QUIZ American VS British English Pronunciation
Vanessa: Hi!
I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishwithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to test your listening skills?
Let’s talk about it.
I have a tough question for you.
Is American or British English better?
Well, in all honesty if you want to understand
all native English speakers, you’re going
to have to understand American and British
speakers.
Today I want to test your listening skills
for both of these accents.
As a special bonus, you can download the free
worksheet for today’s pronunciation lesson
in the description below this video.
You’re going to hear five sentences, once
in British English and once is American English.
You’re going to hear my husband Dan say the
sentences in American English because he’s
from the US, and I am too.
Then you’re going to hear another Dan … Yes,
they have the same name … another Dan from
the podcast English Across the Pond.
He’s going to say the same sentence in British
English because he’s from the UK.
Listen carefully to each sentence.
You’re going to hear an A version and a B
version.
I want you to guess which one is American
English.
Both of these speakers have the same name,
Dan, but one of them is American Dan and one
of them is British Dan.
I want you to guess, which one is American
Dan?
Use the YouTube poll feature up here.
You’ll see a question come across the top
of the video.
I want you to vote which one do you think
is American English?
Okay, let’s listen to the first sentence.
American Dan: Coca-Cola advertisements can
be seen by both children and adults all over
the world.
British Dan: Coca-Cola advertisements can
be seen by both children and adults all over
the world.
Vanessa: How did you do?
Can you tell which one is American English,
which Dan is American Dan?
If you guessed A, you are correct.
Congratulations.
The main difference in this sentence is the
syllable stress.
You heard American Dan say, “advertisements
and adults”.
He emphasized the first syllable in advertisements,
advertisements, and the second syllable in
adults.
But in British English it’s the opposite.
Let’s listen to those two sentences one more
time, and I want you to really listen to those
key words, advertisements and adults.
American Dan: Coca-Cola advertisements can
be seen by both children and adults all over
the world.
British Dan: Coca-Cola advertisements can
be seen by both children and adults all over
the world.
Vanessa: I hope you could hear that syllable
stress correctly.
Let’s go on to quiz sentence number two.
I want you to guess which one is American
English, which Dan is American Dan.
Let’s listen.
British Dan: If you drink water regularly,
you should start to feel better and better.
American Dan: If you drink water regularly,
you should start to feel better and better.
Vanessa: Which one is American English?
If you guessed B, you are correct!
Congratulations!
The main difference in this sentence is the
T in the middle of words.
The words water and better in American English
sound like a D in the middle of the word.
This is the flap T, we talk about this a lot
in reference to speaking like an American.
The T in water changes to a D, water, and
better also sounds like a D, better.
Better, water, better.
Let’s listen one more time to both sentences.
I want you to listen carefully for that T
in the middle of those words.
British Dan: If you drink water regularly,
you should start to feel better and better.
American Dan: If you drink water regularly,
you should start to feel better and better.
Vanessa: Could you hear that T changing to
a D in the American English sentence?
Before we go on to question number three,
I want to recommend that you check out British
Dan’s podcast, English Across the Pond.
British Dan and his American podcast partner
Jennifer have a weekly podcast where they
have natural conversations about daily topics
like pets or stress or planning or air travel.
Lots of engaging topics.
It’s a great way to improve your listening
for both British English and American English.
The podcast is free or you can become a gold
member, gold like my shirt, for $20 and get
weekly transcripts, worksheets, exercises,
and study plans.
It’s a really fun practical way to improve
your English with podcasts.
Because you are my student, if you decide
to become a gold member they have some special
bonuses for you.
Check out the link in the description to access
the free podcast and also the gold member
program.
All right.
Let’s go to sentence number three.
Can you decide, can you tell which one is
American English?
Let’s listen.
American Dan: Last week’s English exams were
hard.
British Dan: Last week’s English exams were
hard.
Vanessa: Can you tell which one is American
English, which Dan is American Dan?
If you guessed A is American English, congratulations,
you are correct.
