English arrived in North America at the beginning of the seventeenth century, initially in present-day North Carolina and Virginia, then in Massachusetts.

Later towards the end of the seventeenth century massive immigration began to New York and Philadelphia which became the ports of entry for the many waves of settlers. These three areas of the eastern U.S. coast have given rise to the three main varieties of present-day U.S. English, which form three main bands that go across the country from east coast to west coast. Many experts have made further subdivisions.

Standard American pronunciation is considered to be an educated variety of the Midland (or General American) variety. Sometimes it is known as 'Network English'. It varies from (British) English Received Pronunciation in that vowel sounds are rarely very long, a word like "taught" sounds very much like "tot", other typical features (compared with British English) include:

• the soft American 'r' is pronounced quite noticeably - almost all U.S. English is rhotic;
• the long British RP long 'aah' as in "path", "dance" or "half" becomes a shorter 'ah', but the American sound is very open; it also varies noticeably within the country;
• many words written with the letter 'o' also have an 'ah' vowel sound; therefore 'path' and 'pot' may have more or less the same vowel sound;
• the double-vowel RP 'ee-oo' of 'tune' or 'news' generally becomes just 'oo';
• when preceded by a vowel the RP 't' becomes the soft 'd': Americans pronounce "writer" and "rider" almost the same, as they do with "latter" and "ladder";
• when preceded by an 'n' the 't' is hardly perceptible in words such as "twenty" ('tweny') or "winter" ('winner')

• 'shall' is limited in its use, and 'should' is often used in offers, eg. 'Should I pour?';
• 'have' is commonly used with 'do' rather than 'got' as its auxiliary;
• the present perfect tense is often avoided and 'He didn't come yet.' may be heard;
• the subjunctive is used very widely: 'I suggest that they be told.'
• some irregular verbs are different:
• dive-dove-dived
• fit-fit-fitted
• get-got-gotten
• sneak-snuck-snuck

Canadian English is fairly young compared with U.S. English and therefore is less distinctive. To Americans it sounds 'British' (it has longer vowel sounds in 'been', 'again', and so on); to the British it seems more 'American'. While having more similarities with US English, the unique features are:

• the 'ai' diphthong which sounds more like 'ey' (eg. 'rice' sounds more like 'race');
• the 'a-oo' vowel as in 'about' which sounds more like 'oh' - probably Irish/Scottish influence;
• the Canadian 'aye', a pause marker.