English has vowel sounds that German doesn't have, and vice versa (umlauted vowels). In fact, English has some short vowel sounds that very few languages share.
German doesn't have the digraph 'th', found in 'the thing that Thomas thought'. The words 'the' and 'that' start with a /ð/ sound, while the words 'thing' and 'thought' start with a /θ/ sound. The word 'Thomas' starts with a /t/ sound.
English got its core words from the same source as German, but I wouldn't say that they are similarly pronounced. The American English pronunciation of the word 'water' has very little in common with its German cognate 'wasser'.
German IPA: /ˈva.sɐ/
English IPA: /ˈwɔtɚ/
In short, I don't think German pronunciation will help you to learn to pronounce English better.
Last edited by Rusty; January 18, 2015 at 04:35 PM.
Reason: augmented
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