How to Fake a British Accent FAST
Вставка
- Опубліковано 24 кві 2024
- You urgently need to sound British. You don't have time to study phonetics and practise for years so hear it is. In just 12 minutes you'll learn six sounds that'll mark you out as British. The accent here is SSBE (Standard Southern British English) sometimes referred to as RP.
Love the English language? Get the LetThemTalkTV newsletter here - IT'S FREE!
eepurl.com/izRKww
0:00 The SSBE accent
02:01 The big round 0
03:55 The non-rhotic R
06:37 The A in cat
07:43 A T is a T
09:07 The long A
10:22 The short O
11:11 Practice
..If you are a grammar lover you might be interested in our new range of grammarian merchandise exclusive to LetThemTalkTV
teespring.com/stores/my-store...
Subscribe here
ua-cam.com/users/letthemta...
Learn English in Paris or join an online class.
www.letthemtalk.fr
instagram @LetThemTalkParis
As a Northerner this was a great help in coming to understand how the South speaks English wrong.
Eh? Wassat? Write more slower innit? Actually I've been a southerner for 65 years and had never heard of SSBE.
Wrongly*
🤣
You sound like my mum from Hull.
She moved to London the minute she could get out of Yorkshire.
She says things like if it was pronounced "barth" it would have an R in it.
But this is easily countered by one word: "Though". Checkmate, now get back to powering the South, ya slackers...
Don't get me started on "pikelets"...
@@ajaxlewis7664 hull is a crazy accent. errrr nerrrrr. serp on a rerp.
I'm from Chile, I learnt English because when I was younger my family had a lodge and most of the tourists were from UK, so I spent my entire childhood trying to realise how to pronounce some words properly. So there I was, a 10 years old kid, in July I was speaking with a London accent, in August someone from Manchester came and told me "no, that R is pronounced like this...", then someone from Leicester, then a Scottish... so, well, nowadays I'm not quite sure about what kind of accent I have, but every time I speak English with a British person, I can see how confused he is because he can't recognise from which part of UK I'm supposed to be, at least until I commit some grammar mistake and he realises I'm from Chile hahahaha.
Fantastic
Wena machucao
That’s so funny! Aquí también de Chile, pero con niñez en Londres. Saludos!
😅😅 and when someone says speak the Kings english you may ask, which one 😅
Great story…I was born in Cheshire, grew up in Leicestershire, my father was from Banffshire…Scotland, one Grandad from Llandudno…Wales…mother from Oldham, Lancashire…a rich choice of accent and dialect…but none spoke like this ‘diamond geezer’…yea, I live in ‘Landun’ now and this fella speaks British English, to quote my Irish wife ‘in my hole’ 😂
As an Anglomaniac from Iran, this is the only thing I have the motivation for watching at 2:20 am to help allay my palpitation caused by all the disturbing news around me.
Thank you, and tears. For real.
I read the news every day with concern. Power to our sisters in Iran.
@@LetThemTalkTV Very many thanks, it does mean a lot 🌷☘️🌷
I think the word you intended to use is ANGLOPHILE. " Phile from Greek mea ing " lover of".
@@robertaschultze3684 Yeah like 'paedophile' 😅, -maniac for the sake of more emphasis 🙃
@@NarsFromMars You would NEVER hear that here.
As a non-native english speaker, I must admit that during my learning process, I decided to experiment with the british accent, working long hours in front of a mirror, repeating some sounds that I could relate to the british way and in doing so, I think I became quite good on pretending to be a brit. By the way, I'm from Chile and I've never been to Europe.
You are certainly one of my favourite English teacher, all of your lessons are pure gold. Thanks for your work. Cheers!
Hello! I’m from Chile as well and I went to Europe once, it was really funny to fake that accent when I spoke with them. They didn’t laugh, so I don’t know if that was a good thing or not lol
Well, thank you sir.
I learned "Oxford-English" as a boy in school (in Germany) but never got a "British Accent".
I must say though, that it's incredibly funny to practice your lesson by reading all the comments here out loud.
Although I catch myself switching between dozens of different accents all the time. Can't keep one straight for too long :D
We used to watch a lot of "tele-matches", the voice over was in English, the counting in German, 1,2,3...?
What is that English accent,.sounds posh enough.
Auch ein international-schooler wa?
Mir hat mal ein Ire gesagt „You speak some sort of twisted mish mash of scottish, brittish, american, german and latin accent. Where the hell are you from, mate?“ :‘}
Most Europeans learned English in school and kept their own accents. These days, more learn it casually and from television and movies and more and more young Europeans seem to end up with an American sounding accent as a result. As a native English speaker (I’m Irish) I find this quasi American accent grating on the ears. I much prefer hearing people speak English with a German, French, Italian, Spanish etc. accent. Sounds nicer and is an easier way to identify where someone is from.
Reading comments out loud is exactly what I did with your comment😂😂😂 You made me laugh so hard thank you
@@Dreyno I must say I do enjoy hearing English spoken in various European accents as long as they’re not so heavy as to make the speaker unintelligible.
This confirms some of my suspicions.
I was born and raised as an American, of the southern US variety. Yet southerners think I'm from the north, and vice versa.
Part of this is when I was learning how to speak, I learned it with alphabet sounds from a British teaching tool. This caused me to learn from a mix of both, and as such, some of these I do naturally in certain words, and others I do in the more American way.
Language is interesting, and I've since accepted that my accent is uniquely mine. I've trained myself to speak not "the proper way", but "the way that most will understand"
Sounds pretty cool. It's much more interesting to have an accent basically unique to you instead of one that's the same as everyone else's.
People who have lived in many different countries often seem to have an interesting accent too, like a big mishmash.
That's the Transatlantic accent (?)
