How to Speak English with a British accent

This article focuses solely on the pronunciation of the standard British accent “Received Pronunciation” (RP for short), a type of British accent spoken in the South of England and exaggerated by the upper classes, so it is also known as “The Queen’s English”. There is a lot of difference in intonation between England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. To learn local or ‘orthodox’ intonation, you should choose a specific region and learn the intonation of that region. Besides, absorbing the British way of speaking also helps you to speak like a native. Learning the RP accent mainly focuses on pronunciation, while learning the standard language will focus on other issues such as correct use of grammar, vocabulary, and a more formal style.

Table of Contents

Sound /r/

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The first will be how to read the /r/ sound. You should know that most British English speakers don’t curl their tongue to pronounce /r/ (with the exception of those in Scotland, Northumbria, Northern Ireland and parts of Lancashire) but not all British accents are the same. together. For example, the Scottish accent is much different from the British accent. After a vowel, you won’t say the /r/ sound but will lengthen the vowel and add an “uh” sound (the “here” (here) will sound like “heeuh”). Words like “hurry” (hurry), you wouldn’t combine the /r/ sound with a vowel, but would read it as “huh-ree”.

In American English, words ending in “rl” or “rel” can be pronounced using either one or two syllables, completely interchangeable. However, this case cannot be applied in British English. Words ending in “-rl” like “girl”, “hurl” are pronounced one syllable with a silent /r/ sound, while “squirrel” (squirrel) is ” squih-rul” and “referral” are “re-fer-rul”.
Some words are easy to pronounce with a British accent. For example, the word “mirror” (mirror) sounds like “mih-ra”. Don’t pronounce the word “mirror” like the word “mere” (just); British people hardly say the same.
Some of the odd breaks in the sentence were also removed by adding the sound /r/ before the vowel. For example, “I saw it” becomes “I saw-rit”, to avoid a break between ‘saw’ and ‘it’. Another example is “Bacteria are small”, pronounced “Bacteria-rar-small”.

Dark:/

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The U in stupid and duty is pronounced like ew or “you”. Avoid pronouncing oo as the example in the transcription; so you would read as stewpid or the usual schewpid , not stoopid ; the word duty is pronounced dewty or will usually be jooty . In standard British accent, the letter A (such as in father ) is pronounced on the inside of the nasopharynx with the throat open – sounding like “arh”. Most British accents sound like this, but the RP is usually clearer. In the South of England and in the RP accent, words such as “bath”, “path”, “glass”, “grass” also use this vowel. like barth, parth, glarss, grarss). However, in other parts of England “bath”, “path” is read as “ah”.

Heavy consonants

Sound /t/

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Sometimes the /t/ sound is omitted. With some accents, including the Cockney accent, the /t/ sound is not pronounced in words that Americans replace with the /d/ sound. However, there will usually be a brief pause or pause at the position of the sound. So the word “battle” will be pronounced ba-ill , but you’ll rarely find someone who says “Ba-ill” takes breath on the back of the tongue right at the end of the first syllable before it comes out. pronunciation of the second syllable. This is called glottal mutilation. In addition, glottal syllables are used for words such as “mittens” (kitchen gloves) and “mountain” (mountain). English people often pronounce it like that.

Speakers of English with a South East English accent, RP accent, Scottish accent, Irish accent, Welsh accent often think that dropping the /t/ sound is lazy and rude so they don’t accept it but most The accent still accepts this for the middle sound of a word in the usual context, and the use of a pharyngeal muffler at the end of each word is universally accepted.

Pronounce

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Note that some words are pronounced the way they are written. The word “herb” will also read the /h/ sound. The word “been” (past participle of “be”) would be pronounced as “bean” instead of “bin” (the barrel) or “ben” (the person’s name). In the RP voice, the words “again” (again) and “renaissance” are pronounced as “a gain” and “run nay seance” with “ai” as in “pain”. not “said” (say, the past participle of “say”). Words ending in “body” are pronounced as they are written, as “any body”, not “any buddy” but using the short O in English.

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Note that the sound /h/ is not always pronounced. The /h/ in the word “herb” is pronounced clearly, as opposed to erb . However, in many British accents, the /h/ sound at the beginning of some words is often omitted, such as the Northern accent and the Cockney accent.

