- Hi!

- Welcome back. I can't wait, we're gonna dive into five differences between British

and American English pronunciation.

Alright so, we are here to look at the difference

between British and American English pronunciation. I am from London, so I am going to be giving

the British English examples. Grace, you are from Hong Kong?

- I am from Hong Kong. I'm not American, but I have a North American accent.

- That's right.

- That's right. So it's kind of a combination between an American, a pan-American accent

and a sort of Canadian-ish accent?

- Alright let's get straight into number one, yod dropping.

- Okay.

- Yod dropping, what an amazing phrase.

- Sounds like a dance move that people are doing now.

- Ahhh, we're all doing the yod drop.

- Yeah we're all doing.

- Are you doin' the yod drop? So yod dropping, also sounds like an animal leaving it's excrement

everywhere.

- Yes exactly.

- Yod dropping--

- Look that dog just yod dropped.

- He just yod dropped.

- Okay.

- So yod dropping is when you take out the yuh sound. Okay, so can you say this word

for me?

- Tuna.

- Huh, and I would say tuna.

- Tuna.

- Tuna. So as you can see that the yuh sound is in the British accent, right, so tuna,

but you would say?

- Tuna.

- Tuna, right, so it's gone. Another example--

- Well it wasn't, it's not supposed to be there in the first place I think.

- Yeah okay fair play. Yeah, alright. Maybe we add it, maybe that's the thing here.

- Yeah, yeah you add it.

- Next word, opportunity.

- Opportunity.

- Opportunity.

- Opportunity.

- Okay, this social media platform. YouTube.

- YouTube.

- Ah hah, tube.

- YouTube.

- Tube. Interesting.

- Tube.

- So this happens when we have a consonant like t or d, and then the u after it.

- Okay.

- Alright, so if you look at all of those examples: tuna, tu, opportunity tu, YouTube

tu. Du, um, due.

- K. Due.

- Due.

- It's due tomorrow, yeah.

- It's due tomorrow, your essay is due tomorrow, okay.

- Yeah.

- Due.

- Due.

- Due. Due tomorrow.

- Due.

- Producer.

- Producer.

- Producer. Duty.

- Duty.

- She said duty.

- Yeah, you said duty.

- We're gonna give you guys an example of a sentence to show you how it's different.

- Okay. There is a great opportunity at YouTube to be a producer.

- Okay. There is a great opportunity at YouTube to be a producer. Okay, number two. This one

is a funny little one, it's just a tiny change but it's quite significant. So, the a to eh.

- Okay.

- It's when you've got, like an A-R-R-Y.

- Okay.

- So, Prince Harry, is?

- Prince Harry.

- What?

- Prince Harry.

- Like hairy.

- That's--

- It sounds like hairy, to me.

- Alright, alright.

- Prince.

- Prince Harry, yeah.

- Prince Harry.

- Yeah.

- Harry.

- Harry.

- So hah.

- Harry.

- Harry.

- Harry Potter.

- Right, okay so yeah I was gonna do another one, yeah. Harry Potter.

- Harry Potter.

- Oh god.

- We're gonna get onto ts in a minute, oh no.

- Harry Potter. Harry Potter; okay you do it.

- Harry Potter. Harry Potter, Harry, right? Okay, marry.

- Marry.

- That's Merry, like-

- Marry.

- Merry as in like Merry Christmas.

- No, marry, they married yesterday at the church. Married.

- Whoa.

- Marry.

- Marry, yeah.

- No.

- Okay, carry.

- Carry.

- Carry?

- Yeah.

- There's an--

- Yeah.

- There's a name Carrie, like.

- Like Carrie, yeah.

- But, carry, that's cr. I don't understand.

- What don't you understand? It's how I speak, it's how we speak.

- It's how we speak.

- Yeah.

- Alright, fair enough. Also, embarrassed.

- Embarrassed.

- Embarrassed.

- Embarrassed. Yeah.

- So strange.

- So very slight, you do the a, and--

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah. I guess I sort of flatten it into an eh.

- Eh, okay let's say the sentence. When Prince Harry got married he carried Meghan Markle

all the way home.

- When Prince Harry got married he carried Meghan Markle all the way home.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- Okay, this one we've talked about a lot before, is the r sound.

- Yeah. It's so much more pronounced in American English, right?

- Yeah. Because there's an r in there that should be pronounced.

