Brit Reacts To WHY AMERICAN ENGLISH IS SO MISUNDERSTOOD!

Brit Reacts To WHY AMERICAN ENGLISH IS SO MISUNDERSTOOD!
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Hi everyone, I’m Kabir and welcome to another episode of Kabir Considers! In this video I’m going React To WHY AMERICAN ENGLISH IS SO MISUNDERSTOOD!
• Why American English i...
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[@impresarioe6824]

In terms of the word "colour", the British use the old French form of the word. Americans use the Latin form of the word.

[@DTG_LOCKETT]

Middle English.

[@enigmatic_soul9112]

I believe print cost played a factor. Print was charged by the letter. So most had to find a way to save.

[@DTG_LOCKETT]

@@enigmatic_soul9112 printers, telegraph operators, and newspaper companies in America all charged by the word not the letter. Think about that belief and answer these questions. Why would a company that makes money on the quality of their printing intentionally misspell words? Why does American English have silent letters in them?

[@dominique9934]

I think the fact that British, Irish, and Scottish have their own dialect but you think Americans are supposed to sound similar even though we are over 3000 miles away is crazy to me. This one family I follow from New Zealand the mother said kids there have a more American accent now just from watching so much American entertainment.

[@maryjennings4913]

I do believe you're talking about Your New Zealand Family!! I watch them too!!! I love them!!!

[@DeLee596]

I follow them, too. When they say butter, it sounds like bitter to me. Their dialect is so different. I love watching them, too.

[@dominique9934]

@@maryjennings4913 Yes 👍🏾

[@dylnfstr]

Love Your New Zealand Family! They just released a video at Disney Land and that was a fun video.

[@dominique9934]

@@dylnfstr yeah, I watched it.

[@GrimrDirge]

Colour and valour are spelled color and valor in America because Noah Webster, the famed American dictionary author, spent decades trying to unify and clarify the English language. He was also involved in the American war for independence, and had political reasons for distinguishing American spelling from British spelling. His biography is pretty fascinating.

[@teressareeves5856]

Also Noah Webster decided to go with the French version of words that were closer to their original spellings. Very fascinating man.

[@tinahairston6383]

Laurence actually has several videos/shorts on spelling of same words. There are actually a lot of spellings that are used in the US that ORIGINALLY came from the UK but at some point in history was changed in the UK but here in the US, as Laurence says, we didn't get the memo, lol.

[@dalemoore8582]

We got the memo, but we tore it up.

[@tinahairston6383]

@@dalemoore8582 BAHAHA!!

[@JLDReactions]

Something that irks me about the use of the term African American Vernacular English is that it seems to imply that Afro-Americans only have one dialect which is far from the truth. Our accents vary just as much as any other dialects depending on region. Afro Americans in New Orleans do not sound like Afro-Americans in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, etc. Same goes for all the other cities.

[@Xandycane]

Worse, all you have to do is listen to two people from different parts of the country and you can hear the difference. It's extremely obvious.

[@amberfuchscia709]

JLDReactions...I think I understand. I had an acquaintance who once told me he could distinguish a black person speaking no matter where they were from. I then played a couple of tapes of friends talking and asked him who was what. He misidentified a white guy from the more rural area of Georgia as black and my best friend from California as white. He turned out to be an awful racist and was dropped from our friendship group.

[@jenniferbrown913]

I'm American, and I actually love when Laurence does an American accent! It's dead on with an oh-so-slight exaggeration, so it always sounds to me like he's playfully teasing. Hilarious!

[@darla896]

I was very impressed with his Appalachian accents! 😂

[@jenniferbrown913]

@@darla896 Me too! I'm from Pittsburgh and my husband is from WV.

[@darla896]

@@jenniferbrown913 Yes! I know people from both areas. I was quite impressed that he could understand AND mimic the accents 🤣

[@aleatharhea]

You said you couldn't think of any British accents with rhotic R's. Nine minute in: " Whurrre's my tract'rrrrrr? " 😁

[@md_vandenberg]

I'm curious if Brits give the other Colonies (former or otherwise) a hard time for their use of the English language? It's not just Americans that have "ruined" English, not with the Aussies doing their own bizarre thing down-under, for example.

[@Timbothruster-fh3cw]

It seems to be a bias there 🤔

[@mavahuth5044]

I really like to listen to Lawrence's videos.

