English speakers across the pond from each other have a lot in common in how they speak and write English, but there are also a lot of differences.
When you’re consuming English media, traveling abroad, or working with English-speaking clients, it can be helpful to be able to pick up on their accents so you can relate to them better.
When you switch your ears to “American English mode” or “British English mode,” you’ll find that you have way fewer misheard words, leading to better conversations.
As a native English speaker from the Northeast part of the U.S., I had to learn how to understand people from Tennessee when I moved there. Trying to listen to someone with a thick Southern accent while in my default “New England mode” made it almost impossible for me to have a smooth conversation. But when I learned how to listen in “Tennessee mode,” I could understand just about everyone.
New England and Tennessee are about 1000 miles (~1600 km) away from each other. Now imagine the discrepancy in accents that are separated by an ocean!
You can learn to listen (and maybe even speak!) in just about any English accent over time. Let’s dive into the basics of American and British English so you can enjoy listening to more English speakers with fluency and ease!
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Hallmarks of American English
For the most part, people who learn American English are learning a General American accent, based on the Neutral Accent found all over the U.S.
When you can listen and speak in this accent, you can understand the vast majority of English speakers and you can be understood by them as well, even though accents all over the U.S. and Canada vary greatly.
There are a few key components of the General American Accent to know.
It Is a Rhotic Accent
In the General American Accent (GAA), the letter “r” always makes a sound, even when it’s at the end of a word or before a consonant.
So, the “r” in words like
- Hard
- Cart
- Shepherd
- Heart
- Car
- Clear
- Harbor
- Father
- Mother
- Better
Are all pronounced.
If you’re confused, it’s likely because you’ve heard people speak with a New York, Boston, or Southern drawl accent! The New York and Boston accents are notorious for dropping Rs and adding Rs in a totally different way than GAA. Note that most people in the U.S. and Canada do not have these accents and will say their Rs.
This is also quite different from British accents, which tend to be non-rhotic.
Medial Ts Disappear
For the most part, when there is a word that has a “T” sound in the middle, the GAA will have it change to a “D” sound.
For example, “better” becomes “bedder.”
It typically only happens when the T sound comes right after a vowel.
For words like tractor, cartridge, after, and antic, the T is clearly pronounced.
Some exceptions to this rule (because there are always exceptions) include words like baton, atlas, motel, hotel, and latte.
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It’s Full of Schwa Sounds
What is a “schwa sound”? In linguistics, it describes when a vowel makes a very weak sound, rather than being a stressed part of the word. For example, the word “organization” looks like it should be pronounced “or-gan-ih-zay-shun,” where the “a” and the “io” should both be pronounced.
In reality, the “a” and the “io” become schwa sounds, so the word is pronounced “org’n-iz-ay-shn.”
The vast majority of words in GAA will have a schwa sound or two.
Befriend Liaisons
When speaking fluently in an American accent, you’ll need to learn how to connect your words with liaisons. You will also need to be able to listen to liaisons, or else you will have a really hard time understanding speech.
Most English speakers from anywhere in the world will link words together one way or another. Having a definitive gap in between words is impractical because it takes much longer to speak and sounds to choppy.
For example, “next weekend” with a liaison connection between the two words sounds like “neck sweekend.”
Glottal Stops
This is a tricky concept to explain and is much easier to hear and see than read about. Nevertheless, we will talk about it here.
As a fluent speaker, you are not required to make this sound in your own speech; you will be perfectly understood even if you never make this sound once.
However, it can be very complicated and confusing to listen to if you’re not used to hearing it! For this reason, you need to learn about and get used to hearing the glottal stop.
A glottal stop is typically used to indicate a “t” sound. A glottal stop is when the typical “T” sound is replaced by a stop of sound at all. It is a held T.
So, for example, “get it” would sound like “ged ih.” The t in “get” becomes a “D” sound because it’s pronounced like a medial t. The t in “it” is indicated by a glottal stop, where no sound is made at all.
There are many other features of General American English, but for the basics of listening and speaking, these are the main features you need to be familiar with.
Key Features of British English
Just like American English, there are many different types of British English you could possibly learn. In this article, we will be referencing “Received Pronunciation (RP),” aka “The Queen’s English” aka “Posh.”
So, how is British English different than American English? Don’t they share a lot of the same qualities as referenced above?
The answer is, confusingly, yes and no.
Let’s talk about the same features mentioned above and how they appear in British English.
Rhotic Sounds
RP is generally a non-rhotic accent. You can count on the vast majority of R sounds to be dropped.
This is the one huge difference between General American English and RP! (But remember that New York, Boston, and a Southern drawl share this characteristic with RP, even though the final outcome still sounds very different!)
For example, “My father dared my mother to adorn a bird” would sound like “My fathah dahed my mothah to adohn a buhd.”
An r will be sounded if it’s instrumental in the pronunciation of a word like read, area, creek, or intrude.
Medial T Sounds
In RP, the medial T sound is preserved. Butter, letter, later, and British all have pronounced T sounds, not T sounds that have changed into D sounds.
Furthermore, the T sounds at the end of a word are also clearly Ts and not Ds, like in an American accent.
In GAA, “That I” sounds like “Thaddeye.” In RP, it sounds exactly as written.
Watch out! Some British accents replace the medial T sound with glottal stops, resulting in a word like “butter” being pronounced as “buh-uh.” This is a valid way to say the word in a different British accent, but not PR.
