American vs British pronunciation

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.