A former Atlas student sent me an interesting email at the weekend which included the following link and suggested that I blog about it. Not a bad idea I thought so here goes.
It’s taken from The Economist magazine blog (Atlas students are very highbrow, and well informed about world events), and highlights some of the differences between British and American English – vocabulary, pronunciation of syllables and intonation.
Check out the Economist link and let us know the British words for the American: sidewalk, vacation and bug.
Can you think of any other examples. Post a comment.
There are a few other things mentioned in the article like the pronunciation of the word water. The (British) writer also thinks that Americans tend to make every sentence into a question by raising their intonation at the end. Do you agree?
“I went to Harvard?” is the example given. Raise the intonation toward the end of the sentence and see if it sounds like a question. Then ask yourself: “I am American?”
And just for a laugh, here’s an American comedian making fun of British accents:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvfVopjx1zs]