Search results for 'tag:British accent tag:Vocabulary' matching tags 'British accent' and 'Vocabulary'

Re: Poll: British English vs American English

Daffy Duck — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:35:30 GMT

Anonymous wrote:
Well, I have encountered this problem recently. I had been learning english for few years, then I stopped attending courses or lessons, I have been learning at home and watching American TV series and movies.. so I have picked up a lot of vocabulary. So far, so good. Then I realised, when preparing to Cambridge Exam, that I have to "forget" american words and learn british equivalents. Because now I am mixing both.. It's fine by me, as long as people can understand me. Still when passing an exam you need to be consistent, using either american or british english. It's tricky. American english surrounds us everywhere, so we're more familiar with it. On the contrary I just love british accent, even though learning british pronounciation isn't easy.

Nice to hear from you again, Anonymous It's tricky for us teachers, too. We don't even know, if it's just going to be British or American English. Few days ago, I met some students and their parents asked about teachers who can teach Canadian English. Imagine?!

Re: Poll: British English vs American English

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:56:04 GMT

Well, I have encountered this problem recently. I had been learning english for few years, then I stopped attending courses or lessons, I have been learning at home and watching American TV series and movies.. so I have picked up a lot of vocabulary. So far, so good. Then I realised, when preparing to Cambridge Exam, that I have to "forget" american words and learn british equivalents. Because now I am mixing both.. It's fine by me, as long as people can understand me. Still when passing an exam you need to be consistent, using either american or british english. It's tricky. American english surrounds us everywhere, so we're more familiar with it. On the contrary I just love british accent, even though learning british pronounciation isn't easy.

Re: GCE "O" Level Oral Exam.

nona the brit — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:14:29 GMT

I'd strongly advise against trying to put on a fake accent. They don't care what accent you speak with (do you think Americans taking this exam would try to fake a British accent) as they are just checking that you speak clearly and with good grammar/vocabulary.

Re: How can I learn to talk with a British accent?

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:42:28 GMT

I am American and speak with a very good British accent just from hearing it a lot over about five years. I watch Harry Potter movies, and other shows have a random British actor, i spent a month in London. I didn't even know I could do it until I tried imitating Hermione. To perfect it i started learning the correct British vowel sounds and how sometimes they don't pronouce the t and random stuff that they use in speech. Knowing the vocabulary is a major part of the accent. So use British words. Learn how to spell them also in case you find yourself writing.

feebs11 sry: are all these words american?

Lrk2006 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:04:50 GMT

sry feebs11, really very sorry. i swear i don't want to hurt anyone. and how could i.

the story is one of my friends think i am good at english. (i know i am not) she constantly asks me questions such that whether this is right or wrong. so and so. i have prepared him a vocabulary list for her younger child. she is consious (sry for spellings again) whether the language is american or british. after a long time she has decided that it should be pure american due to ..... (movies or songs , i suppose)

i just wanna be sure that there is no word in that lish that particulary belongs to british english and not used in usa.

i personally like the british accent. but spellings from usa english are nice.

did you forgive me. i really meant for that. do inform me when you clears your heart.

Re: which accent?

Marvin A. — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:52:06 GMT

To tell you the truth, I've never heard any foreigner (unless they learned English when they were very young, or had lived in an English speaking country for at least a decade, and had extensive, and personalized accent coaching) ever be able to pull off either an American or British accent. "British English" and "American English" consist of 3 parts--accent, spelling, and lexicon.

As for accent: when people learn an American accent, they learn what is known as "General American"--an accent based on a generalized Midwestern accent, spoken in the 1950's Narrowly definied, this accent is only spoken by very old speakers (80 year olds) in the Midwestern and Western portions of the US, and in a couple of 90 year olds in Canada. Broadly defined, it is spoken by everyone in the Midlands US, the North Central US (North Dakota and surrounding areas), the Western US, and Western and Central Canada (BC to ON). It is also spoken by many newscasters. If they learn "Received Pronunciation" then they learn sort of the upper-class sounding accent in England, that is considered overly posh to some. Both RP and GA are very much alike, except in the overall place of articulation. As a speaker of North American English, it would be *very* difficult for me to pull of a convincing RP accent. I would need long and intensive accent coaching. Even actors are notorious for doing very lousy RP accents.

