American Reacts to Words That Brits Pronounce Differently
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
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As Americans we think we pronounce words the "right" way. Today I am very interested in learning about how people in the UK pronounce certain words very differently to how we say them here in the United States. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!
General rule of thumb is, if the word was around before the USA was discovered, then British pronunciation is always correct :)
Then you have aluminium where it was just a fight over two people wanting it spelled differently and each country picked the different version, which one is correct, who knows.
@@Dragon_Slayer_Ornstein British way. same with tomato, NOT bloody tomayto, who do they think they are, la de da lunatics? They are that stupid they underline my name and address in read like I don't know who I am or where I live.
England's English is always the correct pronunciation as determined by the Oxford Cambridge dictionaries
@@Dragon_Slayer_Ornstein I am editing this because I am getting very tired of people commenting weeks/months after my post without reading subsequent responses to comments.
Chemists know. Discoverers are given the courtesy of submitting the proposed name to IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists - the world governing body for chemistry). When Sir Humphrey Davy discovered element 13, he named it *alumium* using the -ium suffix for metals, just as he’d named calcium, sodium and potassium.)
A popular version, one of many but carrying some credibility, follows. In his submission to the RACI journal describing the discovery, the name was purportedly mistyped as *aluminum* and that's what the American Chemical Society adopted. Davy, having already named sodium and potassium the previous year, then submitted *aluminium* to IUPAC, which they much preferred because it incorporated the metal suffix -ium. The American Chemical Society refused the change (some say because it would have cost the company that later became Comalco a lot of money to change, others because the chemist who actually extracted aluminium from the alum ore was American and claimed the right to keep the name aluminum.) So all countries, except America and Canada, call element 13 aluminium.
Absolutely
I am from Singapore where i was raised to speak British english. when i moved to the states i was horrified at American arrogance correcting my pronunciation!
The Brits do it too, lol. I sometimes use South African words and I'll get a "we don't use that word over here" or "that's not how we say things." Tough, mate, I was brought up in a multilingual environment and speak two varieties of English, compared to their one language in one dialect and often poorly.🥲
@@ihintzablue686I'm surprised at that because theres lots of foreign students that come to uni near me and I've never known anyone to correct their pronunciations. In fact I'm often impressed by how their english is better than ours. The only english we do correct is americans, but that goes without saying eh.
@@ihintzablue686Are you sure that your 'pronunciation police' are natives, because it is not in the British character to jump to correct people -- too reserve, and 'mind your own business' for that.
@@IllegalHeliosI agree.
@@ihintzablue686 "one dialect" 😂 you need to leave your flat sometime
The fact the language is called English and not American yet the Americans still believe they are correct
Absolutely love this comment ❤ . We did invent the English language 😂.
I always think the same thing! How dare they!!!!! Bloody yanks for ya haha
I mean you can’t deny that our British pronunciations for “lieutenant” and “advertisement” make no sense at all 😂
@ItsArcticVision lieutenant gets called lefttennat because in old French the word for lieu was luef
They should lose less wars and build more schools.
Very refreshing to see an American acknowledging that us Brits speak English correctly 😂 genuinely cannot believe that 'aluminium' was not mentioned.
for anyone wonder, the reason we in britain say "Leftennant" insted of "Lootenant" is because our word, even though the spelling was updated to modern french, is pronounced using OLD french "Leuf" instead of the modern "Lieu" - it is still correct, just archaic.
I’m British and I’ve only ever heard anyone say “lootenant”
Can't be from the UK forces!
I say "lootenant" and I am British
I am British and have dealing with the army and I was harshly corrected to say leftTennant by a second lieutenant in my company he's a great guy just hated the American pronunciation of the word
I’ve literally never heard or said left it’s always been loo so that’s crazy
The British pronunciation is correct because we were pronouncing these words correctly way before Americans were even thought of
We also changed those words a bunch of times.. So the British used to call it "fall" and it caught on with the Americans and hence the term "fall" instead of "Autumn"
That probably ought to be 'Amerigans' if we look at the origin (or oranges as Trump would say!) as he has never heard of Mr Vespucci.
@@lilskipper4683 we in England have never used the word "fall" when referring to autumn. - where is your evidence for this??
No we weren't. English sounded extremely different when the first settlers went to America. The language has changed in different ways in different regions, but none of us is speaking anything like the "original".
@@edbrims all I know is colour has a letter u in it and petrol is not a gas it is a liquid - and wtf is a Zeebra ?? I think they mean Zebra- saying period instead of full stop - broil instead of grill - cookie instead of Biscuit - candy instead of sweets etc etc
The American pronunciation of Dy-nasty is a My-stery
Nice one Dennis! 👏Wobble head! 🇬🇧
😂😂 good one!
The pronunciation of greek-origin y is irregular. Photosynthesis, xylophone, dynamic, symphony, pyro, pyramid. Its so far removed that it doesn't seem to follow nice rules anymore. Unless someone has some info on that.
@@TazPessle Upsilon in Greek. It's one of a few letters where it's sound is nothing like it's name. I believe it may have originated as a sign rather than a sound. It remains as Upsilon also in German and Russian and maybe a few other languages.
@@MikeGreenwood51 yeh, i wasn't asserting that we haven't a clue about it's original sound, just that it's had a lot of time to shift in different words over time. The development of U,V,Y are all interesting. I was taught (in my one(!) module on ancient Greek, that it was most similar to the 'u' in cut, but what do i know.
I can confirm we do not say Advertisment like that (UK)
Both pronunciations are commonplace in England.
As a Canadian it drives me crazy when people say "nitch", instead of niche. It's definitely a way to spot someone from the US.
Yep, Niche as in Quiche. Not Niche as in Liche.
I always thought it was deliberately mispronounced as a bit of a joke. "Nitche". If t'were nitch it'd be written nich. French innit? Niche.
@@Razordreamz yes Niche is a borrowed word from French so it should be pronounced that way.
i pronounce it "nee-sh".
Ngl if someone said nitch to me I wouldn't have a clue they meant niche
As an Aussie, it was fun to watch- we pronounce some the American way, but most often we use the British pronunciation- and in terms of the word “buoy” I’ve always assumed we pronounce it “boy” because it’s related the the word “Buoyant”
Yes, it comes from buoyancy or buoyant.