- Well. We don't always pronounce all the letters.

- Yeah, no.

- So car in British English.

- Car.

- Car.

- Car.

- Car.

- Park.

- Park.

- Park.

- Park.

- Horse.

- Horse.

- Again?

- Horse.

- Horse.

- Horse.

- Okay, let's do this sentence. Why did you park your car so far away?

- Why did you park your car so far away?

- Again, do that again.

- Why did you park your car so far away?

- Why did you park your car so far away? That's terrible.

- Why did you park your car so far away?

- Alright so, yeah, the r clearly--

- Yes.

- Much more pronounced in American English. Okay number four is the sound, what for British

English is the o, and in American English is oh.

- Oh. Now the key here, let's take the word go for example. Go, I'm making that sound

kind of at the front of my mouth.

- Okay.

- Whereas in American English.

- Go.

- You are creating it where?

- Here, I guess, the back of my--

- Yes, further back, right? So, and that speaks to the mouth position as well. So, go.

- Go. Yeah I suppose when I try to say, do that, however badly I try to do it.

- Yeah. The sound is coming from the front of my tongue, because so it's kinda like go.

'Cause I'm, as the sound comes out it gets filtered.

- Go, get set, go.

- But, whereas when I say go, the o is created here.

- At the back, right. So, take the word throw.

- Throw.

- Uh huh, know.

- Know.

- Rio.

- Rio.

- Uh huh.

- It's a very subtle difference.

- Really subtle difference. And maybe one that a lot of learner's of English might not

hear first time. Let's put it into a sentence. See if they can hear this.

- Let's go to Rio with Cleo.

- Let's go to Rio with Cleo.

- Let's go to Rio with Cleo.

- Let's go to Rio with Cleo.

- The last one, and my favorite, is the tuh sound. We talked about this before,

- Yeah. we always have a laugh about this.

- Yes. Can you say the wizard, the name of the wizard, created by J.K Rowling?

- Toto. No that's the dog. The wizard. That's the dog from Wizard of Oz.

- Oh my goodness.

- Sorry, say what, what am I trying to--

- The character created by J.K Rowling.

- Oh, right, okay, the other one, Harry Potter.

- Say it again?

- Harry Potter.

- Potter.

- Potter, how do you say it?

- Potter.

- Harry Potter.

- Yeah, okay. So I've spoken about this quite a lot before, we have, there's two ways for

us to say it. We say it with a true t, so Potter. Or, with the glottal t, Potter. And

that's when we hold back the sound. It's like a Pott-er. So either we say it with a true

t, tuh, like Harry Potter, or with the glottal t, Harry Potter.

- Yeah.

- Can you do that for me?

- Which one?

- The glottal t.

- Harry Potter.

- What?

- Harry Potter.

- Harry Potter.

- Harry Potter needs to go to Hogwarts.

- Yeah, he's gonna have some water.

- Water, he's gonna have some water.

- Right, but in American English, we've got uh?

- Yeah, we kind of soften the t into a d.

- Let's put those words side by side and you can hear the difference in sounds. So water.

- Water.

- And with glottal t, water.

- Water.

- Daughter.

- Daughter.

- Hotter.

- Hotter.

- Just really quickly with the glottal t, it's important to know that we use the glottal

t when the t is in the middle position of a word or at the end of a word. But never

at the beginning. So 'cause I've gotten a word like time, I would never go like ime,

that would be ridiculous. Okay let's put it into a sentence so we can compare the sounds.

- Okay. Harry Potter drank some hot water.

- Harry Potter drank some hot water.

- Okay let's do it again. Harry Potter drank some hot water.

- Harry Potter drank some hot water.

- I'm gonna do it with the glottal t. Harry Potter drank some hot water.

- Harry Potter drank some hot water. Okay, sorry, lemme do it properly.

- So bad.

- Harry Potter drank some hot water.

- No, with the glottal t, try the glottal t again.

- Harry Potter drank some hot water.

- So bad.

- That's exactly how you sound like.

- Yeah.

- That's how you sound like.

- Okay so those are five differences between British and American English, the pronunciation.

There are loads more. Yeah?

- Yep.

- Maybe we'll do another video if you like this one, looking at five more differences

in sounds. Grace, thank you again for joining me.

- Thank you.

- An absolute pleasure. And we'll see you guys again, real soon. This Tom and Grace,

say goodbye.

- Bye!