# Forum Other Languages English for Russians - Изучаем английский язык Learn English - Грамматика, переводы, словарный запас  how do you pronounce the word colonel in British English?

## shadow1

how do you pronounce the word colonel in British English? 
I was sitting in on an English for Russian speakers class, and the 
teacher (who was not a native English speaker) was telling her
student to pronounce this word like колонель.
I told her it is pronounced like кернал or "kernal".
How is this word pronounced in British English.

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## Rtyom

::   We were taught to say 'kernal' and know that it's a British variant.

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## gRomoZeka

```
...was telling her student to pronounce this word like колонель.
```

That's exactly how we were taught to pronounce "colonel" back in school: ~ "каланел".  ::  It's wrong on both sides of the pond, isn't it?   ::    

> We were taught to say 'kernal' and know that it's a British variant.

 No-o-o. British vаriant is without "r" sound, something like "кён(э)л" (I'm judging by the British films  :: )
American variant seems to have a distinct "r", and sometimes sounds to me almost like "кёрэл".

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## Rtyom

I never meant 'r' in there since 'r' is a mute sound. My bad.   ::

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## scotcher

That's a tough one. 
"Kernel" is probably the closest approximation, but... 
Both the Es are pronounced more like the U in "null", almost as a schwa, a vowel without any real value and a difficult one for foreigners to hear. For a Russian, it's probably pronounced about half way between _кернел_ and _курнул_. 
And in many British accents, R isn't pronounced in that position, it just extends the preceding vowel sound.

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## paulb

In the US it is definitely "kernel".

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