There is however something called a Mid-Atlantic accent, which is very easy to do. It sounds exactly like a British RP accent to Americans, and exactly like an American accent to British people. It uses the American vowels and consonants which correspond to British ones, but uses the American place of articulation. If you aren't a native speaker of English, unless you honestly *do* sound like a native speaker, most people won't be able to even tell if you are speaking "American English" or "British English". It just depends on how your own non-native accent compares to an American or British accent. For example, almost every Japanese speaker I've met learned American English, but they sounded like they were speaking "British English". The reason was simply that they could not make the vowel sound that exists in the word "hat", nor could they make even a reasonable approximation of the North American English retroflex final "r". Thus, even though they learned "American English", they sounded just as British as they sounded American. So, they could have just as easily learned RP, and they would have ended up with the same accent. So, unless you really do have a native sounding accent with no interference from your native accent, it is not going to make a bit of difference whether you learn American or British English--and if you are so good at imitating accents (unlikly), you should be able to do them both--certainly better than I, as a North American, can fake an RP accent.

The next aspect is spelling. There's American spelling, British spelling, Canadian spelling, and Australian spelling, and New Zealand spelling. First of all we have to keep in mind that spelling has nothing to do with pronunciation, and the fact that a word spelt in one form of English is pronounced differently in another has nothing to do with spelling. The spellings of words are simply national unofficial norms and customs. There are two categories--high frequency, and low frequency words. You can often read several pages of text and not have a clue as to where it was written based on the spelling. The high frequency words are the most important. The low frequency words are written much less frequently, and thus people hardly notice if there are differences in the spelling, and most people in all of the English speaking countries don't care too terribly much. For example, the word [ mIdiv@l ]. I have a hard time remembering how to spell this word. In American spelling, I believe it's spelled midieval or something like that, and in British spelling, mediaeval. I doubt anyone would really care how you spell it this word, in fact many Americans spell it the British way, because the American version looks ugly. So, as for these types of low-frequency words, it really doesn't matter how you spell them. The high frequency words on the other hand, spelling is much more important.

You have to remember, though that everyone will understand these words just fine whether you use the American, British, Australian, or whatever spelling, it's just that some that have not been exposed to the other form, will consider the other form incorrect--American schoolteachers are a good example of this, and they will usually mark your paper if you use, say a British spelling, to let you know that it's spelled differently in America. Most of them don't really care, actually, they just want to help you. I'd say it's probably the British who are the most uptight about spelling, because they tend not to like Americanisms. Canadian English technically has no "official" spelling. Both American and British spellings are accepted, but even so, there is a general trend in how many people spell words, and thus we can say that there is a distinct spelling. so, anyway the only words that you need to worry about are the high-frequency words (as for the low frequency words, just spell them the British way--Americans really won't care--and if they do, tough.)

If on the other hand, you really want to be consistent and spell everything the American way, just get Microsoft's en-US spell checker. Unlike the Canadian or British one, there is no controversy regarding Microsoft's en-US spell checker, and thus it could be said to be the final authority on American spelling (I'm serious. No American would argue with it.) So, the only important words with varients, are those of the or/our class; the er/re class, and the -ize/-ise class. These are the only ones that will get anyone worked up over.

If I were you, simply consider your audience. If you're writing for a British audience use -our (colour, honour) and -re (centre), and if you're writing primarily for an American audience use -or (color, honor) and -re (center). Truthfully, it's mainly the British people that get emotional about these words, because they don't like to see Americanisms all the time, and Americans usually don't care, they just either haven't seen the British form before and think it's just a misspelling. On those two examples, the current trend in Canadian English is to follow the British spelling (colour, centre). When it comes to a few words in American English, the British spelling is regarded as classier, and thus the following words are often spelled like in British English in the US especially for places: Theatre, Centre, Harbour, and Glamour. Note, it's pretty much only these 4 words especially "Theatre". You'll find about the same number as "Theatres" in the US as you'll find "Theaters". You may find a city "Centre", although it's less common than "Theatre", and many businesses use the word Harbour. "Glamour" is far more glamorous than "Glamor"--in fact I don't think I've seen the word "glamor" very often.