[@robertcampopiano6001]

When Noah Webster created his dictionary, he reworked the spelling of a lot of the spellings. He dropped the “u” in words like “colour” and changed the spelling of words like jail (gaol), draft (draught), etc.

[@hatleyhoward7193]

American English removes unnecessary and unneeded vowels or consonants. Webster might have had OCD?

[@raven3moon]

The other thing is that "color" is the original spelling in Old French, which is where the word originates.

[@TheRedPeril]

@@hatleyhoward7193you’ve deemed them unnecessary, they aren’t unnecessary. That’s the correct way to spell it and you’re trashing it. But stay it denial!

[@hatleyhoward7193]

@@TheRedPeril I didn’t deem anything. Noah Webster did. And since he was in charge of the American dictionary, we spell it differently. I don’t think it’s anything to get into conflict about. We aren’t trying to take away your extra letters. Use all the “u’ letters you want. Imagine though if I was in denial? What does that support group look like?

[@regeniatipton1930]

​@TheRedPeril There is no denial involved. If you are British the correct way to spell color is colour. If you're American the correct spelling is color. It's all from the perspective of whether you're speaking of American English or British English. It's not a matter of right or wrong, just distinctly different.

[@gwennahedden8485]

The Craig pronunciation could be because we have both names of Greg and Craig

[@larissahorne9991]

My brother, who immigrated from Australia to England, named Greg, has a lot of problems with people mispronouncing his name.

[@xzonia1]

Laurence is a gem! Love how he brings us all a little bit closer together with his videos. 😊❤

[@a3gill]

He didn't mention it specifically, but the answer to Flavor/Flavour Color/Colour is that in the 1600s there was no "u" in either place. You guys adopted it later on. Much like with the metric system, or lack there of, we tend to adhere to the "if it ain't broke..." principle :D

[@carlbeaver7112]

You might consider that, as a nation of many peoples, we speak an adoption and mashup of many languages and dialects. We even mashup words from within our own borders.

[@suzanneritter8001]

I was born in Scotland to a Scottish mum and American Air Force dad. We moved stateside when I was 2 so I have a “generic American accent”. BUT I grew up reading childrens books that were my mother’s. And we went home to Scotland quite often. As a younger child in school I was more accustomed to the British spelling of words. I remember bringing my books in when I failed spelling tests for spelling center as centre, color as colour… I was told to spell the American way😡. Problem was I couldn’t distinguish between the two at a young age. I can laugh now about it (I’m 61 so that was a long time ago). Great reaction!

[@aleatharhea]

You know, I don't mind when something new shows up. What I mind is when perfectly good meanings change because of widespread ignorance. And then we have to resort to using 10 words instead of one, to express the original meaning that we lost.

[@randalmayeux8880]

Hi Kabir, words like colour and parlour in British English are spelled that way because they retained the French spelling as do a number of other British words. When Noah Webster compiled the American dictionary he chose color and parlor etc I once had a housemate from Manchester, and his accent was drastically different from yours.

[@teressareeves5856]

The word 'hello' is attributed to Thomas Edison when using the telephone. It was easier to say hello than 'good morning', 'good afternoon', etc to someone you couldn't see so you had no idea what time it was where the unknown person was. You can also put so much inflection in just that one word to set the mood for the following conversation.

[@adiarainfoster]

The accents in America vary WILDLY and often in close proximity to each other. Sometimes the difference is subtle but it's there. I spent a lot of time in a major city where there were tons of people speaking tons of different languages and accents from all over the world between the ages of 13 and 21. Before that we moved from one end of the country to the other, from north to south too. Every place I went, people spoke a bit differently. I think maybe all of that helped me to be able to hear the differences a bit better. It was fascinating to learn later that many people can't hear as many differences when they aren't exposed to as many different accents. Like a I heard a person basically admitting that he couldn't hear the difference between the names "Jean" that sounds like "blue jeans" and "Jean" as in "Jean Luc Picard" (from Star Trek) The two names are identical in spelling but sound VERY different. At least they sound very different to me. Many Asians have trouble telling the difference between the R sound and the L sound because they don't use either but rather a sound that is half way between those two. I find stuff like that really interesting! When I was 17, I had a boyfriend in New Orleans when I spent a year there before going back north. I'm not sure where his mother was from, but she spoke so differently to what I was used to. I understood every word she said but one. One evening, when I was there for supper, she asked if I wanted any "my-ee-naz." She had to repeat it three times before I understood what she was asking. The only reason I understood it the third time was because she gestured to the jar of mayonnaise on one end of the table. Now to that point I had experienced so many different American dialects (everything from San Francisco to Arizona to Maryland to New York to southern hillbilly to various forms of deep south dialects) but that was a new one on me completely. I've never actually heard anyone speak the way she did before or since. I'm not entirely sure what part of which state she came from. I know she was American, born and raised, but her dialect still stands out to me as more unique.

