Most accent differences don't cause any problems at all. British people hear many accents every day and understand them easily. But a few sound pairs carry a lot of meaning. In this episode: • L or r, s or sh, ch or sh • J or y, v or w, b or v, p or f • H or no h • Short or long vowels, and final consonants • British sound-alikes that never cause problems • Practice • Self-check questions with answers Key phrases from this episode: collect / correct — Can you collect the kids? / Can you correct the spelling? sea (SEE) / she (SHEE) — for SH, round your lips and push them forward sip / ship — Just take a sip. / A ship in the bath. chair / share — CH starts with a tiny stop, like T plus SH watch / wash — Watch the baby. / Wash the cups. jam / yam — J has a tiny stop at the start; Y is soft jet / yet — Has the post come yet? vest / west — for V, top teeth touch your bottom lip verse / worse — for W, round your lips; teeth don't touch berry / very — B uses both lips; V uses teeth and lip pan / fan — P is a small pop with both lips; F is air between teeth and lip hair / air — Your hair's still wet. heat / eat — Heat the soup, then eat it. hand / and — Hold my hand. ship / sheep — short I vs long EE full / fool — short U vs long OO bag (BAG) / back (BAK) — the G is soft and the vowel a little longer cap / cab — final P vs final B pour / paw — both PAW, with no R sound sore / saw — both SAW, with no R sound court / caught — both KAWT tuna / tuner — both TYOO-nuh Real British English: the complete spoken course for learners worldwide — modern British accent, everyday grammar, phrasal verbs, idioms, slang, he/she/it for things, 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.