The young boy swam out to the buoy, and both boy/buoys sank!
Booeyant
Canadian here. We pronounce many of these words the British way, but we also pronounce many the American way. I do know most of the British pronunciations for most of these words, so I usually am aware when I am pronouncing them the North American way. I find the syllable stress differences in words like “controversy” stranger than the sound differences.
It is 'boy'. I can't tell you how many Mr Ballen videos I watched before I figured out what a Boo-ey was 😂
As an Italian, I was convinced that the USA would say pasta correctly, due to the Italian immigrants, but instead the British are closer to the Italian pronunciation. lieutenant is a French word, so the British one is more correct
Yeah Lieutenant was heard and possibly misunderstood slightly from the French. It's not quite correct but it's still more correct.
@@nqthyy1805 anyone that's been in the UK armed forces would use left-tenant pronunciation. I work in aviation & all the ex forces guys say it that way. Average Joe uses the American pronunciation likely due to Hollywood influence.
@@jt5765i think "lutennant" may be spelling pronunciation rather than American influence. People read a word they haven't heard and guess how it is pronounced. some of the mispronunciations get widely spread and with time considered correct. Rather common among words that has traditionally not been in common use among "ordinary people"
Lieutenant is French, but it’s thought the word in the 14th century was spelled with an f. Also letters at that time were formed differently so that s looked like an f.
Also a lot of words in English - cos that’s the Language, it’s not British it’s English - come from other languages. Niche, debris etc.
The American pronunciation of 'pasta' sounds very much like the British pronunciation of 'pastor'. I once watched a video where an American and a British man were roasting each others accents and the British guy said "A pasta is a bloody vicar" 😂😂😂
We wondered where all the 'r's in words went when we moved to the UK.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Hilarious....
If you said 'Boo-ee' on a British boat, the crew would collapse in a state of near-terminal hysterics!
But oddly enough they don't say boo-ee-ant.
@@silverfireUK
Probably because that would sound too much like the name of one of those inbred, hooch-distilling families somewhere in the Appalachians! Well, that's MY guess, anyway!😄
Don't you mean 'bo-hat'?
@@adrianwaygood7156
You've got me thinking now!😉
@@marvinc9994 You’re not wrong!
I don’t get how the Septics can’t simply grasp that ‘buoy’ is just short for ‘buoyant’ or ‘buoyancy’!!
In England, if I go 10 miles down the road, someones speaking English with a different accent.
But it doesn't change the word
Same in Ireland 😂
@@stam8927 Either does the American Vs English pronunciation 😂 But it may change the pronunciation...which I'm fairly sure was the point.
@@stam8927iIt does though. Different areas say words completely different
@@sarahprosecco Plus, we aren't about to start listening to someone who doesn't know when to correctly use 'neither' or 'either' 🤭
As an English woman I found this hysterical. Nice that you tried to work out the differences. What you need to remember is that the English language evolved over many centuries and a lot of the words we use come from Latin, French, German, all of the countries that invaded us over time. Words like niche come from the French and is prounced is a slightly French way. I think you should study the origins of the words, you'd find it interesting
Thanks! You saved me writing this. My generation learnt French, German and Latin in high school. A bit of Spanish starting at a late age is no substitute.
But I'll give the Americans a point; 'leutnant' is German, and they are closer!
@@franroxburgh6055 I think lieutenant comes from the u being read as a v in medieval times, which often sounds like an f
@lesleythompson810
You're probably right. Why should we think that the Americans got that one right??? I just wanted to get them on the scoreboard. Brits always support the underdog.
Only because they changed the spelling from Leiuftenant which is the original French spelling.
@@lurchiesmith8752 in French it's lieutenant. And the original spelling was luetenant.
It means someone who substitutes for a function, who is responsible for the decision as the representative of a function or a group. "Tenir lieu de" in French, to replace, to substitute for
"Leiuftenant" is a phonetic spelling to explain the English pronunciation
As a British person I have never pronounced it left-tenant 5:02
Same!! But Google does pronounce it like that, and whenever I heard the “left” version I just always thought it was another rank 😂
Doesn't make you right...
Obviously didn’t grow up in the Army or join it then.
@ not many people do
I love how an American can honestly say "do you even understand where that pronunciation comes from" (Lieutenant) given his country is not yet 250 years old for a word thats 375 years old in Naval rank but about 480 years old since its introduction.
The English language is a combination of multiple languages including Latin, French, Germanic, Nordic, Gaelic/Celtic and many more from Europe.
Yet if you take the Lieu out of Lieutenant, it’s pronounced the same as the Americans do. So why does it sound like Left, when we pair it with tenant?
@@AlmostLastJedi because the word is derived from its French origins 'luef' which is old French for 'lieu'
Hi,@AlmostLastJedi. @Corbanb5 , the OP, is almost bang-on with their answer. However, the reason American folk say Lieutenant is because that’s how it is spelled - phonetically (as are a lot of words in America (yes, I’m aware of the gross generalisation and I mildly apologise for that).
The reason British folk say Leftenant (they have also bastardised the word) is due to the history of their language and the word (👍🏻, OP.) The etymology of this word is that it’s of Latin/French origin, pronounced and spelled ‘Lievtenant ‘Lievtenant’. As the decades have passed, the ‘I’ in the word has been dropped and the pronunciation became ‘Leftenant’. So,phonetically, the correct pronunciation L-ee-i-ev-tenant (in Latin v was not part of their alphabet and was pronounced as a ‘u’, later ‘v’, in France ‘v’ was originally pronounced as a ‘u’). In short,as we ‘progressed’ 🙄, wanting/needing things to be shorter, faster and easier, here we find ourselves … a little more stoopid, and a a little less knowledgeable. Ah, well. Ne’ermind, eh? 😬😄
Which means you also STOLE all of these words. Ragging on us for doing the same thing makes no sense.
@@IslesYankeeLady no these words are not stolen but are a result of a long history and being invaded by Anglo Saxon as, vikings, Norman's and Romans etc where new words were adopted. A flexible living language is not a bad thing. At around 1500 years old our language is beautiful however you speak it. Not sure why people get so upset about it tbh. It grows and changes with the times and with culture.
In the U.K., we pronounce our words very differently depending on which town or city we are from. Accents vary quite significantly across the U.K.
