[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 :)