English keeps distinctions some languages never needed — and every language hands its speakers a different set of head starts. These pages map the usual meeting points between English and one first language, each linking straight into the sound library.
Spanish runs beautifully on five vowels. English, less economically, uses about twelve — so several English vowels sit on distinctions Spanish never needed to make. Most of what follows is vowel work, plus a few consonants where the two languages draw the map differently.
Portuguese arrives with real advantages: it already keeps s, z, sh and zh apart, four sounds that trip up half the world. What English adds is the th pair, and a vowel system that makes more distinctions in the short range than Portuguese needs to.
French and English share an enormous vocabulary and almost none of the same th, ch or short-vowel machinery. The famous French–English confusions are all here: they are famous because the sounds genuinely do not exist in French, not because anyone is careless.
Nunzio's own language — he came to every one of these the hard way, and he still says capisci. Italian's seven tidy vowels meet an English system of about twelve, most of the new work landing in the short, relaxed range Italian never needed.
German and English are close cousins, which makes the differences sneaky: the sounds that differ are few, but they sit in very common words. The two big stories are the th pair, and the end of the word — German devoices final consonants by rule, English keeps them buzzing.
Polish brings a formidable consonant inventory — several English hiss-sounds that other learners sweat over are old friends. The new work is concentrated in three places: the th pair, the vowel length system, and the ends of words, where Polish devoices by rule and English does not.
Russian meets English with a rich consonant system and one systematic difference at the end of words: Russian devoices final consonants by rule, English never does. Add the th pair, the w/v split, and English's crowd of vowels where Russian keeps fewer, and you have the whole map below.
Turkish is phonetically tidy — what is written is said — and it hands you sh, ch, j and zh ready-made. English's contributions are the th pair, a w that Turkish v only half covers, more vowel distinctions in the short range, and voiced consonants that survive the end of a word.
Arabic speakers start with an advantage almost nobody else has: both English th sounds already exist in Modern Standard Arabic (ث and ذ). If your dialect merged them years ago, they are still closer to hand than they are for most of the world.
Hindi meets English with one celebrated merger and a handful of vowel differences. The merger is व — one letter covering the territory English splits into v and w — and it runs in both directions, which is why it deserves two entries below.
Mandarin and English disagree most about two things: voicing — Mandarin contrasts consonants by breath (aspiration), English by whether the throat buzzes — and the ends of words, where Mandarin allows only n and ng and English allows nearly everything.
Japanese has one liquid sound where English keeps two — the famous r/l pair — and a syllable structure that likes a vowel after every consonant. Most of the work below is about giving English its two liquids, its th pair, and its wider vowel map.
Korean contrasts consonants by tension and breath where English uses voicing, keeps one liquid where English keeps two, and releases nothing at the end of a syllable. Those three habits, plus the th pair, generate almost every item below.
Vietnamese ends syllables with only a handful of sounds and never releases a final stop — English, inconveniently, loves elaborate word endings. That single difference produces most of the map below; the th pair and a couple of hiss distinctions do the rest.
Slovene shares with its neighbours a tidy vowel system, a v that does double duty, and a firm rule that final consonants lose their voice — three places where English quietly disagrees. The th pair rounds out the list.