Definitely…my husband from the West Country, I’m from the east and we pronounce words differently
Absolutely and different words have different meanings too its eccentric but very British I was born in the States and was constantly laughed at for my spelling and pronouncing of words my mom went to a ladies 0:16 boarding /finishing school and spoke very correctly ( the queen's english) even she corrected me if I said worta instead of water 💧 amaercans in some states say 💧whater it's crazy but I love it ❤
They do in the US too...why people from the UK don't notice is beyond me.
I suppose you mean Britain, not UK.
@@irishmade8136 Stop being pedantic.
Obviously the British way wins, it’s our language, our ancestors created it over hundreds of generations.
Amen!!🌹
I AGREE we go back thousands of years
Well said!
Not necessarily true. We have gone through many iterations of language over the centuries, and there has been no standardisation of language until quite recently -maybe the late 1700s or the early 1800s. Now, if emigrants to the American continent took the English of the 1400s and 1500s just as the great vowel shift was beginning, then the language would obviously have developed differently. The language that the British understand today was probably formed from the language prevalent from the 1600s. If we are being completely honest, not many English speakers in the United Kingdom are completely confident in what the language of Shakespeare actually means if we were to read his works without tuition. Linguists, especially those who have experience with the English language, now talk of Englishes rather than a common English language. We can thank the British Empire for introducing English across the world and therefore enabling different localities to develop different types of English suitable for the needs of the people in those areas. The way Americans speak English is no more incorrect than the differing dialects between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England, not to mention the different vocabulary between English regions such as Yorkshire, Cornwall, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, etc. They all have different words to describe certain places, foods, and people which make up their dialect. Americanisms are no different to these regional variations
Not a very friendly reply.
For adult there are two meanings:
In the UK we pronounce it Adult with the stress on the A for the noun, as in he's an adult.
But we say adUlt with the stress on the U for the adjective, as in; that's an adUlt film.
As a British person I can say yes
Lieutenant is a French word. When we adopt words we adopt the pronunciation too. We pronounce it properly (the original way).
In your reply, to whom is "we" referring?
HM Forces
Same as how we pronounce croissants is correct.
@@jemmajames6719 and "en route' and "Notre Dame'.
Even pasta, it's more correct in the British version
We pronounce words the correct way …. It’s our fekkin language!! 🇬🇧
@Kissameassa538 it's no brutish language, there's no such a thing a brutish. It's English 🏴
Exactly
@MrGeod no shit, is obvious when the country where it came from is called England, heard of that ?
@MrGeod its called british engish for a reason. its cus its from britain, and its the correct version
@@MrGeod Do as my name says. Bet you don’t even understand that.
It’s our language. Americans just borrowed it. The British way is correct.
Well La ti da
@@BusWill2006 You may be surprised to hear large numbers of Americans try to correct Brits on pronunciation & spelling of ENGLISH words! I mean, why do they (Yanks) think it’s called ENGLISH? It’s because it is from England… der! Those who create it are always correct.
@@iammaxmillionI love the translation of this 😂
Often American pronunciation is based on older English than we use today in Britain.
It's lah de dah mate @@iammaxmillion
Generally speaking, the 'Advertisement' special 'e' only works on the end of words and not so much in the middle. In this case, as the 'e' is in the middle it doesn't jump back to the vowel (i) to stress it.
Also 'Tis' Is the correct English not the American English of 'Tize'
There is the whole "on accident" vs "by accident" thing that gets me.
And the abominations "irregardless" and "could care less".
Thats nothing to do with pronunciation thats lack of education
Oh it winds me up no end on sounds like it was done on purpose but they trying to get away with something. Had an argument good and proper with an American over this saying.
@@livinglife5130 i wouldn’t complain about the way people talk without checking your own structure of sentences, you seem to be missing a few words out making it difficult to read
@@kanehood3478 it’s I by the way, not i.
Before I even started the video, I knew that UK 🇬🇧 pronunciations would match with Australian 🇦🇺 pronunciation. When the USA 🇺🇸 went to war with England, they wanted to spell and say things a "new" way, in the "new" world. Countries like Canada, India and Australia maintained the connection to Commonwealth, and respectfully, maintained the language.
They went to war with the UK
Same with their cities,New York,New England 😂
Yea you are spot on, when the US was created, they didn't want to copy and paste the UK way of doing things, they wanted their own identity, which is why American English was created. What ever the UK did, the US did it the opposite way or used different units.
Absolute true story.
I'm a Brit who spent a few years working in the US, Philadelphia to be exact.
My name is Bob, but for Scotty at Philadelphia Zoo, I was Paul, for the entire time I was there.
"What's your name?"
"Bob"
"Paul?"
"Bob"
"Paul?"
Bob"
"Paul?"
"Yeah, fine, Paul."
Brits say a short "o" in Bob, because there only is the one "o". If you're an american reading this, think how you say "poll" as in survey poll.
But americans say "Bob" like "Baaaaaahrb", really dragging out that single little "o" for all it's worth, for absolutely no good reason that I can see, so the closest name that Scotty could think of when I said "Bob" with the short "o" was "Paul".
When, on my last day there a colleague sat Scotty down and explained to him how he had got my name wrong the entire time I was there I think he cried a little bit....
To save time on later introductions, when someone in the US asked my name, it made me sick inside but I would deliberately say "Baaaaahrb" just to save time.
I have not watched it since it was on t.v in the 80's but your story makes me automatically think of Trigger with his " allright Dave "
Sounds normal when Johnny Carson does it. Must have been a reginal thing.
th-cam.com/video/AhPnpcbDcaM/w-d-xo.html
@@Dug6666666 Yeah - I (American) would never put an 'r' in the name (or word) Bob (bob).
I had something a bit similar when travelling in the USA many years ago. I was talking to a local about archaeology and I mentioned about the 'Bog people' (iron age bodies preserved in peat bogs in the UK)
American: What's a bog?
Me: A swampy, marshy sort of place.
American: Oh, you mean a 'baaaaahrg'.
There's a guy called "Bob" that plays with Markiplier, Jacksepticeye and another guy - they say Bob correct, even though Markiplier, Bob and the other guy are all American, whilst Jack is Irish
It doesn't matter the British language came first so by default Brits are correct
The word, logically, is pronounced 'lootenant' in the USA, but in English it is pronounced 'leftenant', possibly derived from luef, the Old French for lieu. Lots of words derive from French or Latin in our language.
