If you are a fan of the Stranger Things series on Netflix, but have no pop culture knowledge, you may be surprised to learn Jonathan Byers, or Charlie Heaton of the Stranger Things cast, isn't actually American! What are the secrets foreign Stranger Things actors like Charlie Heaton use to get an American accent, especially if they normally speak with a British accent? This Fluent American English pronunciation takes a look at the Stranger Things character Jonathan Byers, or actor Charlie Heaton, to analyze the techniques he uses to get a natural American sound when he speaks.
See all of our American English and British English comparisons: • How to Stop Sounding B...
Transcript:
Someone you just heard is not actually American. And if you know nothing about American pop culture and actors like me, that may surprise you. Especially because this is how the Stranger Things actor Charlie Heaton sounds in real life.
As many English learners know, going from British English to American English can be difficult, but here are six reasons Jonathan Byers in Stranger Things succeeds, and maybe one where he…doesn’t?
Our first big difference is the /a/ sound. For American English, your tongue is low and mouth tends to be wide. You find this words like “stop”, “lock”, and…”got”
The British version tends to sound a bit more closed.
The same is also true for the American English /ae/ sound found in words like “cat” and “sad”, which doesn’t exist as much in British English. Instead, British English often produces a slightly more relaxed sound. Compare the /ae/ sound we hear in Stranger things when Jonathan Byers talks to Nancy.
You can find a similar situation for the American English /ɔ/ sound, found in “law” and “brought”, where the sound is a bit more open. The British version will be a bit more closed and tight in the throat.
One last vowel sound that British English and American English don’t quite agree on? The /u/, found in “Food” or “tooth”. What you hear Jonathan Byers use in Stranger Things is more like this. But in British English, this /u/ vowel often changes when it comes after a letter like t or n. So, what sounds like “new” in American English becomes:
Shifting to consonant sounds, one of the biggest differences you’ll find between American and British English is the L sound, particularly at the end of words. In words like “incredible”, “wall”, and “trouble”, you typically find a “dark L”, where the front of the tongue drops, the back of the tongue rises, and the sound becomes almost like a vowel. British English will keep a stronger L sound.
Alright, we’ve avoided it long enough; you can’t discuss British and American English without mentioning the /r/ sound! From an American perspective, it’s interesting because British English accents often add an R sound where there is no R, like in the word “idea”
But many British accents will remove the R when it comes before a consonant
Yeah, I don’t know how Jonathan Byers…er, Charlie Heaton is able to keep track and use all these differences so quickly. I have two theories though. One is that he might actually make subtle mistakes (see if you can hear one in these clips)
Or it could be that his accent is one that is closer to American English. There are a few of those, like Estuary English-which can sound surprisingly American! Find out more about Estuary English here.
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Who am I? My name is Geoff Anderson. I got my MA in Teaching English as a Second Language in 2012, and have been teaching since 2010. I've studied Italian to around level C1-C2. I was also an IELTS examiner for the speaking/writing tests for 3 years.
How One Stranger Things Actor SOUNDS American(But ISN'T)
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