but you're speaking English

you may have a German accent

But what does this actually mean?

In this video I'll be looking at the features that

create a German accent in English

There's no W sound in German

The letter W in the German alphabet

represents a V sound

This means Germans are likely to pronounce

W sounds as V in English

A word like "with" may be pronounced "vith"

When you see the letters NG

in the middle of a word in English

the G is usually pronounced as G like...

But the letters NG in German may not have that G sound

So a German speaker may pronounce "hunger" as...

Linguists give vowels names

to make it easier to talk about them

The /əː/ vowel in the words....

is called the NURSE vowel

and it's made with the lips relaxed

It doesn't exist in German

but this vowel made with the lips rounded

sounds similar

and Germans are likely to use it

for the NURSE vowel in English

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland

people speak different varieties of the German language

but most of these people

will share the same characteristic accent features

when speaking English

The speaker in the next clip is originally from Austria

but he also rounds his lips for the NURSE vowel

You can see it in the words...

The terms voiced and voiceless

describe whether a sound is made

with the vocal folds vibrating or not

If you make a long V sound

you can feel the vocal folds vibrating inside the larynx

If you make an F sound, there are no vibrations

German words don't end in voiced consonants

This means that final voiced consonants in English may turn voiceless – they are devoiced

You can hear the voiced V sound in...

turn into a voiceless F sound

The voiced Z sound marks the plural in the words....

But a German speaker is likely to devoice that Z

and turn it into a voiceless S

Similarly the voiced D sound in...

turns into a voiceless T sound

The /a/ vowel sound in words like...

is called the TRAP vowel

German speakers are likely to change this vowel

to an /ɛ/ sound when speaking English

The /aʊ/ vowel in words like "houses" and "allow"

is called the MOUTH vowel

In contemporary British English

the vowel starts more front in the mouth

But German speakers are likely to start this vowel

further back

which gives the impression of a deeper sound

These are just some of the features

that create a German accent in English

Of course there are many others like R and L sounds

but I can't cover everything in one video

It's not easy speaking another language

Firstly the sound system may be different

We saw this earlier with the English NURSE vowel /əː/

which doesn't exist in German

Secondly the letter-to-sound correspondence

may be different from language to language

For example, the letter W is pronounced as W in English

but V in German

It's important to realise that the same letter

may represent one sound in your language

but a different sound in another language

If you're a non-native English speaker

who wants to improve your pronunciation

then sign up for my online course

Go to my website to find out more

If you've enjoyed this video

please like it

and share it with your German-speaking friends!