1 LANGUAGE 3 ACCENTS UK vs. USA vs. AUS English Pronunciation
- Hello everyone,
and welcome back to English with Lucy.
I have the most incredible
treat for you today.
I am shortly going to
welcome two lovely guests
who have generously given
their time to help teach you
the differences between
Australian English,
American, English, and British English.
We’re going to look at how we
pronounce words differently.
We’ve already done a video
on differences in vocabulary.
You can click on the link
in the description box
to watch that.
If you want to improve your pronunciation
and your listening skills even further
then I highly recommend the special method
of combining reading books
whilst listening to that audio
book counterpart on Audible.
This is how you use the method.
Take a book that you have
already read in English
or a book that you would
like to read in English,
I’ve got plenty of recommendations
down below in the description box.
And read that book
whilst listening to the audio
book version on Audible.
Reading alone will not help
you with your pronunciation
because English isn’t a
strictly phonetic language.
The way a word is written in English
may not give you much indication at all
as to how it’s pronounced in English.
But, if you listen to a word
at the same time as reading it,
your brain will start making connections.
And the next time you hear that word
you’ll know exactly how it’s spelled,
and the next time you see
that word written down,
you’ll know exactly how it’s pronounced.
It is such an effective method,
and the best part is you
can get one free audio book,
that’s a 30 day free trial on Audible,
all you’ve got to do is click on the link
in the description box and sign up.
I’ve got loads of recommendations
down there for you.
First up, we have Emma.
- Hey there, I’m Emma from
the MMMEnglish YouTube channel
coming at you from Perth
in Western Australia.
And we also have Vanessa.
Hi, I’m Vanessa and I live
in North Carolina in the U.S.
I run the YouTube channel
Speak English with Vanessa.
- And I’m speaking with
modern received pronunciation.
So not everyone from
Britain speaks like me.
It depends where you’re from.
These are two fantastic teachers,
and I have left all of their information
in the description box
so you should definitely
go and check them out.
We are going to look at six sounds,
and for each of these six sounds,
I have included five example words.
So you’ll hear us say the words
and then we’ll look at how we
pronounce them differently.
Okay, we’ve got the first five words.
Tuesday.
Tuesday,
Tuesday.
Tuesday.
Tuesday.
Tuesday.
YouTube.
YouTube.
YouTube.
YouTube.
YouTube.
YouTube.
Tuna.
Tuna.
Tuna.
Tuna.
Tuna.
Tuna.
News.
News.
News.
News.
News.
News.
Duty.
Duty.
Duty.
Duty.
Duty.
Duty.
So you can hear that Vanessa
does something called yad dropping.
In British English and Australian English
these words have a yuh sound.
Tuesday,
tuna,
duty,
news.
In American English they
often drop this yuh sound.
It’s called yad dropping.
Tuesday.
Duty.
- Tuesday.
Duty.
- You can also hear when
we join tuh and yuh sound
sometimes we blend these
together to make a chuh sound.
And Emma does this when she says Tuesday.
Tuna.
- Tuesday.
Tuna.
- This is also common in British English.
It’s something that I do,
especially when I’m speaking quickly.
Can you give me some tuna?
It’s Tuesday today.
Many people say this is wrong or lazy.
It’s not, it’s efficient.
Let’s have a look another time at Vanessa
saying what I call duty.
Duty.
Duty.
She says duty.
So not only does she drop
that yuh sound to make do,
instead of dew,
she also replaces the tuh sound
with a duh sound,
and that is something
we’re going to look at
a bit more later on.
Emma also replaces the
tuh with a duh sound.
But she doesn’t drop the yuh sound.
I say duty, she says Judy.
Judy.
And that’s funny because
we do say Judy in English,
but it only refers to
the woman’s name Judy,
Let’s have a look at
the next set of words.
All of these in British
English pronunciation
have an ah sound.
Modern.
Modern.
Modern.
Modern.
Modern.
Modern.
Bottle.
Bottle.
Bottle.
Bottle.
Bottle.
Bottle.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Shopping.
Shopping.
Shopping.
Shopping.
Shopping.
Shopping.
Borrow.
Borrow.
Borrow.
Borrow.
Borrow.
Borrow.
Now you can hear that
where we say the ah sound
as in modern,
Vanessa, in American
English says the awe sound,
modern.
Modern.
She also pronounces
the awe, the er sound
at the end of the word,
and we don’t tend to do
this in British English.
Now the Australian pronunciation
is very similar here
to the British English pronunciation.
Emma’s ah sound is maybe
slightly more relaxed,
but the difference is absolutely tiny.
I say bottle, (laughs)
which can sound quite posh.
If I were to speak really quickly,
I might say bawdela water.
But if I’m speaking slowly and clearly,
a bottle of water.
Australian English, American English,
they replace that T with a D.
Bottle.
Bawdle.
Bottle.
Bottle.
So Australian English
and British English here
are extremely similar.
American English is quite different.
So, now we’re going to
look at the tuh sound
or naught in some cases,
because in American English
and Australian English,
sometimes they don’t pronounce
the letter T as a tuh.
Now it’s interesting because
both Vanessa and Emma
do seem to alternate slightly.
Sometimes they use the tuh sound
and sometimes they use the duh sound.