Schwa Sounds
Most of the R sounds that are dropped in RP end up being schwa sounds instead. So, think of words that end in -er and -re as having an “uh” sound at the end (indicated in linguistics as an upside-down lowercase e “ə”)
The schwa also happens in many of the same words as GAA, like breakfast (brekfust), definitely (definuhtly), and “I went to school” (I went t’ school).
Liaisons
Just like GAA, RP uses liaisons to connect words all the time. It’s the mark of a native speaker.
For example “Where are you?” becomes “Whera you?” when you account for the liaison connecting “where” and “are” and also remember that the “R” sound in “are” gets dropped because of the non-rhotic nature of the accent.
Glottal Stops
This technique is the same as mentioned before with GAA. You don’t need to use it when you are speaking, but you do need to know how to interpret and understand it when listening.
Intrusive R
Back up a moment to the non-rhotic quality of RP. One quirk that can arise in RP is an intrusive R, which not everyone will do in their speech, but is quite common.
This is when someone will insert an R sound where there isn’t one and is usually used between a word that ends in a vowel and a word that also starts with a vowel.
For example, “Anna and John” becomes “Annerin John.”
So, as you can see, there are a lot of similarities and differences in the basics of General American Accent and Received Pronunciation!
Difference Between British and American English: Grammar Examples
One of the biggest ways the two different continents handle English is with their spelling and grammar.
Let’s go over some sentences and how they would be spelled and written in North America vs the UK.
Past Simple vs Present Perfect
In general, American English will use the Present Perfect tense less than the Past Simple tense. We won’t go into the details of these tenses, but what it looks like in practice is this:
American English
- Are they going shopping tomorrow?
No, they already got what they need. - Do you have the blueprints yet?
Yes, Sue drew them up yesterday.
British English
- Are they going shopping tomorrow?
No, they’ve already gotten what they need. - Do you have the blueprints yet?
Yes, Sue had drawn them up yesterday.
In short, British English sounds more proper than American English.
Is vs Are
In American English, plural words can often be followed by “is” and still be grammatically correct. This is because of the line of thinking in American English.
In American English (AmE), a group of people is considered a single entity. The government becomes one singular thing rather than a group of people. The same goes for a class, a family, a team, a staff. Some exceptions to this rule are a group of friends and a group of co-workers.
In British English (BrE), the groups of people are still thought of as multiple people, meaning they need to be referred to with “are.”
In practice, this looks like:
AmE: My family is coming over later.
BrE: My family are coming over later.
Have vs Take
In BrE, you are more likely to use “have” when talking about doing an action. In AmE, you will likely use “take” instead.
This looks like:
BrE
- I’ll have a bath
- I’ll have a nap
- I’ll have a break
AmE
- I’ll take a bath
- I’ll take a nap
- I’ll take a break
Prepositions
This is one of the biggest points of difference between the two different types of English. Keen-eyed readers can tell if something is written by a Brit or an American just by the use of prepositions!
Here are some of the most common examples.
At vs On
BrE: I like to go out at the weekend.
AmE: I like to go out on the weekend.
At vs In
BrE: I studied literature at school.
AmE: I studied literature in school.
From & Than vs From & To
While both dialects use “from” when comparing things, the word is used slightly differently in each instance.
Both Dialects: This place is different from what I’m used to
BrE: This place is different to what I’m used to
AmE: This place is different than what I’m used to
There are slight differences between American English and British English, but these slight differences all add up together to create two distinct dialects. Learning these subtle differences is what helps you be able to listen to different speakers and sound the way you intend when you talk!
How to Learn an American or British Accent
How can you practice listening to and speaking with these different accents?
There are many different techniques and tools you can use to improve your listening and speaking skills for any accent you desire!
YouTube
On YouTube, you can find videos explaining any aspect of a language or accent you have a question about. In fact, I used quite a lot of YouTube videos as research to help me understand what I was writing about for this article!
Find creators who teach about linguistics and mouth movements to help your subtle pronunciation skills. Others can help you learn the difference in vocabulary between different dialects.
You can also simply watch videos made by creators who speak with your target accent and practice listening to their casual speech.
Movies & TV
Many people have historically taught themselves how to listen and speak a certain way with movies and TV shows.
Simply find media that is set in the region with your target accent and watch! Make sure you pay close attention to the way the actors’ mouths move (in live-action media) so you can better understand how to move your mouth the same way.
Podcasts
Similar to YouTube, you can find a podcast about just about anything. Search for ones that are specifically for educating about English and how to perfect your accent, or listen to ones that are about a topic that’s interesting to you just to get a better ear for the accent.
Practice with Others
With apps like Tandem and HelloTalk, you can match up with a native speaker or a fluent speaker in your target accent and practice speaking with them. This is a great way to practice because you can get feedback in real time about how you sound as well as tips on how to improve!
Record Yourself Speaking
Even though it might be embarrassing, try recording yourself talking about your day, or an interesting topic, reading from a book, or reciting a line from your favorite movie.
When you listen back, you can compare it to what you hear when you listen to a native speaker and determine what parts of your speech, if any, need to be improved.
Get Help From a Coach
With a dialect coach, you can easily learn how to listen and speak in any accent you’d like!
A professional coach or tutor can offer feedback and exercises that help you excel in your listening and speaking skills. You can find a tutor or coach on Superprof!
Learning to listen to and speak in a British or American accent can be extremely helpful (or just fun!).
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