A is American English.
Why is A American English?
Well, American Dan used a specific R sound
that’s typical in American English.
He said the word hard.
This R is really strong.
In British English, it’s often less strong.
Let’s listen to this sentence again.
I want you to hear American Dan say hard,
hard.
It kind of sounds like a pirate, R, or like
a dog, R. Make sure that you listen to this
specific word hard.
All right, let’s listen.
American Dan: Last week’s English exams were
hard.
British Dan: Last week’s English exams were
hard.
Vanessa: Could you hear it?
Did you hear the difference in the word hard?
Let’s go on to sentence number four.
This is a really unique British English sound
that doesn’t exist in American English, so
I want to see if you can tell which one is
American English.
Let’s listen.
American Dan: I make sure I watch the news
every Tuesday night.
British Dan: I make sure I watch the news
every Tuesday night.
Vanessa: Which one is American English?
If you guessed A, you are correct.
A was American Dan.
What is the difference between these two versions?
The main difference is the word news and the
word Tuesday.
In American English, we say news and Tuesday.
It almost sounds like an OO, news, Tuesday.
But British English speakers add another letter,
another sound when they pronounce these words.
Did you hear British Dan add an extra letter?
Hmm.
He said something like news and Tuesday.
It almost sounds like there’s a Y at the beginning
of this word.
Now, for me, in an American English speaker,
so it’s better to listen to his version than
to my version of this British English pronunciation.
In American English, we do not use this.
Let’s listen again to these two sentences
and I want to see if you can hear the difference
between news and Tuesday in American English
and British English.
Let’s listen again.
American Dan: I make sure I watch the news
every Tuesday night.
British Dan: I make sure I watch the news
every Tuesday night.
Vanessa: Did you hear the difference?
I hope so!
Let’s go on to sentence number five.
Sentence number five is a little different,
so listen carefully.
British Dan: I’m going to the supermarket
to buy yogurt, tomatoes, oregano, basil, and
some courgettes.
American Dan: I’m going to the grocery store
to buy yogurt, tomatoes, oregano, basil, and
some zucchini.
Vanessa: Which one is American English?
I hope you guessed B. B is American English.
You just heard some vocabulary differences
between American English and British English,
especially in relation to food words.
You heard American Dan say grocery store,
tomato, oregano, basil, zucchini.
In British English, they sometimes use different
words like supermarket and courgette and they
pronounce tomato, oregano, basil completely
differently than I would.
Let’s listen again to these sentences so that
you can hear the pronunciation differences
and the vocabulary differences.
British Dan: I’m going to the supermarket
to buy yogurt, tomatoes, oregano, basil, and
some courgettes.
American Dan: I’m going to the grocery store
to buy yogurt, tomatoes, oregano, basil, and
some zucchini.
Vanessa: How did you do?
Let me know in the comments how many of these
you got correct.
Don’t forget to practice understanding American
English and British English with the awesome
podcast English Across the Pond.
Download the weekly English conversation with
American Jennifer and British Dan for free
or you could become a gold member for $20.
For gold members, each week when there’s a
new podcast episode, you’ll get the podcast
transcript, you’ll get writing exercises,
some speaking prompts, vocabulary exercises,
the worksheets, study plan.
You’ll get a lot of information to help you
really use that episode to the fullest.
Jennifer and Dan have come up with this super
cool way to make podcasts even more useful
and practical, so I hope that you’ll take
advantage of it.
Because you’re my student, they’re offering
a special bonus, which is an extra month’s
worth of lesson material and a bonus pronunciation
lesson so that you can really master using
English naturally and improving your skills.
Check out the link in the description so that
you can listen to the free English Across
the Pond podcast and so that you can become
a gold member.
Thank you for learning English with me.
I’m so glad that you’re here.
I’ll see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download the free pronunciation
worksheet for this listen.
Exercise your pronunciation muscles today.
Don’t forget to check out the English Across
the Pond podcast in the description.
Thanks so much for learning with me.
Bye.