How to Speak With a British Accent

Learning a British accent requires listening to the accent repeatedly.

In the United States of America, one can usually distinguish a New Yorker from a Carolina native, yet both speakers have American accents. Just as there is not a definitive American accent, there no single British accent. The solution, then, if not trying to speaking with a specific regional accent, is to study and practice the generalized characteristics of British accents.

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Instructions

- 1
  
  Say "ah" as if getting your throat checked at the doctor's office. This loosens the jaw. In general, a British accent requires an open throat and more forward motion of the lips than an American accent does.
- 2
  
  Drop the "r" sound in words unless it is followed by a vowel. For instance, "far" is pronounced "fah."
- 3
  
  Change "i" sounds to "oy." For instance, "fight" becomes "foyt."
- 4
  
  Push the tongue forward when pronouncing the consonants "t" and "d," adding a slight extra emphasis. For example, the word, "bottle" will sound as if a pause is added in the middle of the word: "bot-tle."
- 5
  
  Practice switching "th" sounds to a soft "f." For instance, "think" would be said as "fink."
- 6
  
  Replace "o" sounds with "ow." "Money" would be pronounced "mowney."
- 7
  
  Replace "l" sounds in the middle of words with an "oo." So "milk" would become "miook."
- 8
  
  Listen to British television and recordings and repeat the phrasings aloud. Listen for the pitch changes and rhythm in the language. Stressed syllables and the ends of questions will rise in pitch, whereas the end of sentences will lower in pitch.

British Library of Sounds

Photo Credit english cathedral image by green308 from Fotolia.com

Comments

alexjms Jul 17, 2010
This is hilarious. You've mixed about 5 regional accents. If you started talking like this anywhere in England, people would laugh at you. Just to help you: 3 is a brummie (Birmingham) accent, 4 is probably queen's english, since most people here actually drop the middle letters (bottle = bo-ul), 5 is totally wrong. Some people may say it like that, but that's usually children and teenagers - you'll just sound like an idiot. 6) I don't know any regional accents that pronounce money like that. Money is pronounced like runny. 7) again - another regional accent, this time london/essex.

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How to Speak With a British Accent

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