WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.240 What's up everyone! 2 00:00:01.240 --> 00:00:04.100 I'm Andrea your RealLife English Fluency Coach, 3 00:00:04.100 --> 00:00:10.159 and today we're taking an in-depth look at a range of British English Accents. 4 00:00:12.020 --> 00:00:16.840 If you haven't seen it already I highly recommend you check out this lesson that we did 5 00:00:16.840 --> 00:00:22.739 on little known secrets of the British accent where we had a look at how the British accent 6 00:00:22.739 --> 00:00:28.979 can tend to get confused and misinterpreted in American TV shows and movies. 7 00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:34.460 In today's lesson, we're going to travel around Great Britain to see a range of accents 8 00:00:34.460 --> 00:00:41.400 because there are so many and most of these don't get depicted in TV series and movies, 9 00:00:41.400 --> 00:00:44.520 so we don't have time to look at all of them. 10 00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:50.700 There are very, very many but we're going to start off by taking a look at a few in today's lesson. 11 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:18.920 So Emma Watson is really famous for her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, 12 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:23.939 but as she has become older and I think because she's lived in America more, 13 00:01:23.940 --> 00:01:26.940 you'll find that her accent has changed a little bit. 14 00:01:26.940 --> 00:01:33.400 She does have a modern RP accent which is quite popular with youngsters today, 15 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:38.220 particularly in London but also in other parts of Britain. 16 00:01:38.220 --> 00:01:44.700 That is to say she does speak more like the Queen's English but a more modern version. 17 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:49.240 It's a little bit less formal and you'll hear it when you see the clip. 18 00:01:55.680 --> 00:02:00.140 Now, the first thing we're going to take a look at is the way that she says "that I've." 19 00:02:00.140 --> 00:02:05.600 You'll actually hear her saying it more in American English. She says "that I've" 20 00:02:05.600 --> 00:02:11.380 and that is with the Tap T sound so in American English when you don't pronounce the T 21 00:02:11.380 --> 00:02:15.480 but your tongue hits the roof of your mouth, that is called a Tap T. 22 00:02:15.480 --> 00:02:18.980 And that is how she says these two words. 23 00:02:18.980 --> 00:02:26.600 Now in British English we have something similar called a glottal T and there are usually two ways of saying the T. 24 00:02:26.600 --> 00:02:31.520 So if you heard me the first time I said "that I've" 25 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:37.000 so there that is called a true T where you actually hear the T sound. 26 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:41.120 Now remember Emma used an American accent here 27 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:52.500 and she said "that I've" so a glottal T in British English is where you don't hear the T but there is a sound there. 28 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:59.540 It's more to do with the stopping of the air so I could say "that I've". 29 00:02:59.540 --> 00:03:05.520 So you don't hear the T but i'm stopping the air from coming out of my mouth 30 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:10.440 and then it's released so it's quite subtle, but you do hear a difference. 31 00:03:10.440 --> 00:03:14.300 So the three would be American English. 32 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:25.020 "that I've" you can have the true T "that I've" and then you have the glottal T "that I've" 33 00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:29.460 so you can notice the difference there if you listen very closely. 34 00:03:29.460 --> 00:03:36.060 So just to explain it a little bit further the glottal T is used when the T comes in the middle of a word 35 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:37.520 or at the end of a word. 36 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:39.100 Never at the start. 37 00:03:39.100 --> 00:03:42.920 If a T is at the start of the word we always pronounce it. 38 00:03:42.920 --> 00:03:48.780 So you can hear a glottal T in words such as "water". 39 00:03:48.780 --> 00:03:57.440 So that's a true T where I'm pronouncing the T "water" but with a glottal T we would say "water". 40 00:03:57.440 --> 00:04:06.520 So that's kind of very Cockney but it is also found in many other parts of Britain where people use a glottal T. 41 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:08.120 It's not just a London thing. 42 00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:16.839 Other words such as "city" so with a true T: "city" and with the glottal T "city". 