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UK Vs. USA: Pronunciation Differences

By HINKHOJ -

21/04/2017

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UK vs. USA: the never-ending English tug-of-war between the twonative English speaking countries.

We all can agree that UK and USA are the two countries that havedominated the world of English speakers for a long time now.

Both of them have ahuge population of native English speakers and have a lot in common when it comes to language.

BUT, IT’S NOT ALL SAME!

One of the biggest difference between the English and the Americans is the way they speak.

Even though the language is same, the two countries are onopposite poles when it comes to dialect andpronunciation.

Let’s understand some basic differences between British and American pronunciation.

THE ‘I’ SOUND

• A Britisher’s ‘I’ sounds like the word EYE.
• American ‘I’, when used in a word, is pronounced just like you would pronounce the solo alphabet ‘E’.

Let’s understand with some examples:

EITHER
UK eye-ther
USA ee-ther

HOSTILE
UK hos-taa-il
USA hos-til

MOBILE
UK moh-bye-ul
USA moh-bil

There are some exceptions to this rule where the situation kind of gets reversed, such as:

VITAMIN
UK vit-uh-min
USA vahy-tuh-min

THE ‘A’ SOUND

• British people like toexaggerate the sound of ‘A’.
• American pronunciation of ‘A’ is quite short and abrupt.
It’s more like a higher sound rather than anelongated one.

American ‘A’ sound issomewhat closer to the sound of letter ‘e’ in the word ‘Example’ while Brits pronounce ‘A’ just like it’s pronounced in the word- ‘Art’.

Understand with the help of examples:

VASE
UK vaahs/vaahz
USA veys