 'obviously').
That one is especially prominent when speaking in full sentences because in English you'd link a word beginning with a vowel with the last sound of the word before that. You don't do that in German however and add the glottal stop in front of the word beginning with vowel. That produces the typical staccato-sounding accent some German native speakers have when speaking English.
@@hyperion7462 Interesting! I never paid attention to this.
Thank you, for this video!!! I now have a better understanding of my boyfriends accent lol🇩🇪💕
I have the xtreme luck, that I never was hevay german speaker myslef even though I spent all my life in germany. I was ahardcore introvert who didnt speak much to my parents, classmates, firends, etc. I excaped to the internet, listened to Hip Hop, Rock , metal, reggae, completely in englisch. I surrounded the interesting parts of my life with the american english language. This helped me when I moved to Berlin, because there are so many beuatiful people from all the world who speak english. Because I never spoke much german I ws able to learn english like a young kid
1:47 it does exist, but the schwa sound is always short in German. Example: “e” in “bitte”
there are words in german that end in v such as brav, i think they pronounce it with a f because v is pronounced as f in german
not quite right. We sometimes pronounce it /f/ (e.g. Vater) and sometimes /v/ (e.g. Vase). In case of "brav", we pronounce it with /f/, but if there is an ending (like "braver Junge"), it becomes a /v/-sound. similarly, we pronounce "Hand" with a /t/-sound, but the plural "Hände" with /d/. It's called "Auslautverhärtung".
@@twipameyer1210 omg thanks so much that’s rly interesting :))
Depends: The first name Viktor is spoken almost like a German W at the beginning.
@@wernerschneider4460 Yes, the German W is pronounced /v/. Viktor, Wasser, Vase, it's all the same sound in the beginning.
In germany we say: *it gives*