43 00:04:16.839 --> 00:04:24.739 So, I'm holding in that air when I'm not pronouncing the T sound, and then I release it so "city" 44 00:04:24.740 --> 00:04:32.680 It's quite in the throat, and there is a sound there so there is a sound there but you cannot hear the T 45 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:39.960 and when you have that T sound at the end of words, it might sound like this so instead of saying "light" 46 00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:46.900 I would say "light" and instead of saying "right" I would say "right". 47 00:04:50.220 --> 00:04:58.060 Now if you listen to the way that Emma says "put together" you'll notice that the first T is not sounded. 48 00:04:58.060 --> 00:05:01.800 This is because T is a plosive speech sound. 49 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:07.180 That is to say, when you make that sound some air is released. 50 00:05:07.180 --> 00:05:14.640 So what happens when two T's come together at the end of one word and at the start of another 51 00:05:14.640 --> 00:05:19.220 is that first one is not released because it just wouldn't sound right. 52 00:05:19.220 --> 00:05:24.300 It would be really strange to try and pronounce them both, and say "put together". 53 00:05:24.380 --> 00:05:32.960 It just seems like too much effort, so to make it easier that first one comes away and we say "put together". 54 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:41.540 Are you frustrated by finding it difficult to understand fast-speaking natives? 55 00:05:41.540 --> 00:05:44.980 Then, I highly recommend our Fluent with Friends course. 56 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:49.680 In this 48-week course, you will learn with the first two seasons of Friends. 57 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:56.000 Each week you'll receive PDF power lessons, vocabulary memorization software, 58 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:01.660 access to our Fluency Circle Global Community, and so much more. 59 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:07.740 And the best part is you can try it right now for free with our Three-part Master Class. 60 00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:14.680 All you have to do is click up here or in the description box below to learn more and sign up now. 61 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:16.860 We hope to see you there. 62 00:06:16.860 --> 00:06:22.919 Now the schwa sound which you may have heard about is probably the most common sound 63 00:06:22.920 --> 00:06:28.460 and the one that you would really need to learn about if you want to sound like a British native. 64 00:06:28.460 --> 00:06:35.100 So where words end with "er" for example we don't really pronounce that R again. 65 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:38.779 It has more of an sound as in "umbrella". 66 00:06:38.779 --> 00:06:47.079 So rather than saying "together" and pronouncing that r or like in american english saying together, 67 00:06:47.080 --> 00:06:50.480 in British English we say "together". 68 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:56.480 So you can hear it in words such as "together, brother, mother". 69 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:01.640 So I hope you can hear that at the end there that is the schwa sound. 70 00:07:01.640 --> 00:07:07.540 So it's more of an "uh" sound. You'll hear it in other words as well not just words that end with er. 71 00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:17.180 For example, you'll hear it in survive so we don't say survive we say survive it's very very subtle. 72 00:07:17.180 --> 00:07:24.920 So next we're going to travel up north and take a look at the Manchester accent which we actually call a Mancunian accent. 73 00:07:24.920 --> 00:07:30.340 We're going to take a little look at Liam Gallagher, who does have quite a strong accent 74 00:07:30.340 --> 00:07:37.600 but we're going to look at how he pronounces some words so as I mentioned before even in Cockney London 75 00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:46.780 accent the h at start of words is often not sounded out and you'll hear Liam Gallagher do that as well in this clip 76 00:07:46.780 --> 00:07:53.460 so instead of saying "have" he'll say "av" so instead of saying "I had a good time" 77 00:07:53.460 --> 00:07:57.080 some people might say "I ad a good time". 78 00:08:13.320 --> 00:08:18.060 another interesting word that he pronounces here is glasses 79 00:08:18.060 --> 00:08:27.360 so he actually says glasses and this is really more in north of england as well as scotland and wales 80 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:34.260 it's only more in the south and in particular london where we say these words with a longer r sound 81 00:08:34.260 --> 00:08:44.820 so generally in britain you'll hear words like glass dance pass with a shorter a sound 82 00:08:44.820 --> 00:08:57.260 glass dance pass but in london and accent we have that elongated r sound. 