American vs British pronunciation

Neither country has one accent, so descriptions like this one always compare two reference varieties. The American side is General American (GenAm) — the broadly region-neutral accent of national broadcasting. The British side is Received Pronunciation (RP), the southern English prestige accent that dictionaries have used as their British model for a century.

Both are minority accents in their own countries. A Glaswegian, a Geordie and a Bostonian will each break at least one of the five rules below. Read them as the main axes of difference, not as a description of how anyone actually has to speak.

This is the single biggest difference. American English is rhotic: the r is pronounced wherever it is written. Most British accents are non-rhotic: an r after a vowel is dropped, and the vowel lengthens instead.

Play these in both accents. In British English car ends on a long open vowel; in American English you can hear the r right through to the end.

The British rule is about position, not spelling: a written r is dropped only when no vowel follows it. That is why RP car has no r but car alarm does — the r reappears to link into the next word. Learners who have been told “British English has no r” often over-apply it and delete the linking r too.

In southern British English a set of words takes a long back vowel, /ɑː/. In American English the same words take the short front /æ/ of cat. Northern British accents side with American here, which is worth knowing before you decide one is “correct”.

In American English a t between two vowels usually becomes a fast tap that sounds close to a d — this is called flapping, and phoneticians write the tap as [ɾ]. British English generally keeps a clear t.

It is why American latter and ladder sound nearly identical, while in British English they stay clearly apart.

Some words simply take the stress in a different place. These are worth memorising because stress errors are more disruptive than vowel errors.

Most of these are French borrowings, and the pattern behind them is consistent: American English tends to keep the original final-syllable stress — balLET, gaRAGE, caFÉ — while British English pulls the stress back onto the first syllable in the normal English way. laboratory goes further than stress alone: British English also drops a syllable, giving luh-BOR-uh-tree against American LAB-ruh-tor-ee.

Each of the five has its own page here. The flap and the glottal stop are covered in flap T and glottal stops, the vowel inventories in English vowel sounds, and stress placement in general in English word stress. To hear the two accents against each other on a word of your choosing, use American vs British compare.

A short list of high-frequency words where the two accents diverge more than any rule predicts. schedule is the famous one: SKED-jool in American English, SHED-yool in British.

Either. Both are understood everywhere, and neither is more correct. What matters is consistency — mixing an American r with a British bath vowel is what sounds odd. Pick the accent you hear most in your own life and stay with it.

Read slowly first. Pronounce each syllable deliberately before trying to blend them at full speed. Rushing hides the vowel and consonant shapes your ear needs to learn.

Record yourself. Most phones have a voice memo app — record a word, then compare it to the playback here. Hearing the gap between your version and the model accent makes targeted practice far easier.

Focus on one accent. Jumping between American, British and Australian in the same session creates confusion. Pick the accent you encounter most and stick with it until the patterns feel natural.

Every word above is a button. Set the accent and voice you want on the main screen, then come back — the guides use whatever you chose. To hear two accents against each other, use Compare; to test whether you can actually hear a contrast, use the listening quiz.