Shadowing Practice: Learn a British Accent (RP｜Modern RP｜American English) - Learn English Speaking with Video

These are five things that you can easily change  about your English pronunciation and accent to video that you should sound a certain way. Y ou  do not need to sound British. Y ou do not need to change your accent or anything if you don't want  to. This video is simply here just to educate as well as, possibly, entertain those people who  are interested in learning more about this topic. This video will be focusing predominantly  on the Received Pronunciation accent, however, I will be drawing comparisons between the Received  Pronunciation accent and the Modern Received Pronunciation accent because you're more likely  to hear Modern Received over Received, despite this being considered more of the "standard". So  the first thing you can change is by dropping your r's. If we compare this to, say General American  Pronunciation, you will hear that they pronounce the /r/ sound more, particularly at the end of  words. Let's take this word: car, car. Notice that I'm not saying the 'r' there. I don't  say car, car. The same with this one: here, here. While in American English,  it would be more here, here. Girl girl. Ensure that this sound is very very  relaxed. I have a full video all about how to do this sound as I know it can be tricky,  but for now, just know it is very relaxed.

Girl. And the 'r' is not pronounced.  Here's another: court, court.

Now let's take a look at this one. This  is our first sound where we have two different ways to pronounce it. So in  RP you will hear hair, air, air, hair.

So it becomes more relaxed:  air, hair. While in Modern RP, it just becomes more of one sound, more  of a monophthong: /e:/, hair, hair.

So notice it's a little bit flatter. We're  not changing from air it's just one sound: /e:/, hair. I like your hair. I like your hair.  But the key thing here is there's still no 'r'. Here's another one with some differences:  tour, our, our. Then relax it again: our, our, tour. Now what you'll hear many Modern Received  Pronunciation speakers say is: tour, tour. So this 'ua' actually changes to the vowel that we looked  at in 'court'. So, you might hear, for example, 'cure' becoming 'cure'. 'tour', 'tour'. Now our  final sound: uh. This is what's called the schwa, you've probably heard of it. It's the most common  sound used, particularly in British English.

Make sure it's super relaxed: teacher, teacher.  So we're not going to try and pronounce that 'r': teacheR. TeacheR sounds more American:  teacher, teacher. As soon as you cut that 'r' it sounds way more English. Now as a side  note, I don't even have this in my own notes, but words that tend to end with er, ar, or  re, for example, we pronounce them with a schwa if they are in a syllable by themselves  and they are a weak syllable. So as we looked at 'teacher' we also have 'centre'. Now in the US,  they would say 'center' 'center'. Centre, centre.

Or doctor, doctor. While in the US they  would say: doctor, doctor. So let's do some shadowing. Listen closely and repeat:  She works here as a teacher in Portsmouth.

She works here as a teacher in Portsmouth.  Where does the tour car take us?

Where does the tour car take us? Now let's  look at the second change you can make. You might have noticed this when I was saying the  word 'doctor', or 'doctor'. Notice that first vowel is slightly different. So this O is very  round and very short: O, O. Shop, shop. Got, got.

Keep it short and keep it round: dog, dog. And  our last word: wan. So even though this has an 'a' we're not going to say 'wAnt', okay?  Keep it round. Want, want. Time to practice your shadowing: I want a dog. I want a dog. And  notice 'I don't say I want A dog', but 'a dog', 'a dog'. If you'd like to learn more about  sentence stress, then I have a full video all about it I will leave it in the card above and  in the description for you. I got it at a shop.

I got it, join them together, I  got it at a, at a, shop. Shop.

Keep it round. I got it at a shop. Now for  change number three. In Received Pronunciation, you will hear this 'ou'. So start really relaxed 'uh' and then move to a very round  position with your mouth, ou ou ou.

So our first one is slow, slow. Go, go.  So keep it very relaxed, ou. Go go. Alone, uh, so a very weak vowel, a-lone,  alone. and our final one road, road.

Keep it very relaxed, row, then round, road,  road. Now in Modern RP you will hear this ou being pronounced slightly differently. You will  hear it slightly more open. For example 'slow' becomes 'slow', 'slow'. So notice it's more  open with that first vowel: slow, slow. The sound really doesn't change all that much, but  I just wanted to make you aware of it 'cause I know some of you have very very good ears. So  let's practise: drive slowly down the road.

Join those together: Drive slowly  down road. Drive slowly down the road.

I put on my coat because it was snowing. I put on  my coat because it was snowing. Point number four that you can change. Now I'm going to compare  this to General American Pronunciation here.

