17 Words That Brits and Americans Pronounce Differently ... (2023)

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By Holly

• word
• britain

Comments

• Ava #2 ever heard of "long I"? You'd think considering where English came from they'd know that. If that's the case how do you say right? There's no "e" in it? Smh Brits tryna be so sophisticated and loses like they did in the Civil War
• David #3 What American hater wrote this stuff? Americans pronounce this one as it is spelled, with 4 syllables. It is NOT written with 5 syllables. British people pronounce it as if it is spelled "aluminium"
• David #7 You sound biased, like you are dissing Americans ("as if the "o" doesn't even exist"). I'm all for dissing Americans, but Brits do NOT "make it have five syllables." Brits drop the second "o" as if it doesn't even exist.
• Chrissxx I totally get how people pronounce these differently due to the spelling, but I don't get aluminum... there's no i after the n so they're adding letters when they pronounce it. I wonder how that started. No offense to anyone just curious lol
  • Neecey @Chrissxx, I think you've got that round the wrong way. The Brits didn't add the I. Americans take letters out of our language (yes I'm a Brit). English started in England. Not in America. The case of aluminium however, is somewhat interesting. The British chemist - Sir Humphrey Davy - first named the element, calling it alumium. He then changed it to aluminum. However in the early 1800s, most metallic elements had names ending in ium so to conform, it was changed to aluminium. The US kept aluminum. Most of the rest of the English speaking world calls it aluminium. Generally though, a word starts in English and is altered in American, usually by dropping letters (colour becomes color, traveller becomes traveler etc)
• Bish What does that mean(privacy)?
  • Neecey @Bish, it means you do things hidden from view of the public. Not in a secretive way or sneaky. Just your right to be private and to do things unobserved or interfered with by others.
• TorriWyatt Yes, I agree that route is root. Loll
• TorriWyatt I am English born, raised and educated, but I pronounce aluminium the Australian way. I think it can depend on where in England you came from - I was from SW London
• Laab La-bo-rah-tree... looks like 4 syllables
• Uroosa Idk why but it seems like the whoever wrote this totally favors the British and dislikes Americans
• Sparklestar6767 This was so much fun, in British 😜🇬🇧
• Karia My best friend's mother was born in England, and got a degree at Oxford, and their entire family speak with very strong English accents. I've picked up on most of these little things by just being around them, so it sounds more natural to hear them said that way.
• Anna Haha this was fun to read, as an Australian most of our accents are really a mix of American/British pronunciation. For me it was about 50/50 with American or British pronunciation with these words XD actually few people have that typical "Australian accent" it's mostly the people who live rural that grow up with that accent haha
• Serene American pronounce 'vase' as 'vace' (ryhmes w face), Brits pronounce the word as vahs
• peony Haha the word herb why the h is dropped puzzles me
• Inna My dad is British :) I guess I've been pronouncing 'route' wrong all along (I was born in England but speak like a American)
• Taylor I think most Americans pronounce route as root.
• Kirsty Not all of your readers are American 😑 and a lot of these aren't true
• Lala Iam British on my moms side my great grandmother was from London
• Lala Very cool article💋💋

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