Why do Germans pronounce English 'v' as 'w'...sometimes?

Question

I have a German friend who speaks fluent English, but she'll say things like "surwive" (survive), even though the German language clearly has a 'v' sound, and she can pronounce it sometimes.

I've noticed this among other Germans too. "Inwariable", etc.

Are Germans taught that English speakers sometimes pronounce "v" like "w"? These are educated people, so I have no idea why they do this.

Note I'm talking about pronunciation, not (written) spelling.

Answer 1

Actually, "v" has two possible pronunciations in German, depending on the word it's in - sometimes it's pronounced like "f", and sometimes like German "w".

Many people think that the German "w" sound is the same as the English "v" sound, but that's not quite correct - English "v" is a little "sharper - the upper teeth are slightly closer to the lower lip, making the airstream go through a smaller gap.

If a German forgets to do this, especially in a phonetic context where the lips are already rounded, the resulting sound isn't really and English "v" nor and English "w", but can sound like a "w".

Answer 2

Could you not have heard surfife instead?
What I know is that:
Germans pronounce W as V and not the other way round.
They pronounce V as F and terminal D as T.

BTW, English has a Germanic root as a language, meaning English has evolved from the german language. Learned this when i studied languages.

Verified this just now from wikipedia.

Answer 3

This is called hypercorrection - they're applying a mental rule too generally. F and V are the same sound in German but different in English, our V is what they think of as a W. So:

German: F V W ~O
English: F V W

So the letter V is attached to an (English F) sound originally, but it's 'V' in English, and it takes very little extra effort to move one more step (accidentally) along this chain.

The English 'W' sound is the foreign-sounding one to them, so it could just be that words with a 'W' sound just sound more "English-y".

EDIT: Oh, and Mrs S below is right, I forgot about the different pronounciations of 'v' - it's amazing how much you forget when you don't use the language for two years.

Answer 4

A curious phenom. Seems like they're applying a substitution rule (English "v" pronounced as German "w") and then pronouncing the "w" in English instead of German. If they were lapsing into German phonetics, they would instead say: "surfife" and "infariable" substituting the German "f" sound for their "v" instead of English "v".

Just my guess. I haven't been around a lot of Germans who misspeak like this. But I think I have heard them. I think it can happen when one learns a foreign language under stress.

Answer 5

The letter "v" does exist in the German language but it's pronounced as "f" in English. There is no v sound in German. The German w has the English v sound. The German f is like the English f.
There is no w sound in German either.
Volkswagen is pronounced foneks-vah-gun
Wagen = car

Answer 6

I think it also has to do with the name of the letter. We say "double u" for the letter written w, which more or less represents the sound we make with it. In German, this letter is known as "vay" ( sorry IPA users), and so, is pronounced as such. the letter we call "vee" is called "fow" in German. "Eff" stays "Eff".
I live in Germany, and have encountered this phenomenon often. My favorite mis-use is hearing about the tennis star "OOenus Villyams" by one of the top sportscasters. He just can't get it right, and knows he's saying wrong, which makes him stumble all the more. So let us grant each other some tolerance.