British vs American | English Pronunciation Lesson

1385

Hello and welcome everyone. This is Minoo at Anglo-Link. Today, we're going to look at

some differences in American English and British English pronunciation.

In order to do that, I've teamed up with my American colleague Rachel,

who is going to introduce herself to you now.

I'm Rachel and I have a YouTube channel called 'Rachel's English'.

My channel focuses on American English pronunciation.

There are videos that go over the specific mouth proposition for each sound,

videos that focus on the rhythm of American English, linking,

and videos that show you how to listen to the characteristics of American English.

There are over two hundred and fifty videos with two added each week. I hope

you'll check them out.

Thank you Rachel.

Okay, I will be focusing on the differences between the

'r' and 't'

and also some very common words that are pronounced differently in American English and

British English.

Rachel will be focusing on the differences between some vowel sounds.

Let's start with the letter 'r'.

When the letter 'r' is in the initial position of a word or in the middle of a word,

there isn't a huge difference between the way Americans or British people

pronounce it. However,

listen to me saying

the following four words and then listen to Rachel saying them.

Now, when the letter 'r'

is in the middle position

in a monosyllabic word and after a vowel,

in British English

we tend to drop it.

We also drop the letter 'r' at the end of words in British English,

whereas in American English, there is no difference.

Now, I'd like you to listen to me saying the following words

and then listen to Rachel saying the same word immediately.

Right then, let's move on to the letter 't'.

In standard British English,

the letter 't' is always pronounced as a /t/,

whether it is at the beginning of a word, in the middle of a word or

at the end of a word;

whether it's a stressed syllable or unstressed syllable.

For example, listen to these four words.

However, in American English

in the final position.

So, now listen to Rachel saying these four words.

Now, listen to her

saying the words 'what' and 'cut' again.

Now, in American English, when the letter 't'

is in the middle position in a word,

it sometimes changes to a soft (d).

either when it's between two vowels

when it's between an 'r'

So, now listen to how I pronounce the following words,

and immediately to how Rachel pronounces them.

And finally, in American English,

the letter 't' is sometimes dropped

in British English, we would say:

Now, listen to how Rachel pronounces them.

Okay, that's all for the consonants 'r' and 't'.

Now we're going to look at some very common words in English, that are

pronounced quite differently in British English

and American English.

So, I'm going to say them and then you listen to how Rachel says them.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this part of the lesson.

To continue this lesson with Rachel, click here.

She will be telling you about the differences in vowel sounds.

If you want to subscribe to our channel, click here.

And if you want to subscribe to Rachel's Channel, click here.

Thank you for watching. I look forward to seeing you in our next video.