I was once returning to Chicago from Indiana on a small twin-prop feeder plan and I was one of only two passengers and so naturally we chatted a little across the aisle.
I was born and lived in Urban Yorkshire until I was twenty and then moved to London, first to study and then to work. I married an Italian girl and moved to Italy and found work with international organisations around Europe and especially connected with the U.S. I became pretty much bilingual English/Italian. I still live in Italy.
After just a couple of minutes my fellow passenger asked me "Where did you get that fantastic accent?"
I am a very, very clear speaker. (which is unusual for someone native of English).
Where's Zed?
The transatlantic accent was developed north of the Blue Ridge mountains @@cik9272 and is devoid of a lot of the Scots-Irish flavor that makes American pronunciation what it is. But our southern accents in America, like what you'd find in Texas or Tennessee, have preserved a lot of those Scots-Irish characteristics, and have even embellished them further.
As a Bostonian, it was interesting to find how many similarities we have with standard British English, especially the non-rhotic, linking Rs, long As, short Os, etc. It was easy to match your pronunciation of most of your practice sentences. Fun lesson.
He described the Australian accent - everything except the Ts not being Ds - which just goes to prove we don't have an accent ;)
@@Ausecko1 to me, as a non native speaker, the Australian accent (yes, you do have one ;-)) sounds quite "broad" (similar to London cockney) in the sound of A like in, for instance, name, late, fate etc
so the Bostonian accent must be pretty pleasant to hear
I’m from the south shore ( of Boston) and was thinking the same thing.
boston where?
Brilliant video! All main British English pronunciation specifics gathered together and given in a clear and concise way! Thank you a lot!
Excellent video! As a linguist who has coached foreigners in English, this covers lots of difficulties for European learners of English.
foreigners in english? wow
@@TheDohped Geen hoofdletters? Klootzak! Combien de langues étrangées parlez-vous? Probabilmente non ha nemmeno ottenuto un buon GCSE in inglese.
@@TheDohped he coached foreigners, in English. the foreigners were coached in English. "Foreigners in English" is not being used as a phrase in and of itself
@@Caroleonus and you missed the point by a long way! my issue with the phrase is the use of medieval words to describe people, which is typical of his obviously upper middle class wannabe a real posh person elitism.
@@TheDohped Please stop reiterating this social justice nonsense. By "foreigners in English," he means people who are not native to a primarily English-speaking country (hence 'foreign'). Coaching "[foreign people] in English" means that he taught non-native speakers English. It has nothing to do with elitism.
It's so interesting to hear someone talk about how to do your own accent.
I have a British accent and this does not describe my accent at all. It is very much "English" rather than "British".
Letowski sounds polish?
@@starchamberproductions3903 well, yeah, “Southern” British English. So, London, basically. All other bits of Britain are conveniently ignored.
@@EternalShadow1667 He said it was Standard Southern British English at the beginning, right?
This was super simple and engaging! You are wonderful at teaching and the words on the screen were super helpful for following along!
I really love this channel! My friends told me that I have a British accent and I wanna continue to practice more through this channel. Thank you so much:)
I wish the whole world would speak with this accent! Lovely, clear, delightful!
I am from Bristol in England and I like these videos. I had fun pronouncing everything wrongly like I was from Eastern Europe.
Thanks for stopping by even though you don't really need this lesson
I'm 66yo, Norfolk born and bred.
I still have the accent but the dialect is fast disappearing.
Time moves on and changes take place, but I do miss very much how it used to be.
I am from Eastern Europe, Kyiv. I do pronounce it all right. But it is true for the most of us🤷
Many was learning from teachers with wrong accent, or in best case, kinda american pronounce
but I guess you have a perfect accent in some foreign language you obviously speak in;)
@@dorotapawowska8995 HAHA! I like your comment. What is a ''wrong accent'' anyway? LOL.
I was a volunteer in East Sussex once and it was amazing how easy you could distinguish between the native speakers and the mixed English of the other foreigners 😄
I was curious how the real English could speak like this, now I will try some of your advices, thank you for this video!
You are an excellent teacher and also hilarious! The information is better retained if you have fun. Thank you!
I am a German who had quite a lot of my several years of English lessons done by native speakers. One of them being from Cambrigeshire, the other an Australian from Sydney. Though my last lesson has been more than 45 years ago, your pronunciation comes very, very near to what I can remember was taught. Though how I would speak now (I am not that good at it, reading / writing suits me better) would be quite corrupted by watching too many American movies. It definitely is a pleasure to hear you perform perfect British English. BTW my Australian English teacher warned us not to copy his own Aussie accent (sometimes telling stories he slipped back into it). I especially remember his „wrong“ pronunciation of „moon“ being more like „müün“, even after ~ 50 years. RIP Mr. John Slinn.
My son's French teacher in high school apparently spoke English with an Irish accent because that's where he learned his English. He still insisted that the kids use standard European French! The kids, mostly, French-Canadian, laughed at him whereas a generation or 2 ago, The educated French-Canadians would have aped his pronunciation and his vocabulary.
I've been a v.o. artist most of my adult life. This was an outstanding tutorial. Kudos to you, sir.
Love your teaching so much. This is what I need. Thank you. 🙏🏻❤
Love how the subtitles at the start give a summary of the entire video in just 1 paragraph!
I learnt English just as my second language at school but always prioritized the British accent. Watching TV series, listening and noting all the unknown words truly helped a lot back then among practicing in England when I had the chance to be there. Now I can say I read aloud literally everything just as Gideon did. It's somehow satisfying.
What a great video. I have an English mother, and I’ve been traveling back and forth to London from Toronto regularly for 25 years and have never heard this explained so well. Well done sir 👍
it is NOT great....British and English are not interchangeable...
