in this video I’m going to look at the differences between
a British and an American accent
of course there are many British accents
and there are many American accents
but I’m going to show you some of the
major accent differences between them
so let’s start!
linguists give vowels names to make it easier to talk about them
the LOT vowel sound describes the vowel in words like
“job”, “politics”, and “not”
when British speakers say this vowel
their lips might be slightly rounded
but Americans use a different vowel sound
and their lips will be more open
the BATH vowel describes the vowel sound in words like
“behalf”, “passed”, and “path”
British speakers – especially those in the south of England –
will use a more back vowel sound here
but Americans will tend to use a more front vowel sound
the words “water”, “authority”, and “fighting”
have a T in the middle
Brits will tend to pronounce a T sound here
but Americans will use a tap
this may sound like a short D sound
or even an R sound if you’re a non-native speaker of English
the word “yod” describes a /j/ sound
in the word "new", Brits will tend to pronounce a /j/ sound here
but Americans don’t – they’ve dropped the yod
in Britain this word can be pronounced with a
/dj/ sound
but it’s also commonly pronounced with a /dʒ/ sound
this change from /dj/ to /dʒ/ is called yod-coalescence
you can hear Theresa May use the /dʒ/ pronunciation
but Donald Trump just uses a /d/ sound here
in the words “shared”, “hard” and “work”
most Brits will not pronounce the R sound
but most Americans will
Donald Trump grew up in New York
in traditional New York accents
the letter R is only pronounced in certain positions
but nowadays the situation is more complicated
with New Yorkers sometimes pronouncing the R
and sometimes not
this is what Donald Trump does in his speech
sometimes he pronounces the R
and sometimes not
but for the purposes of this video
it’s important to state that
most Americans will always pronounce the letter R
I’m going to finish with an interesting
aspect of Donald Trump’s accent
that’s particular to New York - rather than American accents in general
for me, the words “human”, “huge”, and “humour” begin with a /hjuː/ sound
but in New York accents, the H is dropped
and we’re left with /juː/
listen to Theresa May pronounce the H in “human”
and now listen to Donald Trump who doesn’t pronounce the H
these are just some of the differences between a British and an American accent
if you’ve enjoyed this video
then please like it
and share it with your English-speaking friends
if you’re a non-native English speaker and you want to improve your pronunciation
then take my online English pronunciation course
click the link underneath the video to find out more