[@gotham61]

The ever more common bending of the rules of grammar in speech is something that drives me nuts. I've heard even newscasters say things like "he didn't take things serious" or "we have less people". Aaaargh!

[@nathanaelstephens2973]

Me too!

[@mescko]

The adverb is an endangered species, no doubt.

[@DeLee596]

Schedule is a word that I find funny. To me, it always sounds like the Brits are drunk when they say that word. Americans pronounce the CH with a K sound.

[@knobbynah]

Noah Webster wrote our first American dictionary and he straight up made it an "American" dictionary by changing spellings and so forth.

[@johnalden5821]

As an American, I am always perplexed by the argument that because the language originated in Great Britain, modern-day residents of the island must therefore be speaking it "correctly." It's not like we learned the language from a textbook. In the case of my family, we have been speaking English as long as anyone in the world, including English people. My ancestors ultimately were the same ancestors as current English people have, and just like them, we have been learning the language from our parents since the Anglo-Saxons brought Old English into England. It's our language as much as it is England's. The language is our heritage as much as anyone else's.

[@reindeer7752]

@johnalden5821 - Well said. Some Brits forget they are not speaking Chaucerian.

[@moe92870]

I almost literally watched the "No worries" phrase expand into American dialect. The first time I ever heard that phrase was back in late 1990's, when my childhood friend visited me from Australia. Not to say he started the trend, lol. But in about 10 years time, I heard Americans using it all over the place. So I wonder if "no worries" came from Europe or Australia.

[@Xandycane]

It did originate from Australia. 😊

[@Atheos-1]

Crocodile Dundee

[@moe92870]

@@Atheos-1 sorry to be a contrarian. But I doubt a semi mediocre movie made in 1986 changed colloquial dialog 20 years after it's release. Plus I used to watch that movie all the time and never noticed it was in there?

[@Atheos-1]

@@moe92870 It was more likely that your friend's visit started it.

[@moe92870]

@@Atheos-1 I said I know it wasn't him. I just said that I noticed it. Or sorry if I am bad at noticing sarcasm. lol

[@georgehutter339]

So cool hearing my home town in a video online

[@billfilios2677]

Here in the US, I worked to 12 years in the Boston office for a company headquartered in Oxford England & many of my co-workers were British. While I find Laurence's American accent fun, he doesn't sound anything like me, a New Englander, just as many of the Brits who I worked with for all those years had very different British accents.

[@NurseEmilie]

I was born in South Carolina and now live in North Carolina. I've lived in Tennessee, a short time in Loiusiana, Texas and Oklahome. I don't see much difference in accents in any of these states. Texas accent is a little flatter, but not really much difference. I think most of the south sounds very much alike. That also includes Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri. I like the California accent a lot. They don't have twang or drawl. My husband was from California and I think they sound perfect.

[@stacyr2775]

North Carolinian here, and for the most part I completely agree with you. The biggest difference between Southern accents today is rural vs. urban, rather than between states. Now, there are definitely some local accents in the proper South (a.k.a. the Southeast) that are very dependent on location. Off the topic of my head, there's High Tider in North Carolina, Gullah in South Carolina (not to be confused with the Gullah-Geechee language), both Cajun and New Orleans accents in Louisiana, and the Appalachian accent that does cross state lines). But I do have to disagree with you on Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. While there are a lot of similarities between a Texas accent and a Southern accent, there's enough differences between vowel pronunciations in Texas vs. the South and the whole Texas twang vs. the Southern drawl, that they should be considered two different accents. As for Missouri and Oklahoma, those are Midwestern accents trying to dress themselves up as being Southern, lol.

[@md_vandenberg]

No twang or drawl from California? The Dust Bowl Migration from Oklahoma to California left an impact. The people of Kern County sound like Okies. Source: I'm Southern California born and raised. We have a twang that no one will admit to.

[@majesticeagle191]

Hello was used in the Norwich Connecticut newspaper in 1826. the invention of the telephone then made it more famous.

