How are the different accents from countries?is it possible for me to sound like an american?

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Robin

Americans are a very mixed group of the world's people. Because of this we have many accents and dialects. However what separates Americans from the rest of the world is our English, is very different from the British English that much of the world uses.

To sound American isn't so much accent, but using American English.
Here are a couple of examples:

Americans use 'the'
British: He was taken to hospital yesterday.
American: He was taken to 'the' hospital yesterday

Americans don't use '____ off'
British: one off
American: one time, one of a kind, once

Then there are words and phrases that have totally different meanings.

The word 'flyover' for the British is an 'overpass' for Americans. An American will use the term 'flyover' talking about aircraft (like at an air show or ceremony).

The phrase 'wash up' for the British is washing the dishes, for Americans it washing the body.

The list of words and phrases is that differ is long! The quickest way to pick it up is watching American TV.

Here are a couple of websites that discuss the differences

http://www.effingpot.com/index.shtml
http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/chapters/title.php
http://www.bg-map.com/us-uk.html
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa110698.htm

ong jon

all people from diffrent areas in diffrent counties speak w/ diffrent accents. people in ha noi speak diffrent from those in nha trang. folks in kentucky sound diffrent from those in LA and NYCity. i once met a viet namese girl who spoke english w/ a german accent [ obviously she learned how to speak englis in germany]. you probably speak english with an austrailian accent as i speak w/ a new york accent.... but because english is not a "tonal" language this is not too much of a problem.. we can generaly understan eachother... however vietnamese IS a "tonal" language and when i speak viet namese with a brooklny accent...well i got problems lol. actors are trained as you could be to speak a variety of languages with a variety of accents.. personal i enjoi the diffrences esspecialy when i have the opportunity to sit and converse with a group of people from 3-4 diffrent places.... oh , also "americans" come from all over the world. and there are american citizens that speak with an austrailian accent. so you can say you already sound like an american?!?!? sometimes in viet nam i'll speak vietnamese with a "twangy" american southern accent just for laughts. "chung toi phai di , y'all"

smatty_billionaire

I THINK U RE A VIETNAMESE!!! BUT YOU CAN LEARN DIFFERENT ACCENTS. ALTHOUGH I AM AN AMERICAN I KNOW ENGLISH IN FIVE TYPES : AMERICAN,BRITISH,GERMAN,RUSSIAN,INDIAN ENGLISH ACCENTS.

tweetymay

Mel Gibson is from Australia, and he speaks "like an American" quite well. Another actor, Hugh Laurie, can "fake American" better than most Americans!

dwh12345

We have so many accents in America that anyone can fit in

kja63

We Americans don't all sound alike either. Someone from Texas speaks with a different accent than someone from Boston than someone from New York City than someone from Maine than someone from San Francisco.

And we all use different phrases or dialects even though we're in the same country.

Saigon Nguyen

Absolutely. It's possible that you could sound like an American. Famous movie stars such as Nicole Kidman, Russell Crow, Naomi Watts, Heath Ledger, Mel Gibson, all of whom are Australian by birth or growing up in Downunder (Mel Gibson was born in New York & raised in Australia), all can mimic an American accent perfectly.

smile4763

Of course it is, though it takes a lot of time to learn all of the intricacies. I mean, I have perfect grammer- so my College Tutor said- and I come from Northern Ireland; but it still took me about a year and a half to learn 'Cockney' [London common speak] English. Or perhaps an indepth course woud give us enough to let us play a Cockney in a film..... Just to give an insight. O ite maete.

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