# 3. Paco decided to watch some videos to learn the American accent (intonation and accent)

> Be patient with yourself. It is not easy to identify and reproduce some differences in pronunciation between American and British pronunciation. It takes some time to get used to it. Paco also needed plenty of time to learn some differences between these two pronunciations, so he decided to watch some videos to improve his level of American English pronunciation.

Watch the video about the letter R and learn some differences in pronunciation between American and British English.

Say if the statements below are true or false.

1) The letter R is always silent in American English.
2) American English always pronounces the letter R if it is placed at the end of a word.

3) American English never pronounces the letter R if it is placed before another consonant.

Video de Rachel's English en Youtube

1) False. The letter R is never silent in American English.

2) True. The letter R is always pronounced when it is at the end of the word: car /ka:r/

3) False. American English always pronounces the letter R if it is placed before another consonant: learn /lɜ:rn /

# Ejercicio Resuelto

American Accent: difficult words pronunciation

Video de AccurateEnglish en Youtube

It is usual in American English to avoid the pronunciation of some vowels that are usually pronounced in British English.

Watch this video about the pronunciation of some words and say if the statement above is true or false.

# Retroalimentación

The statement is true.

Notice that the word common is pronounced /'kɑ:mən / or /'kɒmən/ in British

but it is pronounced /'kɑ:m n/ in American.

# Reflexiona

Word stress

In American English the emphasis in many words that came from French is placed on the first syllable, whereas in British English it is more often placed on the second syllable. This can make the word sound very differently:

BrE: con-TRO-versy, a-DDRESS, A-dult, don_ATE

AmE: CON-troversy, A-ddress, a-DULT, DON-ate

# Retroalimentación

What is word stress?

Word stress is like a golden key to speaking and understanding English.

The syllables that are not stressed are "weak" or "small" or "quiet". Native speakers of English listen for the STRESSED syllables, not the weak syllables. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension.

This happens in all words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, aBOVE, converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant,

Two important rules about word stress:

1. One word, one stress
2. The stress is always on a vowel

# Curiosidad

Ice Hockey
The Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Since their founding in 1974, "The Caps" have won one conference championship to reach the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals, and captured five division titles. In 1997, the team moved their home hockey rink from the suburban Capital Centre to the new Verizon Center in Washington's Chinatown neighbourhood. Former AOL executive Ted Leonsis has owned the team since 1999, and has revitalized the franchise by recruiting all-star players such as Alexander Ovechkin, Mike Green, and Alexander Semin, and head coach Bruce Boudreau.
Taken from Wikipedia.

Imagen de J. Teterenko. Licencia CC. | Imagen de Keith Allison. Licencia CC.

# Para saber más

Watch this video about the best moments of the Washington Capitals Ice Hockey team.

Video de elocomotive en Youtube