American accent vs. British accent

[Leilahb1196]

I have this problem too. Most of english insistute teach Ame accent in Iran I think because the american accent is very easier than the British . also it's clear the british accent is very better(in my opinion!)I like to learn british accent but I m afraid I 'll mix up!

[Perlamaria]

Hi I started to listen to the audio lessons and the lady is talking with a british accent is there any way that it could be changed to american accent? Thanks

[Prezbucky]

Right on!

By the way, my sister lives in Arvada.

There are a couple of similarities between British and American pronunciations:

1) English Cockney and African-American accents both turn the "th" to "f" or "v":

- Brother = brovah (both omit the standard "r" also)
- With = wif

2) Brits commonly do not pronounce the "r" when it ends a word. Bostonians and some other folks from the northeastern US commonly do the same. I've heard that some people in New Orleans also do not pronounce that "r".
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Jooooooey]

Regarding

"there is more effort involved in articulating intial 'th' than there is in 'f'"

and

"Well, a lot of foreigners don't bother learning to say "th" and replace it with "f". They have exactly the problems you mention. A Ukrainian woman who was finishing her master's degree once told me that she had to go before her committee of professors and defend her "feces"."

The "th" sound is not inherently harder (or harder to articulate) than the "f" sound, but it is a lot rarer in the worlds languages. If you don't have this sound in your native vocabulary, then you are going to want to replace it with the sound that is easier (ie: /f/) just by natural instinct, not because you are lazy. We do the same thing by pronouncing tsunami as /sunami/.

I don't know why /th/ is a rarer sound. Maybe there is a phonetic reason or maybe it is just coincidence, but it's not any more difficult unless this sound is new to your phonetic inventory.

However, if you are learning English as a 2nd language, you will want to try to distinguish these 2 sounds in order to be understood better since that is how the majority speaks.

[Jooooooey]

Also, regarding

"Most of english insistute teach Ame accent in Iran I think because the american accent is very easier than the British . also it's clear the british accent is very better(in my opinion!)I like to learn british accent but I m afraid I 'll mix up!"

Neither American nor British English is harder or easier (nor better) than the other. Some things about one or the other are more problematic such as vowel assimilation or distinguishing consonants in one dialect and not in the other. But really it's just small differences. 9 times out of 10, the reason one dialect or the other is taught is due to political reasons. When it's not a political reason, then the teachers are probably misinformed.

[Jamie (K)]

I would add that many instructors in foreign countries (especially politically isolated ones) who say they are teaching a "British" or "American" accent are really teaching neither. They are almost always teaching English with the accent of their own country, because they themselves are unable to speak with a native accent.