What are some words you feel sound more right in both the American and British English?

I use a mix of the two depending on the word.

For example, I stand by pronouncing words like “Amazon” with an “ehn” sound at the end ovet an “ohn” sound, prefer spelling colour and flavour with a u, and also like using double Ls for words like travelling. Also, it is “grey”. (British English)

However, I pronounce Z as “zee”and call them fries rather than chips.

There are also spellings where I sort of alternate between depending on my mood, such as “meter” vs “metre”and“airplane” vs “aeroplane”

Are there any words that you think sound better in British and American spellings/pronunciations?

  • Diddlydee@feddit.uk
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    2 months ago

    I’m British and have never said the first one you mentioned and don’t think I can recall hearing it. Nearly everyone one will use the second version - adver-tize-ment, although it’s most common to hear ad or ad-vert.

    Edit: just asked my great granny who is 99, and she pronounced it adver-tize-ment, so not a generational thing.

    • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Think it depends where you put the stress.

      I’d say “Ad VER tis ment”

      But if I was stressing the tis part, a “tize” sound would feel more natural.

      That’s how I would say advertising, for example, “adver TIZE ing”

    • lovely_reader@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Huh! Weirdly, it was definitely pronounced ad-VER-tiz-mint on a lot of the '70s UK TV shows we imported to the US in the '80s. Britain is a big place, though, in terms of dialects, so you and your great granny don’t necessarily rule it out for everyone. Do you shorten it to ad or advert?