You have practiced General American for months. Then a neighbor from another state says "y'all", or a cousin drops the R in "car", and you think, "Did I learn it wrong?" Many learners also translate "accent" as "mistake" from their own language and say things like "She speaks bad English, she has an accent." Every English speaker has an accent. In this episode you meet some widely heard US regional features and the main American and British differences, so you can understand more voices. In this episode: • General american and why other voices matter • A listening tour of us regions • American and british: the big sound differences • Words that are said differently • An invented scene and listen-and-match • Practice • Self-check questions with answers Key phrases from this episode: an accent — the way a person or group pronounces words (neutral) a regional accent — an accent linked to a place (neutral) a variety — one form of a language, like American or British English (neutral) Y'all want some lemonade? — Do you all want some lemonade? I'll be right back — "right" may sound like RAHT Put the water in the car — "water" may sound like WAW-duh, "car" like KAH Grab a snack and a hat — the A sounds are raised We got to the store? And it was closed? — two statements with a rising end Can you park the car out back? — PAHK, KAH, BACK R after vowels — US car (KAR), British often KAH Flap T — US water (WAH-der), better (BED-er); British often WAW-tuh, BET-uh The O in hot, stop — US HAHT, STAHP; British with rounded lips, closer to HOT, STOP schedule — US SKEH-jool; British often SHED-yool Season 2 · Real American English: the complete spoken course for learners worldwide — accent, everyday grammar, prepositions, articles, phrasal verbs, idioms, slang and real conversations at home. Listen, repeat out loud, then take the 52-question quiz. Audio voiced with AI from an original script by Dr. Rashmi R Nair.