- Okay, for me personally,
these T ones are kind of weird.
I use both.
Sometimes it’s a flap T,
sometimes it’s a fully pronounced T.
The flap T is pretty
common in Australia though.
Daughter.
Daughter.
Daughter.
Daughter.
Daughter.
Daughter.
Meeting.
Meeting.
Meeting.
Meeting.
Meeting.
Meeting.
Little.
Little.
Little.
Little.
Little.
Little.
Percentage.
Percentage.
Percentage.
Percentage.
Percentage.
Percentage.
Interview.
Interview.
Interview.
Interview.
Interview.
Interview.
So you can see here with the word little,
or little how I say it.
Little.
Little.
They both use a duh sound in the middle,
but in other words they use
the tuh sound like percentage.
Percentage,
Percentage.
Vanessa really does
pronounce that er sound
at the beginning.
She says percentage, percentage.
So in these ones,
we are looking at the R sound.
For me, it’s quite different
in American English.
And there’s a slight difference
in Australian English.
I wonder if you’ll be
able to pick up on it
‘cause it is very, very slight.
Car.
Car.
Car.
Car.
Car.
Car.
Hard.
Hard.
Hard.
Hard.
Hard.
Hard.
Parking.
Parking.
Parking.
Parking.
Parking.
Parking.
Shark.
Shark.
Shark.
Shark.
Shark.
Shock.
Barnyard.
Barnyard.
I would never say that. (laughs)
Shed.
Barnyard.
Barnyard.
Barnyard.
Barnyard.
So let’s start with American English.
They pronounced the er sound
car.
Car.
In British English
and Australian English
We don’t use this er sound in the R words.
But, British English is
more of an awe sound.
Awe.
Awe.
Australian English is
ever so slightly more open
than the British vowel sound here.
It’s more ah.
Car.
Car.
Can you hear the difference?
It’s almost like the
vowel sound is shorter
and slightly more open.
Shark.
Shark.
Now let’s look at words with the O sound
in British English.
Go.
Go.
Go.
Go.
Go.
Go.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Overflow.
Overflow.
Overflow.
Overflow.
Overflow.
Overflow.
GoPro.
GoPro.
GoPro.
GoPro.
GoPro.
GoPro.
Showing.
Showing.
Showing.
Showing.
Showing.
Showing.
Can you hear the ever so slight difference
between the British English no,
and the American English?
No.
In British English we start
with the shore sound ah,
and then it’s a diphthong.
So we blend that into the uh sound.
Oh.
Oh.
In American English pronunciation
they start with the ah sound,
which starts further back in the mouth
and then they blend it into the uh sound.
Oh.
Oh.
So it’s a wider vowel sound
coming from further back in your mouth.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Now Australian English
pronunciation can be very different.
Emma’s accent is quite light,
but there are a couple of
times where she goes oh,
where I go
oh,
oh,
oh,
oh,
oh.
It’s almost like she includes a yuh sound.
One example is where she says both.
- I use both, I use both.
And another one is when she says overflow.
It’s just leaning towards overflow.
Overflow.
But then at other times
she almost completely matches
my pronunciation as well.
Okay, let’s look at how we pronounce
E R
words.
Words that end in E R.
Better.
Bedda.
Better.
Better.
Bedda.
Better.
Water.
Water.
Water.
Water.
Water.
Water.
Harry Potter.
Harry Potter.
Harry Potter.
Harry Potter.
Harry Potter.
Harry Potter.
Later.
Later.
Later.
Later.
Later.
Later.
Seller.
Seller.
Seller.
Seller.
Seller.
Seller.
So with the pronunciation
of E R at the end of words,
and this works for many A R words as well.
In American English they
pronounce the R at the end,
and in Australian English
and British English we don’t.
Betta.
Bedda.
Better.
Also pay attention to the
way they pronounce the T’s.
In American English in the middle of words
this is nearly always a du sound.
Better.
In Australian English it
completely depends, it appears.
Sometimes Emma uses the duh sound,
sometimes she uses the tuh sound.
Water, later.
It might be depending
on her mood. (chuckles)
For me, and I’m speaking with
modern received pronunciation.
So not everyone from
Britain speaks like me.
It depends where you’re from.
Sometimes if I’m speaking quickly
and in an informal situation
I might use that duh sound.
For example, instead of
saying “But I want to go”,
I might say “But I wanna go,
but I wanna go”.
I might use a glottal stop
instead of the tuh sound,
but I want to go.
So, there you have it.
Some of the most profound differences
between American English pronunciation,
Australian English pronunciation,
and British English pronunciation.
If you like this video,
we have a much more lighthearted
vocabulary lesson as well,
where we compare the way we say,
where we compare the different
vocabulary words that we use.
Thank you so much to Emma and Vanessa
for generously giving up their time
to help me make this video for you guys.
I have left all of their
information in the description box.
Go and check out their channels.
They are really fantastic teachers.
Don’t forget to check out Audible.
You can claim your free audio book.
That’s a 30 day free trial.
All you’ve got to do is click
the link in the description.
And don’t forget to connect with me
on all of my social media.
I’ve got my Facebook, my
Instagram, and my Twitter.
And I shall see you soon
for another lesson, muah!
(mellow electronic music)