# Do English, Australians, NeoZealanders, etc, have a trouble understanding Americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 25, 2004, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263 "2004-03-25T02:59:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mbacko1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@mbacko1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbacko1)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/21 "2004-03-25T15:07:09Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > Have you heard what passes for speech in “Bawlmer”? “Afa we’et an wetchi ews gem we gu deeni ewshun hun” is my standard example (“After we eat and watch the O’s game, we’ll go down to the ocean, hon”) > > “In America, they haven’t used it for years.” – Henry Higgins When I was in high school I needed to Balmer to English dictionary to understand what the lunch room ladies were saying. 😃 Some of the people in Baltimore have crazy accents. My dad’s side of the family is from the city, and I experienced it during many family parties over the years, so I enjoy using the accent to amuse my friends from time to time. “Ayyy Butchy. Git me sum wooder from da spikit!” Mike ---
**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:** [March 25, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/22 "2004-03-25T15:10:53Z")
> [@Hunter Hawk](#): > > I guy I know who is originally from Kent (the British one, not the city south of Seattle) made the following observations: > [ul] > [li]The American habit of dropping the “t” sound is a pain. He can’t hear the difference between the American pronunciations of the words “can” and “can’t”.[/li][li]He’s very amused at the American usage of the word “ass” when referring to the bit of the human anatomy that in English is called “arse”. In English, “ass” is the animal. Yeah, he’s apparently easily amused.[/li][/ul] 1. I’ve never heard anyone drop the “t” in can’t. I’d be curious as to what part of the USA your friend was visiting. 2. We use ‘ass’ to refer to the animal too, but usually it’s preceded by "jack’. For instance if we were on a farm and you said “Check out that ass.”, I’d be scanning for some cute farm girl. But if you said “Check out that jack ass.” , I’d be searching for a donkey, or possibly a really stupid person. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/23 "2004-03-25T15:24:41Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > 1. I’ve never heard anyone drop the “t” in can’t. I’d be curious as to what part of the USA your friend was visiting. I know exactly what **Hunter Hawk** is talking about. In some American accents “can” sounds like “cain”, while “can’t” sounds like “cainn”, with a swallowed ‘t’ sounding more like a second ‘n’. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/24 "2004-03-25T15:49:25Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > 1. I’ve never heard anyone drop the “t” in can’t. I’d be curious as to what part of the USA your friend was visiting. I’ve never heard anyone actually drop the “t” in can’t, but in general Americans use a very soft “t” in the middle and end of words, which sounds almost like a “d”. As for unual/hard to understand American accents, there’s always the “hoi toid” accent in the North Carolina Outer Banks, or the old down east black dialect. Both of which are dissappearing. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/25 "2004-03-25T15:55:13Z")
**Hunter Hawk** please tell the Kent guy how you pronounce soldering (as in joining wires together with solder and a soldering iron) he’ll be in stitches. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/26 "2004-03-25T16:30:54Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Somehow most Americans took the N. Irish accent to be Australian 😕 After a while it was easier to say “yes, I’m Australian” than to explain 😉 Although I’d never make that mistake I wonder if they thought that because in both accents you seem to get that raising of the pitch at the end of a sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/27 "2004-03-25T17:27:59Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > I know exactly what **Hunter Hawk** is talking about. In some American accents “can” sounds like “cain”, while “can’t” sounds like “cainn”, with a swallowed ‘t’ sounding more like a second ‘n’. It’s the Seattle area. I’ll second the “swallowed t” description above, except the word is pronounced with a short “a”. Similarly, for example, I pronounce “Trenton” (the NJ city–I grew up in central Jersey) more like “Tren’n”. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/28 "2004-03-25T17:40:31Z")
During my visit to Auckland, NZ some years ago, I found it quite easy to understand the Kiwis and they found it easy to speak to me. And as an aside, I LOVE foriegn accents on women. Kiwi, Aussie, Brit, you name it, it makes a girl 10x sexier. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/29 "2004-03-25T18:07:45Z")
> [@1920s Style Death Ray](#): > > I’ve never been aware of any NZers (I take it the “Neo” was a typo?) having trouble with the accent. We can have heaps of trouble with some of the stronger UK accents though. > > The movie “Train Spotting” took a good 15-20mins to become accustomed to the accent. Hey, I come from just south of that region and it’s like a foreign language to me. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/30 "2004-03-25T18:17:18Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. I’ve never heard anyone drop the “t” in can’t. I’d be curious as to what part of the USA your friend was visiting. I do this, and I’m from Houston. I pronounce “can” and “can’t” exactly the same, except in “can’t” there is a glottal stop after the “n”. I replace “t” with a glottal stop whenever it ends a syllable with no vowel sound following (e.g. “button” (I don’t pronounce the “o”), “but”, “caught”, etc.). I say “worsh” instead of “wash”, too. ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/31 "2004-03-25T18:36:47Z")
