Friends | British vs American English Accents

- Today we're gonna learn English with the legendary TV show, Friends.

- In this episode, Monica and Phoebe are visited by an old friend who has spent some time in

London and has picked up a British accent. Kind of.

- We're gonna look at how authentic that accent really is. What vocabulary is she using, what

pronunciation is she using, has she really become British? Let's find out.

Before we get started, guys, I want to announce that my brand new British English slang posters

are now available in my store. They are perfect for inspiring British English lovers, whether

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- Okay, it's begun, it's begun, right so that is Monica's version of a British accent. Hm,

what do you guys think? Out of ten, what would you give her? Yeah, I'm giving her like, one

out of ten for that British accent. That's not how we speak, right? Tell me that's not

how we speak. Am-on-da, no one says Am-on-da, we say Amanda. Obviously it's for comedy value,

right. Okay, let's compare her British accent with Phoebe's British accent.

- That's actually pretty good, right? "So sorry to catch you on your mobile." That's

something that I can imagine people saying. We do a lot of apologizing, so that much is

true, we're always apologizing for things, even for calling someone. How silly, right?

And then the way she says mobile. Mobile. Yeah, it's a little bit exaggerated, she's

doing received pronunciation there, so that's the kind of traditional BBC accent, if you

will. So, yeah, not bad, not a bad effort, Phoebe.

- And there's the first difference in vocabulary, they've used the word mobile there, which

is a word that we use in British English to mean your mobile phone, right, the one you

carry around with you. But in American English that would be cell, or cell phone. So, there's

the first difference, mobile phone in British English, cell phone in American English.

- Interesting piece of vocabulary here, she says, cut someone out, so what they wanna

do is cut Amanda out of their lives, so exclude her. Stop speaking to her, stop answering

her messages, all that kind of stuff. Now in modern English we've found a new word to

replace cut out, I think we would say ghost now. There's a lot of ghosting going on, so

ghosting is when, again, when you don't reply to someone's text messages, you don't pick

up their calls, you just try and exclude them from your life, you disappear, if you will.

So I think if they were making this program now, they would probably say ghost, let's

just ghost her. But cut out of course, perfectly fine vocab.

- Alright, there's the Am-on-da thing again, we don't say that, we say Amanda. But, the

first interesting bit of pronunciation, you've got call there. Call, it's with a aw sound,

call, she says calling. With the A-L-L, you'll find that in a lot of other words, we have

the same pronunciation, so, tall. Now, in American English, forgive me, American viewers,

for my pronunciation here, but, it's an ah sound, so, call, and tall, and Paul. Yeah,

I'm sorry, apologies.

- Interesting vocabulary here, neighborhood, that's American English. In British English,

we would say area. I mean, of course we have the word neighborhood, I can use it, I could

use it, but I would probably say area, my area. So, I'm in the area, that's what I would

say. And then, could I pop by your flat, that's very British English, pop. To pop somewhere

is to go quickly, and then to leave or come back. So, pop by your flat would be, can I

come in, visit you, in your flat, for a short time, and then I'll leave. You can use it

with lots of different prepositions, so, I'm gonna pop downstairs means that I'm gonna

go downstairs quickly, maybe buy something from a shop, then come back up. So pop, really

great little phrase to mean to go somewhere quickly, and then to leave, or to return somewhere

else. So they've got that just perfect there, that's exactly what someone from Britain would

say. And in fact, the pronunciation pop is perfect, 'cause I think in American English,

pop, it's with that aw sound, but ah in British English, so, pop.

- Yeah, fair enough. She's also used the word flat to mean the place where they live, whereas

in American English it would of course be apartment, apartment. Again, these words are

being interchanged now, so you'll hear people here in Britain saying apartment, but flat

is the standard word that we use.

More vocabulary there, to ring me back, again, very British

English, to ring someone is to call someone, that's probably what they would use in American

English, we would of course use that as well but you can ring someone as well, as a verb,

to ring someone. And then the pronunciation again of mobile, mobile. In American English

I think mobil would probably be the pronunciation, mobil, whereas in British English, mobile.

- Okay, Phoebe doing a very exaggerated British accent, kind of Shakespearian language here,

so thy, don't hold they breath so thy is Olde English for your, so, you know, I would say

don't hold your breath, but, for that exaggerated British sound, don't hold thy breath.

- Uh oh, all right, so Amanda is coming. Let's see what she actually sounds like.

- Amanda is played by Jennifer Coolidge, and she is super-talented, so, yeah, of course

it's going to be a good accent.

- Oh gosh, there, not just British English, American English uses it as well, but it's

a nice phrase to show surprise, and the way he says it, gosh, gosh, with that oh sound

there instead of gawsh, gosh, very British.

- Nice little bit of blending there of sounds, at and all, she says at all, at all, which

is definitely a feature of received pronunciation, pronouncing that T sound, that true T sound.

So you are blending the sounds, at all, so when you've got word that ends with a T and

then the next word begins with a vowel, you'll take that T across. Now, in lots of British

English accents you might just use a glottal T, so you might even say it so it's a'all,

a'all, but because she's doing received pronunciation, and because in received pronunciation you

would try and pronounce all the sounds correctly, you would try and say that T, so at all. I

think in American English is might be at awl, at awl, so there she really does get the received

pronunciation just right.

- Now she describes Chandler as ghastly, ghastly means terrible, right? Now the way she says

it, gar, ar, that ar sound there. So in American English it would be ah, ghastly, again apologies

for my pronunciation. So the ah versus the ar sound. In British English ar, in American

English, ah. So we've got other words like that, so ghastly, okay, fast, as well, so

farst versus fahst. Barth versus bahth. Banana, banana, that ana there, versus banana. So

that is another split between the two different accents, it's the ar sound in British English,

ah in American English.

- And there it goes again, darnce, I mean it's very exaggerated here, darnce, in American

Eng;ish, dahnce. It's important to say that there variations in Britain, so int eh north

of England, the Lancashire accent, Yorkshire accent, other accents, you'll also hear dance,

that a sound, but in received pronunciation, which is what she is doing, it's with ar sound,

so darnce. Darnce, dahnce. All right, so I think she did a pretty good job of received

pronunciation. It's quite exaggerated, it's something similar to Bridget Jones, if you've

seen Bridget Jones and Renee Zellweger's English accent, received pronunciation, it's kinda

like that but a bit more exaggerated. I personally don't know anyone who speaks like this, but,

I've heard people speak like that, it';s not that far away from a really true British accent,

but as I say, very exaggerated. All right guys, I hope you've enjoyed that video. If

you have, please give it a big thumbs up, please share it with anyone you know that

loves British English. Leave me a comment below if you've enjoyed it, if you've got

any questions, I'll always love to hear from you guys. And of course guys, remember to

check out my store where I have that British English slang poster, perfect gift for someone

that you know that loves British English. I'd also like to give a quick shout-out to

Dr Ed Hope, a friend of mine and fellow YouTuber, for inspiring me to do this style of video.

Go check Ed out, he's a doctor who has a fantastic YouTube channel that looks at medical dramas.

I'll put a link in the description as well. And lastly guys, remember to check out my

Instagram account, where I put daily English content. This is Tom, the chief dreamer, saying

goodbye.