By American English, Vowels

I tried, but failed.It's really difficult even though English is not my first language.I love how British English sounds, but I feel more comfortable and confident when I speak in American English.Besides, some vowels, like British 'short o' sound is really hard for me to...

I am very talented with accents, but I have had to accept the fact that I am getting older and the ability to imitate an accent is diminishing. I am a native speaker of standard mid-western American English (considered to be accent free in the US). I speak Spanish with several regional accents,...

Are we supposed to prounounce T as D on a word that comes after a vowel and unstressed? So what about Princeton, people pronounce it as PrinceDon or PrinceTon inAmerican English? I heard some do the latter already but haven't found any for the former

In American English the 's' in sides sounds like /z/ too.Here are the rules for pronouncing the final 's' in American English.1. ‘es’ is pronounced as /ez/ after these sibilant sounds/s/ businesses, buses /z/ freezes, causes /sh/ bushes,...

Heh, I know in the UK there are lots of interesting accents. Some people drop this, skip that, shift vowels here, put glottal stops there... Different accent in different places, different social groups, different age groups... It's so in the US too, and in other countries too, I guess....

Yes, there are regional variations in American English. Do you know which accent is chosen by MW as the reference in the pronunciation keys. Is it General American?My problem is that, as I have mentioned before, they are indeed denoted differently in British English. The first one is a simple...

Ah, I didn't know you used British English... Since you mentioned Merriam-Webster, I thought you wanted to use American English.No, I don't think so, and it's what I've tried to explain so far. Just because a certain symbol is used, doesn't mean it has to sound exactly the...

Thanks again for your patience in explaining that to me. I think I know what you are talking about. This also happens for the length of vowels before voiceless consonants vs voiced consonants, e.g. bat vs bad. Yes, you are right, the vowel quality is often affected by the following...

In British English, what you said are two different vowels and are in fact denoted differently in IPA. The extended ones are diphthongs.bet / bet /bear / ber / bee / bi: / beer / bir / (The non-rhotic "r" cannot be shown accurately.) I wonder my understanding of IPA for British English...

Thanks, GG. Now this is absolutely confusing to me. I always had problem with reading the pronunciation keys for American English. British pronunciations have long been standardized on IPA. Why can't American English dictionaries use IPA??? The symbols in Merriam-Webster is different...