Nice! I'm an American teacher in Asia, teaching an Oxford ESL curriculum. This is really helpful for me to demonstrate the differences between my accent and the British pronunciation. Great channel!
Lol I teach phonetics in Australia as I'm a primary school teacher. The "spelling mastery" lessons never mention the fact that unless you are speaking non-rhotically none of it would make sense. I always wonder how the irish, Scottish and American teachers in Australia do it without being spelt out the American/English variations. The phonemes man! Your poor students.
@@anaussie213 Are there a lot of Irish, Scottish & Ameican teachers in Australia? Kids learn language variations very easily. My "youngsters" in Hatchet Cove, T.B., Newfoundland and Labrador used a spelling series called Spelling in the Language Arts. The words they were taught to spell were words that an Ontario student might have trouble spelling. The tricky words in Newfoundland English were not taught. Some Ontario people say, "are house" not "our house". Newfoundlanders would say, "hour 'ouse"--they would put an non-existant "h" on "our" and take it off "house". Newfoundlanders would also say, "Dear Mother", "Dear they go!" for "There they go!" and "deer in the field". I made sure when I dictated the words that the kids understood the context of each "dear", "deer", "there". I did often wonder how these youngsters would ever become fluent in Canadian English because their accent and vocabulary was so far away from the standard Canadian English vocabulary, tenses and pronunciation. Probably, as Newfoundlanders received more schooling, their regional accent just faded and in a generation or 2 will disappear altogether.
wow. the nuance of what makes up an accent is pretty fascinating. thanks for this.
I am German, but I've got quite a mishmash here, because I was brought up by a Canadian dad and a British speaking mother. So I noticed how much i got from the Canadian side, sometimes my German was too strong and sometimes it was all right the British way. This was actually a lot of fun
Oh yeah and my step dad is Scottish
This is hilarious! Love it.
@@nicimie thanks mate. You can imagine, every intent to flatten out my accent is pretty demanding, I don't even know where I should start 😂
my sister-in-law has german and hispanic decent. Her mother was obviously german, her father was hispanic only in his decent, he spoke Okie accent southern okie! was raised in southern Oklahoma and yet my sister in-law has a minnesotan accent. I have no idea why.
That "got' (how much I got from the Canadian side) is typically Canadian apparently. Other Anglophones would say "how much I received . . . ", although Gideon has a whole video on the use of "got" so, maybe, we don't use "got" more than the Brits do.
I noticed that british people have less severe accent in german than americans/canadians
Lovely video, I wish British sounded like you, Gideon, it’s so clean and clear. The life would be so much easier ! 😀
I do my best thanks
@@LetThemTalkTV 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
I agree. I'm italian and I find it's so frustrating to watch american or English tv series! At least, it's important to understand each other!
@@fenderosa please don’t be! I was there ( and still partly is). It’s really hard to decode.
I am a born and bred Australian, from Australian parents and I speak this way, I did have and do have very well spoken grandparents & parents, I do occasionally get mistaken as some one from the UK that is an expat.
What a fantastic video! This used to be my accent, I spent my childhood in London in the 70s. Then we moved to Chile, and I learned Spanish which is now my main language, and I gradually lost my British accent... I’m going to try and see if I can get it back!
Obviously our pronunciation depends upon the disposition of our lips and tongue. But our *sinuses* also are very important. Quite simply it depends whether our sinuses are OPEN or SHUT.
I believe that American English is spoken with the sinuses more OPEN than is English English. And with French pronunciation the sinuses are even more OPEN.
All good stuff, and perfectly accurate. However, most English people find other accents charming, so just speak clearly, smile, and don’t worry!
I m not english, but when a person tries to speak with certain accent it sounds so forced and unpleasant, my opinion - own your accent and speak freely
@@bambinaforever1402 I don't really agree. Someone who is quite hopeless at any accent accurate to a language can sound awful even hard to understand: 'oh, that's what you meant!'.
The whole point of these breakdowns is to allow people to get the mechanics underneath so it doesn't sound as forced. This is an economical guide.
Listen to a British person trying to speak French without any attempt at a French accent. That sounds really awful. There is a questionable stage early in one's learning.... but as with so many skills. One should aim at the fundamentals in the right order. Trying over hard with selected flourishes while neglecting more basic mistakes does sound forced, but this guy is focussing on basics first.
Thank you for brightening my day!
@@artgreen6915 For some reason, the British were not taught to master the French way of speaking French. I remember in my first summer school that there a very advanced French speaker taking the course (he understood Québecois French very well and spoke standard French very well, but with a strong British accent). I read later that the British were not taught to imitate a French accent at all, but to use their British accent when speaking French. Very strange, isn't it? Maybe, it's different today when France is right across the channel, although Gideon doesn't speak French and he lives in France.
I’ll be damned if I speak like other Dutch people usually speak English, it does not sound good or charming in any way lmao
Its too bad that the International Phonetic Alphabet isn't taught very much. I had to learn it to teach speech to Deaf children, so as you explained these words I visualized the IPA as I practiced the lesson. Thank you.
‘International phonetics’ don’t work simply because of regional dialects
@@alucylu9714 that’s the specific thing the IPA exists to help with tho…
The best explanation and tipps I've ever watched in UA-cam. Thanks.
Loved the video! I'm also British and I teach Brazilian students.
Loved the tips and vocabulary examples.
But I found a spelling mistake around 8:15, in the word "attitude".
Keep up the good work!
I am on the autism spectrum and when I was 8 I was sent to someone like you to learn to speak properly. I am from a bit south of you so my accent is very similar to yours. Unfortunately I was from a council estate and when I went back home I was accused of being a snob and had to fight a few of the kids.
I was put on stage with a few other kids after learning a poem and I failed the speech test due to not modulating my voice enough. The girls were actually using their arms to emphasize the emotions.
