Choosing between American and British

pronunciation
by Tomasz P. Szynalski

Different kinds of English have different pronunciation. For example, the pronunciation (the
accent) of British English is different from the pronunciation of American English.

The most frequently learned kinds of English in the world are American English and
British English.

American pronunciation
In the context of language learning, American pronunciation means General
American (GenAm) pronunciation. This is the pronunciation used by educated Americans,
on television and on radio. It is described in dictionaries of American English, such as the
Merriam-Webster and Random House dictionaries.

Most Americans and Canadians speak something similar to General American. Whether
you're in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle or Toronto, you will generally hear the
same accent. There are some regional differences, but they are usually very small. The
only major exception is the South of the US (especially outside of big cities), which has its
own distinct accent.

General American pronunciation is rhotic, which means that the letter r is always
pronounced.

British pronunciation
When people talk about learning British pronunciation, they usually think of Received
Pronunciation (RP). This is the pronunciation that you will learn at a British language
school; it is also the model taught in coursebooks and dictionaries from publishers like
Oxford and Longman.

In the UK, only a small percentage of people speak something similar to RP. "Normal
people" only speak it in the southeast of England — in the area near Oxford, Cambridge,
Brighton and London (excluding working-class Londoners, who speak Cockney or Estuary).
Elsewhere RP is spoken only by upper-class people, academics, actors, TV personalities,
politicians and English teachers.

"Normal" Britons usually speak with their local accents, which are often quite different from
RP, and can be very hard to understand to untrained ears. Sometimes cities that are only
20 km apart have very different accents. (The British Library has an interactive map of the
UK which lets you listen to some examples of British accents from various areas.)

RP is non-rhotic, which means that the letter r is usually "silent", unless it is followed by a
vowel. Here's how it works:

• In words like car, tower, inform and first, r is silent (r is not followed by a vowel).

• In words like red, foreign, print, r is pronounced (r is followed by a vowel).

• R is also pronounced at the end of a word, if the next word starts with a vowel, for
example: number eight, far away.

• Most RP speakers also insert an r in phrases like: the idea(r) of, Africa(r) and
Asia,law(r) and order. This r is not in the spelling; they just use it to separate two
vowels.

The following pairs sound exactly the same in RP: or/awe, court/caught, sore/saw,
farther/father, formerly/formally. In General American, they all sound different.

Which one should you choose?

To choose between American and British pronunciation, you need to answer two questions:

1. which one will be more useful to you?

2. which one will be easier to learn for you?

On the first question, you should remember that whether you choose General American or
RP, you will be understood by all English speakers, because everyone familiar with both of
these accents from TV and movies. So the objective usefulness of GenAm and RP is
about the same. Still, if you know you're going to be talking mainly to people who have a
particular accent, you may want to learn a similar accent (or you may decide that it is better
to stand out).

For example, if you are planning to move to England, or if you have many English friends,
you may want to learn RP. Of course, the accent of most Britons is quite different from RP,
so you will probably stand out anyway. (Speakers of GenAm will have a much better
chance of blending in with Americans, as there are fewer regional differences in the US.)

The second question is more tricky. Here, the most important thing are your individual
circumstances, such as:

• Whether you simply prefer one of the accents (for example, because it sounds
more pleasant, more sexy, more intelligent, more powerful, etc. to you). If you want
to get results, you have to be excited about learning English pronunciation. The more
attractive your goal seems to you, the more motivation you will have.
 • Which accent you find easier to imitate. Sometimes people find they have
aknack for one, but not the other.

• Which accent your friends are learning. It is easier to learn if you can talk things
through with your friends.

• Which accent your teacher speaks. (Same reason as above.)

• Whether you are interested in science or computing. GenAm is more frequently

used in those fields and if you are interested in them, you will hear it more often and
will find it easier to learn.

If the above questions don't point to an obvious choice, take a look at this table, which
compares the more objective advantages of each accent:

General American (GenAm) Received Pronunciation (RP)

• If you speak it, you will be • If you speak it, you will be understood
understood by all English speakers. by all English speakers.

• You have a better choice of • Although American English

movies, TV shows and video dominates the media, there are plenty of
games to learn the accent from. well-known British actors and movies full
America's media industry makes a of British pronunciation (Harry
larger amount of interesting, funny Potter, Lord of the Rings).
and exciting content than Britain's.

• The Web has more GenAm

content(YouTube videos, podcasts,
etc.) than RP content.

• There are at least 10 times more

speakers of GenAm than of RP. If
you have pronunciation questions, it
is easier to find a speaker of GenAm
(or something close to GenAm) than
of RP.

• The best English dictionaries are

made in Britain and focus on RP. (They
also have information on American
pronunciation, but it is not always
accurate, so if you choose American
English, you will have to consult American
 dictionaries, too.)

• People in Britain are neutral • Americans love RP. If you speak RP

towards speakers of American in America, people will think you are
English. intelligent and the opposite sex will take
more interest in you.

My choice of General American pronunciation

My reasons for choosing American pronunciation were personal. I wanted to learn the
same kind of English as my two best friends in high school, who were also the best English
learners. I also wanted to be different from "average" students (most people in Poland try to
learn RP), and I wanted to annoy my teachers, many of whom viewed RP as some kind of
"gold standard". If I had been studying RP, I simply would not have had so much fun on a
social level.

Even though my reasons were personal, American English turned out to be a good choice.
RP may be the king of schools, coursebooks and dictionaries, but most popular, real-world
content (movies, TV series, podcasts, Web videos, etc.) features American speakers.
Because I was learning American English, I could practice my pronunciation while watching
my favorite TV shows and playing my favorite video games. If I had chosen RP, I would
have still had some fun content to learn from, but my options would have been more
limited.

The importance of learning about the other accent

Whichever accent you choose, you should have some knowledge about both accents.
Let's suppose you want to speak pure RP. You don't want to have an American accent at
all. Should you pay attention to the American pronunciations in your dictionary?

Yes, you should. First of all, you need to understand both British and American
English, since both are widely used. Even if you want to speak RP, it is good to know how
words are pronounced in General American. It helps you understand American speech.

Secondly, you ought to be aware of the systematic differences between RP and

GenAm because you will be learning words from Americans as well as Britons. Consider
what happens if you (a student of RP) hear a new English word on an American TV
channel. Let's suppose this word is nuke, pronounced /nu:k/. If you know nothing about
American pronunciation, you may assume that the word is pronounced the same way in
RP, and you may learn to say it like that.
However, if you had some basic knowledge of American phonetics, you would know that
many words which have the sound /ju:/ in RP, have /u:/ in GenAm (for example: new,due).
Because nuke is one of such words, the pronunciation /nu:k/ is not correct in RP. The
correct pronunciation is /nju:k/.

If you pay attention to both British and American pronunciations in your dictionary, you
will eventually develop a type of intuition about these things. For most words, you'll be able
to tell how to pronounce them in your accent, even if you have only heard them from
speakers of the other accent. For other words, you'll know that you just have to look them
up to be sure.