# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/161 "2008-09-15T22:10:59Z")
I started a drunken conversation in a bar one night in Vermont and the guy answered me, “Sorry buddy, I don’t speak German”. 😕 I’ve never had a probem with any American I’ve meet apart from local sayings etc. but context usually helps with them. LOTS of Americans have had trouble with me and I have a pretty middle of the road Dublin accent as far as I can tell. The problem multiplied when there was more than one Mick there. We’d talk fast and lose a lot of people around us. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/162 "2008-09-15T22:12:14Z")
Also nearly every American I’ve met was blown away by the amount we swear. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/163 "2008-09-16T01:05:26Z")
> [@yojimbo](#): > > Also nearly every American I’ve met was blown away by the amount we swear. It’s the Masterpiece Theatre/Mr. Chips/David Niven effect. They still think everyone over there speaks like Jeeves or the butler in a 1930s American movie. They think you don’t know the words. Regarding your experience in Vermont, I’ve heard a few English people whose accents at first sounded German to me, although IIRC it was from Northerners who didn’t have the typical Midland accent. BTW sometimes we can hardly understand Vermonters. Also, Germans tend to learn British English, or they used to, which would make many Germans sound as if they’re Brits. Presumably the reverse is true in some cases. (I know, you’re not British and I’ve never heard you speak, but I’ll assume your accent is closer to some British variety than to any American accent.) ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/164 "2008-09-16T01:23:35Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Whenever I’m in San Diego, the blacks speak with a black accent, the Latinos with a Latino accent, and mostly everyone else with a correct Michigan accent. That’s funny, I was going to mention that (sort of). I live in Michigan and travel to northern california frequently. I don’t notice any difference between the accent of a person in San Francisco and one in Royal Oak. one big exception: Soda vs Pop. but that’s not accent. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/165 "2008-09-16T07:06:37Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > (I know, you’re not British and I’ve never heard you speak, but I’ll assume your accent is closer to some British variety than to any American accent.) No, it’s not. The Dublin accent - or at least the type that **yojimbo** has - is IMHO closer to the working class NYC accent than to any British type. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/166 "2008-09-16T10:42:25Z")
Listening to Chris Moyles on the radio this morning, he’s currently in LA and wen out for dinner with the crew. They all had to ask the American waiter to describe what, exactly the “flaming yam” was. It turned out to be “Filet Mignon”. So yes, British people can have difficulty with Americans accents. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/167 "2008-09-16T11:30:08Z")
Here’s a pretty everyday example of a conversation between Dubs. This is a taxi drive. Notice the amount of “fuckings” added into sentences. Sometimes he gets 3/4 fucks in one sentence. 😃 [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnfgux7IiyA) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/168 "2008-09-16T11:35:47Z")
I suspect the problem that Chris Moyles had understanding the waiter was not so much his American accent as that he may have been a new waiter who had only hastily been instructed on the pronunciation of the items on the menu. I thnk that generally someone working in a restaurant where filet mignon is served would pronounce it close to the French pronunciation. I suspect that the waiter was guessing at the pronunciation of “filet mignon” when he had only briefly heard other waiters mention it. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2008, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/169 "2008-09-16T11:45:57Z")
He’s obviously picking up on the way some American people pronounce French words with a heavy stress on the final syllable (something like fuh-LAY muh-NYAHN in this case, I’m guessing). I believe French people would stress the syllables more evenly, and the usual British attempt at pronouncing it would reflect that. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/170 "2008-09-20T14:20:51Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > What’s the British term for what we call “layaway” (for those who don’t know, it’s essentially an interest-free installment payment plan – very often for furniture items – in which until the full price is paid off, the goods are kept in storage by the merchant). 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. Oh, anyway, back to the OP - I, personally, rarely have trouble with American speech, except for some of the heavier Southern accents and on the occasional word that just doesn’t seem to match anything I’m familiar with. On the other hand, when I visited, it seemed that almost nobody understood a damned thing I said. I have a tendency to accidentally mimic accents, so I was a little worried I’d come home with an American accent, but through having to clearly. and. precisely. enunciate. every. single. word. I actually came back sounding more English. A weird, corrupted English that no Englishman would ever want to associate with his country, to be sure … but more English than I’d started, at any rate. ---
**Author:** ![vitalle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f05b48/32.png) [@vitalle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vitalle)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/171 "2010-05-01T00:26:56Z")
> [@zagloba](#): > > On the “Mary, marry, merry” thing: I was 40 before I was aware anyone pronounced them differently. (I’ve lived in Illinois and California). I understand that some New York accents make the distinction. I’d pronounce the “a” sound differently in each word as well: eh, ah and e (like in the filler word “er”. ---