What you will hear with this word here is not only  will they pronounce the r at the end and say /r/, but they will also pronounce that 'r' slightly  differently. Now it's not exactly like a /d/, but they will tap very quickly at the top of  their mouth to make this sound, so it sounds like: water, water. This is called the Flap or Tap  T, in case you're interested in researching more about it. However, we don't really use this  in words in the UK. You might hear people using it at the end of words, particularly if they're  speaking quite quickly, but never in the middle of a word. So you won't ever really hear a Brit  saying 'water', cause that sound a little bit more Australian. So in Received Pronunciation: water,  waa, so along oo, like 'court', water, water.

City, city. So make sure you're pronouncing that  T, city. Ss opposed to in American English, city, city. This one's quite similar to 'water' in a  way because we have that 't' sound in the middle 'bet' and then the ending, we don't pronounce  the r: better, better, bet. While in American English it would be more like: better better. And  this one as well a similar thing would happen: later, later. In the U.S: later later. Now  a little side note here, again I don't even have this in my own notes, but in the UK you may  hear speakers changing these T's from a /t/ to a sound that's pronounced more here. This is called  the glottal stop and this is something that you won't hear American speakers do. So water may  be pronounced as water, city, better, later.

While you won't find many speakers  of RP using this in their accent, you will hear it if you ever come to the UK. So it  is something definitely to be aware of. So even if you don't do it in your own speech, you will still  hear it. So let's practice: I'll see you later.

I'll see you late, get that T, later.  Notice that I'm not touching the back of my teeth when I do this T,  so I'm not saying later, later.

But do it a little bit further back: later, later.  And make sure there's a good amount of air as well. There's a lot of what's called 'aspiration'  with this sound, so make sure there's lots of air.

Later. And cut that 'r' as well!  I want to move to a better city.

I want to move to a better, better, city, city. So  in American English that would be 'better city'.

I wanna move to a better city. It feels really  weird saying that with my pronunciation.

Now let's talk about some words that are  pronounced differently in the UK compared to in the US. So these are some British  and American pronunciation differences in specific words. Let's start with a very  common one, advertisement, advertisement, advertisement, advertisement. Now something interesting that's  happened with, particularly younger people, in the UK, is that they may use the American  pronunciation more. So, for example, I would say advertisement, I don't say advertisement.  Even though, according to the dictionary, and many people that you may ask, they will say  advertisement is more British than advertisement.

However, I think this is more to do with the  amount of American cartoons and TV shows that we were exposed to as children, so we just picked up  the accent and many of us say advertisement, even though we are from the UK. So if you hear a Brit  using advertisement. instead of advertisement.

then don't be shocked, cause there are many of  us who do that! Tere's another interesting one: schedule, schedule, schedule, schedule. Now again, many Brits may also say  schedule, so don't be surprised if you hear Brits like me I also say it say it the American  way. This is a really good one: zebra, zebra, zebra, zebra. This also goes for our next  one, which is the letter of the alphabet, X, Y, Z we say in the UK. Z. While in the U.S, they would pronounce this as Z. X Y Z.  In the UK: vase,. So it's a long 'aa'.

In the U.S: vase vase. So the vowel changes  from 'aa' to 'ei', but also the endings change: vase. There's vibration. Vase. There's no  vibration. Now this one is very very different: aluminum, aluminum, aluminum, aluminum. So you  know that kind of metal foil that you use to wrap hot food or sandwiches or something? In the UK we  call it aluminum foil, while in the U.S, aluminum foil. Aluminum, aluminum. They're quite different.  Now if you're familiar with army vocabulary, you will already know that this has two very different  ways and the British one is very strange. The British one is: Lieutenant Lieutenant. Don't  ask me why there's a /f/ in there. Lieutenant.

While the American: Lieutenant Lieutenant.  This one makes a bit more sense. So we have: Lieutenant, Lieutenant. This is a very common  one: tomato. So mine that second vowel to-ma-to.

Tomato. While in the U.S: tomato. So remember  that Flap T that we looked at. Not tomato. Tomato, tomato. So the vowel changes to-ma  but also that T changes to that 'd': Tomato, tomato. This one has quite different  vowels: vitamin, vitamin. While in the U.S: vitamin, vitamin. So again, we have that Flap  T, vita, vitamin, and also the vowel changes.

Vitamin, vitamin. And our final word:  herb, hurb. So we pronounce the 'h' like you're fogging up a mirror, herb. But  the 'r' is silent. Herb. It's the same vowel that we looked at in 'girl' if you remember? We  cut that 'r', herb. While in American English: herb, herb. So now this time we remove the 'h' but  we add the 'r'. Herb, herb, herb. Thank you very