When it comes to -ize/-ise words, I believe -ize is considered correct for all varieties of English. -ise however is quickly gaining ground in the UK, and -ize is sometimes even mistakenly assumed to be an Americanism. Most newspapers and magazines now use -ise, for example. The Oxford English Dictionary still lists the -ize form first. I believe that -ise is more common in Australia and New Zealand. -ize is the only acceptable form in the US and Canada (although -ise is sometimes [rarely] used in Canada--usually by people originally from somewhere else.)

So, anyway, if I were you I'd learn both spelling varients just so you know them--the high frequency words are not at all hard to learn. Just consider your audience when you're writing, and be consistent (I'm not, but I just like to be different, for my own personal entertainment. [Of course I'd never hand in paper to a teacher, or for anything important using an odd concoction of American and British spellings--as people would just think I was a bad speller.]) Do as I say, not as I do )

The third thing to learn is the vocabulary differences. You can also just describe what you are talking about, or try to use alternate words. If I were you, I would simply avoid any deliberate Americanisms, or Canadianisms, or Briticisms, or whatever, or learn all of them.

So, in conclusion, it doesn't matter too terribly much which variety of English you want to learn. I myself, would suggest that you learn both, and what the differences are between them, and as long as you don't overwhelm yourself with the differences (they're fairly small ultimately), if you learn both, you can adapt to the person you are talking to and be more easily understood. If you want to learn a particular one, learn either one, it makes absolutely no difference, because no one will take you for a Englishman or an American, nor will you sound like one or the other to native English speakers. You'll still sound like you're speaking German-English or Italian-English or whatever you are. Until people say you sound like a native speaker, you needn't worry. Besides, if you really want to become very proficient in English, you'll have to live in an English speaking country for a while, and you'll pick up the local accent anyway, which more likely than not will not be Upper RP or conservative General American.

As for speaking in a mix of British and American accents, to tell you the truth, I doubt many native speakers would notice... They'll just be thrilled that you're doing the best you can to try to communicate with them, and as long as they can understand you--and General American and RP are the most easily understood forms of English for native speakers to understand.

(edited to insert paragraphs to make reading easier)

Re: Received Pronunciation & Mid Atlantic English

Colombo — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:41:48 GMT

Tallulah Tam wrote:

I feel that Alan Jay Lerner was not so concerned about his own grammar when he wrote the song, he insults the intelligence of the audience by using the word "hung" incorrectly, especially when putting the words into the mouth of Professor Higgins who as I said, should, and most likely would, have known better. Also the rhyming is bad.

Henry, 'Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable she ever uttered.
By law she should be taken out and hung,
For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.'

I would modestly suggest:-

Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter,
Condemned by every syllable to utter.
By law she should be taken out to hang
For the cold-blooded murder of the English twang.

First of all, I like your version of the verse! But then, does "murdering the English twang" make one deserve being hanged? (I'm sure I'm slipping up with my grammar here!) Isn't twang one of the things that murders the English tongue? (I'm intending no pun or joke, it's only a vocabulary question.)

I've always taken for granted that Alan Jay Lerner, being an American, would take great care not only over making Higgins' speech irreproachable, but also over avoiding americanisms and anachronisms. As far as I know he's done the latter, but I'm amazed to find ungrammatical sentences from Higgins! Even if it's for the sake of rhyming, I think he should have tried to think of something better. After all, it's his job... But Tallulah, you say the rhyming is bad. Is it? I've just looked it up in the dictionary, and all the words seem to rhyme well (the exact words in the song are "gutters" and "utters").

Incidentally, all the rhyming words ("gutters", "utters", "hung" and "tongue") contain a vowel sound (that represented by an inverted v) that I think Scousers pronounce in a funny way. As an anecdote related to English accents, in the English examinations over here there always are several questions about phonetics (which, more than my cup of tea, are my cup of bitterness). Well, the only questions about vowel sounds I have some chance of getting right are those about this "inverted v" sound. All I have to do is to imagine how George Harrison or Ringo Starr would pronounce a word, and I know whether it contains that sound or not. Stupid little trick... But it works.

