What are some words you feel sound more right in both the American and British English?
I use a mix of the two depending on the word.
For example, I stand by pronouncing words like “Amazon” with an “ehn” sound at the end ovet an “ohn” sound, prefer spelling colour and flavour with a u, and also like using double Ls for words like travelling. Also, it is “grey”. (British English)
However, I pronounce Z as “zee”and call them fries rather than chips.
There are also spellings where I sort of alternate between depending on my mood, such as “meter” vs “metre”and“airplane” vs “aeroplane”
Are there any words that you think sound better in British and American spellings/pronunciations?
Advertisement sounds better in British pronunciation. Adver-tis-ment (/ədˈvɜː.tɪs.mənt/) as opposed to the American Adver-tize-ment (/ˌæd.vɚˈtaɪz.mənt/).
I’m British and have never said the first one you mentioned and don’t think I can recall hearing it. Nearly everyone one will use the second version - adver-tize-ment, although it’s most common to hear ad or ad-vert.
Edit: just asked my great granny who is 99, and she pronounced it adver-tize-ment, so not a generational thing.
Huh! Weirdly, it was definitely pronounced ad-VER-tiz-mint on a lot of the '70s UK TV shows we imported to the US in the '80s. Britain is a big place, though, in terms of dialects, so you and your great granny don’t necessarily rule it out for everyone. Out of curiosity, do you then shorten it to ad or advert?
Think it depends where you put the stress.
I’d say “Ad VER tis ment”
But if I was stressing the tis part, a “tize” sound would feel more natural.
That’s how I would say advertising, for example, “adver TIZE ing”