I am sorry you had to go through all of that and made felt once and again that you were not enough! Not true!
Some people are ignorant (and badly brought up!). Your correct speech will be an asset to you in life : people who speak nicely are always appreciated when it matters (professionally for example). But always try to remember there is only one 'correct' voice and that is yours because it belongs to you and you are unique. 🤗
I’m autistic and growing up was tough! It did get easier after I learned how to fight. I’ve also got awkward memories of reading aloud for performances. Even though I was an advanced reader, it took years and tons of practice before other people liked to hear me read aloud. In your case, it seems like every intervention that is used to “help” folks on the spectrum is fraught with side effects and drawbacks. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
@@thesincitymama I knew an young man on the autism spectrum who taught himself the Lord's Prayer in Middle English. I enjoyed listening to him recite it. People should learn to appreciate different gifts and talents.
@@kareine4317
There's no such thing as correct speech though, only accents are that viewed as possessing more prestige. Accents that lack prestige aren't incorrect, uneducated or evidence of lesser intellect, although because those assumptions are commonly made it's understandable why people who speak with those accents are sometimes touchy about those judgments.
Not that anything Mike did warranted their aggression.
I'm glad I unlearned the notion of 'proper English' while I was young enough to benefit from the insight. I was a bit arrogant of my 'more proper' speech until I had the realization it wasn't inherently superior, it was just viewed that way by people who's approval wasn't even desirable to begin with.
Greetings from Chile. I was born in Valparaiso, a city where we had at the beginning of the 20 century a big amount of English people, but after the amecian built the Panama Channel, almost all the English moved to another country. Anyway, I always liked that elegant british accent. Thanks for your lesson.
So wonderful videos , mostly for an English teacher. I enjoy one of them every day. Thank you so much
I'm Canadian and it's amazing to hear where some of our pronunciations come from. We sound kind of like Americans but there is definitely a difference. We have a lot of influence from all the UK accents so it is very cool to hear/recognize which bits that come from which areas.
I'm an American who has lived in Canada for almost 20 years, my accent is so messed up. To Canadians, I sometimes sound American, to Americans I sound Canadian.
@@t.metcalf2080 I recently watched a really cool "tour" of the US by accent. It was also very interesting to hear where the influence comes from as well as our similarities.
American and Canadian accents are both descended from mixes of UK accents, but Canadian might have more Northern and Scottish influence than most American accents. Not to mention the different regional variations (like the Maritimes, New England, NYC, the Great Lakes, the US south, etc)
I assume it's a lot of dialect levelling mixed with influence from major early immigrant groups. As traits get fixed it becomes harder to eliminate them. There's also leftover traces of people's ancestral languages, like the double-negatives typical of AAVE and other Black dialects or the tendency for Irish, Scottish, Newfoundlander and Maritime English to not use 'yes' and instead use a construct like 'I did'.
@@skaldlouiscyphre2453 not quite. There are as many people from other countries than their art people from the UK. Canada exists because there were enough American who remain loyal to the British crown.
@@bradavon
I'm familiar with our history.
Founding populations exert larger influence on the development of an accent than latter populations because latter populations are assimilating into the existing accent compared to being part of the accent levelling that's typical in environments with several distinct accents.
Recent immigrants tend to have the largest impact if they form relatively isolated communities, but then the impact is largely limited to those communities. While in the long run that might lead to accents merging (like MLE/MUBE), it can also lead to the development of distinct ethnic or other caste accents (like AAVE).
About accents ... :-)
My English tutor was a guy from Zimbabwe and he said that the Slavic accent sounds cool, a little bit like a "gangsta" accent.
So, he (a Zimbabwean guy) told us that we can just keep our accent and not to get rid of it.
I'm from Ukraine and in Ukraine now (12 April 2022).
#Ukraine is fighting for the fundamentals of what the West has stood for since WWII. Support Ukraine and stand with Ukraine in the fight against evil. Speak up. #StandWithUkraine
Thanks for the story. I guess in Ukraine there are bigger problems than improving a British accent right now.
@@LetThemTalkTV exactly, but for many of your Russian students fake British accent is crucial now.
@Lota Rygiel Thanks, I am sitting in the city Zaporizhzhya (Zaporozhye) 40-50 km from the battlefields.
Not so bad, but a lot of companies suspended the business activities.
My company sells graphite powder. Before the war we sometimes sold graphite to Italy and the UK, but now a lot of European companies are afraid of business with Ukraine during the war.
Though we need business operations now ! :-)
@@frankgradus9474 To be honest, we (the citizens of Ukraine) try to improve our lives and cooperation with the EU, UK and the US seems to be beneficial for both parties, while Russians want to drag us back to their Oligarchic pseudo-"Leftist" Empire.
In fact, Ukrainians are "Russians" who understand the real Russia and don't want to be its part again :-)
Ukrainians speak Russian language better than actually Russians :-)
But I am deeply sad and sorry that a lot of people in the West and in the East support Russia even without getting understand WHAT do they support.
Very clear presentation that covers the essentials really well - you had me thinking about the intrusive 'r' and can see that sometimes I might use it as a native speaker - but not most of the time - I'm more likely just to stop and put a slight pause between the words.
Me too. i was brought up to speak quite 'precisely' and learnt that inserting an 'r' sound was sloppy. I think people like me usually use a little glottal stop instead. (Very sad that this sort of thing is so bound up with our class system - don't judge!!!)
The R tip is so helpful!! Thanks for sharing
My Grandmother grew up in Didcot, when it was still part of Berkshire. I possess a blend of East TX, & what Grandma gave me..