Tallulah Tam wrote:

Personally I DO think such a transformation is possible one only has to witness the transformations of Glynnis Paltrow and Madonna who now speak better English than the English. I am also personally acquainted with a Dutch Professor who speaks perfect English with Received Pronunciation and no trace of a foreign accent. Richard Burton is another example; when once asked how he managed to lose his Welsh accent he replied, "blood, sweat and tears". I don't know how old you are, but perhaps you remember The Jenkins brothers Clive and Roy? British politicians. To hear them speak you would not have believed they were reared in the same household. Clive had a very thick Welsh mining community accent but Roy who won a scholarship to Oxford cultivated a Received Pronunciation accent so far back it was almost ridiculous.

No, I had never heard of the Jenkins brothers (probably I'm too young, or maybe they're not so well known outside of England, I don't know). But, apart from the Dutch professor, I think all the persons you've mentioned have English as their mother tongue (people from Wales speak both English and Welsh, don't they?) So I wonder whether all they have to do is to get used to pronouncing certain sounds in the proper places. I mean, when I speak English my main difficulty is to try to produce sounds that are not in my own language and that I haven't got accustomed to hearing from an early age. I simply can't do it with most of them. But when Eliza Doolittle says, for example, that "the ryne in spine sties minely in the pline", although it's all wrong, I don't think she is uttering any sound that doesn't belong to "normal" English; only that she uses them where they don't belong. (Although, of course, I'm on dangerous ground here; I know very little about English accents and my ear isn't sharp, to say the least, so maybe Eliza's speech is full of non-standard sounds.)

Tallulah Tam wrote:

My handy encyclopedia is Macmillan's, and it only lists Sir Rex Harrison, (Reginald Carey Harrison) as a British actor, followed by his achievements. It does not mention his place of birth. But actors are usually exceptionally good at mimicry (although Robert Redford refused to learn a British accent for his part in "Out of Africa"). Sir John Mills for instance was never heard speaking in any other accent but what was considered to be a high class English accent, except if the part called for it, such as in "Ryan's Daughter, but someone once commented that his natural accent was quite a strong West Country accent. James Mason is yet another example who killed his Huddersfield accent to play upper class British gentlemen in his films. The first time I heard James Mason speak with a flat accent (in a film) I was quite shocked! As you say, it would have been "a bit shocking" to have heard Rex Harrison speak with a Liverpudlian accent.

Rex Harrison was born very near Liverpool (in a place called Huyton, I think), but what I don't know is what is considered the scouse area. I suppose that, even if it's not properly a Scouser, Rex Harrison's accent can't be very different from it... Now that you mention all those examples of actors' accents, I realize that watching all the films dubbed doesn't help to learn to speak English, does it? I think I have seen less than ten films in English in all my life. There are some cinemas that show films with subtitles (not in my town), but I loathe them. I'm not used to it, so when I go to one of these cinemas I cannot watch the film, I spend all my time reading the subtitles! "My Fair Lady" is one of the exceptions; I bought the DVD and now I almost know it by heart in English.

(Now starts the off-topic section. My apologies!)

As to the film "Pygmalion", I recorded it from the TV a couple of years ago, only to find that, with those nasty timetables, the film had started more than one hour too late, and I could only see the beginning. So I cannot compare it to "My Fair Lady". But I had already heard that it was much more faithful to Shaw's play than "My Fair Lady". Probably, "Pygmalion" expresses much better Eliza's pride, intelligence, idependence, etc. As Shaw said at the end of the play, "Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable" (I liked it, so I learned it by heart). However, Alan Jay Lerner preferred his own ending (which I have found purists and feminists equally abhor ). When he wrote "My Fair Lady" (the theatre play) he explained how Shaw had written a sequel in which Eliza ends up with Freddy and not with Higgins. Lerner also said "Shaw and Heaven forgive me!, I am not certain he is right" (once again, I liked it ). I suppose that's the schmaltzy in me, but I prefer "My Fair Lady"'s ending! As to the scenes that quotation mentions... "Stiff and affected"... It's a good excuse to watch it all again, although I suspect what my verdict will be (I'm slightly partial to "My Fair Lady", hadn't you realized it?)

Re: How to learn a new vocab!

Forbes — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 13:36:38 GMT

I'm Egyptian and very interested in English I'm only 16 years and aim to speak English better than Americans.

