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What is the Standard British English1 pronunciation of "again"? I looked in Wiktionary and it gives two UK pronunciations, /əˈɡeɪn/, and /əˈɡɛn/.

1 I mean Standard British English as in the tag description for received-pronunciation: "Received Pronunciation (RP) is the prestigious and non-regional variety of British English often considered to be Standard British English."

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    There are two pronunciations given because both are valid in their own circumstances. /əˈɡɛn/ is probably more widely used.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 8:33
  • @AndrewLeach Thanks! Should I interpret your "circumstances" such that a single SBE-speaker might use both pronunciations, but each in different circumstances? Or rather that there are two groups of SBE-speakers, with each a different (but consistent) pronunciation?
    – Řídící
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 8:41
  • Probably the first. Actually, in a cut-glass RP accent (think 1940s BBC Overseas Service) the difference between the two forms is minimal.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 8:53

1 Answer 1

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I looked in Cambridge Dictionaries Online and they give us two pronunciations for British English:

/əˈɡen/ /-ˈɡeɪn/

And for American English:

/-ˈɡen/

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  • In my question, I meant Standard British English as in the tag description for received-pronunciation: "Received Pronunciation (RP) is the prestigious and non-regional variety of British English often considered to be Standard British English."
    – Řídící
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 5:58

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