I recently moved from Western US to Southeastern US. I'm painfully aware of my accent whenever I speak to locals. Thanks for helping me with a great British accent though. Perhaps I should try it out here -- at least they won't despise me for being from California! 🤣
Hell…,just tell them you’re from Arizona.,or Montana,,or Colorado or Idaho, they all sound the same pretty much..and three of those are pretty red states! 😁😉
I'd be proud of the fact you're automatically assumed to be better edumacated.
Just pure and simple way to explicate a key concept for those who fond of RP accent...It is rather about a talent to teach in such a natural and coherent , out from the crowd manner and you master it by all means...thanks xxxx
A Great teacher, indeed.
Thanks very much.
I loved this class, thank you ❤
Not all of the cast of Downtown, especially those "downstairs," sound like R.P.
As a child, I was offered elocution lessons, coming from the West Country and never understood the desire to "talk properly."
I moved to the South of England to study at University, many decades ago and my accent has, indeed "softened," but is still discernible. I've never made a conscious effort to change it, nor would I want to.
When I visit my family, I always notice just how strong their accents are.
There's a definite Pompey/Southampton accent, which also differs from R.P.
It must come as quite a shock, even in this "global village" for people from other countries, who come here and are faced with Scouse, Geordie, Glaswegian, or Brummie accents, at least, at first.
As a Spanish speaker, I experienced this in reverse, when I visited parts of Spain where the accent (and speed of speech) are markedly different from those of Castille! 😉
I’ve already learned so much in the first 5 minutes, this is very insightful. I wasn’t expecting to actually learn this fast haha
This is great! I sent it to my friends to help them with their English. They're from Luton.
Omg...your American accent made me chuckle. I enjoyed this! Sometimes I do like to play with accents, and this is a fun little guide. Thank you! 😁💖
I love the British accent! As a French, I'm often taken for an American when in britain, and a brit when in the US. And sometimes for a French of course. French accent is difficult to hide.
There's no way people in America or the UK are confusing your French Accent. They know.
They're lying to you.
I can help you correct your English.
How often do people mistake your accent for Quebecois?
I always wondered where the extra Rs came from! The glottalized Ts were easy as they are common in US English: "Mountain" is fun one and sometimes a single glottalic stop replaces both the N and T.
If you think that's a fun one go visit uhlanna, I mean Atlanta.
Or “Bal’muh”. (Baltimore)
I absolutely loved this video, especially the ending. So much fun! Thank you for the lesson! =)
It's a encouraging video by discouraging me from pushing myself too hard on the route of being a better me.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much, sir. I'm going to use your useful tips to teach my students how to do a British accent.
As an Australian, it's interesting how much Southern English carried over to my own accent.
Though I did have an English grandparent as well as a French one, so perhaps mine ended up like this because of that.
They really do have a ton in common, many differences between ssbe and Australian are more down to the cadence and emphasis aspects rather than just pure accent
yeah this guy almost sounds australian. he has a wierd twang to him
Isn't Australian a mishmash of Hiberno-English, Scottish English and Cockney, with a small veneer of RP on top?
@@ethnicalbert It's his london accent coming through eg cappuccino
@@wezdog1 Im london born and raised, its not a london accent ive ever heard. Or rather there is a component that is definitely not from london
Excellent. Loved it. This will help me no end with my students in our English classes. Many thanks!! :)
Thank you for your educational videos. You're a perfect teacher.
I've been living in the UK for nearly 5 years now (Brazilian). It took me a long time to understand the non-rhotic R, particularly when hearing spelled words (also because your 'R' letter is pronounced exactly like the Portuguese 'A' letter)
Blame It On The Bossa Nova ...
/ˌbɒsə ˈnəʊvə/ ...
When you see an R the instinct is to pronounce it. It takes some time to view it differently
i'm brazilian too. 2 years in London and yet i can't clearly see the difference between 'o' and 'a' in some words like 'hat/hot', 'down/dawn' etc. The only way i can difference between these words is by the context. 'today is very hot', for exemple, 'hot' can't be 'hat'
Br tbm mas eu aprendi o inglês britânico acho mais fácil, difícil é pronunciar o r igual americano faz Lol.
The thing about a linking "r" is fascinating. Where I'm from (South West of England) I'm not at all sure that most people do this. In the case of "I saw a man" I think the vowel of the indefinite article gets tagged onto the end of the verb - as in "I sawa man", "I boughta car", "I hearda sound", etc. However, if a preceding word ends in "a" - as in the case of "China is a big country", then, yes, maybe there is a very slight inserted "r"...? (But even here, I'm not sure that we don't just make the "a" into a more guttural "uh" sound - as in "Chinuh iza big country"...🤔)
I am a teacher of English in Senegal 🇸🇳 . I definitely agree with your remarks..!
Only non-rhotic varieties of English insert the R and while I know it's not universal you're in the most famously rhotic part of England.
"Saw" rhymes with "door". The same long ɔː. So in "I saw a man" an "r" sound fits perfectly there.
Australians make the linking "r" sound too, actually a lot of what he explained was tranferable to Australian English as well. Apart from the "t," unfortunately in a bunch of words we've picked up the American habit of pronouncing them as a "d."
@@beatsg Yep, Australia is non-rhotic too. Why is the Australian pronunciation of the t "unfortunate" and what makes you think you picked it up from America?
I’m a Canadian who had to learn an English accent for a lead role in a play. This really helped!!
Thank you,
That was a great video. That confirmed to me how well I can already do it. I am german and very proud of my english pronunciation. 🙂👍
Now I understand what I always heard in a Beatles song called "A day in the life", when Lennon says "I saw 'rah' film today oh boy". He puts that famous "R" sound you describe on this video. Thanks for this excellent tutorial.
A lot of English popular music gets the 'silent R' sounded because we're so used to Americans singing that way. Lennon was always faithful to his Liverpool accent, though.