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The word been reads as “bean” instead of “bin”. In American English, people still pronounce it as been . As for the British accent, been is a common pronunciation but you will hear “bin” in casual communication when the word is not stressed.

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Note that two or more vowels next to each other make an extra syllable. For example, the word “road” is usually pronounced rohd but in Wales and to some people in Northern Ireland it is pronounced ro.ord . Some even say “reh-uud.”

Listen and imitate

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Listen to the “music” of English. All accents and dialects have their own musicality. Pay attention to British intonation and accent. Sir Johnathan Ive is a prime example, listen to his voice when introducing Apple products. At the end of sentences does the speaker raise his voice, not change his voice or lower his voice? How is the intonation in a particular sentence said? There is a great deal of variation in intonation in voices between regions. In the British way of speaking, especially the normal RP accent, the intonation will not change much in the sentence compared to the American way and the general tendency is to slightly lower the voice at the end of the sentence. However, Liverpop accents and accents in the North East of England are exceptional!

For example, instead of saying “is he going to the store?”, you should say “is he GOING to the store?” You will lower your voice when asking a question instead of raising your voice (raise is common in American or Australian English).

Advice

As with accent, you should also pay attention to British slang, such as “lads” or “blokes” used to refer to boys and men, “birds” or “lasses” (from monday). two very common in the North of England and in Scotland) refers to women. The word “loo” means toilet but “bathroom” means bathhouse.
As with any accent, listening to and imitating native speakers is the best and fastest way to learn. As a child, didn’t you also learn a language by listening and repeating words in addition to mimicking the accent?
- You can hear a formal standard British accent on the BBC news channel. Formal British speech is often more lenient and clear than American speech, but like the news everywhere, TV and radio speech is often exaggerated.
- You can also watch videos of British YouTubers. There are many members to choose from such as: AmazingPhil, danisnotonfire, Zoella, The Sidemen and many more.
Listening to the Queen’s speech during the opening of Parliament, she will often give a very long speech, you will have the opportunity to notice the way she speaks. Note, however, that the Queen has an exaggerated upper-class accent, and unless you specifically want to learn a royal accent, it’s best to avoid speaking that way – Britons are particularly annoyed by foreigners. say so when they try to speak with a British accent.
- For a standard East London accent, you should check out the BBC musical EastEnders and the sitcom Only Fops and Horses . Native speakers still speak that way, especially working-class people in east London and parts of Essex and Kent, but you’ll usually hear it better in the way older people speak.
There are hundreds of different accents in the UK so it would be incorrect to put them all in British accents; Wherever you go, you will hear many different pronunciations.
- Note, to avoid confusing, it is best to focus on learning only one voice at a time.
Have your friends test your English accent! They will judge whether you speak well or not!
Many places have different ways of saying and using words. Look up English dictionary online for more words they use often. Remember that apart from the obvious distinctions like tap/faucet, pavement/sidewalk, native speakers will find your word usage funny, but also endearing, worse than they won’t give in if you try to change the local words and their way of speaking.
Pronounce everything clearly and read each word clearly, making sure there is space between words.
As a child, your ears have the ability to process many different frequencies of sound, helping you distinguish and simulate the sounds of the language around you. To learn a new voice effectively, you must improve your ear’s hearing by hearing examples of that voice over and over.
Once you know the methods and listen to the British people speak, try reading some parts of the book in the accent you are learning. This is a fun and effective workout.
If you know English people, you can ask them to say a few sentences so you can listen and learn to speak along.
Don’t try to imitate the British too much. Many people will feel uncomfortable knowing you are from another country.
Watch British TV and use many new words to improve your vocabulary and listening a lot will help you to speak with a standard British accent.
Pronounce /t/ clearly
Watch Harry Potter and listen to how they speak. The actors all spoke with clear English accents. Pretend to be them and act like them. This will encourage you to speak like them.
Listen/watch British Hplywood movies or BBC movies with subtitles to give you a better understanding of what is said in the movie. Practice saying those English words to improve your English accent.

Warning

Don’t think you’ll get it right any time soon. Any native English speaker will immediately recognize you’re faking your accent, but you’ll have success using it with others.
Don’t be too confident that you speak with a British accent . It is very rare that any imitation makes a native speaker sound like the real thing.

Things you need

Television
DVD player

Steps