Listening · Unit 2: Common mistakes
L13: British vs Australian vs American accents
Target band 6 to 6.5
Most of us in Bangladesh learned English listening from American movies, Netflix and YouTube. That's fine for daily life. But IELTS uses many accents, including British, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and American. If your ears only know one accent, some recordings will sound strange. You'll hear the words but your brain will be slow to understand them.
Why this matters
In the test, a speaker with an unfamiliar accent can make an easy Part 1 feel hard. You lose a second here and there, and in Listening, a second is enough to miss an answer. Getting used to different accents makes everything feel slower and clearer.
A few sound differences to know
| What you'll notice | Example |
|---|---|
| British speakers often don't say the r at the end of words | car sounds like "cah" |
| American speakers often soften the t in the middle of words | water sounds like "wadder" |
| Australian vowels can sound different | day can sound close to "die" |
| British can't has a long "ah" sound | can't sounds like "cahnt" |
Don't try to copy these accents. Just learn to recognise them.
Word differences that matter in the test
Sometimes the accent isn't the problem. The word is different.
| British | American |
|---|---|
| flat | apartment |
| lift | elevator |
| mobile | cell phone |
| timetable | schedule |
| car park | parking lot |
| petrol | gas |
| ground floor | first floor |
That last one is important for maps. In Britain, the ground floor is the floor at street level, and the first floor is one level up. In America, the street level is the first floor. IELTS usually uses the British system.
How to train your ears: a 4-week plan
| Week | Accent | What to listen to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | British | BBC radio programmes and podcasts |
| 2 | Australian | ABC Australia news and podcasts |
| 3 | Mixed British and Australian | Practice tests, plus one podcast a day |
| 4 | Canadian and New Zealand | CBC (Canada) and RNZ (New Zealand) |
Listen for 20 minutes a day. In week 1 you might understand 60% of what you hear. That's normal. By week 4, it gets much easier.
A simple method
- Listen to a 2-minute clip once without stopping.
- Write down what it was about in one sentence.
- Listen again with subtitles or a transcript.
- Note any word that sounded strange to you, and say it out loud.
Try it yourself
What is the American word for each British word?
- lift
- flat
- car park
Show the answers
1) elevator. 2) apartment. 3) parking lot.
Honest note
You won't love every accent, and that's fine. You don't need to. You just need your brain to stop being surprised by them. That takes a few weeks, not a few days.
Your task today
Find one BBC and one ABC Australia podcast episode on a topic you like. Listen to 10 minutes of each. Which was easier?