In this video we are going to compare the sound charts for British and American English.

Both charts were developed in their arrangement by Adrian Underhill. They share many similarities. For example, both charts contain the same 24 consonants sounds. However, there are also a few differences in the vowel sections.

The American chart contains fewer monophthongs and diphthongs than the British sound chart. We have a look at the way words are transcribed with the remaining sound symbols when said in an American accent.

At the end of the video, we also look at the alternative sound symbols from the original IPA (= International Phonetic Alphabet). This can be confusing as you probably see both being used at one point. For /e/, /ɜr/ and /r/, many sound charts, especially for American English, use the original IPA symbols /ɛ/, /ɝ/ and /ɹ/.