{"id":13113,"date":"2021-06-28T16:29:37","date_gmt":"2021-06-28T16:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=13113"},"modified":"2021-06-28T16:29:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T16:29:37","slug":"4-ways-to-identify-a-german-speaking-english-accent-pronunciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/4-ways-to-identify-a-german-speaking-english-accent-pronunciation\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Identify a German Speaking English"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes you hear somebody’s accent, and it’s clear that they are from some European country. But which one? It often depends on the native language of the speaker. So let’s look at 3 ways that you can identify a German speaking English. The next time you hear somebody speaking like this, you could show off your German to them!<\/p>\n

1. Or?<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"German<\/a>

Photo by Jon Tyson<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

English, mostly British English, has the infamous tag –\u00a0you were going to make tea, weren’t you?<\/em><\/p>\n

German, on the other hand, doesn’t do this. Instead, we do this:\u00a0Du wolltest Tee kochen, oder?<\/em><\/p>\n

Similar to a “right?” in English, Germans say oder?, meaning “or?”<\/p>\n

Like a tag, it is an abbreviated form.\u00a0Oder\u00a0<\/em>is a short of\u00a0oder nicht<\/em>? So you’re really asking: “you wanted to this, or not?”<\/p>\n

And while it sounds aggressive in English, in German it basically functions like the English “right?” It is not really formal, but it is quite ubiquitous.<\/p>\n

Anyway, if you hear somebody say “or?” like a tag, there’s a good chance they’re German!<\/p>\n

2. False Friends<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"German<\/a>

Merkel infamously used the word “Shitstorm”, prompting international media attention (Image by WikimediaImages<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

Of course, any person using a different language than their own is prone to false friends – words that sounds or look very similar to a word they know in a different language, but that mean something else. If you notice a use of false friends, such as “to become” used with the meaning of “to get”, that could be a German confusing\u00a0bekommen<\/em><\/a>. Or perhaps they use the word\u00a0Shitstorm\u00a0<\/em><\/a>without realizing that this is not a super normal word in English. Of course, there are many like this. So if you use your extensive, unparalleled knowledge of the German language, you might hear some words that sound suspiciously like German false friends. They might be Germans!<\/p>\n

3. The Open-Mouth Sound<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"German<\/a>

Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

In a previous post, I gave tips for Americans to sound better in German<\/a>. One of them is simply to open your mouth! German simply is a language that requires you to open your mouth to sound proper, whereas American English doesn’t. British English, on the other hand, more than not requires more mouth movement as well.<\/p>\n

The point is that Germans will also speak English with this open mouth technique. In fact, the advice for Germans would be the opposite – close your mouth more when speaking English!<\/p>\n

In that previous post, I spoke an English sentence with a German accent, and it sounds like this:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t
<\/div>\n\t
<\/div>\n\t