Cheers.
Bare in mind a lot of the other prounaciations in this video would be very diffent for someone from Liverpool. The A sound is often very different for example
In contrast the Stones sing in American English. So much that it came as a shock to hear Mick Jagger speaking with an English accent.
Yes , there are so many regional dialects in England but generally other countries relate to those Southern dialects to generalise the overall accent for English grammar.
I started off as a child with a clear southern pronunciation of my words, but as we mix with various towns with their own regional dialects , we tend to lose much of what we begin with in life and stray to adopt other dialects into our speech .
Yes, it is very much describing an "English" accent rather than a "British" one.
Great lesson, I like when lessons are focused on articulation with funny examples.
Excellent teacher!!!. Thankyou from Australia 🇦🇺.
Over here in Texas they will rebroadcast BBC news programs on our Public Broadcast System. The news anchor was talking about the ongoing Ukraine crisis and he pronounced Russia as "Rusher." Not so bad, but then he said Lithuania: "Lith yoo aynee- er." Oof!!!
Like pronouncing jaguar as “jag-you-are.” It’s probably to make up for dropping all the syllables in words like Gloucester and Cholmondely. 🤭
The sound of the O really is a game changer. Thanks a lot, sir.
What marvellous material! Thanks for all the examples!
A perfect new title. Delightful video which will be extremely helpful to those who take learning "British" English. Your American accent is quite good when you need to use it. Bravo. Bravo with the British "o". Many thanks;
As a Mexican, I learned mostly American pronunciation throughout my education, but I ended up pronouncing all the T's as British becuase it is way easier to do so for Spanish native speakers. Same with some of the vowels, especially A and O.
Stick to the Spanish-American accent, or else find out what's happening in Gibraltar lmao. The Spanish-British accent and intonation is hilarious. Living there I always think how much cooler Mexican English speakers sound in the US
@@admintutorial Yeah Americans always seem to pronounce the T as a D lol. Like "Utter" and "Udder" sound the same
@@rambi1072 As an American, we do pronounce "utter" and "udder" the same (or practically the same), but it's not because we pronounce the T as a D. Instead, we pronounce both T and D between vowels as a flap. It's basically the same sound as the single R in Spanish (ex "pero," "héroe").
I also want to point out that many English speakers from the UK seem to have unusual (to my ears) pronunciations of T, and I'm not talking about the glottal stop. To my ears, many UK English speakers pronounce the T more like a 'ts' sound. I've also heard this from Irish speakers.
I'm Californian and even though English is my native language, I need some good working knowledge of Spanish just to get good food.
But pronunciation messes me up. It's mainly the "R" sound, when to roll it, and how much to roll it. The short R in "pero" is different from the longer R in "perro" (dog) and different from the even longer R in "perro" (a fart).
So I might always speak Mexican Spanish with a gringo accent.
@@admintutorial beder meder
jolly good show !! now i need to go to the nearest pub for my pint of bitter
EXCELLENT show! Watched so many of your videos! One of the only exceptions I take is that we don't roll the R's in North American English (T'mayto-Lænd). It's only a formation of the mouth/tongue. The tongue starts flat and ends flat without rolling. The mouth closes for the tail-ending of the R phoneme. Our R is the same as the SSBE linking R at the end of a word which appears before a word that starts with a vowel. The Scottish accent of course is something else. Thanks for these awesome videos!
Loved it! It's always good to refresh my british accent.
I'm from the US. I've got a lot to learn to get this accent down pat. Anyway, your video was fantastic. I really liked it.
I love listening to American accent, but I strive to speak the SSBE. In vain.
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze
Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mama
Take me home, country roads.
@@frankgradus9474 You picked the right example to defend your position. I agree, it's warm and friendly. John Denver, right?
@@robertbushee Righto!
Very good advice!
7:43 It's also worth pointing out that the T sound tends to be liberally aspirated, when the T is followed by a vowel. That is, there is a bit of an H after it. That H is not as pronounced in many other languages compared to English and English speakers themselves may not even notice that they are doing it. 😄
Not just a bit, but a damn kilogram of it. In Slavic languages you never get an extra H after a consonant outta nowhere, so it was extremely hard for me in my school days, trying to master saying not just "TIME" but "T-HHYYME"
That's why they say that you need to speak as if you have the hot eggs in your mouth when you do British English.
Love watching you. You are such a hoot! I lived 30 years in Detroit, now 30 years in Connecticut. Connecticut has many RP similarities. Esp. that confounded added R. Thanks for your explanations. I would love to attend an actual class with you. You teach in a fun way, without pretense.
So, you've learned to warsh your winders?
I'm Indian and I'm trying to learn a British accent just for fun. Indians have already soaked a lot of British English pronunciation and spelling because of colonisation, but we have our own unique twist to the pronunciations in our Indian accent. Thanks for the video!
"Soaked up" is the expression. It's a phrasal verb.
Even I learnt SSBE being an Indian for the same reason like you, I’ll tell you our issue, it’s because our English teachers taught us to speak English in the same accent we speak Indian languages, and it so happens that our script (Devanāgari) pronounces letters exactly like how they are written, meanwhile Latin script languages pronounce letters differently from how they are written sometimes (sometimes silent), so that’s why our English sounds odd because we are speaking it like our native languages
This was very useful. The two main characters of my animated series are supposed to be using different accents (Br. Eng. and Am. Eng.) and I still often catch myself making mistakes when doing the narration.
My two MCs are British and Italian Canadian, so I know what you're talking about. I'm Canadian with British parents, so my accent is a mix of theirs, the Canadian school system and American TV. I have trouble keeping my Canadian from lapsing into Briticisms.
