Fortunately, most German-speaking students of English will have some basic English. Most areas of concentrated German speakers (please see Distribution page) are areas that have English as a second language.1

There are some incredible similarities between English and German, notably a large amount of vocabulary words in common, as well as a similar general grammatical sentence structure (eg. Subject-Verb-Object word order). But there are some subtle, yet significant differences that may cause your student trouble. Listed below are some of these differences, and how they cause your student difficulty:

ALPHABET
German and English alphabets are almost identical. The first difficulty you may encounter is that while the symbols are the same, the pronunciations are often different.
The letters f,h,k,l,m,n,p,t,x all sound identical. Every other letter in German possesses a different set of phonemes than the English equivalent.
One common problem when teaching English to German speakers is fact that the English "th" and "w" sounds do not exist in German. German speakers will often pronounce "th" in "the" like the "s" in "sit". "W" in "was" will ofteb be pronounced as the "v" in "vowel".3

THE GERMAN ALPHABET & PRONUNCIATION

VOWEL MUTATIONS
(changes in vowel sounds caused by partial assimilation especially to a vowel or semivowel occurring in the following syllable)

ä	Short - "eh" as in hätte / Long - "ay" as in spät
ö	Round your mouth to say the letter "o" & say "e" instead
ü	Round your mouth to say the letter "o", say "e" instead, but stick out the lower lip just a little more

ß

ß	Pronounce this symbol the same as you would the letter "s"

DIPHTHONGS

au	"ow" as in ouch
eu or äu	"oy" as in boy
ei or ai	or ay "eye"
ie	"e" (the English "e")
oe	same as ö
ue	same as ü
ä	same as ä

CONSONANT COMBINATIONS

sch	"sh"
st	"sht"
sp	"shp"
schw	"shv"
qu	"kv"
zw	"tsv"

NOUNS

In German, ALL nouns are capitalized, regardless of type or sentence position. When doing written exercises, this might be confusing.
While both English and German nouns can be affected by gender, number and function, in German a noun can also vary according to case, which will be explained later.
You will need to explain that nouns in English do not normally have gender, although it may be indicated occasionally, such as when using personal pronouns.3

VERBS

Verb usage is almost identical in English and German. Recognizing the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs is more important in German, because it is necessary to identify parts of speech and determine the case of objects, which is unnecessary in English. This can make it easier on your English student. What will be difficult, however, is present tense. Most instructors start with the present tense, and for good reason, it is the most often used. In German, though, the present, present progressive and present emphatic, are all represented by one verb form, rather than one for each.

eg. The verb To Study, in the present tense in English is represented by the following forms: studies (present), is studying (present progressive), does study (present emphatic)

The present tense of the verb To Study in German covers all of these aspects in a single form, studiert.
Having to learn new forms of the present tense may daunting to the beginning student.

Verb warning: Modal verbs, such as to want to (wollen), often have different meanings than the English equivalent.

Verb Tense Warning: Many tenses in English and German are the same. However, tenses with same label are not always used in the same circumstances. This is a fine difference, but one that can cause great difficulty.3

Regular Verbs: present tense - personal pronoun + infinitive stem + personal ending

Singular	Plural	Singular & Plural
ich gehe	wir gehen
du gehst	ihr geht	Sie gehen
er geht sie geht es geht	sid gehen

Irregular Verbs: present tense

sein (to be)	haben (to have)	werden (to become, get)
ich bin (I am)	ich habe (I have)	ich werde (I become)
du bist (you are)	du hast (you have)	du wirst (you become)
er/sie/es ist (he/she/it is)	er/sie/es hat (he/she/it has)	er/sie/es wird (he/she/it becomes)
wir sind (we are)	wir haben (we have)	wir werden (we become)
ihr seid (you are - informal)	ihr habt (you have - informal)	ihr werdet (you become - informal)
Sie sind (you are - formal)	Sie haben (you have - formal)	Sie werden (you become - formal)
sie sind (they are)	sie haben (they have)	sie werden (they become)

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OBJECTS

In German, as in English, a sentence can have both a direct and indirect object. However, there is some difference in use of prepositions when concerned with objects. For example, a German verb may only need a direct object in the accusative, where the same English verb will require a preposition.

eg. She is looking for her coat. < "Her coat" is the object.
Sie sucht ihren Mantel.
^
accusative object
with no preposition

There are also cases of the same verb in English and German both taking a preposition, but taking different ones.

eg. I am asking you for advice. The correct, literal sentence in German would be:
I am asking you about advice.
It is important to remember that because of the many similarities, these types of small differences may be difficult to correct.5

PREPOSITIONS

English sentences contain much more variation when it comes to preposition placement than does German. Verbally, English prepositions tend can be used at the end of a sentence, removed from its object.

eg. That is the student I talk to.

This dangling preposition does not occur in German, but there are separable prefixes that occur at the end of sentences that might confuse your student. Make sure that you and they understand the difference.3

GENDER

There are three gender forms in German: masculine, feminine, and neuter.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
People	der Sohn (the son)	die Tochter (the daughter)	das Kind (the child)
Objects	der Hund (the dog)	die Katze (the cat)	das Buch (the book)
Possessives	mein Sohn (my son)	meine Tochter (my daughter)	mein Kind (my child)
Adjectives	mein junger Sohn (my young son)	meine junge Tochter (my young daughter)	mein junges Kind (my young child)

NOUN MODIFIERS

dieser = this, these	mein = my
mancher = many	dein = your (du form)
jeder = every, each	sein = his, its
solcher = such	ihr = her, its
welcher = which?	unser = our
kein = no, not any, none	euer = your
	ihr = their
	ihr = your (sie form)

PLURAL FORMS -no ending, -e ending, -er ending, -en/-n/-nen ending, -s ending

PRONOUNS

The German pronoun for "I" is not capitalized.
However, the German pronoun for the formal "you" (Sie) is capitalized.

Personal Pronouns:

Singular	Plural	Singular & Plural
ich = I	wir = we
du = you (informal)	ihr = you (informal)	Sie = you (formal)
er = he, it (masc) sie = she, it (fem) es = it (neuter)	sie = they

Sie - used when addressing one or more persons by their last name (formal)
Du - used when addressing one person (ihr: more than one person) by their first name (informal)

Other Pronouns:

wer = who

wen = whom

wesen = whose

was = what

 

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WORD ORDER

Statements: The conjugated verb is always the second component of the sentence.

He is sick today.	Er ist heute krank.
Today he is sick.	Heute ist er krank.

QUESTIONS
a) when asking for certain information:

question word + verb + subject + predicate components

Where is she going tonight?

Wohin geht sie heute abend?

b) when asking yes/no questions:

verb + subject + predicate components

Are they leaving now?

Verlassen sie jetzt?

NEGATION: with nicht

follows verbs	precedes prepositional phrases
precedes adjectives	precedes nouns with a definite article
precedes adverbs	precedes a possessive

NEGATION: with kein

precedes nouns with an indefinite article

precedes nouns with no article

TIME, MANNER, AND PLACE EXPRESSIONS
Order: Time (more general time, then more specific time), Manner, then Place

She is traveling by train to Frankfurt tomorrow at two o'clock.
Sie fährt morgen um zwei Uhr mit dem Zug nach Frankfurt.

(The above section was taken from the source listed here (6))

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