83 00:09:01.580 --> 00:09:07.000 Did you notice how instead of saying myself he actually said myself 84 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:14.179 now i think historically this was an influence from Irish English because in the north of england 85 00:09:14.179 --> 00:09:21.759 especially liverpool is very close to the um to the sea and very close to ireland and so over time 86 00:09:21.760 --> 00:09:29.020 the irish actually influenced the way that brits would say particular words so definitely in the north of england 87 00:09:29.020 --> 00:09:34.820 you will hear people often say myself instead of myself 88 00:09:34.820 --> 00:09:42.020 so we're now going to journey back down a little bit in between london and manchester to birmingham 89 00:09:42.020 --> 00:09:48.400 so birmingham is found in the midlands and we're going to be looking at a clip from peaky blinders 90 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:54.840 now it's worth noting that even i struggle to understand them when they speak sometimes on peaky blinders 91 00:09:54.840 --> 00:10:00.679 and i do actually watch the show with subtitles to make sure i don't miss anything 92 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:07.499 but if you do ever visit birmingham itself you'll find this accent is not quite as strong as in the show 93 00:10:07.500 --> 00:10:15.580 and you will understand people a lot better so one thing that's really distinctive in this accent is the way 94 00:10:15.580 --> 00:10:23.020 they pronounce the uh so it's that u sound that's found in the middle of words or sometimes at the start 95 00:10:23.020 --> 00:10:31.720 and in london for example we would pronounce this as uh so when i say us it has that sound that you would 96 00:10:31.720 --> 00:10:37.640 associate with the letter but here you can hear them say "ooz" 97 00:11:07.720 --> 00:11:12.779 and you hear it in the way that they say pub as well 98 00:11:12.780 --> 00:11:23.620 so in the south of england we would say pub but as you can hear in the birmingham accent we can hear pub 99 00:11:23.620 --> 00:11:32.260 so it has more of an uh sound quite a short uh sound maybe as in good this sound is synonymous with more 100 00:11:32.260 --> 00:11:39.920 northern accents you will hear it the further north you go up um in the british isles so it's not just a birmingham 101 00:11:39.920 --> 00:11:44.380 accent but here it is very very strong. 102 00:11:46.540 --> 00:11:53.840 so you'll notice that any time the word of is said it actually connects with the word before and after it 103 00:11:53.840 --> 00:12:02.120 so we don't actually hear the v sound so when he says a lot of money it sounds like a lot of money 104 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:08.440 so it's more of a connected speech and here are some examples to see that even further 105 00:12:31.340 --> 00:12:40.520 you can also hear this when he says a lot of money so rather than saying a lot of money he says a lot of money. 106 00:12:40.520 --> 00:12:49.020 so again he's just shorting in it it makes it easier to say and again that you will find a lot in birmingham 107 00:12:55.080 --> 00:13:05.860 did you also notice the way that he said pour it so when we say poor it has more of an elongated sound 108 00:13:05.860 --> 00:13:15.620 but if you hear the way that thomas shelby says it in this clip he says pour it so again it has more of an ooh sound 109 00:13:15.620 --> 00:13:25.300 but they also roll the r ever so slightly so you do hear the r sound a lot more than you would with an rp accent 110 00:13:25.300 --> 00:13:28.559 or a more london or southern accent 111 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:34.319 if you'd like to learn a little bit more about british english and also the difference between this 112 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:41.340 and american english i highly recommend that you listen to our podcast where ethan and i actually went through 113 00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:48.000 a whole load of different words that are different in britain and america so you can check out 114 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:53.000 in the description box below that link so you can listen to it after this lesson 115 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:59.920 so we're now going to travel a little bit further west to wales and did you know that catherine zeta jones 116 00:13:59.920 --> 00:14:06.559 is in fact welsh you may not have realized because her accent is probably not quite as strong now 117 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:10.699 