What British people can't pronounce? (2023)

What can British people not pronounce?

Short answer: It's a dialectal variant. Different dialects have different sounds. Longer answer: The interdental fricatives, which we represent as "th," are relatively uncommon; most of the world's languages do not have them. The "f" sound is much more common (though still not as common as something like "s").

These are known as 'rhotic' speakers. English accents that follow the silent < r > rule are known as 'non-rhotic', and these include most accents in England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Linguists have called this phenomenon the “linking r.” Because of the tendency to pronounce an “r” when it occurs between vowel sounds, many of these same speakers go a step more and add an “r” where it doesn't belong, once again between two vowel sounds.

Blaxter says that the influence of London and the South East has spread southern pronunciations over the rest of the country — which is why a large minority of people in Hull and Plymouth now say "FREE" even though their parents grew up saying "THREE."

In English there is considerable confusion regarding the proper pronunciation of the word “yogurt.” Basically, “yog-urt” is the UK pronunciation whereas Americans say “yo-gurt.”

Reminder: The r is always pronounced in American English, even at the end of words, like in more, far, mother, and before a consonant, like in morning, survive and thirty. Again, this is not the case in British English!

L is also silent in could, should, would, as well as in calf and half, and in chalk, talk, walk, and for many people in calm, palm, and psalm.

Silent F words

As far as we know, this silent F pronunciation of fifth is the only example in English of a word with a silent F.

How do you say fridge in UK?

So, let's summarize. Most verbs like organize, and their related nouns like organization, take z in American English and can also take z in British English. Certain verbs take s in both language variants, but this is usually fairly obvious – for example, revise would look pretty strange to most as revize.

You see, the word caramel is derived from the 18th-century Spanish turned French word caramelo, which is pronounced as car-a-mello. So, North American English speakers adopted the "car" pronunciation from the original word, whereas British speakers tend to pronounce caramel as "care-a-muhl."

Most scholars have roughly located “split off” point between American and British English as the mid-18th-Century. There are some clear exceptions.

Why is it that so many British people pronounce the word “drawing” as “drawring”? This non-standard pronunciation is the result of “overapplication” of a rule governing the pronunciation of most British dialects that says that the final “r” in a word is silent unless it is followed by a vowel.

British people are famous for apologising in almost every situation. Whether we are apologising for asking a question, for our bad weather or because we sneezed, we are probably the number-one nation for apologies. We Brits pride ourselves on our polite manners towards one another in public.

"Zero" is the usual name for the number 0 in English. In British English "nought" is also used. In American English "naught" is used occasionally for zero, but (as with British English) "naught" is more often used as an archaic word for nothing. "Nil", "love", and "duck" are used by different sports for scores of zero.

The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”. This gave rise to the Old French “zede”, which resulted in the English “zed” around the 15th century.

Bloody, as an adjective or adverb, is a commonly used expletive attributive in British English, Australian English, Irish English, Indian English and a number of other Commonwealth nations. It has been used as an intensive since at least the 1670s.

Color is the spelling used in the United States. Colour is used in other English-speaking countries.

Why can't British pronounce sixth?

Here is what I guess is happening: The word sixth ends with a consonant cluster which is quite difficult to pronounce, so lots of people simplify it. In Ireland, if [sɪksθ] is simplified, it gets simplified to [sɪkst] (which the OP doesn't notice because he's used to it).

This split between rhotic and non-rhotic pronunciation has its origins in London in the 1850s. Working-class speakers began dropping the /r/ sound at the ends of words. Back then, this was considered lazy, vulgar and an undesirable way of speaking.

The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”. This gave rise to the Old French “zede”, which resulted in the English “zed” around the 15th century.

Below is the UK transcription for 'stubborn': Modern IPA: sdə́bən. Traditional IPA: ˈstʌbən. 2 syllables: "STUB" + "uhn"

No, you shouldn't say “I am going to United Kingdom.” You should say “I am going to the United Kingdom.” However, “United Kingdom” can appear without “the” when it's an adjective. You could say “The best Shakespearean actors are United Kingdom actors,” for example.

It's a rule in standard GB English. That any word which has a consonant after R, or nothing after R, there will be a stress on the syllable before R and R are silent while pronouncing, e.g., sir, tart, mart, superb, bird etc. Whereas if any word has a vowel after R then only we pronounce R in that word.

If an “L” is found towards the end of the word, before the letters “f,” “v”, “k” and “m,” but after the letter “a,” then it's usually silent (behalf, calve, walk, almond).

Wednesday is just one example of words — like February and ptarmigan — where letters appear in a word's spelling but not in its pronunciation. The curious case of America's silent "d" doesn't extend to parts of England, Scotland and India, where many people enunciate the letter. (Though some don't. Language is tricky!)

Is American English older than British English?

American English is actually older

When the first settlers set sail from England to America, they took with them the common tongue at the time, which was based on something called rhotic speech (when you pronounce the r sound in a word).