An Australian woman who has lived in the US for eight years has revealed how her accent can sometimes gets her into trouble.
Video game designer Alanah Pearce, who lives in Los Angeles, took to TikTok – where she goes by the name @charalanahzard – to reveal the two innocuous words that get her into hot water when she says them with her Aussie accent.
“They become problematic and borderline offensive, depending on the context,” she said in the clip.
“The first one is ‘due’ – in a YouTube video today I said I wanted to give a shout out because it’s due.”
She said she had been talking about money in the clip when she used the word.
“People assumed I was being anti-Semitic but in reality that is how it’s pronounced in most of Australia,” she said.
“It even changes the way we say ‘Mountain Dew’,” she said. “I was not referring to Judaism.”
She said the other word that causes trouble for her is “artistic”, which Alanah says is exactly how many Americans say the word “autistic”.
“It can sound like I’m being ableist when I am really talking about art,” she said.
Social media users took guesses at other words said with an Aussie accent that could cause confusion for Americans.
“I’ve heard a lot of Americans struggle with how we say water,” one person commented.
“I thought it was going to be ‘can’t’,” another joked.
“As a Brit we pronounce them the same,” a third person said.
“It’s wild to hear you lose your Australian accent over the years. Like, you practically just sound American minus random words,” one person said.
“The artistic one is HILARIOUS,” another commented.