6. Pronunciation of particular words

6. Pronunciation of particular words

Other differences in pronunciation are less important, since they concern only individual words or small groups of words. For example, in Britain been has the same sound as bean, but in America it is like bin. In Britain, the last syllable of words like fertile, sterile and missile rhymes with aisle. In the US, the vowel is much shorter, or a mere vocalic I - fert-il, ster-il, miss-il or miss'l. Americans do not suppress the final t of trait, as Britons do, or pronounce an f in lieutenant. The following table shows examples of such minor differences, but it should be borne in mind that relatively few words are pronounced so differently as to cause any but the most fugitive confusion. Nor are these examples restrictive: in the US leisure is pronounced both with a long vowel (leezhure) and to rhyme with pleasure (lezhure), but the former is more common. Click here to see the full text.  

Word	AE	BE
address	ah-dress	a-dress
advertisement	ad-ver-tize-ment	ad-vert-tis-ment
agile	a-jil	a-jile
alternate (adj.)	ault-er-n't	aul-tern-et
apricot	a-pri-cot	ay-pri-cot
aristocrat	a-ris-to-crat	ar-is-to-crat
asphalt	as-fault	as-felt
ate	ate	et
ballet	bal-ay	bal-ay
bitumen	bi-too-men	bich-er-men
buoy	boo-ee	boy
Byzantine	biz-an-teen	bi-zan-tine
Caribbean	k'-rib-ean	kari-bee-an
charade	sha-raid	sha-rahd
chassis	oha-see	sha-see
chimpanzee	chim-pan-zee	chimp-'n-zee
cigarette	sig-a-ret	sig-a-ret
clerk	klerk	klark
composite	k'm-pos-it	kom-p'-zit
cordial	cor-jil	oor-dee-al
cremate	cree-mate	cr'-mate
croquet	cro-kay	cro-kay
debris	d'-bree	deb-ree
detail	dee-tail	dee-tail
dislocate	dis-lo-cate	dis-lo-cate
dynasty	die-nas-tee	din-as-tee
figure	fig-yer	fig-ger
frustrate	frus-trate	frus-trate
garage	ga-rahzh	gar-ij
inquiry	in-kwi-ree	in-kwir-ee
interesting	in-ter-est-ing	in-trest-ing
jaguar	jag-wah	jag-u-ahr
laboratory	lab-ra-tor-ee	la-bor'-tree
lever	lev-er	lee-ver
lieutenant	loo-ten-ant	lef-ten-ant
literally	lit-er-al-ee	lit-ral-ee
marquis	mar-kee	mar-kwis
migraine	my-grain	mee-grane
omega	o-may-g'	o-m'-g'
perfume	per-fume	per-fume
premature	pree-m'-toor	pre-m'-tyoor
premier	pr'-meer	prem-e
privacy	pry-va-see	priv-a-see
process	praw-cess	pro-cess
produce (n.)	pro-doos	praw-dyoos
progress (v.)	pro-gres*	praw-gress
recluse	rec-loos	re-cloos
renaissance	ren-a-sens	re-nay-sens
route	rout	root
schedule	sked-ule	shed-ule
semistatus	sem-eye	sem-ee
strychnine	stat-us	state- US
tomato	strik-nine	strik-neen
trait	tom-ay-doe	tom-ah-toe
trauma	trayt	tray
vase	trah-ma	trau-ma
vitamin	vayz	vahz
Z	vy-ta-min	vit-a-min
lever	zee	zed