I disagree matey. I have never said, or heard, LEFT-TENANT.
Interesting. Thanks for the meaning.
@@dalmatianlife, that has always been the correct British way of pronouncing it, but like so much of our British pronunciation, it is dissapearing because of the dominance of American culture - media, TH-cam, film, music etc. Lots of Brits, nowadays, say contROVasy, instead of the British CONtraversy. They also say REsearch instead of the British reSEARCH.
@@dalmatianlifeBritish Army does pronounce it that way, you may not realise it without having to say it often
@@JudgeBreddUK I stand corrected. I just searched our Oxford
The origin of the term comes from the French lieu, place, and tenant, holder, one who holds his authority from a senior officer. The word, logically, is pronounced 'lootenant' in the USA, but in English it is pronounced 'leftenant', possibly derived from luef, the Old French for lieu.
As a brit, i can say that I dont say advertisements, I just say ads
We say ads or advert, rarely the full word
I think Americans don’t say advert at all- they say ads or advertISEments.
Since when did British people say ads
Ye same i (as a brit) all ways say ad lol never advertisement or i say the American pronation of advertisements idk it just makes more sence to me i guess lol never hear the British way lol
Ads yep just say ads the saying if the entire word advertisement just seems unnecessary and cumbersome ads or ad just rolls off the tongue better but ultimately this is just nit picking pronounce how you wish if it is so important to you that everyone speaks the way you do then you have my deepest of sympathies
It amazing Americans say Erb instead of Herb when they made and marketed a film in the 1960's globally and called spelt and pronounced it "Herbie", I've never heard them announcing the film as "Erbie"
I think the name Herb (Herbie) is short for Herbert.
I tried that argument but realised we do not say Hoe-nest but Oh-nest for the word Honest
Perhaps it’s from the French never pronouncing the letter H in their language
That's because it's the name Herb. Do Brits pronounce the H in hour or honest, for example? No? Didn't think so. Same grammar rule applies to herb.
@@DawnA21 you seem to be forgetting that English was our language first. Language is wack, the same rules fluctuate everywhere you say dynasty like “dye-nasty” because of the way you say “y” in that sense but we both say crystal the same way as “cristal”. You were just taught to say herb as “erb” but there’s a reason why it’s called American English and not American 😂 Things are just different but that doesn’t mean the British pronunciation is wrong.
Edit: I realised you never said we were wrong in saying it how we say it, just in that that was your grammatical way of saying it. But personally it doesn’t make sense as to why you’d separate a name from a noun when that’s not usually done
I’m sick of my son saying it was “on accident” no kid it’s “by accident” we are British 😂
As a kid in the 80's, I remember my parents jokingly referring to the American TV series Dynasty as "Die nasty." That's exactly how it sounds to the English ear.
English is OUR language so we are correct!
And they keep changing words by adding unnecessary syllables to perfectly satisfactory words. Sorry I can't remember any examples at the moment.
That's exactly what the pub landlord would say (al Murray).
Jeni yes
Yeah, Buddha and Nissan, those very British words.
You make up less than 20% of first language English speakers. So your opinion (vote) is watered down. Not to mention you have 4 different dialects just on your islands. I propose that you were saying things wrong all along and it took North America to make English mainstream and fix your mistakes 😂 .
She’s wrong about a few of the ways she claims us brits pronounce certain words
No she’s not
Such as? I think sometimes it can differ on region but I can't see any she's getting wrong when it comes to received pronunciation
@@annabizaro-doo-dah The only one I say the American way as she described is Basil, from Manchester UK
@@annabizaro-doo-dahadult is an example. I don’t say a-dult. Adult.
Advertisement was the one for me, I’ve never pronounced it the way it’s claimed British people do.
05:54 left loi it's because it was originally a French rank and us English misheard it and said "left" ,its only the US that says "Loo" the rest of the commonwealth say "left" lol
As a child growing up in the cold war it had to be explained to me that when Americans talked about "inner coninenal balisic misuls" they meant intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Also Nuclear missile??
Pronounced Newclear😮 is supposedly correct Then we have Pneumatic?? Pronounced Newmatic??
they really don't like the letter T in the middle of words. I find that extremely irritating.
C'mon, it's niwkulur, ain't it?
@@andrewwilliams2353innernational is a sound rather than a very important word. Inner meaning inside and inter meaning between. Surely American politicians, especially their Presidents, should learn to pronounce the 't' when addressing world leaders. Innernational sounds so sloppy.
If they decide to launch one and end the world they could at least pronounce it correctly. .
In medieval times during a battle The Lord of the manor was in the middle, the head knight on the right and the head tenant was on the left. As the head tenant became richer he was able to pay for a knight to stand in lieu of him. Thereafter his designate was known as the "leftenant".
The Americans tend to put the stress on the wrong syllable!! If they're speaking ENGLISH, they should pronounce words the way we do!! 😉
Etymology is key to understanding where words are derived from and how they are pronounced and why.
I live in Canada and I had a teacher from Britain and he explained that we are just lazy in pronunciations. Example They say Better we say Bedder They say Butter and we say Budder...and so forth. We are lazy 😂😂😂😂
I hear brits say bet ta
@@corilia9529 Yeah they can say the R if they have to but you're right a lot of them don't🤣
@@corilia9529that’s because the word originated from German besser. R is pronounced at the back of the throat in German. For better understanding of the English language one needs to go to the root.
Yes they don't pronounce those and many others correctly if they speak that awful " estuary " English.
.
I'm hoping that aluminium comes up - Americans call it aluminum...
I jate how lieutenant is said here, the American way makes way more sense
Americans also pronounce "Prime Minister" as "President" and there is even a move in the States to further change its pronunciation to "Dictator".
😂 Name change coming soon to the UK
😂😂😂
😳😂
Help this should not be as funny as it is but also kind of true-
This is so fascinating but I’ve been waiting patiently for Aluminium and Route. Please include these in your next video!!
