Today we're going to tackle the question of the pronunciation of this word:

should it be 'neither' or 'neither' in American English?

What's the American English and British English pronunciation?

00:00:25,640 --> 00:00:29,260 I got an email from someone who watches my videos a while back,

and he said, “please stop mispronouncing 'neither'.

Please stop saying it the British way.”

And I thought, what is he talking about?

Is this one of the American English and British English differences?

I didn't think so.

My whole life I've been saying both “neither” and “neither”

and I never thought anything of it.

I did a little looking and I found that there's actually a misconception out there

about the pronunciation of 'neither' and 'either' in American English vs. British English.

The idea is that saying EE, 'neither' or 'either'

with the EE as in SHE vowel is American,

and saying 'neither' or 'either' with the AI diphthong is the British pronunciation.

There's not a British pronunciation and an American pronunciation

when it comes to the vowel or diphthong sound in the stressed syllable.

There may have been at one time,

but they have been blended, and now both are used in both British and American English.

And if you're not sure if you want to believe this, keep watching,

we're going to go to Youglish and find many examples of

these words in both British English and American English.

We're going to do the research together

to look at how frequent each pronunciation is

in American English and British English.

But first, there is a difference in American English and British English pronunciation for these words

that doesn't have to with the stressed syllable, but the unstressed syllable.

Let's go to Youglish and find an example of each for the word 'neither'.

So we'll go to Youglish.com.

Do you know this resource?

It's a great way to see how different people pronounce the same word.

So I can type in any word or phrase, today, we're studying:

neither, neither.

I'll type it in and I'll choose US.

This will bring up a bunch of options where

someone that this system thinks is American is saying this word.

And we can skip through and we can see hundreds of different people saying the same word or phrase.

Something I just discovered recently, is down here.

There's a speed controller so you can play at normal speed, slower, or faster.

Playing at a slower speed might be great for you as you're studying pronunciation.

it's a pretty powerful tool.

I definitely recommend you use it.

now, let's go get that example for neither.

first, American English.

actually, I messed that up.

we're not going to look at 'neither' we're going to look at 'either'.

so we're looking at the last syllable here and it's the same in both neither and either.

first, let's listen to the American pronunciation.

Step of your life...

There's no rule either at how fast you have to read them or what pace...

And now let's listen to the British pronunciation of 'either' looking at the final syllable.

Things which mainstream politicians were either unable or unwilling to say.

They're a little different in the ending.

Listen again a couple of times to the two pronunciations.

Either.

Either.

Either.

Either.

Either.

Either.

In American English, schwa R is pronounced as an R sound.

Either.

Er. Er. Er.

Either.

Never.

Wonder.

Mother.

Er. Er. Er.

Always er--.

But in British English, it's not really an R sound:

err.

It's more of a schwa sound:

uh.

So rather than:

either, er, it's more like:

either, uh, er, uh, er.

The ER ending is treated differently in American English versus British English.

but as far as what vowel we use in 'either' or 'neither' it doesn't matter

they both sound natural in both accents.

How often is one pronunciation used as opposed to another?

Let's go back to Youglish to see.

We're going to listen to examples until we get to ten for either of these pronunciations.

I'll keep track of how many of each pronunciation we hear in the side bars.

First, Americans saying: either, either.

Idea of technology should either be invisible or beautiful...

Step of your life...

There's no rule either at how fast you have to read them or what pace...

Technical theater classes either way are going to give you...

Or design. But either way I'd have it and it would come and go, then I'd come back...

Of realism and we wouldn't get anything done either. So what...

Either on a local level, on a state level...

To a decision, you actually have to make a choice. You either continue...

That you never disagree with. If you want you can go find people either online or...

Which means either labor markets need to change...

Regulatory changes providing more leeway to the states

so that they did not have the either requirement or the incentive...

And she never allowed us to give up hope either. This brutal...

Rescue either someone they love...

Had either acted up in school, went somewhere you're specifically told to stay out...

Okay, at the end, we have either coming in 10 times

and either coming in 3 times.

Now, this is a small sample but it looks like the EE pronunciation is more common in American English.

But I can't stress it enough.

Both sound perfectly fine and perfectly natural in American English.

No one is sitting in the audience thinking:

He just used the British English pronunciation!

No.

They both sound perfectly natural.

Now, you may be wondering when should I use which pronunciation?

Doesn't matter.

If you want to choose one and stick with it, fine.

If the other one slips out, it doesn't matter.

It's all the same to us.

Do you know what?

While I'm thinking of it, let me remind you to subscribe to my channel if you haven't already.

I make new English videos every Tuesday.

A great resource if you're studying English as a foreign language.

We're going to get you comfortable speaking American English.

Let's keep going and look at British English for the word 'either'.

Face rather an unpleasant choice. It's almost as though either you accept the doctrine...

He slung braces of pistols on either shoulder, he...

The starts and then the first player has a choice of either just sticking with the...

So this is either with their cooperative learning networks or the whole education movement or the school...

Harmful agents not completely benign but then, caffeine isn't completely benign either. Nicotine--

He knows most of those that you either use or have had used

either for business purposes or for leisure purposes...

It could go either way and the best way we can help our readers...

Isn't one of the 49% either so...

Either contributing to or detracting from the understanding we're trying to create.

Don't like either those words...

With hindsight appears to actually, you know, appear either naive or highly unlikely, no, of course not...

Before either of our two countries were members of the European Union

Were either unable or unwilling to say that you...

Okay, at the end, we reached ten pronunciations for AI and three for EE.

A small sample but it looks like the AI pronunciation might be more common in British English.

Let's go to 'neither'.

I found that the numbers are a little closer here.

And blockchain is kind of neither of those things right now...

System is neither fair nor efficient. Look at the--

Impulse control doesn't really describe your family's life in the book and neither does delayed gratification...

Are they neither some mix of the two...

Or you can have neither. So Belmont may ask...

Whether we should make America Europe again or make America 1950 again.

right? neither of these are very interesting.

The moral argument. the moral argument is that in neither case, deprivation related deficits...

Neither had national borders before the Soviet Union.

And more importantly neither does the taxpayer. The lottery is doing well...

Neither political party in the united states has addressed it...

This is neither sustainable from a public health nor...

But uh, neither are the oakland raiders, you know, which are very close here...

It was amazing and and I got to say, neither of us have done it but it was in that big...

Here today because neither their ideas nor their bullets can win and now...

Neither country wants to go to a nuclear war, of course...

I had no idea where my life was going, neither does she, you know...

In time, now neither being like green in space nor...

September. I'm sure thirty years ago neither one of them thought that they would end up writing a book.

Assure you at this point, we have neither any plan to

dissolve one of our strongest programs nor would we do...

Almost tied.

What about British English?

The situation where neither player over time would expect..

And neither could he when he saw what the surreals were about...

Neither did the Romans...

NTlive was neither to be quite theater nor certainly film...

Character that really can only develop in an environment in which neither of us can quit the room

And neither today. It's about something else.

Now neither of these spaces is regularly seen...