Here’s a collection of things I find surprising about American English as a British linguist living in Southern California. I look at vowel mergers in US English, vocabulary and grammar features, surprising pronunciations and hypercorrections.

This is the first time I have shot on location and I have had fun filming in Yosemite and LA as well as playing with some visual effects, including the CRT Screen effect thanks to @BenMarriott

00:00 Intro Yosemite
01:13 Rs running riot Hollywood – vowel mergers after /r/
03:03 Fur babies – words for pets. Newport Beach, CA
03:48 Greek plurals. Downtown LA
04:51 A couple (of) – Angel’s Flight
05:32 Forward without the first /r/. Grand Avenue LA
05:59 Swim as a noun. In the pool
07:32 Outtro Newport Beach, CA

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