But they don't have the word aluminium - they took the second 'i' out. So to them, it IS aloominum 🙂
I’m sure Americans used to pronounce “route” the same as us (ie: “root”). Listen to Route 66 by Chuck Berry from the 50s or Nat king Cole from the 40s. Both pronounce it “root”. When did Americans decide to pronounce it “”rauwt”???? 22:20
Read Bill Bryson’s book Made in America as there are some very very interesting points made One being that some American pronunciations are actually ‘preserved’ old English and it’s the Brits that have moved on
Alu-MINI-um 😂😂
Now if you want confusion, compare how we Scottish pronounce words different from English and American haha
Our local cheese factory exploded last year. Debris was everywhere 😅
This isn’t even a question worth asking. The origins of the English language lie in England with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon tribes from Central Europe to the British Isles back in 400AD. The British way of pronouncing words may sound different to Americans but you can’t say it’s wrong because it’s their language.
Hit the nail on the head there
Orrrrr…. The brits can’t gatekeep the English language after colonising a third of the world and forcing their language on others. 😂
Not "Gatekeeping".. It's just how the English language has evolved... Language & Writing are two very different things.. For instance here in Kent, in the South of England there is a village that is spelt "Trottiscliff" Bit is actually pronounced "Trosley"... & Has always been.. since the middle ages 🤷🏻♂️.. This is due to... The arrival of the Anglo-Saxon tribes from central Europe...! Have you ever looked at the spelling & pronunciation of some of the modern Scandinavian, Germanic or even French languages.. let alone whatever they were speaking & trying to write down in throughout the dark ages...!
@@hungryghost23 I agree with your points but actually it is very much gate keeping when one group ignores the evolution, cultural reasons etc. and tells everyone else that they are wrong. Attempting to control and/or limiting anything, language included… is the literal definition of gate keeping.
@@hungryghost23 and to a degree gate keeping of a language can be ok. There are standards and a right and wrong way usually. But not so much with English..for many obvious reasons.
Well obvious to some I suppose
The word lieutenant is French and comes from the words lieu meaning place and tenant from the verb tenir meaning to hold. The old French word for place was luef. So the Brit prononciation comes from old French lueftenant.
Don't forget that the UK was under Norman rule for centuries and French was the official language.. or a form of it. Norman or old French.
I, as a Scottish person, before this video had never heard the word "niche" be pronounced like "nitch" that's fascinating to me
I know you don't actually read the comments, but just in case you read this one .... please be good enough to post the link to the original video. I know girl gone london has issues with you using her content without acknowledging her channel in the description. Once you start doing that, I will start watching your channel again.
I guess buoy is pronounced 'boy' here because it comes from the word buoyant or buoyancy. Boo-ee-ancy would sound daft 😄😄
I use to feel the same, until I discovered that there ARE places where buoyancy is pronounced Boo-ancy. I still think that it sounds daft, but can understand where they get Boo-ee from now.
@@jonathanspence8642I have NEVER heard Buoyancy being pronounced as Booancy in UK or Australia. Maybe in the US (where they don’t speak English)…
It's from Dutch
Thank you for (literally) spelling that out. I never took the time to realise why the US pronunciation sounded so off 😊
Or boy ant
00:18 let me stop you there, words that Brits pronounce properly.
Your accent doesn’t stop you pronouncing correctly
Absolutely, we originated the language darlings
He can say differently if he wishes as there are many dialects of English. There is the Queens English, Irish English, Indian english anywhere English is spoken will be a "different" dialect. In his case American English is actually the most widespread version of English🙂
@@multipl3 As the creators of the language and actually being English, I get to say 'take a seat'.
Ask an American to say " The squirrel looked at an orange mirror whilst eating oregano"...its hilarious!
That's far too funny😂
@@zombieapocalipse2020 thanks!
😂😂😂
First time I have ever seen "oregano" written
@@staticbuilds7613 ... Really? How so?
if England “invented” English then the way the British say it is 100% Correct
Fr
Fun fact. In the US, telegrams and newspapers charged by the letter rather than by the word so they would spell words incorrectly to save money. So they took the letter u out of 'colour' for example and shortened aluminium which is why they say it incorrectly.
Yes! I love telling this fact to people 😂
On the aluminium one, the original name, as coined by Sir Humphrey Davy, was alumium, then he changed it to aluminum, it was actually the British who added the extra I to make it sound more Latin.
That doesn't hold water when in the USA words have been lengthened like 'transportation' and what about their use of 'automobile' instead of just plain 'car' (shortened from 'motor carriage')?
@nevillemason6791 Transportation hasn't been lengthened, that is the correct spelling. Car comes from the Latin word for wheeled vehicle 'carrus' and the word has completely replaced the word automobile which doesn't disagree with my point
@drakhan6287 Got the spellings wrong, buddy. It's aluminium.
My pet peeve is how mathematics is shortened to math. We say maths because it’s plural.
@@terencedenman702 there are different types of mathematics as such it is not a noncount noun. There is a distinction in the types of mathematics being taught, hence maths.
@@terencedenman702 mathematics is the noun form, mathematical is the adjective. Gym is the singular shortening for gymnasium, noun (for the place) where gymnastics, also a noun, are performed.
Shortened version of mathematicS
@@terencedenman702your ignorance is that you don't realise that math or maths is short for mathematics so why drop the 's' twat!
@@terencedenman702 very much agree with your last reply. Getting dogmatic about a language which has changed so dramatically over the centuries is pointless.
I think the biggest trap Americans fall into is expecting English to be logical. 🙂
😂😂😂
exactly example use,/ewes, heal/heel,hi/high,ail/ale, bare/bear, and that doesnt even touch on the ones spelled the same but are pronounced different depending on the meaning or the 1001 different little quirks that make up the english language.
It has its own logic
It’s not illogic, it’s inconsistency. Each set of words English adopted from another language - French, Germanic, Gallic, Greek etc - is internally consistent, there’s just no consistency between them because of the diverse roots.
They tell me it's called, thinking outside the box, with all the inventions, perhaps they have a point?
The American pronunciation of Nissan sounds like the polite Japanese word for "older brother" 😂
The difference in "adult" is not the a-sound but the stress on AD and ULT respectively.
Might be UK regional, but for me, an ad-ult movie is boring for kids, whereas an a-dult movie is NOT for kids (typically rated XXX).
@@BryTeeyep, I came here to say that! Definite difference between adult and a-dult 😂
Surprised they don't say aydult.
This man is not a linguist, and clearly has never looked at a dictionary to see how words are to be pronounced, and what the different sounds are. I'm guessing they don't teach phonetics either...
