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Vanessa: Hi! I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishwithVanessa.com. Are you ready to test your listening skills? Let’s talk about it. I have a tough question for you. Is American or British English better? Well, in all honesty if you want to understand all native English speakers, you’re going to have to understand American and British speakers. Today I want to test your listening skills for both of these accents.

As a special bonus, you can download the free worksheet for today’s pronunciation lesson in the description below this video. You’re going to hear five sentences, once in British English and once is American English. You’re going to hear my husband Dan say the sentences in American English because he’s from the US, and I am too. Then you’re going to hear another Dan . Yes, they have the same name . another Dan from the podcast English Across the Pond.

He’s going to say the same sentence in British English because he’s from the UK. Listen carefully to each sentence. You’re going to hear an A version and a B version. I want you to guess which one is American English. Both of these speakers have the same name, Dan, but one of them is American Dan and one of them is British Dan. I want you to guess, which one is American Dan? Use the YouTube poll feature up here. You’ll see a question come across the top of the video.

I want you to vote which one do you think is American English? Okay, let’s listen to the first sentence.

Coca-Cola advertisements can be seen by both children and adults all over the world.

Coca-Cola advertisements can be seen by both children and adults all over the world.

How did you do? Can you tell which one is American English, which Dan is American Dan?

If you guessed A, you are correct. Congratulations. The main difference in this sentence is the syllable stress. You heard American Dan say, “advertisements and adults”. He emphasized the first syllable in advertisements, advertisements, and the second syllable in adults. But in British English it’s the opposite.

Let’s listen to those two sentences one more time, and I want you to really listen to those key words, advertisements and adults.

Coca-Cola advertisements can be seen by both children and adults all over the world.

Coca-Cola advertisements can be seen by both children and adults all over the world.

I hope you could hear that syllable stress correctly.

Let’s go on to quiz sentence number two. I want you to guess which one is American English, which Dan is American Dan. Let’s listen.

If you drink water regularly, you should start to feel better and better.

If you drink water regularly, you should start to feel better and better.

Which one is American English? If you guessed B, you are correct! Congratulations! The main difference in this sentence is the T in the middle of words.

The words water and better in American English sound like a D in the middle of the word. This is the flap T, we talk about this a lot in reference to speaking like an American. The T in water changes to a D, water, and better also sounds like a D, better. Better, water, better. Let’s listen one more time to both sentences. I want you to listen carefully for that T in the middle of those words.

If you drink water regularly, you should start to feel better and better.

If you drink water regularly, you should start to feel better and better.

Could you hear that T changing to a D in the American English sentence? Before we go on to question number three, I want to recommend that you check out British Dan’s podcast, English Across the Pond.

British Dan and his American podcast partner Jennifer have a weekly podcast where they have natural conversations about daily topics like pets or stress or planning or air travel. Lots of engaging topics. It’s a great way to improve your listening for both British English and American English.

The podcast is free or you can become a gold member, gold like my shirt, for $20 and get weekly transcripts, worksheets, exercises, and study plans. It’s a really fun practical way to improve your English with podcasts. Because you are my student, if you decide to become a gold member they have some special bonuses for you.

Check out the link in the description to access the free podcast and also the gold member program. All right. Let’s go to sentence number three. Can you decide, can you tell which one is American English? Let’s listen.

Last week’s English exams were hard.

Last week’s English exams were hard.

Can you tell which one is American English, which Dan is American Dan? If you guessed A is American English, congratulations, you are correct. A is American English. Why is A American English? Well, American Dan used a specific R sound that’s typical in American English. He said the word hard. This R is really strong. In British English, it’s often less strong. Let’s listen to this sentence again.

I want you to hear American Dan say hard, hard. It kind of sounds like a pirate, R, or like a dog, R. Make sure that you listen to this specific word hard. All right, let’s listen.

Last week’s English exams were hard.

Last week’s English exams were hard.

Could you hear it? Did you hear the difference in the word hard? Let’s go on to sentence number four.

This is a really unique British English sound that doesn’t exist in American English, so I want to see if you can tell which one is American English. Let’s listen.

I make sure I watch the news every Tuesday night.

I make sure I watch the news every Tuesday night.

Which one is American English? If you guessed A, you are correct. A was American Dan.

What is the difference between these two versions? The main difference is the word news and the word Tuesday. In American English, we say news and Tuesday. It almost sounds like an OO, news, Tuesday. But British English speakers add another letter, another sound when they pronounce these words. Did you hear British Dan add an extra letter? Hmm. He said something like news and Tuesday.

It almost sounds like there’s a Y at the beginning of this word. Now, for me, in an American English speaker, so it’s better to listen to his version than to my version of this British English pronunciation. In American English, we do not use this. Let’s listen again to these two sentences and I want to see if you can hear the difference between news and Tuesday in American English and British English.

Let’s listen again.

I make sure I watch the news every Tuesday night.

I make sure I watch the news every Tuesday night.

Did you hear the difference? I hope so! Let’s go on to sentence number five. Sentence number five is a little different, so listen carefully.

I’m going to the supermarket to buy yogurt, tomatoes, oregano, basil, and some courgettes.

I’m going to the grocery store to buy yogurt, tomatoes, oregano, basil, and some zucchini.

Which one is American English? I hope you guessed B. B is American English.

You just heard some vocabulary differences between American English and British English, especially in relation to food words. You heard American Dan say grocery store, tomato, oregano, basil, zucchini. In British English, they sometimes use different words like supermarket and courgette and they pronounce tomato, oregano, basil completely differently than I would.

Let’s listen again to these sentences so that you can hear the pronunciation differences and the vocabulary differences.

I’m going to the supermarket to buy yogurt, tomatoes, oregano, basil, and some courgettes.

I’m going to the grocery store to buy yogurt, tomatoes, oregano, basil, and some zucchini.

How did you do? Let me know in the comments how many of these you got correct.

Don’t forget to practice understanding American English and British English with the awesome podcast English Across the Pond. Download the weekly English conversation with American Jennifer and British Dan for free or you could become a gold member for $20. For gold members, each week when there’s a new podcast episode, you’ll get the podcast transcript, you’ll get writing exercises, some speaking prompts, vocabulary exercises, the worksheets, study plan.

You’ll get a lot of information to help you really use that episode to the fullest. Jennifer and Dan have come up with this super cool way to make podcasts even more useful and practical, so I hope that you’ll take advantage of it. Because you’re my student, they’re offering a special bonus, which is an extra month’s worth of lesson material and a bonus pronunciation lesson so that you can really master using English naturally and improving your skills.

Check out the link in the description so that you can listen to the free English Across the Pond podcast and so that you can become a gold member. Thank you for learning English with me. I’m so glad that you’re here. I’ll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.