And lets not get into the different words for the same things. :)
Jon in rural BC, Canada
@@JonTanOsb MCs? I'm Canadian from Ontario, but what is an MC? Yes! Some Canadians use British terms even if they speak like other Canadians. I remember one friend always said "hoover" for "vacuum". I never asked, but I took it that one of her parents must have been British or one of her grandparents.
@@dinkster1729 MC = Main Character
WIP = work in progress. That last one is a bonus answer. :)
My problem is using British terms for my other guy, as they come naturally to me.
Jon
Wow that was so interesting! I'm adding this to my favorites for future reference.
What a perfect video! Thank you, man!
I did the British English tutorial. I am from ADELAIDE in south Australia. Only two sounds differed from my usual speech. The long ‘o’ at the end of a word and the much more pronounced ‘t’. All the rest were the same as my speech. But I still sounded Australian when I said the whole sentences with these changes. Clearly there must be other things going on here!
I'm a victorian in SA, and found mostly the same apart from some long a sounds. The South Australian accent is closer to british, and I know plenty of South Australians who have been mistaken for British. Also We have high rising terminals in the Australian accents, so our pitch goes up towards the end of our sentences. There's still probably tons of subtle differences, but it's probably actually easier to mimic if your accent is further away from what you are are aiming for.
@@MrZanderson
"Also We have high rising terminals in the Australian accents, so our pitch goes up towards the end of our sentences."
Something shared with some Canadian accents.
@@skaldlouiscyphre2453 Yes, but even an educated Australian accent would not sound like a Canadian accent, right?
@@dinkster1729 No, that's a shared trait but you'd never confuse the two.
The vowels aren't the same, rhotic vs. non-rhotic, etc.
This was fun! Being Dutch I learned the American English accent and it’s nice to focus on a different accent.
Brilliant. I love this man
It's always fun watching your English-teaching videos!😂❤
Thank you for this! I tend to speak with a more British accent and it is where most people would assume I learned the language/picked up the pronunciation because although we were taught standard British pronunciation in school (I should probably specify I am Eastern European), most people pick up a more American sounding style of pronunciation. I have found that in order to be understood by those rather used to American pronunciation, it is ideal to pronounce all Rs. So I tend to pronounce every R as the Irish or South African might do and keep the rest of my pronunciation fairly British. I find I cannot even say the T as a D in words like water, even if I tried.
Edit: pronounce all Rs rather than roll all Rs
@Maggie B As an American, I found your comment about how rolling all your R’s makes you more understandable to those used to American pronunciation quite puzzling. I tried to learn Spanish when I was about 15-17 years old and found it quite difficult to roll the r’s correctly, since the basic American pronunciation doesn’t roll the r’s. With the plethora of various accents in various parts of the country, there probably are some less common American dialects that roll the r’s but I can’t think of a single one. 🧐
@@berneemartin8859 Oh. Oh. Turns out I had a VERY wrong idea of what rolling your Rs actually means! I suppose sounded vs silent R is the difference I tried to point to, so my accent would be more British with all Rs pronounced as sounded.
There seems to be more than one acception of what 'rolling an r' means, so it can be quite confusing. It also seems to be the letter with the most variants around the world.
An American broadcaster living in Newfoundland told the following story. He was walking through the streets of Budapest as a tourist when he came upon a group of American tourists who were lost and asked him the quickest way back to their ship. He told them. Then, he was shocked when one of the American tourists asked him where he had learned his excellent English. He said that he replied, "from phonograph records." I wonder if he really that fast with the come back or not.
Thank you, I can always rely on you. Best teacher in the whole world!
Is he a "teacher"? :D He sounds like a stupid amateur.
Thanks a lot, impressive way to teach! Feel Very productive
Clears up so much. I remember David Bowie, a South Londoner with a broad South London accent, pronounced the word ‘mask’ as ‘mosque.’
I'm a bit late to the party, but many Canadians pronounce the short "o" in hot, lot, etc., in much the same way that it's pronounced in SSBE. Those words (and the "ou" diphthong in out and about) can be used to differentiate an American from a Canadian accent.
Yes, Americans apply the diphthong, Canadians do not. Out becomes almost oot. About becomes aboot. As an American, it almost sounds Scottish to me.
That particular effect is known as "Canadian raising." Canadians generally keep the diphthong, but the open vowel of the diphthongs /aʊ/ and /aɪ/ is "raised" from /a/ to a schwa or similar vowel, [ɐ], [ʌ] or [ə]. Some dialects of Scottish English have these same characteristics. The Wikipedia article (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_raising) goes into more detail and notes that some American English dialects have this characteristic in words such as "spider."
@@BruceKvam The link is broken
@@k.umquat8604 Really? Just goggle "Canadian raising" then and it should come up. I read the Wikipedia article a couple of days ago.
@@dinkster1729 It does come up. The link doesn't work because of the parenthesis immediately following it. One should type the link first,press space and then type the parenthesis.
The funny thing is, we from Malaysia actually learn these SSBE at school but most Malaysians end up speaking American English or our own version of English (aka Manglish). Very rare you'll see people here has the British accent. Thanks for the video mate.
Same as an Arab myself, people either speak American English or Arabeesee (English is pronounced Engleesee in Arabic 😁)
LOVE IT!!!
TKS your highness!
Thanks for the lesson!
Coming from Kent, I've been speaking SSBE all my life without knowing that was what it is called.
Although you touch on it briefly, I'm surprised you don't talk more about the 'u' sound in words like 'luck', 'uncle'; it's as confusing as anything for foreigners, who hear it as a short 'a' as in cat and is one of the major differences between northern and southern british accents. In the adult comic 'Viz', there is a character called Cockney Wanker whose speech is written phonetically as a northerner hears the London accent: "Fackin' 'ell, yor 'avin' a fackin' larf in't ya? I tawk like vis 'cos I'm from dahn sarf, Lahndan to be precise."