[@MrPenguinLife]

To answer your question about distance one has to travel to pick up on all but the most subtle changes in accents in the US. Well it varies, ranging from only a few miles in some eastern states, take for example the various accents around the 5 boroughs of New York, versus some parts of the western US where one might drive 500 miles without any discernible difference in accents. Of course you also have upper / lower class accents which can overlay each other even in the same city, as well as racial and ethnic accents.

[@avatar997]

There is a broad General American accent that crosses the northern portion of the country. My Michigan-reared husband and my Puget-Sound self sound nearly identical, I have been told. I think the use of the accent so widely in broadcasting has helped standardize it.

[@MrPenguinLife]

Much the same can be said about the mountain states, but just look at the differences along the Atlantic coast in the 400 miles from Baltimore to Boston, where you will find at least 4 distinctive accents regardless of the exact route between these cities@@avatar997

[@BH6242KCh]

LangFocus has a linguistic analysis of AAVE: AAVE - African American Vernacular English Worthy of a reaction video....

[@carolyngilbert5121]

Kabir, Kabir 😅 I'm 66 and originally from New Orleans. Dialects were different in actual areas of the city. We knew what area of the city each grew up in. A couple of miles apart from each other. Now 40 or 50 miles.

[@willcool713]

I think there are many more regional dialects in the East US than the West, New England having the highest density, most likely.

[@larissahorne9991]

Speaking as an Aussie both countries have pronunciations that sound bizarre to us. Here's an example of both. The British pronunciation of vitamins and the American way of pronouncing Herbs.

[@marydavis5234]

herbs is French in origin, so the H is silent and in the UK ,they used to pronounce herbs as erbs until the 17 the century.

[@Cricket2731]

To me, an erb is something grown in the garden (gaa-den). Herb is a man's name.

[@52montoya]

When Webster came out with his dictionary which is standard in schools, he modernized the spelling of many words to eliminate unnecessary letters like the U in coloUr.

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

He tried to rationalize the spellings, which is why “eyez” is spelled “-ize” or “-ise” in the US depending on the root word’s origin.

[@clutch236]

Kabir, maybe you've heard this before, but has anyone ever told you that you resemble american actor "Carl Anthony Payne" who played the role of (Cole) on the sit-com "Martin" (starring Martin Lawrence)? 🤔.....Nice channel! 👍🏽

[@roadwary56]

I like to hear Kabir's southern accent and New Jersey one, they are pretty good.

[@bishlap]

reminds me of the great American Jockey, Steve Cauthen, who was a hillbilly(accent) from Kentucky, took his tack to England and rode there many years, came back sounding like Little Lord Fauntleroy.

[@tjo3410]

Dive into Canadian accents! Its wild! Caribbean ones too!!

[@disoriented1]

There is a marked difference in the usage of 'season' in the U.S. when referring to television programs than 'series' when used to refer to U.K. television. In the U.S. 'Coronation Street' would be referred to as a television series now in its 68th season. In the U.S., until the advent of cable, satellite and streaming, original broadcasting occurred from September to May..roughly 26 episodes. If a program was cancelled by the network, it did not return the following September. In the summer months, we had repeats of the previous season episodes..we called them 'reruns'. I was surprised to learn that U.K. tv programs could have one series produced in 1991-92 and the next produced two years later.

[@mygreywolf]

In the very old days, printing anything was charged by the letter. So needless vowels, particularly "u" were dumped to save money.

[@janetmoreno8909]

British dictionary compilers opted to record established usage (which favored French-looking words, hence the 'u'), Noah Webster, felt that simplifying the spelling - such as 'color' or 'meter' - would aid literacy. But a lot of differences in words are more because of origin of the words used, hence courgette versus Zucchini, one is of French origin the other, Italian and that's because they were introduced by different countries. People forget that language is fluid, always has been.

[@nikki7268]

I'm american and his American English is spot on, also is Ethan from the sidemen!

[@GeorgeMaster-xg7lg]

Kabir, if you and Laurence should meet one day,you two should make a Lost In The Pond video.

[@breannab7112]

You can have different accents in literally the same city. There are a lot of factors that play into our accents in addition to region, like ethnicity. In Chicago, the Black accent and the white accent are totally different.

[@TheValwood]

If you go 40 miles in Texas the accent might be different. It depends if you drive into a small town or a major city. If I drive to Dallas, Austin, Houston, or San Antonio which are way over 40 miles apart (San Antonio to Dallas is about 300 miles apart) The people will sound similar, but if you drive just about forty miles out of a major city into a rural area the people will sound WAY different. So in Texas the difference is more city vs rural in accent.

