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How to Speak in a British Accent
Accents that are particular to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are each different and
with practice you can begin to talk with one that sounds genuine. Along with the accents are
mannerisms that you will need to assume to affect the part. The following directions may describe
Queen's English or "Received Pronunciation" (RP) spoken in south England and Wales, rarely ever
used in the modern-day United Kingdom, but the foreigners' stereotypical view of how the British
talk. This study of RP is concerned largely with pronunciation, while study of the standard language
is also concerned with matters such as correct grammar, more formal vocabulary and style.
Start with the Rs. Understand that in most British accents speakers don't roll their Rs (except
for those from Scotland, Northumbria, Northern Ireland, and parts of Lancashire), but not all
British accents are the same. For example, a Scottish accent varies greatly from an English
accent. After a vowel, don't pronounce the R, but draw out the vowel and maybe add an "uh"
(Here is "heeuh"). In words like "hurry", dont blend the R with the vowel. Say "huh-ree".
In American English, words ending with "rl" or "rel" can be pronounced using either one or
two syllables, completely interchangeably. This is not the case in British English. "-rl" words
like "girl", "hurl", etc, are pronounced as one syllable with silent R, while "squirrel" is "squih-
rul", and "referral" is "re-fer-rul".
Some words are easier to say in a British Accent. For example, Mirror, which sounds like
"Mih-ra". Do not say "mirror" like "mere"; British people almost never do that.
Pronounce Uin stupidand in dutywith the ewor "you" sound. Avoid the oo as in an
Steps
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American accent; thus it is pronounced stewpidor commonly schewpid, not stoopid, etc. Duty
would be pronounced dewtyor more oftenjooty. In the standard English accent, theA (for
example, in father) is pronounced at the back of the mouth with an open throatit sounds like
"Arh". This is the case in pretty much all British accents, but it's exaggerated in RP. In southern
England and in RP, words such as "bath", "path", "glass", "grass" also use this vowel (bawth,
pawth, glawss, grawss, etc.). However, in other parts of Britain "bath", "path", etc. sound like"ah".
Enunciate on heavy consonant words. Pronounce that Tin "duty" as T: not as the American
D as doodyso that duty is pronounced dewtyor a softerjooty. Pronounce the suffix -ingwith a
strong G. This way it sounds like -ingrather than -een. But sometimes it is shortened to in as
in lookin.
The words human beingare pronounced hewman beingoryooman been in certain areas,
though it could be pronounced hewman bee-in.
Drop the Ts. With some accents, including cockney accents, Ts aren't pronounced in words
where Americans use D to replace it. However, there is usually a short pause or "hiccup" in its
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place. So battle might be pronounced Ba-ill, catching the air behind the back of the tongue at
the end of the first syllable before expelling it on pronunciation of the second syllable. This is
known as the glottal stop .
Americans use glottal stops, too, for words like "mittens" and "mountain". It's just that Britishuse them more often.
People with Estuary English, RP, Scottish, Irish and Welsh accents do consider it lazy and
rude to drop the Ts, and this feature doesn't exist, but in almost all accents it's accepted to
do it in the middle of words in casual contexts and almost universal to put a glottal stop at
the end of a word.
Observe that some words are pronounced as written. The word "Herb" should be
pronounced with an H sound, and "Often" is usually prounounced "Off tin", not "Off in". The word
"Been" is pronounced "Bean", rather than "bin" or "ben". "Again" and "renaissance" are
pronounced like "a gain" and "run nay snce", with the "ai" as in "pain", not "said." The wordsending in "body" are pronounced as written, like "any body", not "any buddy." But use a British
short O sound.
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Observe that H is notalways pronounced. The "H" is pronounced in the word "herb," in
contrast to American erb. However, in many British accents, the Hat the beginning of a word
is often omitted, such as in many Northern accents and the Cockney accent.
Say "bean," not "bin" for the word been. In an American accent, this is often pronounced
bin. In an English accent, been is a common pronunciation, but "bin" is more often heard in
casual speech where the word isn't particularly stressed.
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Listen to the "music" of the language. All accents and dialects have their own musicality.
Pay attention to the tones and emphasis of British speakers. Do sentences generally end on a
higher note, the same, or lower? How much variation is there in tone throughout a typicalsentence? There is a huge variation between regions with tonality. British speech, especially
RP, usually varies much less within a sentence than American English, and the general
tendency is to go down slightly towards the end of a phrase. However, Liverpool and north-
east England are notable exceptions!
Get a British person to say well known sentences: "How now brown cow" and "The rain in
Spain stays mainly on the plain" and pay close attention. Rounded mouth vowels in words such
as "about" in London, are usually flattened in Northern Ireland.
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10 Notice that two or more vowels together may prompt an extra syllable. For example, theword "road" would usually be pronounced rohd, but in Wales and with some people in Northern
Ireland it might be pronounced ro.ord. Some speakers may even say "reh-uud."
As a child, your ability for the ear to process different frequencies of sound is greater, enablingyou to distinguish and reproduce the sounds of the languages that surround you. To effectively
learn a new accent, you must expand the ability of your ear by listening over and over to
examples of the accent.
When you say "at all" pronounce it like "a tall" but with a British accent.
As well as accent, watch out for slang words, such as lads orblokes for boys and men, birds or
lasses (in the north of England and in Scotland) for women. Loo for the toilet, but bathroom for
a room you clean yourself in.
Tips
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When in doubt, watch Monty Python or Doctor Who. Watching Harry Potter can help too.
RP is not called Queen's English for nothing, hear for yourself how HM Queen Elizabeth II
speaks. A good thing would be to hear her at the State Opening of Parliament where she
always delivers a very long speech, the perfect time to observe the way she speaks.
With some very strong regional accents, there is a tendency to replace th with a ff- "through"
may sound like "froo", and "birfday" for "birthday." Billie Piper ofDoctor Who speaks this way.
As with any accent, listening to and imitating a native speaker is the best and fastest way to
learn. Remember that when you were young you learned a language by listening and then
repeating the words while imitating the accent.
Listen to British peoples talk. It will improve your vocabulary.
Also, one of the words in English which shows very easily which accent someone has is
"Water". In Britain, it would sound more like "war-tah". In the U.S., it sounds more like "wa-der".
Don't learn more than one accent at a time. Since Estuary English sounds very different from a
"Geordie" accent, you'll get confused very easily.
Show 20 more tips
Don't think that you'll get it right quickly. It is likely that any true British person will know that
you're faking it straight away, but it might pass for a real accent to non-Brits.
Don't be over confident that you do a good British accent. It is rare to find an imitation that
sounds genuine to the native ear.
Don't narrow your mouth too much when you say words with "A" as sharkorchance. The result
may sound South African. Shark should sound more like "shock".
The RP accent (as in the movie My Fair Lady) is rare in Modern British. TV makes it seem like
that's the main accent, but it isn't common. (As mentioned above though, it does still exist,
especially with older people, and a milder version known as Estuary English is still verywidespread.)
CD player, some CDs related to the British accent
You can also refer to BBC Learning English
Record the British accent and open windows media player and play it on slow. That will help you
learn the British accent more quickly.
Warnings
Things You'll Need
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How to Make Welsh Cookies
How to Understand British Terms
How to Find a British Family to Spend Some Time With to Improve Your English
How to Address Your Grandmother and Mom on Their Relationship
How to Formally Address British Royalty and Aristocracy in Person
How to Speak With an Irish AccentHow to Speak the RP English Accent
How to Speak Proper English
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regional accents and dialects across the UK.
BBC internet radio channels.
Videos of locals around the UK speaking in their accents.
Related wikiHows
Sources and Citations
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