Remember, Americans speak American NOT English! Different grammar, spelling and pronunciation
Dynasty the British way = 'dinasty' - how do you pronounce 'lynx' Tyler?
Missile - the American version really gets me as I hear 'missal' - a small leather-bound book I take to church.
Or "synthetic."
There are literally two Ys in the word, why would they be pronounced differently from each other? (it's not a vowel so doesn't use the same rules)
Dynamite and Dynamo isn't spelt with an i sound. In reality, English pronunciation is never uniform and kind of bullshit if you think about it.
How do you pronounce Tyler?
??????😅😅😅😅😅😅
Obviously we are right!! The language is English, we are English!!
Exactly! We speak English, Americans speak American English. Yet most of em still would say their pronunciation is right 😂
@@terencedenman702 ‘British English’ isn’t a language. We speak English and Americans speak American English. I never said it was inferior or superior, I was making a joke which you clearly didn’t understand. Calm down and be a bit more optimistic. It was a harmless joke, and I apologise if it offended you in anyway.
Exactly brother
@@terencedenman702 no such language as British English, it is just English as spoken by the naturally English inhabitants of England
@@v1rtual_r0manc3 I wouldn't even call it American English, but Americanese as the English dictionary was rewritten by Webster, I believe in 1950s.
It’s called ENGLISH for a reason. We invented the language so whatever the way words are spelt or spoken it can only be correct how we say it. Also we have accents that are varying the way words are said all across the U.K. Newcastle for instance may not pronounce words the same as Londoners. Advertisement is said both ways by the way.
This woman has clearly never been outside of London, England, or whatever southern town she lives in. Stay in Newcastle, Glasgow, Belfast or Aberdeen for a few months then report back.
Exactly so many Americans don’t get that we have regional accents and sayings! They think we all speak the same!!
And advertisement is pronounced differently in different generations. I say it differently from my kids . The same as laboratory
She lives in the midlands and has for many years
@@clairemorris2816yeah, we have probably a hundred (no exaggeration) more regional accents than the Americans do, you can travel as little as ten to twenty miles and they talk completely differently, while often in America whole states have the same accent
@@Paulthompson9942and that's just between Surrey and Hampshire 😂
Aloominum does my head in..
there's a second i bruv
Sir Humphry Davy originally named the metal “alumium” in 1807, changed his mind, called it aluminum, then changed it again in 1812, finally settling on aluminium - apparently so it fit neatly with elements like sodium, potassium and magnesium.
Just think for a second your speaking English who do you imagine speaks it correctly and English person or an American
@@libbybethukDo Americans say "you're" (contraction of "you are" or "your" (possessive, as in "this is your version")?
@@monstermonstermonster2983I think you mean "write" not "say."
To summarise, we British people pronounce words correctly, Americans pronounce them incorrectly.
Bloody true. As a matter of fact, the English language eventually comes from our land England
@@christophermichaelclarence6003 to be fair, the english language in 1776 was very different to the english language today.
Americans ussually pronounce things like their spelt...we have more imagination...both sides put emphasis on different ends of words🎩
Not to mention they spell things incorrectly. Thanks to Webster who wanted anything American to be separated from the English
Lieutenant is not correct, no f in there
no one in the UK says advertissment, we say advertiiizement. That one was totally wrong
Depends how old you are I guess because I say it the UK way she denotes.
I've never said or heard advertiizement said here in the UK in my life! It's always been advertissment as long as I've known it. Interesting.
This is an age thing. I'm over 80 and have always/ will always say advertissment
This term has gotta be really old because I know people who are in the 60s and pronounce it advertiisement. It’s probably also a regional thing.
Some of them you’ll hear both in the U.K. like advertisement, dynasty, debris and missile for example, some of which I’m sure probably has something to do with American entertainment having an impact
Also you’ll even get some arguments on proper pronunciation in the U.K. outside of specific accents but around various words based on social standing or the casualness of how someone talks.
You’ll hear disagreements of words that are very much spoken as seen like “Grass”, “Path”, “Bath”, “Laugh” depending on either your place in the country or your ‘poshness’ you might find further south or with slightly posher people an ‘r’ gets inserted into the pronunciation and it becomes “pahrth”, “bahrth”, “lahrff”, “grahrss”
In English, we have words with letters that are silent. We don't always pronounce every letter.
😅when me and my family say “butter” the t’s are silent
That's why American English is easier to understand for the whole world
Yes. We do, like loads of British place names...
Worcester = Wooster
Gloucester = Gloster
Milngavie = Mullguy
Queue - only one letter is really necessary. 😂
Are you from Worcester?
In Old French it was spelled ‘Luef’, a tenant was someone given authority. We spell it the modern way but still pronounce it the original way.
We invented the language first, Americans just simplified and dumbed it down 😂
The Brits invented the language. It's called English. 😎😎😎
Well no, the English invented it not the British as Wales and Scotland had their own languages.
As an American you just need to ask yourself one question, "what language do I speak".......you have your answer on what is right and wrong.
english so we say it correctly ;)
You are right but only if you claim to speak American, you don't you claim to speak English which therefore makes to wrong.
I like the videos of American Karens screaming at people to speak English, they are completely oblivious to the fact that they struggle with the language themselves. Although not originally from the UK I have learnt RP English and slang, I lived and worked in England for donkeys years! You sort of pick it up with the lifestyle.
According to many Americans interviewed on the streets, they don’t even associate English with England! While English is spoken in many countries, the only country where it’s the Official language is in England.
@@Jeni10Actually English is an official language in many countries but not in England. Even UK govt doesn't have any official language by law but I think govts of Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland do along with other languages.
I have worked with many, many senior officers in the armed forces. The first time I called one Lieutenant pronounced the American way I was informed that "I am not a cloakroom attendant, kindly use the correct pronunciation" 😂 and I have ever since!
Considering it's borrowed from French the Brits pronounce it kinda weird though compared to the original. The US is definitely closer to the French original.
Pronouncing "lieutenant" as "leftenant" starts to make sense when you remember that "U" and "V" used to be the same letter, once vpon a time.
Sir . When the British army officers back in the day .when writing their dispatchers, they used a quil, so the letter u always appeared as a v over the years this came to be known as left tenant.