Good video. Thanks.
I like how you casually gave an answer to one of my oldest questions regarding english accents. Back in school (Germany) some mate from England used to say things like "whats the ma''er", "A bo'le of wa'er" a lot and I simply can't remember where he was from. Sooo... he must be a Londoner I guess? 😅😅 My excuse for having the memory of a goldfish: We were classmates for only one or two years after all.
Mancunians skip the T too
@@rogueuniversities6866 Oh.. That's some top tip mate, thank you! I now remember he was a huge ManU fan.. Case probably closed I guess. Didn't find him or his sister anywhere on social media so I can't get no verification sadly.
Some Scottish accents skip the T as well I believe.
@@rogueuniversities6866 Not all of them do . It depends.
@@hannahdyson7129 Most do. It's a common Mancunian habit. Of course there are people outside Manchester that claim to be Mancunians who don't (e.g. maybe some people from Sale - Karl Pilkington, for example, Stockport, Salford, and other places in Greater Manchester, not the same as Manchester) but most Mancunians absolutely drop the T.
Hello! I’m fascinated by the nuances of British accents and I loved the detailed explanation in your video. Could you elaborate on how the SSBE differs from other British accents, particularly in terms of vowel pronunciation? Your tips are incredibly helpful for distinguishing subtle differences. Thanks for sharing your expertise! 🎩✨
I simply love your videos! You are so adorable in your brilliant presentations. You are often very funny and have a wonderful way about you. I hope to meet you some day!
In order to sound more English is mandatory putting a couple of 'lovely' each sentence 🤭
👍😊
😂😂😂
or bloody... Depending on the context of course! 😅
Thank you for this! I feel like I've heard all of these tips in various places but never put all together at once and explained so succinctly. Although I've also noticed that a lot of British accents pronounce "th" as "v" or "f". Either way, this will certainly come in handy while I'm DMing because I am absolute trash tier at doing voices lol.
You're right that a lot of English people pronounce 'th' as 'v' in words like "this" and as 'f' in words like "think", but don't copy it in an attempt to sound authentic (or should that be "aufentic" ? 🙂), because it's considered lazy and uneducated - bad speech as opposed to dialect.
'Th' as 'f' is a London working class i.e. cockney thing. Never heard it anywhere else in the UK, it stands out like a sore thumb as cockney. Some regional dialects pronounce th as a 't' or 'd', e.g. Devonian, e.g. three is dree and through is droo.
@@kernowforester811 I live in south east Kent, and a lot of people here say 'f'/'v' for 'th' - but. yes, it probably has spread from London
@@adolforodolfo6929 Yes, London overspill. I have heard the old Kent accent, it is not London, and initial 'th' was like Westcountry, pronounced as a 'd', so three was dree. My maternal grand dad was born in 1890, died 1971, was from east Kent, and fought for the East Kent Regiment (the buffs) in WW1. He did not speak with a London accent, it sounded a bit like an Aussie accent with a slight Westcountry sound. They also pronounced their 'r's, i.e. it was rhotic.
@@kernowforester811 Spooky - my maternal granddad was in the Buffs all through WW1 as well - although he was born in 1895 (died 1976), so five years earlier than yours at both ends of his life. Perhaps they served together? He definitely had that old Kentish accent, as do some people I know who are pretty much the same age as me; but I don't have it (went to a poshish grammar school despite being working class), maybe just a trace of it in the way I pronounce 'I' (a bit like 'oi') and 'uncle', which I pronounce 'onkel'. Where you do still hear it a fair bit is in central/north kent - Ashford, Maidstone, Faversham, Sittingbourne - but it's dying out as the London accent spreads ever further.
Top notch. Thank you. Or as they say in Norway, Tusen takk.
Thank you so much, Sir !
This was fun, thank you. I’m not sure about the “A” though; how do you know when it the short versus when it’s the ‘ah’ sound. I always wondered about the announcer on Dancing With The Stars (American version of Strictly Come Dancing) when he said “dancing the samba” … why isn’t it “dahncing the sahmba”? 😁
A great observation, and what's funny is how British and American English will often use the exact opposite of what you'd expect. Example: spaghetti is PASS-ta in Britain and PAAHH-sta in the US. British using the short A and US using the long A, opposite of how it's "normally" done in those accents. The Italian motorcycle: Du-CAT-ee in UK, Du-CAAHT-ee in US.
In words that in the RP/SSBE accent use the PALM vowel /ɑ/, such as path, staff, brass, or dance, most North American accents (like northern English and Scottish accents) use the TRAP vowel /æ/, so /pæθ/, /stæf/, /bræs/, and /dænts/.
Loan words like samba, pasta, or Nicaragua follow a different pattern. Because English. The /a/ vowel in those words doesn't exist in isolation in SSBE or GenAm. In British and Canadian accents, that /a/ sound is interpreted as TRAP's /æ/, so /sæmbə/, /pæstə/, and /nɪk.ə'ɹæɡ.ju.ə/. In US accents, that sound gets interpreted as PALM's /ɑ/ instead of /æ/, so /sɑmbə/, /pɑstə/, and /nɪk.ə'ɹɑ.ɡwə/.
@@nixonkutz3018 I would say, "PASS ta" and I think most Americans would, too. Snobs would say, "PAH sta". Brits say, "PASS ta, do they?
@@bobmccarty2022 I would say, "PASS ta", but "SAWM ba". I would say, "O BAM ma, but Americans in Massachusetts say, "O BAWM a" for the 44th President of the U.S.
@@dinkster1729 Of course, in SSBE, "pass" uses the same vowel as "palm", not the "short a" vowel from "trap" :-)