UK vs US Pronunciation Contrasts
British and American English don't just differ in vocabulary and spelling: many everyday words sound noticeably different. Each word below has two buttons. Tap UK to hear the British pronunciation and US to hear the American one, and compare. Use the filter to focus on one type of difference at a time.
More about these categories
The biggest structural difference between the two accents is rhoticity: American English pronounces the letter r after a vowel (car, door, bird) while British English does not. Several categories on this page (car words, door words, bird words, ear and air words) all flow from this one difference.
The other categories cover vowel quality (hot, bath, home, caught), the American "flapped" t between vowels (water, city), the /j/ sound before u (Tuesday, news), and a final group of Famous Oddities: individual words that simply go their own way in each accent (tomato, schedule, lieutenant).
See our UK Minimal Pairs, US Minimal Pairs, UK Vowel Sounds Word Filter and US Vowel Sounds Word Filter.
The o in hot: /ɒ/ vs /ɑ/
Short and rounded in British English, longer and open in American English.
The a in bath: /ɑː/ vs /æ/
The classic divide: long back /ɑː/ in British English, short front /æ/ in American English.
The vowel in caught: /ɔː/ vs /ɑ, ɔ/
A strong rounded /ɔː/ in British English; many American speakers use an unrounded vowel, so caught can sound like cot.
The o in home: /əʊ/ vs /oʊ/
A subtler difference: the British diphthong starts from a central vowel, the American one from a rounded /o/.
Car words: /ɑː/ vs /ɑr/
No r in British English, a clear r in American English.
Door words: /ɔː/ vs /ɔr/
British English has a long vowel with no r; American English pronounces the r.
Bird words: /ɜː/ vs /ɝ/
The American vowel is "r-coloured" all the way through; the British vowel has no r at all.
Ear, air and tour words: /ɪə, eə, ʊə/ vs /ɪr, ɛr, ʊr/
British English uses gliding diphthongs; American English uses a vowel plus r.
T between vowels: /t/ vs /ɾ/
American English "flaps" the t between vowels, so it sounds close to a quick d: water, city.
The /j/ before u: /juː/ vs /uː/
After t, d, n and s, British English keeps a /j/ sound (Tuesday = "tyoozday"); American English drops it ("toozday").
Famous Oddities
No pattern to learn here. These famous words simply have their own pronunciation in each accent, and you just have to know them.