@@vitalspark6288 well, actually, U, V and W were the same letters
@@nekotranslates indeed, but there's no W in lieutenant, so that seemed irrelevant.
As a brit. Never understood our pronunciation of lieutenant 😅
Bear in mind, the English being cited is known as Received Pronunciation ir RP - the language of the BBC etc, whereas huge swathes of the country including Scotland, N Ireland, Wales have quite different pronunciations for very many words.
I was thinking the same. I know that you should pronounce the 'H' in herbs, but as a Londoner I say it more like the Yanks!
Lol wrong.
Not all British people talk in RP.
It’s not Received Pronunciation that old BBC speech, how the Queen spoke, and how aristocrats speak.
Not very different.
@@MyRackley you need to listen again. Listen to how King Charles speaks then listen to Tom Hiddlestone
The American pronunciation of "Missile" gives a whole new meaning to the word "Mistletoe". Not going to lie, a Missile Toe sounds pretty cool to me, it would go well with my Rocket Finger
Missed out aluminium and Caribbean. Whenever I hear an American saying it wrong it I start shouting at the tv.
Same here, especially on cooking shows when they call tomatoes- tomaytoes, no y in tomatoes. Calling basil- Bazil, oregano- oregeno and many other examples. Totally clueless.
So pleased I'm not alone in that, hate it.
They spell aluminium differently too.
@@kimgrattage6049I also hate that they don't pronounce the "h" in herbs
@@kimgrattage6049 Makes you wonder how they would pronounce the boy / man's name (I'm guessing it is not a male name in America)...
As a rule of thumb over here, as kids we are taught that "Magic 'e' makes 'Aahh' say 'Aayy'". So if there is an 'e' at the end of a word then it stresses the vowel and means the letter should be pronounced as a capital letter, rather than a lowercase one.
I hope I explained that ok. I am binging all your videos cause I really like how genuinely interested you seem in it all!
If you think about it, a buoy is buoyant. It has buoyancy.
Exactly!
For Americans somethingbthat floats must be 'booeeant' and have 'booeeancy'. I don't have a Websters dictionary so can't look it up (if it says anything at all about origins...)
As we’re actually English and you speak our language, we are always correct 😂😂😂
Oh how cute! It's only a matter of time before the language is called American. All it takes is a law passing in the US and you'll be speaking American! And you'll be happy for it!
@@Sayitlikitiz101 🤣 👌 So we’ll be speaking Native American? How cute. 🤣 typical yank. You can change all the laws you like. You still speak English love.
@@Sayitlikitiz101 typical yank😂. You think you can pass a law in the USA and it applies to us 🤣🤣 how cute. You don’t even speak the native language of America pmsl!! You speak our language love.
You think you can make laws in America that effect us over here, how cute. Typical yank 🤣 you don’t speak American in your own country pmsl. You speak English love 🤣
Perfectly correct is more like it. It's called the Queens English
00:58
Tyler: Oh wow we're jumping right into it
Also Tyler: starts watching the video half way through
When it comes to the word adult, in the south of England, where I grew up we used both pronunciations. The one she used as the British pronunciation would be when referring to a person as being an adult. The one she used for US pronunciation we used specifically for referencing NSFW type content like adult movies, etc.
There's also QUAY - y'all say kway, but we Brits pronounce it KEY!
"Y'all"? When did a British person ever say y'all? Sounds like the Beverly Hillbillies.
@@catgladwell5684 since I became Fb friends with a few Texans! I'm guilty of cherry-picking. There are some American words and phrases I love,but others I avoid. Bite me!😹
And just of the quay, there is buuee, correctly pronounced boy
@@lindybeaumont4476 "Bite me!" is one of the more unpleasant Americanisms. Some of my best friends - and cousins - are American. Doesn't mean I need to talk like them.
I'm from Yorkshire and am guilty of saying y'all too, but I blame charlaine harris 😂
It's not about "making sense" it's about the correct pronunciation.
Yes.
What you must remember is that British English is made up from many languages over centuaries and therefore the silent letters and letter emphasis are correct to the country of origin. In the US many of these words came into the country as the written word and the pronunciation was placed by the reader. The British pronunciation is therefore correct.
There is no such thing as British English we just speak English.
English is 4 languages in a trench coat 😂
Well, it is a GERMANIC language
@@lizhoward-k7627 Incorrect. If you have a problem with that, take it up with Oxford:
"When it comes to the differences in British English and American English spellings even brits get caught out occasionally. The main difference is that British English keeps the spelling of words it has absorbed from other languages, mainly French and German. Whilst American English spellings are based mostly on how the word sounds when it is spoken."
Niche is French
Stop stealing other people’s videos. GGL has contacted you about this.
I'm from the UK and have never heard anyone pronounce the word 'advertisement' the way she said we do. We say it how she said Americans do
It's more of a southern thing I think, I'm from Kent and hear it all the time
I'm UK based and have never heard it the american way!
Never heard any fellow Brit say the American version.
Never heard it said American way in UK - unless the speaker has English as a 2nd language.
I used to say it the American way until I was like 10, as I only ever heard people refer to them as "adverts". It's only after I started hearing other people pronounce it the British way that I realised I picked up my old way of saying it from the americans
You know you get a silent "P", well Lieutenant has an invisible "F" 🤣🤣😛
WTF, eh? 😁
Like the silent pee in bath.
😂😂@@stevegreen5552
5:25.... coming from old French, and possibly with some ancient Greek influence, it's quite normal to get an F sound in "eu" that will stick through old English until modern times. Let's be real. Americans butchered their own language in just 300 years, which shouldn't be called English anymore, or at least be a dialect of it.
The British use the lowercase "a" and the US use the uppercase "A". Here in Australia we use both 😊
Can't believe the first word wasn't aluminium!! 🤣😂
That's a spelling issue, not a pronunciation issue
😊🤣
@@andrewphillips3973 You got it wrong buddy, it is a pronunciation issue and a spelling issue as well There is two letter Is in aluminium NOT one I, so that makes it a pronunciation and spelling issue.
