German pronunciation practice: requesting specific pronunciation feedback

The idea

Ask a listener what word or meaning they heard before asking whether your pronunciation was good. For a chosen contrast, two plausible options make the feedback concrete. Let the listener answer without reading your intended sentence, then compare the response with your aim.

A controlled speaking comparison

Keep a single focus for one attempt: gehörtes Wort / gehörte Bedeutung / konkreter Unterschied. Read a complete sentence, compare it with a dictionary or a suitable spoken model, and change one feature at a time. Device speech is synthetic and varies by browser. It may not produce the exact contrastive stress you intend; for such contrasts, speak the marked focus yourself or work with a listener.

Examples

• Hast du bieten oder bitten verstanden?Did you understand bieten or bitten?Target in context: requesting specific pronunciation feedback. Ask a listener what word or meaning they heard before asking whether your pronunciation was good. For a chosen contrast, two plausible options make the feedback concrete. Let the listener answer without reading your intended sentence, then compare the response with your aim.
• Welche Uhrzeit hast du aus meinem Satz gehört?What time did you hear in my sentence?Target in context: requesting specific pronunciation feedback. Ask a listener what word or meaning they heard before asking whether your pronunciation was good. For a chosen contrast, two plausible options make the feedback concrete. Let the listener answer without reading your intended sentence, then compare the response with your aim.
• War klar, welche Person die Unterlagen bekommt?Was it clear which person receives the documents?Target in context: requesting specific pronunciation feedback. Ask a listener what word or meaning they heard before asking whether your pronunciation was good. For a chosen contrast, two plausible options make the feedback concrete. Let the listener answer without reading your intended sentence, then compare the response with your aim.
• Bitte sag zuerst, welches Wort du gehört hast.Please first say which word you heard.Target in context: requesting specific pronunciation feedback. Ask a listener what word or meaning they heard before asking whether your pronunciation was good. For a chosen contrast, two plausible options make the feedback concrete. Let the listener answer without reading your intended sentence, then compare the response with your aim.
• Ich zeige dir meinen geschriebenen Satz erst nach deiner Antwort.I will show you my written sentence only after your answer.Target in context: requesting specific pronunciation feedback. Ask a listener what word or meaning they heard before asking whether your pronunciation was good. For a chosen contrast, two plausible options make the feedback concrete. Let the listener answer without reading your intended sentence, then compare the response with your aim.
• Wenn etwas unklar war, wiederhole ich nur die betreffende Stelle.If something was unclear, I will repeat only the relevant part.Target in context: requesting specific pronunciation feedback. Ask a listener what word or meaning they heard before asking whether your pronunciation was good. For a chosen contrast, two plausible options make the feedback concrete. Let the listener answer without reading your intended sentence, then compare the response with your aim.

Watch out

Do not treat a listener’s single response as a certified assessment of your entire pronunciation; it is evidence about this attempt.

Try it yourself

1. Markiere die Zielstelle in diesen Wörtern und lies anschließend den vollständigen Beispielsatz: gehörtes Wort / gehörte Bedeutung / konkreter Unterschied.

   Show answer or example answer

   Zielwörter: gehörtes Wort / gehörte Bedeutung / konkreter Unterschied. Beachte dazu: Frage zuerst, welches Wort oder welche Bedeutung eine Person gehört hat, statt nur ob die Aussprache gut war. Zwei plausible Möglichkeiten machen eine Kontrastübung konkret. Zeige den Zielsatz zunächst nicht und vergleiche die Antwort danach mit deiner Absicht.

   The target set is gehörtes Wort / gehörte Bedeutung / konkreter Unterschied. Ask a listener what word or meaning they heard before asking whether your pronunciation was good. For a chosen contrast, two plausible options make the feedback concrete. Let the listener answer without reading your intended sentence, then compare the response with your aim.

2. Erkläre die hier geübte Aussprache einem Lernpartner. Nenne ein Beispiel und eine Grenze der Regel.

   Show answer or example answer

   Frage zuerst, welches Wort oder welche Bedeutung eine Person gehört hat, statt nur ob die Aussprache gut war. Zwei plausible Möglichkeiten machen eine Kontrastübung konkret. Zeige den Zielsatz zunächst nicht und vergleiche die Antwort danach mit deiner Absicht. Behandle eine einzelne Rückmeldung nicht als zertifizierte Bewertung deiner gesamten Aussprache; sie betrifft diesen Versuch.

   Do not treat a listener’s single response as a certified assessment of your entire pronunciation; it is evidence about this attempt. A useful explanation includes the selected pattern and its context rather than a rule about every German word.

3. Sprich zwei eigene Sätze mit den Zielwörtern. Vergleiche zunächst langsam, danach in einem verständlichen normalen Tempo.

   Show answer or example answer

   Mögliche Satzmuster: Hast du bieten oder bitten verstanden? Welche Uhrzeit hast du aus meinem Satz gehört? Achte auf Verständlichkeit und das konkrete Ziel, nicht auf möglichst hohes Tempo.

   Many original sentences are possible. The intended word and message should remain recognizable. Use a relevant spoken model and listener feedback; the page does not automatically assess the recording.

Use it today

Take “Hast du bieten oder bitten verstanden?” and “Welche Uhrzeit hast du aus meinem Satz gehört?” and change one detail in each while keeping the focus on gehörtes Wort / gehörte Bedeutung / konkreter Unterschied. Say each slowly and then at a comfortable conversational pace. Ask a listener what they understood. If you record yourself in your own recording app, compare a specific feature rather than judging your entire accent at once.