[@hatleyhoward7193]

I live in Houston but find my accent comes out hard when I am hanging with the country folk. 😂

[@Tijuanabill]

Merriam Webster intentionally changed the spelling of many English words, just to separate America from England. Some of them make sense, and were deletions of exceptions to rules. But many of them were just done out of spite. That spite has been quiet, but it lives on to this day.

[@a3gill]

Unfortunately, "Literally" now figuratively means "Totally" :D

[@Tijuanabill]

Don't worry, Brits. You aren't short of your allotment of the letter R. You are also adding them back in all over the place, where there is not one in print.

[@Bren3669]

his American accent sounds odd but honestly without knowing him, i wouldn’t be able to know why he does

[@JacobNascar]

To put in perspective, im from the south and recently visited Thailand and me and my dad sat next to a couple of white guys and we heard them speaking with a southern accent. I said "Roll Tide Roll!" Just to get a reaction from. Both looked at me with disgust. Yeah we share a very similar accent but live 10+ hours apart.

[@JPMadden]

Woolfardisworthy is a village in the Torridge district of Devon. The name is believed to be derived from the Old English for "Wulfheard's homestead." It's also written as "Woolsery," with the "S" apparently pronounced as a "Z." This means that even when a word has had its spelling changed to make it easier to pronounce, the English language still could not manage to spell it phonetically, which I find amusing. According to my online dictionary, "hullo" is or was a common British alternative to "hello." It also lists the variants "hallo" and "halloo." One drastic word meaning change I encountered is for the word "minion." The current definitions include "sycophant" and "servile or fawning subordinate," although kids today would likely think of the animated movie characters. But in Shakespeare's time, "minion" meant "saucy woman, hussy, jade." He used it in "Romeo and Juliet."

[@jLutraveling]

The US grammar is different from the that of the UK. For instance we will say John has gone to THE hospital when the Brits don’t. Some difference in verb use is different.

[@mescko]

Look up how the name Cholmondeley is pronounced and you will know how we Americans spell it.

[@JPMadden]

@@mescko I did and didn't find the answer. What is it?

[@Cricket2731]

​@@JPMadden, think of a "Pawn Stars" character.

[@JPMadden]

@@Cricket2731 I've never watched that.

[@shadow1674]

Actually the difference in language in where I'm at which is Branson Missouri since we are a tourist town you can go into one store and then the other store and you'll find different dialects of everything and then you'll have a whole different languages

[@ProsperingWoman]

Linguists can call ebonics AAVE but ebonics isn't nationalized - it varies from urban area to urban area across the country, but in the south it changes frequently across each state.

[@neutrino78x]

Kabir, I can help with "colour". So, in 1806, a man named Noah Webster wrote a dictionary called "A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language". This was the first dictionary created by the USA. He changed the spelling of some words to be closer to how they are pronounced, like "color" and "center". Some changes didn't catch on, such as "obzervation"; Americans continue to spell that "observation". In 1843, the brothers Merriam bought the rights to Webster's dictionary, and the tradition lives on. Today the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, or as more commonly known, "Webster's Dictionary" is basically the USA equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary. You can find more about it by searching this exact phrase, "Noah Webster and America's First Dictionary", the first result should be on the Merriam-Webster web site. (I would put a link, but if you do that, KZbin eats your post. 😲) 🙂

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

I’m glad soop didn’t catch on.

[@timothyeadie7239]

Contrary to what many might believe English spoken in all the English speaking countries, not including countries where it is a second language, are closer to each other now than they ever were back 400-500 years ago and beyond. When people traveled into different dialect zones, they would encounter dialects that would have been completely incomprehensible to non locals.

[@jishani1]

the short answer to why we don't include a U in the word color is because we fought a war to not have to.

[@1perfectpitch]

Even when you purposely try to say "R" you say "ah".

[@Mr.Ed_Wayner]

I love that the Brits go on “holiday” versus is Americans going on “vacation.” Love English spellings like colour or favourite versus ours. I prefer American spelling of tires vs English tyres. Do you ever notice that when English singers sing, you don’t hear an accent and sound like American English. Remember when gift cards first came out? People would say giving a gift card was a lazy way to to escape looking for a present. Now it’s like “present? Why didn’t you just give me a gift card.?”

