Two things give away a German accent:
1. Germans do not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced consonants.
For example, the words “sad, mad, Dad” with voiced /d/ ending and “sat, mat, tet” with unvoiced /t/ ending have different meanings, but Germans pronounce them in the same way.
This can be easily fixed by practising voiced consonants and voiced endings with the apps Get Rid of your Accent UK1and Fluent English Speech (British English) or American Accent App and Fluent American Speech (American English).
2. Intonation patterns
They often use simple falling inflection that sounds like they are giving orders. English use more rising, which sounds like a request. Often Germans speak English in a monotonous way which makes them sound dull. To sound more interesting, we recommend working on the sentence stress and inflection and voice modulation with the apps Fluent English Speech or Fluent American Speech and Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.
The same apps are also available on Google Play. The functionality is ideal: read, listen, record and compare your speech with the model. The apps have spelling variations for all English sounds and mouth diagrams to help you create the correct speech organ positions in words, phrases and poetry. When starting your practice with these apps, first go to “How to use this app” and click on the difficult sounds typical for your nationality, then click on your nationality to work effectively with a more focused approach.
The apps contain exercises for:
1. Difficult and connected speech patterns
2. Natural flow of speech
3. Intonation and sentence stress
4. Pronunciation and articulation
There are also two accompanying video courses: Get Rid of your Accent Part 1 and Get rid of your Accent Part 2.
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