I think it depends a lot on how you say ‘aunts’
The correct Australian way to say ‘Aunt’ is how you would refer to Aunty Jack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aunty_Jack_Show
Although I am sure that a lot of the right-wing neo-regressive nut jobs that have popped up in Australia over the last few years would love to refer to her as “anti-Jack” because of the transgender nature of the show.
Yeah we need to resolve that first. Aunts are cool and take you to a theme park on summer break, whereas aunts don’t let you sit on the good furniture and the only candy they have are those lozenges with the wrapper that looks like a strawberry
I think we need to address your use of the word candy first. It’s lollies m8, fite me
As a General American speaker, all three of those are the same vowel for me, but I don’t think that’s true in a lot of the world (and also not in at least part of the US).
France rhymes with pants.
If you say “France” or “dance” in a way that rhymes with “aunts”, you will open yourself up to merciless ribbing, with people affecting a posh English “oh I say old chap” accent every time you’re around. Far better to play up the Aussie drawl (and if in doubt, shorten a few words by replacing the last vowel with “-o”) to leave no doubt that you’re a true-blue dinky-di Aussie whose ancestors were transported for stealing a loaf of bread rather than someone who’d rather be wearing a top hat and sipping a Pimm’s.
If you say aunts the same way so say pants, then it’s both.
As far as I’m aware, that pronunciation of aunts is never used by Australians.
France… Pants