[@reindeer7752]

@edwardwayner451 - Yes, I've always noticed that British accents disappear when singing. That's why I didn't realize some artists were not American in the 60s and 70s. Now "gift" is being used as a verb. I don't understand why, since "give" serves the purpose just fine. "She gifted her friend a scarf," grates on my nerves.

[@jenniferrowland1339]

I took a train from Sheffield to Chesterfield (13 miles) and the accent was noticeably different

[@markballard9942]

The Welsh, the Scots, and many folks in northern england pronounced the Rs.

[@Tijuanabill]

More Windows devices are set to English NA than to English UK. We out number you, so we are correct. This is how logic works.

[@kchastain3]

With 30 regional accents and “countless sub-accents” it’s difficult if not impossible to do what he’s attempted here in comparing usage of the English language between the US and the UK.

[@frankisfunny2007]

There actually is different accents in each state. Like here in Pennsylvania, there's the...... -- Pittsburgh accent.... which has a slight Midwestern flair. -- Philadelphia accent..... it does take quite a bit of influence from the New Jersey accent. -- south central PA accent.... which does sound like the "general American" accent, but it's own flair. It's kind of hard to describe it. -- northeastern Pennsylvania accent... it's the closest to New York City, so it's a mix of Southeastern Pennsylvania accent gwith the NYC accent, and "general American" accent.

[@dylnfstr]

Idk if he covers it in the video, but many linguists and scholars believe that the Southern American accent is closer to the British accent of the mid to late 1700s than the Modern British accent. Edit: He mentioned it immediately after I hit play again 😂

[@adamskeans2515]

generally you have to go about 100 miles to get a new accent even then its not super different there are exceptions like Okrakok (spelling?) island

[@jimgreen5788]

Kabir, re. the color/colour argument, it seems that I remember Laurence doing a video on the subject in the past, but how far back, I don't remember. Re. his point about our way of pronouncing place names in unexpected ways, I may have already told you that, after watching a panel of people from 1 state trying to pronounce place names from another state, and thinking I could easily add to that list, I'm now up to a list of 2300+, and 300+ more in Canada.

[@Blondie42]

Kabir, you should get yourself a copy of "The forme of cury" England's oldest cookbook. Even modern copies of it is printed in middle English. When read aloud it sounds like a form of German. Not all modern day Germans can understand it.

[@RogCBrand]

My middle name is Craig and I definitely pronounce the "ai". I never hear people use my middle name, and I guess I've never paid attention to when it's used for other people, so now I'm going to have to see if people do say "Creg" or if that's something more on the East Coast, rather than here in the West...

[@reindeer7752]

I grew up in the South and I have always pronounced it with the "ai.'

[@kentgrady9226]

My hometown, Omaha, is the model of non-specific, featureless, standard American English. Many broadcasters start their careers here, simply to rid themselves of any trace of their native accent. However, things change very quickly once one leaves the Omaha area. The local accent gets very rural in a hurry. Linguists call it a "prairie twang". A prairie twang is unmistakably rural in character. Some who are unfamiliar with American dialects and accents might confuse it with a vaguely Southern accent. It tends to be quicker in cadence and more nasal in tone. I had country cousins who spoke like this. The accent is common (but not universal) in rural Nebraska, Western Iowa, Northwest Missouri, and throughout Kansas. R Lee Ermey, who portrayed Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in "Full Metal Jacket", was a native Kansan and a superb example of the accent.

[@carolynm3523]

We say Craig both ways. Like Craigslist

[@danmayberry1185]

Kabir, go to the west country forr a ciderrr and you might hear some arrrs.

[@williamlucas4656]

I don’t think standard American english is misunderstood but unique words for objects might well be. Some dialects,particular among rural folk may be difficult but television has blanded much of our english world . I found it hilarious that Americans can’t comprehend the British pronunciation of “water” in some videos.

[@ellevanroamer487]

Hangry- hungry and angry at the same time Homelesscidal- you’re feeling suicidal because of chronic homelessness Hopelesscidal- you’re feeling suicidal due to overwhelming feelings of hopelessness

[@Trifler500]

1:54 - James Webster deliberately made an effort to remove unpronounced letters from words, and to spell words the way they are enunciated. It's just that he wasn't able to get to all of them.

[@shadow1sd]

American and British are almost like two different languages, amarican English is so different from British as far as how we pronounce words and use words. Its almost like different worlds.

