2. Paco was getting used to American pronunciation

3. Paco decided to watch some videos to learn the American accent

You are probably used to British standard pronunciation, not to American pronunciation. Pay attention to some changes in the pronunciation of the letters t, r and vowel sounds. They are very different from the pronunciation you know.

Reflexión

One aspect of the differences between American and British pronunciation is the accent. American and English accents have some outstanding differences.

Watch this video to get an idea of the typical American accent. Then on the Click here button you can appreciate the differences with British English pronunciation. You should understand Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech better.

Curiosity

The Washington Post Newspaper

The Washington Post is wellknown around the world.

By Hephaestos. Public domain.

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest, founded in 1877. Located in the nation's capital, The Post puts a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation.

The newspaper is written as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in colour as well as in black and white. Weekday printings include the main section, containing the first page, national, international news, business, politics, and editorials and opinions, followed by the sections on local news (Metro), sports, style (feature writing on pop culture, politics, fine and performing arts, film, fashion, and gossip), and classifieds. The Sunday edition includes the weekday sections as well as several weekly sections: Outlook (opinion and editorials), Style & Arts, Travel, Comics, TV Week, and the Washington Post Magazine. Beyond the newspaper, the Washington Post operates a syndication service (The Washington Post Writers Group) and under its parent company of The Washington Post Company, is involved in the Washington Post Media, Washington Post Digital, and washingtonpost.com.

Perhaps the most notable incident in the Post's history was when, in the early 1970s, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American media's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal. The newspaper's reporting greatly contributed to the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon.

Taken from Wikipedia.

Click on the image below and you will find lots of British and American both male and female accents. Choose those ones you want to listen to and you will notice some strong differences between them.

Click on this image to listen to lots of different British and American accents.

By honeycut07. Creative Commons.

	Be careful because in some (not many) dictionaries, the phoneme is written as (do not confuse with ).
	The is not pronounced in BrE, unless the sound comes before a vowel (as in answering, answer it). In AmE, the is always pronounced.
	In AmE, and are one vowel, so calm and cot have the same vowel. In American transcriptions, hot is written as .
	About 40% of Americans pronounce the same way as , so that caught and cot have the same vowel.
	In American transcriptions, is often written as (e.g. law = ), unless it is followed by , in which case it remains an .
	Most British dictionaries represent as . For some BrE speakers, is more appropriate (they use a rounded vowel) — for others, the proper symbol is . For American speakers, is usually more accurate.
	In , the is not pronounced in BrE, unless the sound comes before a vowel (as in dearest, dear Ann). In AmE, the is always pronounced, and the sounds are often written as .
	In American English, is often pronounced as a flap t, which sounds like or (more accurately) like the quick, hard r heard.

Listening activity

Differences between British and American pronunciation can be easily seen nowadays in music. Many songs are performed by both American and British singers.

Listen to this song performed by two famous singers, a British singer (Sting) and an American singer (Bruce Springteen). Notice some differences in their pronunciation.

Solved exercise

Which words sound more American?

city or cidy

computer or compuder

butter or budder

Watch this video about the American pronunciation of the T sound.

Self-assessment

Choose the typical American pronunciation of these words which contain the letter T.

1) better.

	a) /'beddər /
	b) /'betə/

2) metal.

	a) /'metḷ/.
	b) /'meddḷ/.

Further knowledge

In this dictionary you can check the pronunciation of any word.

Click here for instant sound and online pronunciation.

Here you can learn about the pronunciation of American t, l, th.

Interested in American printing press? Here you have a brief tour of the Washington Post printing plant.

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