# 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:** 11
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/201 "2010-08-01T10:45:20Z")
> [@legalsnugs](#): > > > [@Ximenean](#): > > > > 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. 😃 Actually, we do. The last vowel is a schwa (neutral, unstressed vowel) rather an A, but we\* don’t pronounce the final R. So it’s like “Doct-uh Crush-uh”. - most Brits. Some British accents are [rhotic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents). ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/202 "2010-08-01T11:33:07Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > 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. It’s a feature of most _English_ accents. It’s not found in Scottish or Irish accents, and I think not in Welsh. ---
**Author:** ![put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/put_down_the_sabre)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/203 "2010-08-01T12:17:46Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > > [@scifisam2009](#): > > > > 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. > > It’s a feature of most _English_ accents. It’s not found in Scottish or Irish accents, and I think not in Welsh. Though of course considering the numbers that might also make it a feature of most British accents, no? pdts ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/204 "2010-08-01T12:27:44Z")
> [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](#): > > > [@UDS](#): > > > > > [@scifisam2009](#): > > > > > > 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. > > > > It’s a feature of most _English_ accents. It’s not found in Scottish or Irish accents, and I think not in Welsh. > > Though of course considering the numbers that might also make it a feature of most British accents, no? > > pdts A feature of the accents of most British people, possibly. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/205 "2010-08-01T12:55:19Z")
> [@put\_down\_the\_sabre](#): > > > [@UDS](#): > > > > > [@scifisam2009](#): > > > > > > 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. > > > > It’s a feature of most _English_ accents. It’s not found in Scottish or Irish accents, and I think not in Welsh. > > Though of course considering the numbers that might also make it a feature of most British accents, no? I dunno. I’ve never seen any attempt to count the number of different English accents and compare that with numbers of Scottish, Irish and Welsh accents. Since accents are regional, and tend to blur into one another, I doubt that would be a very precise exercise. My point is that it’s unhelpful to take a distinctively English feature and attribute it to “most British accents”. It might misleadingly suggest that the feature is spread across Britain, when in fact it’s only found in England. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/206 "2010-08-01T20:07:27Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > > [@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? 😃 Well, _realtor_ is a uniquely American word, unknown in Britain (or at least it was in 1996). The British term is _estate agent_. Wusta is a lot closer to the way Worcester is pronounced in the UK (_wooster_) than the normal US pronunciation (ie., _war-sess-ter_). _Idear_ is remarkably close to how people in the West Country pronounce the word, and the accent of the area is fairly well known because it commonly gets lampooned (“oi be drinkin’ soidarr”). _Doah_ and _stayahs_ and _N’Hampsha_ read like an African-American Deep South accent to me. Oh, and all American accents sound like they replace “T” sounds with “Ds” to British ears. > [@Cisco](#): > > 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. Which part of England have you been to? There are plenty of people who sound like that, but they’re generally confined to very specific areas, few of which you’re likely to have visited. ---
**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, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/207 "2010-08-01T20:34:33Z")
Where did you hear war-sess-ter? I’ve only ever heard Wusta, but maybe that’s because my wife is from New England and Worcestershire sauce is universally (IME) “wustashur sauce.” I’ve been to London. I guess that’s a little unfair in context because it was a long time ago and I don’t remember much specifically about the accents there, and we stayed with Americans. ---
**Author:** ![paulsroom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9de053/32.png) [@paulsroom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulsroom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/208 "2010-09-15T03:10:17Z")
Only just joined this forum so am late to several topics, but accents interest me. My sister has lived in the US for many years now and has acquired, what sounds to me, like an American accent. But it is not only the way she speaks now, but the words that she uses that makes her bias towards American. I think that this confuses the accent debate. Being a Brit, I ‘go to the cinema’, but she goes ‘to the movies’. We have tv programmes and other publicity that refers to ‘movies’ now, but we still go ‘to the cinema’. In other instances the emphasis in American is often placed on the second syllable, whereas in English it is usually the first syllable. In some cases this change of emphasis almost makes some words so entirely different in both languages, causing a mishearing of the word. So when we listen to dialogue, we bring the words into our own context, based on what we are hearing. This therefore almost ignores the accent and makes an unconscious audio correction. Generally most standard English pronunciation uses short vowel sounds as opposed the longer, flatter ones in American speach. But there are sounds in different English dialects that match the longer vowels, although this not deliberate, only historical. My mother’s family all have strong Jewish accents, but she didn’t. I believe that she removed any Jewishness from her speech by watching the film actor’s accents of the 1930s. The shorter vowels used then, tend to force a much clearer delivery - but not an exaggerated upper class sound. It’s only seen as upper class, because it’s not an accent that’s so common now. A lot of how I speak comes from my mother’s accent, but it has the addition of new street words, which causes it to swing between formal and casual speech. ---
**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:** [September 15, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/209 "2010-09-15T03:13:49Z")
Jewish accent? ---
