[dkersten]

Germans tend to pronounce A's in English as if they were E's ("cat" is pronounced as "k-eh-t" instead of "k-ah-t" -- which I don't really understand since A in German is pronounced as "ah"), so I'm not sure if everything you learned in English class is correct ;-)

[anyfoo]

English class in Germany told me to pronounce it the "k-ah-t" way because they were primarily teaching British English, but I think a lot of exposure to US Media brings people to pronounce it "k-eh-t" (and maybe overdoing it in trying to do so).

That's another thing I distinctively remember from English class in Germany, being taught the British pronunciation that, at that young age, was much less familiar to me than American pronunciation, and some slight confusion around that.

[dkersten]

Definitely overdoing it! :)

I’m a native (non-American) English speaker and the American pronunciation, to me, doesn’t sound like keht at all. (German was technically my first language, although English became my main language at an early age, so I’m quite used to German accents, so it’s definitely not caused by the native accents imho)

I once (when I was ~15 or so) had an argument with a kid who simply would not believe me that the letters C-A-T aren’t pronounced keht

[anyfoo]

The English books seemed to teach the correct thing, however, using the correct IPA and giving the correct hints. Just like with "I've got [something]".

It's also definitely not the case that the "a" in American English "cat" is pronounced like "a" usually is in German. In that case, the "a" sounds much closer to a German "e" then a German "a". The IPA for AE "cat" is kæt, not kat (where in some parts of Britain it actually is kat).

[dkersten]

Thanks, that was interesting :)

[jambalayaman]

Perhaps it is the american accent they are taught, americans would say keht. I always thought it was strange football was fussball in german, yet they'd call in soccer in english.

[dkersten]

Except the American accent doesn’t say keht — maybe there’s a slight hint (cough accent) of it, but it’s very slight, while the German way sounds rather odd, I bet even to Americans.

The soccer thing is pretty funny though. :)