heh. Back in my college days, I used to go out drinking with a girl from Baton Rouge, Louisiana (a.k.a. “Batawn Roooge”). At the first beer, she’d just have a normal LA accent - not too pronounced, but possibly difficult to understand if you weren’t from the South. By the third pint, her accent would be much more pronounced, but she’d still be speaking English. By the fifth or sixth pint, you couldn’t understand a word she said - not only was the accent maxed out, but half of it was in French too! Ah, good times! ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/32 "2004-03-25T21:18:01Z")
When I was a child Star Trek was the first American show I ever saw, I could only understand what Mr Scott was saying - and for years I though they were “bogley going” somewhere (a bogley being snot) … Over the years exposure to American TV shows and movies has meant people can understand the American accent quite easily - in fact a lot of Americanisms are now part of everyday speech, you hear kids saying kewl all the time, and ass instead of arse ---
**Author:** ![capnfutile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e0b2c6/32.png) [@capnfutile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capnfutile)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/33 "2004-03-25T21:46:34Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > As far a other countries: New Zealanders sound like Americans… Not! I relocated to NZ from Vermont two years ago and work in retail, so I deal with dozens of Kiwis every day. My accent sticks out like a sore thumb (“What part of Canada are you from?”\*). My first couple of months on the job I spent a lot of time asking people to repeat things. I still have to ask people to spell street and city names, as many of them are Maori \*\* names (Hokitika, etc). The rural Kiwis are definitely harder to understand, just like the “native” Vermonters have a very different accent than people from, say, Burlington (many of whom are from New Jersey anyway). One Maori customer said he was raised in the bush, and he was REALLY hard to understand. I am amazed at how LOUD Americans are. It’s especially noticeable in restaurants - I just want to cringe, even though I sound much the same. To answer the OP’s question, yes, a bit. But as others have said, it’s often easier than Americans trying to understand some regional dialects of the US. -capn - Kiwis know that Canadians take far more offense at being mistaken for Americans than vice-versa. \*\* Maori are the “natives” here, and have a very unique language. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/34 "2004-03-27T17:28:46Z")
> [@Lobelia Overhill](#): > > When I was a child Star Trek was the first American show I ever saw, I could only understand what Mr Scott was saying - and for years I though they were “bogley going” somewhere (a bogley being snot) … Well count yourself unique. Scottie spoke with an accent used by no-one else on the planet. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/35 "2004-03-27T17:43:49Z")
American language is pretty widespread in movies and TV shows. I doubt most would pose a problem for the average English speaker. No doubt, a few off-beat regional accents or phrases would be less well understood. But it depends what you mean by “understanding” Amercians. I was interested to read in a recent Economist about the vast difference between the way Americans and Europeans answer these three questions: are poor people trapped in poverty (60% Europeans, 30% Americans), are poor people lazy (60% Americans!!, 30% Europeans), and is wealth largely a matter of luck? (45% Europeans, 20% Americans). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/36 "2004-03-27T17:53:04Z")
We’ll start pronouncing our t’s just as soon as you start pronouncing your r’s. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/37 "2004-03-28T22:56:49Z")
> [@Futile Gesture](#): > > Well count yourself unique. Scottie spoke with an accent used by no-one else on the planet. And not by anyone Scottish, anway. Still, maybe he had been adopted from another planet. " Ooh Captain, I canny get a fix" I think they adopted him to take him away from his drug habit. (The character, that is, I do not mean the actor) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Boppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Boppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boppy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/38 "2004-03-28T23:29:56Z")
I don’ t find the actual American accents so difficult except with the can/can’t thing which has been mentioned. Liar/lawyer can be tricky as in “oh don’t mind him, he’s a liar” but you know the guy’s a solicitor so is he both?? Coming from such a small country, I’m always intrigued by how many different accents you can have in one race - south, east, etc. I do find some American expressions bewildering. To this day I still don’t know what is meant by the phrase “we lucked out”. I have to wait for further details before knowing what kind of expression to put on my face. ---
**Author:** ![Victory\_Candescence](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Victory\_Candescence](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victory_Candescence)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/39 "2004-03-28T23:49:19Z")
“we lucked out” = “we were lucky” ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263/40 "2004-03-29T00:52:42Z")
> [@Fiver](#): > > To me, Yorkshiremen sound like Scots and there’s very little difference between South African, Kiwi and Aussie accents. You got to be joking. I’m from Australia and I can’t understand half the things a new zealader says! “es es okay ef weigh met at your place at sux?” is it ok if we meet at your place at six? and the same with some english people. (primarily liverpool) But I don’t think Americans talk slower, in fact, faster and with less enunciation. And the fact that “that owns” means something was good in America, which as I understand it, means the opposite here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-english-australians-neozealanders-etc-have-a-trouble-understanding-americans/236263.md?page=3)