from living in America for so long but she is in fact from wales 118 00:14:10.700 --> 00:14:14.940 now in this clip she describes the welsh accent 119 00:14:14.940 --> 00:14:19.440 and i really like the way that she describes it because she says that it's sing-songy 120 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:23.920 now what does that mean if someone describes something as sing-songy 121 00:14:23.920 --> 00:14:29.640 they mean that it sounds like a song so as you can hear in this clip the way that she talks there's a lot 122 00:14:29.640 --> 00:14:35.260 of intonation and it does very much sound very sing-songy 123 00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:12.200 i think that this is probably the best way to describe the welsh accent but it is also important to know that again 124 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:18.140 depending whether you're in the north or the south of wales the accent will be very different 125 00:15:18.140 --> 00:15:23.260 i do find that they are a lot stronger in the south of wales than they are in the north 126 00:15:23.260 --> 00:15:30.300 and the north as it's so close to liverpool manchester does have a little bit more representation of these two 127 00:15:30.300 --> 00:15:36.900 accents so in this next clip from one of my favorite british tv series gavin and stacy 128 00:15:36.900 --> 00:15:42.660 stacy is in fact from wales and you will hear a stronger welsh accent here 129 00:15:42.660 --> 00:15:44.360 so let's see what you think 130 00:15:56.840 --> 00:16:07.940 so we're now moving further north all the way to scotland and here you will hear a glaswegian accent 131 00:16:07.940 --> 00:16:13.700 which means this person is from glasgow he is probably the most successful football manager 132 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:18.580 in the history of the game sir alex ferguson 133 00:16:38.680 --> 00:16:44.660 now you'll probably notice in this clip that many sounds within words are unstressed 134 00:16:44.660 --> 00:16:50.240 so it can be quite difficult to actually understand sometimes what is being said 135 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:53.560 for example the way that he says definitely 136 00:16:53.560 --> 00:16:59.400 so you can hear that i'm pronouncing most of the sounds in that word definitely 137 00:16:59.400 --> 00:17:05.359 but here he says it's so fast it's very easy to miss it he says definitely 138 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:10.319 so it's quite tricky to understand sometimes what is being said 139 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:20.700 You will also notice with a scottish accent that the r sound is more prominent at times they tend to roll the r 140 00:17:20.700 --> 00:17:26.100 not so much but definitely maybe that one time so that you do hear it a little bit more 141 00:17:26.100 --> 00:17:33.020 i do believe that in tv series and movies sometimes this accent is exaggerated and a little bit overdone 142 00:17:33.020 --> 00:17:37.700 because they don't roll the r's that much but you can hear it there a little bit 143 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:51.880 this is in fact called a tapped r so you'll hear it in words such as bright so in scotland you'd hear it more as bright 144 00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:56.600 and words such as red so they would say red 145 00:17:56.600 --> 00:17:59.220 so you can hear that i am rolling that r a little bit 146 00:17:59.220 --> 00:18:05.739 but not too much so it's called a tapped r another interesting thing to note about 147 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:13.300 the scottish accent is the way that they say words such as good and food and mood 148 00:18:13.300 --> 00:18:23.140 so that double o sound in british english is most commonly that sound an ooh sound mood food 149 00:18:23.140 --> 00:18:32.179 but in scottish accents you will hear that shorter sound as in good so they will say food rather than food 150 00:18:32.180 --> 00:18:39.160 so as you've hopefully learned in today's lesson you will see that all around britain there are so many different 151 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:45.780 accents so many that we couldn't even cover them all in today's lesson so we just picked a handful for you 152 00:18:45.780 --> 00:18:53.940 just to get started so that you can understand more native english so if you'd like to learn more british english 153 00:18:53.940 --> 00:18:58.480 i highly recommend that you check out our playlist to learn more about this 154 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:02.400 and hopefully in the future we'll bring some more lessons to you 155 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:05.240 to do with british accents and pronunciation