[@fractal4284]

Kids these days will be like this video was lit. Or this video was busin. 😂

[@FurlogTheGiant]

I always thought it was Canada’s fault

[@bigplanett]

Even in the US people lose their local accents all the time and speak with the more generic and common American accent. Only when they return home do they revert some. Most American accents on tv are this generic accent. I think that's why the British can master speaking this accent so well in film, etc. British always make fun of Americans trying to speak English because the English accents vary so much and Americans can't keep it straight and well pronounce some words in the queens English and others in another accent and English people pick up on it immediately. Also, in film, since the content was originally intended for American audiences, all an actor had to do was fool Americans and that is easy since many Americans can't even tell the difference between English and Australian accents. 😂

[@juanheredia2293]

So.ething similar is happening in spaanish speaaking cities, where people are starting to talk in the same way with newer generations

[@wiseguymaybe]

This is interesting, I've even subscribed Lawrences channel, Lost In The Pond. Like you it's been a while since I've seen one. Lawrence's humor is incredible. In any case as a yank, I so agree with you about, say soccer should be called football and feet and kicking is more a thing than what American's sport football, as we only kick the ball afew times in the game. But that aside, I undersand that English as a whole is probably the hardest language in the world to learn by non-english speaking people. Even more so than Asian languages or Hebrew. So many slangs as let's say in Spanish, they have fewer words and slangs in their language than we do. But this is interesting. I never realized that some American pronunciations are closer to old English Very interesting vidieo. By the way, each state has different accents, you have a variety of western accents, from Texas to California, a variety of New York accents, Bronz accents, Brooklyn accents, Queens and Long Island accents. A variety of different southern accents the deeper south you get not to mention States close to the Canadian border. I could go on and on. So many states to cover. Like traveling into countrys in Europe

[@misterkite]

The "foot" in football means it's played on your feet and not on horseback.

[@wiseguymaybe]

@@misterkite Are you telling me that football or what we call soccer was inpired by polo? I really don't know much about this please tell me more.

[@misterkite]

@@wiseguymaybe The word "football" was used to describe games that were played by peasants on foot as opposed to the *usual* way of playing games by the upper-class, on horse back.

[@rj-zz8im]

Unless you pronounce 'color' with the u, there's no need to add the u. It's not needed. I don't understand the need for the u in any word with 'or' to be honest.

[@dalemoore8582]

English people often talk about their many accents but as an American I can’t hear it. I can’t tell the different from the way the Queen spoke and the way normal Brits do. The only exceptions are of course, Cockney and the way the Beatles spoke. The rest of you just sound British.

[@monicaborde5602]

I think this is a fascinating topic. I disagree with his American accent... It's not good. It's funny. 😂. I love the different accents here in the USA. Where you are from is always in your mouth.

[@renee176]

Maybe because those words don't need a "u" in them to be pronounced the same...lol!😊

[@monicapdx]

In areas I've traveled via cars, it usually takes at least 200-300 miles before you can catch more than a vague difference in accent. Although I never caught anything in Seattle (173 miles); but another 158 km after crossing the Canadian border, you can hear that difference right away. From the Canadian border guards. 😁 It's mostly the "aboot", which Canadians protest vigorously they really pronounce just like us, "abowt"...but no. Sorry guys, no. We can always tell. The U in colour, etc., never made sense to me. You don't say the our as in "This is our house." Even our O is somewhat iffy. Here in the West we tend to say "coler". Similar with re, as in theatre. No sense. Though maybe that's a hangover from French "théâtre"? Or it's possibly because of that non-rhotic R. Re still doesn't quite make sense. We pronounce the end of the word "er", like we spell it. All this isn't even touching on what we do to Spanish, French, etc. Yes, I know; because it's not the subject. But it's funny or startling what happens to words in other languages over here. (The name of the river running right through the middle of Portland almost always tangles people up. It looks French. It isn't.)

[@lauracoventry780]

These are some Canadian words/phrases. Toque Pencil crayons Washroom Loonie Double Double Pop Freezies Chinook Two four Hydro I wanted to add another Canadian phrase to the list, but I'm 99% sure this comment will get deleted.

[@NurseEmilie]

All I've ever heard is Craig pronounced kreg. I've never heard someone call it crag with a long a .

[@Blondie42]

And I have the opposite experience, and I've lived in the states for 41 years

[@angelagraves865]

Everything is constantly handed back and forth.

[@kingjellybean9795]

Jesus I can only imagine how horrible the word elevator sounds in a cockney accent lol

[@hatleyhoward7193]

Good thing they say lift.

