# Do British and Irish people have a hard time understanding Americans speak? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 2008, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903 "2008-09-10T05:01:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/181 "2010-05-19T08:01:51Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > BigT, please be careful when you quote people. You were quoting me there. You left in the words “Sleel writes” from an earlier part of my post which makes it look like it was Sleel who originally wrote that paragraph. Please, slow down. After you’ve written a post, go back and read it carefully to make sure that the post says what you think you’re saying. You did say those words. It’s not against the rules for me to quote what you actually said. Anybody who is confused can click on the button to see what you actually said. If you don’t want people to make these mistakes, perhaps you should use the built-in system. And last I checked, you were not a mod. If you have a problem with one of my posts, take it up with them. I don’t like being rude, but it bugs the crap out of me that people do that, and thus mess up the built in systems. Not just quoting, but the thread system which relies on you using the quote system as intended. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/182 "2010-05-19T12:17:19Z")
> [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](#): > > Can’t help you with the English folks, but in 'straya it’s called lay-by. > Not terribly popular, though, since those marvy little ‘44 months interest free!’ kinds of take-home deals started catching on. > . If anyone’s still interested in this minor point, in the US comic shops appear to use the term ‘layaway’ to describe their system for reserving comics for regular customers, but in the UK I’ve always known it as a ‘standing order’ system. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/183 "2010-05-19T14:21:34Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > British English: Ee finks aow shoht men sit on veir lauruws aow day. I’m going to charitably assume this is a whoosh. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/184 "2010-05-19T14:56:08Z")
Help - find the salt! The zombie rises again… ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/185 "2010-05-19T16:55:53Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > If anyone’s still interested in this minor point, in the US comic shops appear to use the term ‘layaway’ to describe their system for reserving comics for regular customers, but in the UK I’ve always known it as a ‘standing order’ system. Not in this part of the US (New York). We call it either a standing order or a subscription. Layaway is always what the other poster described: putting down a deposit and making interest free installment payments until the item is paid for, then receive item. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/186 "2010-05-19T17:46:53Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You did say those words. It’s not against the rules for me to quote what you actually said. Anybody who is confused can click on the button to see what you actually said. If you don’t want people to make these mistakes, perhaps you should use the built-in system. > > And last I checked, you were not a mod. If you have a problem with one of my posts, take it up with them. > > I don’t like being rude, but it bugs the crap out of me that people do that, and thus mess up the built in systems. Not just quoting, but the thread system which relies on you using the quote system as intended. [Moderator Note] **BigT** , Wendell is correct to take issue with your post, and he was not “junior modding.” Please take more care when quoting another poster to make it clear who you are actually quoting. You have the responsibility for the content of your own posts. Even if another poster has not used the automatic quote system, you still should be more careful. This is not a warning, merely advice. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![asian\_riff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@asian\_riff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asian_riff)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/187 "2010-05-19T19:03:49Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > Why is this? > This is just silliness, and the usual effect of the bias that leads people to think they’re the accentless ones. (As an example of where the Brits beat you: Do you pronounce “metal” and “medal” differently? Most Brits do, most Americans don’t. Do you pronounce “Mary”, “marry”, and “merry” differently? The Brits know what those spelling differences indicate, but many American don’t. And of course there are examples of where you beat the Brits. And there are debatable examples, where each side thinks _theirs_ is the one matching the spelling. And none of it matters for anything… spoken language is primary, written language is a highly artificial secondary. There’s no reason to consider concordance with popular spelling a mark of “accent-less” speech (not that any such thing exists).) Reminds me of a story told to me by a relative: She had English friends visiting, and one of them said, “Why can’t you Americans pronounce the word ‘butter’ correctly? You say ‘budder’. There are no D’s in ‘butter’. It’s pronounced ‘BUTTAH’” Her response was, “But it has an ‘R’ at the end.” I always get a chuckle out of British people’s propensity to leave the ‘R’ off the end of a word that _has_ an ‘R’, but then to _add_ an ‘R’ when none exists. Whenever I watched Patrick Stewart in Star Trek - TNG, it sounded to me like Commander Riker was “Commanda Rika” and Doctor Crusher was “Docta Crusha”, but Commander Data was “Commanda Dater”. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/188 "2010-05-21T20:59:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > …all dialects of English share the characteristic of not being able to know with 99% certainty how to pronounce a word based on how it’s spelled. Yeah, umm, I’d just like to say this to the entire world: Sorry. We’ve really got to get onto fixing that. And on the “Dropped R” front, we had a friend from Boston with that “Back Bay British Wannabe” accent (think Frasier times ten). She was Donna Alexander, but pronounced her name “Donner Alexandah”, for a net loss of no R’s. > [@MarcusF](#): > > It often seems to me the only English accents heard are either upper class toffs (normally evil!) or salt-of-the-earth, lovable Cockney rogues - which, I guess , is what this is meant to represent. I’ve always noticed that even in space, or the future (or a “long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away”) that the bad guys have Upper-Class Brit accents. Listen to Moff Tarkin (from… well, a non-UK part of The Empire) chatting with Princess Leia : \*"“Chahming to the lahst. You don’t know how hahd I found it signing the ohder to tuhrminate your loife.” \* If I were an Upper-Class Twit from London or Tatooine, I’d be upset. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/189 "2010-05-21T21:20:22Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > I’m going to charitably assume this is a whoosh. Not entirely, to be sure. When Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols uses ‘f’ instead of ‘th’, I tend to attribute it to “working class-squeezed through high school” accent. When Russel Brand does it, as bright and articulate as he is, with as big a vocabulary as he has, I cringe. Please, don’t let this spread any more. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/190 "2010-05-21T21:33:36Z")