@@williamgardner2739 false
Problem here is that pronunciations here in the U.K. are all over the place, ask people from Cornwall, Essex, Northumberland, Warwickshire, Lancashire, Ayrshire, Highlands, Glamorgan, Flintshire, Fermanagh or Antrim and you’ll get so many interpretations and local dialects that it’ll baffle you. Want to start a chaotic argument? Ask them all to tell you what they call a bread roll, bap, batch, cob, muffin……
In Cheshire they called bread rolls Barm Cakes even though they were'nt cakes but bread. Put fillings in them. Meats, meat and salad, UK chips, not those awful twig like French Fries with no substance or taste, nothing worse than eating a cardboard tasting chip. Ours are big, fat. Juicy and hot, sandwiched between a barn cake slathered with best butter that runs down your chin and arms as you tuck into this UK delicacy. Only true Brits will understand the magic, believe me. Hands up all who have enjoyed at least one in their lifetime?
Definitely, grew up in Leicestershire and a bread roll was a Cob. Now moved to East Yorkshire, and if I asked in the chippy for a Chip Cob they'd look at me like I had two heads! It's a breadcake here. Even though it clearly, definitely is NOT a cake, haha!
@@kimgrattage6049 😊 the chip butty...
The Cornish don't even make a proper cream tea....
As a brit, it is very funny seeing an adult struggling to say every-day words😂
@terencedenman702 I love that you tried to insult but Insulted yourself by showing that you don't know the difference between everyday and every-day lol they didn't misspell it. Has the same letters. Just has a hyphen. Everyday is an adjective yet every-day is an adverb. Everyday means ordinary/normal whereas every-day means each day. So if anything.. you are the one that misspelt due to using the wrong meaning. They used the correct grammar.
@@terencedenman702
Imagine thinking you're schooling someone and just actually demonstrating your ignorance 😂
@@terencedenman702 You powned yourself.
I actually thought I was going to see his tongue detach completely from his body and jump clear of his mouth carrying its own little suitcase, over, "Advertisment"....
Hysterical.
A lot of the differences are either vowel sound or emphasis. But we also have regional differences with many words, just as there are many differences across the US. Try out listening to the many accents/dialects of different parts of the UK.
As a British person I have never heard the British version of advertisement
I feel like she got that one the wrong way round. Americans say it the way she said British people do
@@patrickcolgan6301she got the taco one wrong too
British people just say advert just for short. I always thought Americans called them commercials.
Advert
I hadn't until mid secondary school when I was ridiculed by a peer and my teacher for not saying it the british way. I didn't believe that was hoe it was said for a while after still until I heard it said elsewhere.
In the UK they generally pronounce these words closer to how they are pronounced in their original languages. You Americans do use the long a-sound a lot when the original language has a short a-sound. In Sweden we usually pronounce the words as they do in the UK. Some are spelled the same, and some are variations of the words in English, but are pronounced similarly. We do however pronounce address, missile and military closer to how you do in the US.
Then there are some words that are very different in Swedish, and those are
vuxen = adult
annons = advertisement
skräp = debris
ört = herb
fritid = leisure
You Americans pronounce lieutenant closer to how the French say it (it is a French word), but the british have a reason for saying leftenant: "According to military customs, a lower ranking soldier walks on the left side of a senior officer. This courtesy developed when swords were still used on the battle field. The lower ranked soldier on the "left" protected the senior officers left side. Therefore, the term leftenant developed."
Also, shouldn't dynasty be spelled die-nasty in America if that's how you pronounce it?
There is the word Scrap in English, (meaning: of unwanted things) so thats kind of similar to Skräp = debris for you.
Your word ört for herb, could be linked to the word horticulture, which is linked to vegetation/trees etc.
Only yesterday Tyler was astonished about the British pronunciation of lieutenant. And here he is again!!
I noticed that too.. he just covered that a day or so ago.
He has multiple reaction channels each with a different surname and country of interest.
@Raising_Runelords Yes, I know. It was a British reaction yesterday I'm referring to. Of course we can't know if he posts reactions in the order that he makes them. But he does seem to be puzzled by the same things several times over.
He's done at least approximately 1,464 videos on the uk alone, possibly more, but still can't remember what the video told him 10 seconds ago most of the time and can't retain information. Or more likely he's full of shit and playing stupid.
@@BrianMac2601 I really don't know why I watch. I think I've been indoctrinated into the cult of Tyler!
I need to wean myself off!!!
Original video from Girl Gone London! Stop riding on the efforts of other YT content creators and failing to mention, or thank them!
As a Brit
Some of these words are still pronounced a bit differently depending on where you’re from in England
Seems when they say British they mean England
@@empressuchiha5370 probably
In UK & Australia we say ‘Dorothy’… In the US you say ‘Doorothy’ with an extra ‘o’ in the name. With Aluminium… the man who discovered the metal says it is the British way. And he shou;d know…
The man who is said to have discovered Aluminium died 1829. Are you sure you heard him pronounce?
@@GrouchoEngels When he died is irrelevant. It is spelt and pronounced as ALUMINIUM. He found it. He decided what it was to be called. Get over it. Learn how to speak English.
@@aussieragdoll4840 Sir Humphrey Davy, the main in question, actually originally wanted it to be called "Alumium", and *nobody* calls it that now.
@@aussieragdoll4840 I'd rather stick to British English instead of any inferior mutation.
I read that there was an exhibition in America of this new lightweight metal, and the signs made used the spelling from one of the patents, which had used "aluminum" (as in a typo), whereas the other 30 or so patents at the time had "alumium" or "aluminium". Once the signage was printed ... too bad, that's how we're spelling it now!
Dynasty, synonym, synthetic, dysfunction, dysphasia, dysentery, dyslexic. It’s not that strange
And dynamo????
As someone from the UK, I always those that the "US" pronunciations for lieutenant, advertisment, debris, dynasty, missile were the UK ones, and vice versa
A lot of American films and tv programmes made it across the pond, so I think that's why we Brits understand your way of pronoucing words/phrases better than the Americans understanding ours.
My kids have adopted American words like "trash" and "movie" into their everyday language.😆
😢
@@pogleswife7572 Yes! We went to the cinema - occasionally the flicks.
We didn't go to a movie theater.
My daughter says "I've gotten" instead of "I've got" all the time. I correct her but it's hopeless! I blame tiktok 🙄
My youngest who's 13 tries to use american words because of all the stuff she hears on the internet but I firmly remind her how to say it properly and I remind her that we are English! 🤣
The word 'got' is superfluous. I have is sufficient!@@richardherrington6552