[@huhwhat2308]

The elevator (lift) was invented by Elisha Graves Otis. This latter became The Otis Elevator Company. I guess we know the correct word for that one.

[@hatleyhoward7193]

@@huhwhat2308 Otis invented the safety brake to make the elevator safe and accessible to everyone. The elevator and/or lift was already a concept and in limited use, but the ropes were extremely unsafe..

[@hatleyhoward7193]

The elevator can be traced back to Archimedes in 236 BC, and Ancient Rome. The stop brake gave us the elevator as we know it, but that’s what was invented, not the actual elevator. In my opinion it is more impressive to have invented that than the actual elevator system. It’s an impressive feat of engineering.

[@NurseEmilie]

Why do you put a u in color? It's not pronouced, and not needed.

[@TheRedPeril]

But it’s correct. And you’re wrong. The end.

[@TheRedPeril]

Is your names pronounced Emi-lie? Why the extra I. Everyone knows it’a pronounced Emile. Oh dear. Now go eat a burger you lazy oaf.

[@raven3moon]

​@@TheRedPerilThat is incorrect. Both "color" and "colour" were used in Britain for centuries before colonists were sent to North America. But, "color" became the established spelling for the American Colonies after their establishment, and Britain dropped the "u"-less spelling. But, the US tends to preserve traditions and spellings that Britain discards. Like Halloween, eggnog and caroling. Also, "honor" and the original Old French pronunciation of "herb" without the "h," as it was originally spelled "erb."

[@everyonelovesmajima]

I'm American, we don't even understand American English.

[@controlZchannel]

3:20 sounds like someone doing a fake American accent

[@willcool713]

Laurance's American accent sounds a bit self-deprecating in a typically British fashion which comes across, unintentionally I presume, as slightly snarky or sarcastic to my ear. I doubt he's making fun of the accent, that's not like him, but it could easily be misinterpreted that way, to my mind.

[@jdwilmoth]

As an American there's one thing I don't understand about the British and that's why they even still have a royal family what is their purpose? But it sure must be nice because they live the high life at the British taxpayers expense

[@marydavis5234]

Royal family

[@jdwilmoth]

@@marydavis5234 sorry I didn't notice that my Chinese autocorrect sucks. But I asked the same question to every one of these British reactors and I never get a response But they should write a soap opera about the royal family they could call it the old and useless Kabir would probably have more subscribers if we would respond to the comments instead of being a snob and just ignoring us

[@retired4365]

If you do not speak well here in hospital, they will and can give you an I.Q. test to find out if you're lazy or an idiot. I've seen it happen. 😂🤣 Also jobs do listen to you speak and judge you on that. 🤣

[@elenapatrick8116]

Kabir.. it’s color. Lol. How do you say our, (ow-er). And how do you say hour. Same way right. So why isn’t colour col -ow-er. No it’s col- or. Spelled exactly how it’s said.

[@dc9664]

We dropped the 'u' from words like color because we don't have time for u.

[@nullakjg767]

In america its considered racist to enforce standard english ever since AAVE was considered a real language.

[@hatleyhoward7193]

Language is fluid. Standard English is basically how our population speaks. AAVE is bonkers to designate because we are all Americans. The list had 4 other dialect differences and AAVE isn’t something to isolate and blame things on.

[@raven3moon]

​​@@hatleyhoward7193Then i guess we should also get rid of the designation of Southern American English, too, then. Since we're all American.

[@hatleyhoward7193]

@@raven3moon Stop being obtuse. We are talking about the 50 States, and our populated Districts and Territories. But we do have locations heavily influenced by some parts of South America, so okay….

[@raven3moon]

@@hatleyhoward7193 I'm not being obtuse. But maybe you're not aware of the existence of the also officially designated Native American English, Latino Vernacular English, Cajun Vernacular English, Yeshiva English and Pennsylvania Dutch English, New England English, and Upper Midwestern English among many many others. I'll go by what the actual linguistic experts have to say on the subject.

[@hatleyhoward7193]

@@raven3moonI am very aware and I think we are on the same side of the argument. My point was that AAVE is not considered racist compared to standard English. Neither are any of the other dialects you outlined. The original poster singled out AAVE, and I thought that sucked. As if there shouldn’t be any space for us all…

[@ojizarco-nu5fj]

There are several times more speakers of English, Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas as there are in the old world. The people in the UK, Spain and Portugal are speaking a dialect.

[@dalemoore8582]

Why do English spell color “ colour” ?The “u”is not necessary or pronounced.