A rhotic speaker is someone who pronounces the "r" sound clearly in words, especially after a vowel, as heard in accents like American English. Non-rhotic speakers, on the other hand, do not pronounce the "r" sound in certain positions, like in British English accents.

American English has evolved differently from British English due to factors such as colonization, immigration, and regional influences. The American accent developed its own unique characteristics over time, resulting in differences from the accents found in England.

Most British accents are called non-rhotic. This means that the letter R (rho in Greek) is not pronounced, depending on where in the word the letter appears. These accents are not strictly non-rhotic; sometimes the letter R is distinctly pronounced. This means that people who have difficulty pronouncing the letter R may sometimes seem to have a British ring to their pronunciation.