A very praiseworthy aim! However, you should remember that all native speakers of English speak it perfectly and you cannot improve on perfection. I expect you mean that you are looking to acquire a large vocabulary. There are of course many non-native speakers of English who have vocabularies larger than the average native speaker. You should also remember that language is part of one's experience so there will always be areas of English that are likely to remain closed to you.

I asked a lot of English teachers, native speaker and other famous persons who speak English about the best way to learn English and this is some advices to be good in English:

1- Try to take an English course in American university in your country.

Fine if you want to concentrate on American English.

2- Listen to the radio about 2 hours per day.

Good idea - but rememebr there is not only the Voice of America and the BBC but other English speaking countries that broadcast. e.g. Australia.

3- Try to speak English with anyone in your family or of your friends.

This is good as long as the people you speak with are fairly competent in English - but remember that you are Egypian and you need to speak in your local language as well!

4- Watch American films without looking to the translation.

Don't just watch American films. I would be inclined to read the subtitles - watching the film should be enjoyable as well as helping you with your English. If you have DVD you should watch a few film with the subtitles on and then without and see how much you remember. When you think you are doing well watch a film without the subtitiles and then with. If you missed a lot go back to watching with subtitles first.

5- Make friends through the internet who speak English from USA and UK.

Nothing wrong with that. If you speak to people your own age you will of course learn a lot of non-standard English!

6- Decide if you'll learn American English or British English. (About me I prefer American English because it's simple and easy but Americans speak very quick. About British Englsih I think it's complicated and use difficult words

There is a misconception that there is a big difference between Standard American English and Standard British English. These two varieties of English are about 99.9% the same. Some words are spelled differently - the differences can be set out on a page. There are some differences in every day vocabulary, mainly to do wth food, clothing and household items - again these can be set out on a page. There are some other differences that most American and British speakers do not notice as they are as much matters of style and preference as anything else. If you can read The Times of London you can read The Washington Post. There are of course different accents and you need to decide which one you are going to try and imitate. Unless you have a very acute ear, I suspect you will always sound more Egyptian than either American or British. It all depends on who you think you are likely to be dealing with. Remember that most Europeans learn to speak using what is sometimes termed a Standard Southern English, i.e. a British accent. An American accent has virtually no prestige in the UK. On the other hand many Americans love to hear what they consider a cultivated English accent. Others, however, do not find it so charming. If you expect to meet native English speakers from all over the world you should try and get as much experience as you can of different varieties of English. You should also remember that within the UK there is a great variety in the way people speak. A man from from Glasgow and a man from London will probably have more difficulty understanding each other than either will have in understanding an American TV show.

Re: Have a question about British accent.

Guest — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 02:56:04 GMT

Someone earlier said that it was "impossible to get a british accent when you're american". Well personally, I'm Canadian and I've got quite a harsh british accent. Everytime I talk to someone new they ask me where I'm from in Britain. I do have a huge brit fetish and I've spent quite alot of time there as well as my fiance lives there but yeah, I don't reckon it's hard, you've just got to notice all the little words and expressions they say.

And yes, a brit trying to say "water" in the american way is utterly hilarious. First time I heard it I almost pissed myself laughing.

I think a brit accent (only southern or welsh) is absolutely lovely. Irish can be nice as well. Scottish is a bit harsh really but it can be cool. I find Cockney absolutely awful but Scousers are delightful, as I am a die hard Liverpool supporter anyway.

I find it so funny how the Americans look up to the English because they speak nicely. They've just got something called VOCABULARY! I don't mean to be rude or anything but most Americans I've met had quite a limited amount of words used in a conversation. Is it me or the Texan accent sounds sloppy and scruffy? My apologies to anyone from Texas btw.

Cheers for reading

Re: Have a question about British accent.

jupath — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 13:16:31 GMT

As an English learner in my opinion the most of people who speak English as a second language use a special mix of American and British English. Many times we donât know exactly which kind of English weâre using. Usually we learn British English in school and pick up American from movies and songs. I think itâs unavoidable to be mixed these two ways of English in the learners' heads, especially itâs true in the case of vocabulary. Of course, many students endeavour to speak British or American as I also do. I prefer using British English (I may be a bit Europatriot ) and aspire to speak it properly but I know that sometimes I canât avoid to put a little American in my English. You might have already heard someone who mixed American and British English.