how to speak in a british accent_ 10 steps (with pictures)

7/29/2019 How to Speak in a British Accent_ 10 Steps (With Pictures)

1/8

25/08/2013 How to Speak in a British Accent: 10 Steps (with Pictures)

www.wikihow.com/Speak-in-a-British-Accent

1

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
http://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-1.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-1.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-1.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-1.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-1.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-1.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-1.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Main-Pagehttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-1.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Speak-in-a-British-Accent


2/8



2

3

4

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
http://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-3.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-2.jpg


3/8



5

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.
http://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-5.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-4.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop


4/8



6

7

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.


5/8



8

9

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.


6/8



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

xThank OurVolunteer

Authors.Follow us on

Google+

185k

Follow
http://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-9.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Image:Speak-in-a-British-Accent-Step-8.jpghttp://www.wikihow.com/Understand-British-Terms


7/8



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


8/8



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

How to Imitate Actions from Tv

How to Speak American English

How to Learn All Your Lines for a Play, in One Day

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
http://www.languagebyvideo.com/course.php?level=Advanced&languageId=2http://www.bbc.co.uk/radiohttp://www.bl.uk/soundsfamiliarhttp://www.wikihow.com/Learn-All-Your-Lines-for-a-Play%2C-in-One-Dayhttp://www.wikihow.com/Speak-American-Englishhttp://www.wikihow.com/Imitate-Actions-from-Tvhttp://www.wikihow.com/Speak-Proper-Englishhttp://www.wikihow.com/Speak-the-RP-English-Accenthttp://www.wikihow.com/Speak-With-an-Irish-Accenthttp://www.wikihow.com/Formally-Address-British-Royalty-and-Aristocracy-in-Personhttp://www.wikihow.com/Address-Your-Grandmother-and-Mom-on-Their-Relationshiphttp://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-British-Family-to-Spend-Some-Time-With-to-Improve-Your-Englishhttp://www.wikihow.com/Understand-British-Termshttp://www.wikihow.com/Make-Welsh-Cookies

how to speak in a british accent_ 10 steps (with pictures)

Documents