The ‘dropped r’ thing raised its ugly head recently when pipsqueek singer Justin Bieber was asked by a New Zealander what his name meant in “Jeuhhmahn” (to do my best American impression of it). He’s been to Germany and can count to ten in German (look on YouTube), but you had an American teen who just couldn’t find the ‘r’ in there, and couldn’t shake his impression that it was “Jew man”. “We don’t use that word in America” was all he could come up with. I really don’t get the dropped r. Then Eddie Izzard has the nerve to make fun of “erb” instead of “hhhherb” “because there’s a freaking H on the front”. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/191 "2010-05-21T22:14:20Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > There are loads of British shows – Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers come to mind immediately – which prominently display many, many British TV actors’ absolute lack of facility with American accents. I love British accents, and most of the audiobooks that I’m addicted to are read by Brits. But I cringe whenever I hear a character say, “Oh, yes, and their guest is from America. Here he comes now…” What follows is the most painful experience: the queen’s english flattened and stretched into a parody of a cowboy dialect. “Waaahl, hahhhllllo, there, pilgrum.” Even the great Tony Britton (no pun intended) sounds like John Wayne when trying to braaaaaahden his vawhhhhhhhwels to sound Amehhhhhricaaaaaaan". Why can’t they hire Hugh Laurie to pop into the studio and record a good American “Hi! I’m from Chicaaago. But I gotta go now. See ya round!” ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/192 "2010-05-21T22:17:39Z")
> [@asian\_riff](#): > > Whenever I watched Patrick Stewart in Star Trek - TNG, it sounded to me like Commander Riker was “Commanda Rika” and Doctor Crusher was “Docta Crusha”, but Commander Data was “Commanda Dater”. It’s only “Dater” when the following word starts with a vowel, as in “Data and Doctor Crusher”. In something like “Data did not find any anomalies”, there would be no R. From a British perspective, it feels awkward to say something like “Data and …” _without_ inserting an almost unconscious R sound. You have to do a sort of clumsy glottal stop. The R makes it flow more easily. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/193 "2010-05-22T01:03:51Z")
Haven’t I heard RP and non-RP accents that \*don’t \*have an intrusive _R_? Wouldn’t that mean it’s not really a “British” perspective? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/194 "2010-05-22T02:11:31Z")
Well, I’m British, and it’s my perspective, so it is by definition a British perspective :). But yes, I was thinking of my accent, which is pretty much RP. Although non-RP British accents do the intrusive-R thing too. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/195 "2010-05-22T02:16:16Z")
I could be wrong, but I’m sure I’ve heard versions of RP that don’t have it? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/196 "2010-05-22T05:33:49Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Except for specific (and heavy) Southern accents, and possibly a few isolated Northeastern accents- rural New Hampshireans spring to mind- no, you’re easy to understand. So, if one of my coworkers started to tell you a story like this “I was buying a new house and the releter didn’t point out that the stayahs over theyah needed to be replaced, and then I found out that there was dry rot in the doah, god was I pissed but my wife said no need for such additude, just go lookin for a replacement. I said, ‘Woman, do you have any idear how hard this is goin’ to be to find?’ but she just glared at me…then suggested lookin in Buhlin of all places, which ahnt down the road just a piece like she claimed. In the end I looked all over for the doah, but there wasn’t one to be found anywhere in N’Hampsha, so I drove down to Wusta, no luck, P-bidy, nope. Neva did find the gud’nm thing” you’d have trouble following the conversation? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/197 "2010-05-22T21:30:41Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > I could be wrong, but I’m sure I’ve heard versions of RP that don’t have it? It’s called the intrusive r (or sometimes the linking r), and it’s a main feature of RP and the vast majority of British accents. If you ever heard someone who had an RP accent but didn’t use the intrusive r, then that was just a feature of their own idiolect. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/198 "2010-08-01T01:51:22Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > > [@Cisco](#): > > > > British English: Ee finks aow shoht men sit on veir lauruws aow day. > > I’m going to charitably assume this is a whoosh. Why? It’s not like I’ve ever even seen Marry Poppins. I’ve known a lot of Brits in the flesh. The lady I bought my last 2 cars from is from London, and she calls me all the time and yabs on forever about how she finks she can get me into a new moduww. I’ve been to England. That’s how I hear it. Ls and Rs are dropped or severely muted and TH is F or V. At least in my ears. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/199 "2010-08-01T04:30:52Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > > [@tagos](#): > > > > > [@Cisco](#): > > > > > > British English: Ee finks aow shoht men sit on veir lauruws aow day. > > > > I’m going to charitably assume this is a whoosh. > > Why? It’s not like I’ve ever even seen Marry Poppins. I’ve known a lot of Brits in the flesh. The lady I bought my last 2 cars from is from London, and she calls me all the time and yabs on forever about how she finks she can get me into a new moduww. I’ve been to England. That’s how I hear it. Ls and Rs are dropped or severely muted and TH is F or V. At least in my ears. Amazing. ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/200 "2010-08-01T10:37:10Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > > [@asian\_riff](#): > > > > Whenever I watched Patrick Stewart in Star Trek - TNG, it sounded to me like Commander Riker was “Commanda Rika” and Doctor Crusher was “Docta Crusha”, but Commander Data was “Commanda Dater”. > > It’s only “Dater” when the following word starts with a vowel, as in “Data and Doctor Crusher”. In something like “Data did not find any anomalies”, there would be no R. > > From a British perspective, it feels awkward to say something like “Data and …” _without_ inserting an almost unconscious R sound. You have to do a sort of clumsy glottal stop. The R makes it flow more easily. If that was so, then you would also say “Docta Crusher and …,” and you don’t. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903.md?page=11)