Can British people understand Americans clearly?

Question

Or is it hard to understand the accent?

Answer 1

Yes, very clearly unless the American is from Mexico, China, Ukraine, Japan, or any other country from where people immigrate from and become U.S. citizens and refuse to learn English or embrace our culture.  

Answer 2

Yes we understand you clearly. But most of the time we struggle to understand each other.

Answer 3

Depends on where the American is from. The accent here widely varies even within small regions. There are many words that we pronounce differently, but very few of them are so different that they couldn't figure the word out.

Answer 4

I have a British friend, and he can understand me perfectly.

Answer 5

Yes, British people can understand fine.

Answer 6

im british and i LOVE the american accent..............i don't have any problem with understanding it...........but i dunno if some americans understand OUR accent.........like we'll be like do you want some tea? and some ppl are like.........whaaa?

Answer 7

yup its easy for da british to  understand the americans.my cosins are british and its no problem for them to understand american.

bu yes dere s  a little problem for american to understand the british but not too much

Answer 8

it's pretty easy to understand americans and for americans to understand british. the accent is kinda s**y actually.lol

Answer 9

Yes.

Answer 10

those stupid accents are near impossible to understand...do they do that on purpose to make u think they're dumber than they look ?

Answer 11

not that hard, at first it will sound a bit strange and some things wont get but after 2 hours talking every thing will come to their mind easily even if it has a different sound

Answer 12

I work with Brits every day, and they have no trouble at all understanding my American accent.

Answer 13

No two Brits and no two Americans speak exactly the same, so one cannot make generalizations.  I'm an American, as is my boss, but I don't even pretend to understand him!!

Answer 14

yes mostly. However i watched the film 'O Brother Where Art Thou' recently and i found their accents (i think they were Mississippi accents or something) quite difficult to understand at first, but after a while i got used to it!

PS there are some British accents i find hard to understand, most of my family are Geordies (from Newcastle) and i find their accent quite challenging, as I'm from London!

Answer 15

It depends on the accent. The more different the word sounds from the way they are used to hearing it, the harder it is to understand, and the longer it takes for the brain to decipher what the word is supposed to be.

Answer 16

I was born in Glasgow, Scotland. And recently moved to Manhattan, I have understood everyone I've met. It's them who can't understand me.

;)

Answer 17

No, we are better  

Answer 18

Yes. it's easy to understand Americans.

There are some differences, but it's the same language.  I spent 5 weeks in Minnesota and lived with an American family.

I had to slow down a bit for them to understand me though.  I found that American people spoke very slowly compared to in the UK.

Answer 19

they can understand

Answer 20

I think it's easy to understand the American accent. Went to Glasgow though and struggled with that one a few times.

Answer 21

Yes.

I'm british &I understand you clearly.

Why, don't you understand us?

Answer 22

when i was 12 years old i went to australia. and my cuzzins were like: Listen to her accent!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 23

Yes, people in Britain do usually understand Americans. To me, I'd have thought it would be the other way around as here in Britain there is so many different accents and especially in Scotland lots of different places have different slang words and even some scottish people don't understand some of the other areas slang words.

Answer 24

I think as long as we don't use american slang, they understand us easily.  Same for us understanding the English accent.

Answer 25

Its not the accent that makes it hard for people outside of America to understand us

American language in itself is odd and there are many uses for words that are used in strange ways... and there is nearly unlimited slang depending on where you go in the US.

I have a friend who's a transfer student from France and he has a hard time sometimes understanding us because we use the word pegging and many  curse words constantly lol - (and computer slang)

Answer 26

Britains can hear we Americans clearly. They can comprehend what we say, but they cannot now, nor will they ever, be able to understand us. We are two nations separated by a common language.

Answer 27

I think Americans can sometimes not understand the British properly lolol

Answer 28

I've talked to several people from Ireland before. No problem at all.

Answer 29

I think they can, I mean well British people talk the same way as we do except with a British accent.if we can understand them why cant they understand us.

Answer 30

yeah there like totally awesome!

Answer 31

Yes, my Grandma is British, thank you very much!

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