THE DIFFERENCES OF BRITISH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH

Pronunciation
American pronunciation
In the context of language learning, American pronunciation means General American (GenAm) pronunciation. This is the pronunciation used by educated Americans, on television and on radio. It is described in dictionaries of American English, such as the Merriam-Webster and Random House dictionaries. General American pronunciation is rhotic, which means that the letter r is always pronounced.
British pronunciation
When people talk about learning British pronunciation, they usually think of Received Pronunciation (RP). This is the pronunciation that you will learn at a British language school; it is also the model taught in coursebooks and dictionaries from publishers like Oxford and Longman. RP is non-rhotic, which means that the letter r is usually "silent", unless it is followed by a vowel. Here's how it works:
• In words like car, tower, inform and first, r is silent (r is not followed by a vowel).
• In words like red, foreign, print, r is pronounced (r is followed by a vowel).
• R is also pronounced at the end of a word, if the next word starts with a vowel, for example: number eight, far away.
• Most RP speakers also insert an r in phrases like: the idea(r) of, Africa(r) and Asia, law(r) and order. This r is not in the spelling; they just use it to separate two vowels.


word US UK aluminium aluminum aluminium apricot a-pricot ay-pricot charade char-ay-d char-ah-d cordial corjul cordee-al fillet filay filit leisure leezhure lezhure
lever l- e-ver leever privacy pry-vacy priv-acy route rout root schedule skedule shedule semi sem-eye sem-ee strychnine strich-9 strich-neen
tomato tom-ay-do tom-ah-to vase vayz vahz
vitamin vie-tamin vit-amin

Differences in pronunciation between American English and British English can be divided into:

Either / British English ’aidhe(r); American English ‘i:dhe(r)

Neither/ British English ‘naidhe(r) American English ‘ni:dhe(r)

Clerk/ British English ‘kla:k American English ‘kle:k