Bay-sil or Baaa-sil??

I'll never say hairbs!  It is urbs, thank you!

And no, it's not a poor poise. It's a poor puss. And poor is not pronounced poo-er.

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I had the same issue with both tomato and tuna when I lived in the US. After repeating the word 'tuna' the British way in Subway about 5 times, I changed it to 'too-na' and the cashier immediately understood!

I'm thinking your tuna sounds the same way my husband says "Puma".... I tease him that he makes it sound like something stinks.

Peee-yoooouu-ma! 

When my 4 year old asks me for water she says wader.  When she asks my husband, she says wa-ter all posh and proper.   

My husband and daughter say choona.  Kills me.  My kid also doesn’t believe me that you spell three with a th and not an f.  <sigh>

Damn, I’m sitting in Italy right now and wish I had paid attention to how they’ve all said risotto.  Heard it plenty of times when giving my husband the gluten free options.

Total aside, I think the UK is good for gluten free.  But DAMN, Italy makes Brits look like amateurs.  My husband has enjoyed McDonalds, ice cream cones, amazing pizza and pasta the last few days.  Not to mention a decent beer selection.  I almost took a picture of him yesterday in the TWO massive gf aisles.  Granted, it was without question the biggest and best supermarket I’ve ever stepped foot in. Yes, it beat Publix. 

I'll never say hairbs!  It is urbs, thank you!

And no, it's not a poor poise. It's a poor puss. And poor is not pronounced poo-er.

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I'm not saying hairbs either!

Poo-er!! 

It reminds me of the first time my husband asked me if I'm POO-ly. I never knew WTH he was talking about until one day I saw it actually spelled out "poorly." Ha ha ha!!

When my 4 year old asks me for water she says wader.  When she asks my husband, she says wa-ter all posh and proper.   

My husband and daughter say choona.  Kills me.  My kid also doesn’t believe me that you spell three with a th and not an f.  <sigh>

Damn, I’m sitting in Italy right now and wish I had paid attention to how they’ve all said risotto.  Heard it plenty of times when giving my husband the gluten free options.

Total aside, I think the UK is good for gluten free.  But DAMN, Italy makes Brits look like amateurs.  My husband has enjoyed McDonalds, ice cream cones, amazing pizza and pasta the last few days.  Not to mention a decent beer selection.  I almost took a picture of him yesterday in the TWO massive gf aisles.  Granted, it was without question the biggest and best supermarket I’ve ever stepped foot in. Yes, it beat Publix. 

When I hear British English it just makes me feel like I need to enunciate more. And the soft T (water pronounced wadder) versus the hard T cracks my husband up. I am teased frequently about that as well. But then he puts an R at the end of my name. My name is Nykia - sounds like papaya. He says "Nick-eye-urr." My name is not negotiable!! Pronounce it correctly!! LOL!

When I hear British English it just makes me feel like I need to enunciate more. And the soft T (water pronounced wadder) versus the hard T cracks my husband up. I am teased frequently about that as well. But then he puts an R at the end of my name. My name is Nykia - sounds like papaya. He says "Nick-eye-urr." My name is not negotiable!! Pronounce it correctly!! LOL!

Oh God Yes!  He needs to get your name right!!!!

My son’s name is Frazer. (Hard Z)  Which is my maiden name.  My MOM was calling him Frazier (Fray-szer).  I was like “wtf”.  Her response was that everyone calls her that.  Ummm... for 36 years you made a point of it being a hard Z.  Really?!?

The Brits say Frazer properly.  My American pals... not so much. 

It took me 2 years to finally ask my husband what he was calling the highway. For the life of me, I didn't understand why he was calling it the Joel carriage road.

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I definitely still pronounce words the American way, but more-or-less, I'll use the British vocabulary* (lift, aerial, crisps, and so on).  I don't think I could even say "water" the way DH says it without sounding weird, and don't get me started on buoy.  I have; however, sped up my speaking tempo - to the point where when I'm visiting the USA, it feels like everyone is speaking slowly.

* Except minus in relation to temperature.  It's negative [number] gosh darn it.

The thing that gets my colleagues every time is how I say merry, marry, and Mary.  I'm not sure if it's a widespread American thing or a regional American thing, but I pronounce those three words exactly the same.

Yeah. I say Mary, marry and merry very similarly too.

It took me 2 years to finally ask my husband what he was calling the highway. For the life of me, I didn't understand why he was calling it the Joel carriage road.

I love it. 

I definitely still pronounce words the American way, but more-or-less, I'll use the British vocabulary* (lift, aerial, crisps, and so on).  I don't think I could even say "water" the way DH says it without sounding weird, and don't get me started on buoy.  I have; however, sped up my speaking tempo - to the point where when I'm visiting the USA, it feels like everyone is speaking slowly.

* Except minus in relation to temperature.  It's negative [number] gosh darn it.

The thing that gets my colleagues every time is how I say merry, marry, and Mary.  I'm not sure if it's a widespread American thing or a regional American thing, but I pronounce those three words exactly the same.

All of this!  Slang, you betcha.  Changing the pronunciations?  Nope!

Merry, Marry, and Mary.

Same with Sarah and Sara. 

For those who have been living in the UK for some time now, have you changed the way you say tomato or basil? When you're ordering food at a restaurant how do you pronounce them?

I feel like a sore thumb when I say toe-may-toe. And I feel like a poser when I say toe-mah-toe. Either way I know I'm gonna get a strange look.

Can't win for losing! 

I say baa-zil, now, but I have not mastered toe-mah-toe.  On the other hand, my surname has a Z in it, and I've got very good at saying 'zed' when signing for deliveries.

I say baa-zil, now, but I have not mastered toe-mah-toe.  On the other hand, my surname has a Z in it, and I've got very good at saying 'zed' when signing for deliveries.

A through zed... who the hell says a through zed? And wtf is jai?

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Ha ha ha!! But it's Italian!! So shouldn't we say it the way of its native language? Like for gnocchi, my husband says something that sounds like "Knocky" and I gotta help him out with that italian "gn" sound in addition to the long O. He he he!

Filet and baton are French.  Americans pronounce them the French way.  The British pronounce them their own way.

A through zed... who the hell says a through zed? And wtf is jai?

What what?  I don't know that I've heard "through zed".  Definitely don't know what 'jai' is.

I always tell them that American English is closer to what British English was back in the "old days" compared to modern-day British English. That usually shuts them up.

"The earliest American linguistic landscape was strongly influenced by dialects of the sort that even today are not highly esteemed by those with money. But they were still British, at first.

The accent has changed more in British English than in much of American

Then British English started changing in ways American didn’t. The  ‘proper’ English of the early 1600s would sound to us like a cross between the English spoken in Cornwall and Dallas; the accent has changed more in British English than in much of American. Even at the time of the American Revolution, educated speech in England fully pronounced “r” in all places, and King George III probably said after, ask, dance, glass, and path the same as George Washington did: with the same a as in hat and fat. The ‘ah’ pronunciation was considered low-class in England until after the Revolution."

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Bill Bryson wrote a whole book about this kind of thing.  Outlines exactly how the American accent diverged from British and why.