つかえる英会話Daily / Travel

Claire: Students who have mainly studied American English find British English difficult to understand. How can they overcome this situation?

Dobinson: Well, my answer is nothing special, I’m afraid: grasp the characteristics of British English, and then listen as much as you can—constantly asking yourself what the word’s pronunciation would be in American English.

Claire: Could you list up the characteristics of British English?

Dobinson: Certainly. First of all, British English is what we call non-rhotic, which means speakers don’t pronounce “r” unless it’s followed by a vowel. For instance, you say “short” (pronouncing r) in American English, whereas you say “short” (not pronouncing r) in British English, as if an “r” doesn’t exist in the word. So “more” (pronouncing r) is “more” (sounding more like mo-o), and “door” (pronouncing r) is “door” (do-o) in the UK.

Claire: Yes.

Dobinson: Another point you have to pay attention to is that British people pronounce “a” longer: thus “ask” (with long “a”) and after (with long “a” and without pronouncing the final r). And also, you have to be careful about the combination of such letters as t and d on one hand, and long “u” on the other. “Tuna” (sounding more like too-na) becomes “tuna” (more like tyu-na), and “during”, during (ju-ring).

Claire: Yes. British people love “tuna” (tyu-na) sandwich, don’t they?

Dobinson: Precisely so. And in British English, “o” is pronounced as a very short sound compared to American English, which pronounces “o” like somewhere between “a” and “o”. So “hot dog” (hat-dag) becomes “hot dog” (hot-dog). And “o” is sometimes pronounced like “ou”: as in “so” (sou) and “don’t” (dount). Once you know these basics, it’s pretty simple. I advise students to listen to BBC and get used to their pronunciation. They might not understand a word at the beginning, but there’s no need to worry. If they have a substantial vocabulary, they will, one day, begin to figure out what British people are saying. They need patience: lots of, lots of patience.