**Author:** ![vitalle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f05b48/32.png) [@vitalle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vitalle)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/172 "2010-05-01T01:07:20Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > acsenray writes: > > \> I agree with most of what you are saying, but I think you’re mixing up “dialect” > \> and “accent” here. For example, the Standard British English dialect can be > \> spoken in a variety of accents, including, say, R.P. and General Educated > \> Scottish. > \> > \> Similarly, a Scouse or Manc accent can be used to speak Scouse or Manc dialect > \> or Standard British English. > > I think I disagree. **If you were to use the grammar, vocabulary, etc. of Standard British English but used the pronunciation of Scouse or Manc or some Scottish area, what people would probably say about you is that you sound like an educated Scouser or Manchestrian or Scot who has wiped out any nonstandard grammar, vocabulary, etc. from his speech but who continues to ue Scouse, Manc, or Scottish pronunciation. That happens occasionally. That’s not what is usually meant by Standard British English though.** There is an accent (i.e., a way of pronouncing words) for Standard British English which is not the same as Scouse, Manc, or Scottish English. If you were a foreigner learning English (in the U.K. or in some country where you wer told that you were learning British English) from a typical course, you would be taught to speak the pronunciations of Standard British English. Similarly, if you were a foreigner learning English (in the U.S. or in some country where you were told that you were learning American English), you would be taught to speak the pronunciations of Standard American English. Linguistically speaking this isn’t quite true. While it is true that Revieved Pronunciation is associated with Standard British English and is used as a medium to teach foreigners, it is not correct to say that unless you speak RP you are not speaking Standard English. RP is just another accent. Standard British English is a particular form of English encompassing vocabulary and grammar as well as pronunciation. I suppose my point is that I tend to agree with acsenray in this case. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/173 "2010-05-01T02:08:38Z")
Aberdeen and Newcastle are two places that have incredibly, ummm, really difficult versions of the English language. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/174 "2010-05-01T02:15:13Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Whilst I can believe there are Americans who might not understand some of the accents of Ireland/Britain that are further away from Standard English (hell I have to get some Irish/Geordie/Scouse) types to repeat themselves, I can’t imagine there are any Americans we can’t understand. You’ve obviously never tried to speak with my mother-in-law. And I mean that in the nicest possible way. She’s from Appalachia and speaks a local dialect that is nearly impenetrable even to other Americans, much less others outside the US. When I’ve seen speakers of her dialect on TV or in documentaries they are invariably sub-titled because otherwise very few people anywhere would be able to understand their dialect. She can speak standard American as well, but at home she chooses not to do so. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/175 "2010-05-01T03:14:28Z")
Anecdote time! British, been in the US for 2.5 years now. Less so now than at first, but I often used to have trouble understanding Americans. It was not that I couldn’t understand Americans when they spoke to me, that was always fine. But I would routinely be sitting on the bus (I suppose the bus is full of poorer people, and this being the USA that means almost entirely ethnic minorities and grad students), and Americans would be talking to each other, and I would be completely unable to understand them, except for the odd word. This happened to me a few times, very disconcerting. On the other hand, I was hanging around with my best American mate. Along came another friend of mine, a Londoner. My American friend said he had real trouble understanding the Londoner and me when we spoke to each other. pdts ---
**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 1, 2010, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/176 "2010-05-01T06:21:08Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Sleel writes: > > That was I was about to write. Switching back and forth between dialects is **very** common around the world. For that matter, so is being bilingual. Some linguists estimate that more than half the population of the world speaks at least two languages fluently. Compared to that, switching between dialects is relatively easy. For that matter, most people learn to switch dialect fairly unconsciously. It’s not even a matter of forcing yourself to change it with different people. You pick up the different situations that you use the different dialects in without much thinking about in most cases. Yeah. It surprised me that most of you don’t code switch. It’s automatic for me. And not just from Hillbilly to Midwestern (i.e. standard). If the accent is even remotely close to mine, I will wind up mimicking it. If it’s not, I still have to consciously fight not to mimic certain words. It really sucks with people who stutter, as I want to stutter along with them. Ditto people who speak not another accent of English, but merely don’t quite know the language. Finally, I’ve noticed that Arkansas is pretty diverse in accents. You can generally tell what part of the state someone is from. Oh, as for why code change: to make it easier for you to understand me. And also to create rapport. People like people who act and sound like them. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/177 "2010-05-01T11:48:15Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/178 "2010-05-01T13:05:50Z")
Brains! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/179 "2010-05-01T16:34:58Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Brains! [moderating] Aye, a zombie it is, my lads (although not a zombie pirate, so I’m not sure why I’m writing with a movie pirate accent). I’m going to let this one live, though. It’s okay to bring back an old GQ thread sometimes when there’s new info. [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903/180 "2010-05-01T17:50:37Z")
I am sort of embarrassed by the amount of subtitling I see in American television, as well as its availability on so many DVDs–not only of non-Americans speaking English, but of Americans speaking English as well! I love watching foreign-language films with English subtitles (after a bit, I almost don’t consciously see the subtitles; it starts to feel like I am understanding the language)… on the other hand, I find English subtitles for anything with English dialogue (in any accent) really obtrusive. Even with the most difficult accents, I would _rather_ be compelled to listen closely. But, apparently, I am better at understanding a wide range of English pronunciations than many Americans are. I find others having trouble with my speech much more often than I have trouble with theirs (only _really fast_ speakers sometimes leave me behind when I’m not alert). The other day I had to spell my name for someone and after three attempts, had to hand over my drivers’ license. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-and-irish-people-have-a-hard-time-understanding-americans-speak/462903.md?page=10)