**Author:** ![paulsroom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9de053/32.png) [@paulsroom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulsroom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/210 "2010-09-15T03:18:51Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Where did you hear war-sess-ter? I’ve only ever heard Wusta, but maybe that’s because my wife is from New England and Worcestershire sauce is universally (IME) “wustashur sauce.” > > I’ve been to London. I guess that’s a little unfair in context because it was a long time ago and I don’t remember much specifically about the accents there, and we stayed with Americans. I have to confess to being amused when I hear American celebrities on UK radio trying to get their head around English spelling and the resulting pronunciation. I’ve often heard Lee-cester for Lester (Leicester) and Berklee for Barclay (spelt Berkley though). But then even English words can confuse us Brits. Where I live there is a town called Cosham and another called Bosham. Cosham is pronounced as it looks, but Bosham is pronounced Bozam. Only the locals would know this, although the train announcements at the station are correct, and don’t try to say Bosham. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/211 "2010-09-15T03:24:12Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Jewish accent? Yup. The Jewish community in North London has a distinct accent. Influenced by Eastern European Yiddish. And it’s my impression, from television and films and the occasional visit, that there’s a distinct Jewish accent associated with New York City, too. Am I wrong? ---
**Author:** ![paulsroom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9de053/32.png) [@paulsroom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulsroom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/212 "2010-09-15T03:30:47Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Jewish accent? Yes, it is very distinctive and while it uses basic English pronunciation, it tends to rise at the end of sentances. As if to reinforce it, there is a smattering of Yiddish words. So what you get is a half-English and half-Yiddish delivery. My mother would often use a Yiddish word, but in clear English. I’ve heard American Jewish accents and they also combine the two languages. On my father’s side, my relatives come from north-east England and have Geordie accents. The vowels in this case tend be to squeezed. This accent has now become quite fashionable in some tv voiceovers. At its extreme, it can be quite strong and also uses many dialect words. My Great Aunt used to say ‘hinny’ for '‘honey’ - as a term of affection. And ‘canny bairn’ is very common for just a general comment on a person’s personality or looks. Usually used for children, it depends upon what age you consider children stop at. At work there is a guy from Glasgow in Scotland, who’s accent is so strong that most people have to ask him to repeat everything he says. You have to have a first pass at what he says then sort it out on a second hearing. I once saw an English film shown with English sub-titles, and I thought that this was odd. But the film was about Glasgow, and I soon realised that I needed the English sub-titles! ---
**Author:** ![paulsroom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9de053/32.png) [@paulsroom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulsroom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/213 "2010-09-15T03:39:28Z")
People refer to the Queen’s English as being the standard, but really the Queen’s English is simply that - her accent. It’s based not only on her upbringing and the people she mixes with, but also the need to speak in public. People have a public and a private accent in a lot of cases. The private case is much faster and often has a greater variety of tone. In some cases the drone of the public speaker can send you to sleep! The accent used by James McAvoy - especially the café sequence - is my ideal English accent. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/214 "2010-09-15T04:39:12Z")
Here’s some examples of a [regional](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy_VjNkvIy0&feature=related) [Maine](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecg_WizWicQ&feature=related) [accent](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAj8X4Y8SNw). How does it sound to people from Britain or Ireland? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/215 "2010-09-15T04:48:59Z")
While I do sometimes have trouble with other English dialects what usually stumps me are references that are specific to regions. ex: Harry Potter:“We’d take the mickey out of her if she did”. I inferred it meant “to tease” but the words have no meaning. It’s amazing how many expressions exist that make no sense. The other thing I noticed is the speed at which people speak. I’ve talked to a few people from Scotland and I feel like I’m talking at a faster pace and it must sound rude. I’ve run into the same thing with different dialects in the US. ---
**Author:** ![paulsroom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9de053/32.png) [@paulsroom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulsroom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/216 "2010-09-15T05:20:37Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > While I do sometimes have trouble with other English dialects what usually stumps me are references that are specific to regions. ex: Harry Potter:“We’d take the mickey out of her if she did”. I inferred it meant “to tease” but the words have no meaning. It’s amazing how many expressions exist that make no sense. > > The other thing I noticed is the speed at which people speak. I’ve talked to a few people from Scotland and I feel like I’m talking at a faster pace and it must sound rude. I’ve run into the same thing with different dialects in the US. I think that the thing about expressions, is that they are often unique to the country they come from. They can have historical references that are long forgotten, and people use them because everyone understands their meaning. I think that it’s also a class aspect. If you use an expression rather than a formal statement, then you illustrate that you’re part of the wider public, and not confined to a class. The worst thing I find about people’s speech is the need to insert swear words at frequent intervals. I have no objection to how people speak, but it seems to me that English has such a variety of descriptive words, that the use of swear words consistently out of context, narrows the conversation. I don’t see how talking faster is rude. A friend once told me that my speed of speech sounded as if I was thinking about every word before I said it. And listening to recordings of myself, I am amazed at how slow I speak. My mother, who did shorthand, always said that it was dictation speed. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/217 "2010-09-15T05:32:35Z")
> [@paulsroom](#): > > But then even English words can confuse us Brits. Where I live there is a town called Cosham and another called Bosham. Cosham is pronounced as it looks, but Bosham is pronounced Bozam. Similarly with Berwick (upon Tweed) and Lerwick (in the Shetland Islands). The “w” is silent in the first, pronounced in the second. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/218 "2010-09-15T06:16:46Z")
There’s a Beaufort (Byoo-fert) South Carolina and a Beaufort (Bo-fert) North Carolina. There’s also a Concord (Conquered) Massachusetts and a Concord (Con-Cord) North Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![paulsroom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9de053/32.png) [@paulsroom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulsroom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/219 "2010-09-15T06:26:02Z")
When I lived abroad for a couple of years and went to school, the small group of English students were always expected to come top in English. Fortuntely in cases like English dictation, we had an extra advantage. Words like colonel and kernel were frequently confused by the foreign students, whereas we knew the different contexts. One being a human being and the other just a bean. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/221 "2010-09-15T09:37:28Z")
> [@ruadh](#): > > > [@paulsroom](#): > > > > But then even English words can confuse us Brits. Where I live there is a town called Cosham and another called Bosham. Cosham is pronounced as it looks, but Bosham is pronounced Bozam. > > Similarly with Berwick (upon Tweed) and Lerwick (in the Shetland Islands). The “w” is silent in the first, pronounced in the second. Place names ending in “wick” in the UK always seem to have strange pronunciations. Witness Hawick, pronounced “hoik”, or Alnwick, pronounced “annik”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903.md?page=12)