British vs American English Pronunciation: 3 Words that Americans Don't Understand when I Say Them

- Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com,

and in this video, I'm going to talk about

the difference between British and American pronunciation,

and the way I'm going to do it is highlight

three words that, when I use here in America,

people don't understand what I'm saying.

The word means the same thing.

It has the same spelling,

but the difference is how British people say it,

and how American people say it,

and by showing you these three words,

you'll get a good understanding between some of the

major differences when it comes to speaking in

British and American english.

To give you some context,

I grew up in the U.K.,

but I've been living in America since 2011.

Now, if you're learning english,

than stay until the end

because I have a have a free book for you.

The Five Step Plan for English Fluency.

If you are a native speaker,

welcome to you too.

Please take it easy on me when I use my American accent.

Oh, and be sure to leave more examples

in the comment section below.

The first word is on your screen now,

and this is my name.

My name is Jack from tofluency.com.

Now, when I say "Jack" in America,

in a lot of cases,

people think that I say "chuck".

Chuck,

and this is because in British english,

we have shorter vowel sound,

ja-ja-ja-ja-jack.

In American english,

people say it like this,

Jack, Jack.

So when I say Jack, people think I say chuck.

What's interesting is,

a friend of mine has the same problem.

He grew up in the same town as me,

and he is one of my best friends.

Now, his name is Andrew,

and he tells me that, at times,

people think that he is saying Andre.

Andre.

Andrew.

Andre.

If people don't understand what I'm saying

when I say my name,

and they think I'm saying Chuck,

usually what I do is I give them

an exaggerated American example like this,

Je-ack.

The second one is a great example

because it highlights two major differences

between these versions of english.

Now, when I'm at a restaurant,

and I don't fancy ordering beer or wine,

what I ask for is a water.

A water.

This might sound strange,

but about 25% of the time,

the server doesn't know what I'm asking for.

The server asks me to repeat this,

and when I repeat it,

I say this word more like this,

Wa-der.

Wa-der.

The first difference is,

with this word,

Americans tend to use

the "d" sound instead of the "t" sound.

Listen again.

Wa-ter.

Wa-der.

So, Americans tend to use the "d" instead of the "t" sound.

Another example of this is my wife's name.

Her full name is Catherine,

but some people call her Katie,

or in American english, "Ka-die".

Ka-die.

Ka-tie.

Ka-die.

Going back to water,

the other difference is,

in British english, we tend to drop the "r" sound,

and replace it just with a "schwa",

the "uh" sound.

Wa-tuh.

In American english, you can hear that "r" sound.

Wa-der.

Wa-der.

Other examples of when we drop the "r" sound

are with words like computer, actor, player, et cetera.

Words that end in either -er, -ar, or -or.

The third example is on your screen now.

What's interesting with this word is

when I say it, my wife always makes fun of me.

She always makes fun of me,

and I say it like this, "ca-uh-n't".

Ca-uh-n't.

In American english,

can't.

Can't.

So when I say something like,

"I can't do it", my wife says,

"you 'cahn', you 'cahn' do it".

"Can" and "can't" in American english,

they use the same vowel sound.

Can.

Can't.

It's the same vowel sound.

In British english,

we have two different vowel sounds.

Can. Ca-uh-n't.

Can. Ca-uh-n't.

So, to say the negative form,

you can just think of it like you're

saying the word "car",

and then put the "n't" at the end.

Car-n't.

Car-n't.

Again, those three examples are,

Jack versus "J-eck"

Water versus "wa-der",

and "car-n't" versus can't.

To practice this more,

I'm gonna leave the link below

where you can listen to these sounds,

and repeat after the audio.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this video,

I have a free book for you.

It's the Five Step Plan for English Fluency.

Just enter your details,

and download that for free,

and click over here for more videos like this one.

Thank you so much for watching.

Please like and share,

and I'll see you in the next lesson.

(upbeat music)