Shadowing Practice: Learn a British Accent (RP｜Modern RP｜American English) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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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.
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Girl. And the 'r' is not pronounced. Here's another: court, court.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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She works here as a teacher in Portsmouth. Where does the tour car take us?
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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.
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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.
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I got it, join them together, I got it at a, at a, shop. Shop.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Join those together: Drive slowly down road. Drive slowly down the road.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Later. And cut that 'r' as well! I want to move to a better city.
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I want to move to a better, better, city, city. So in American English that would be 'better city'.
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I wanna move to a better city. It feels really weird saying that with my pronunciation.
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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.
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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.
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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'.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 31 sentences and 1928 words to shadow. The speech runs for 17:31. The speaker talks at a steady 110 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pronounce verb | /pɹəˈnaʊns/ | To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously. |
| pronunciation noun | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. |
| advertisement noun | /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/ | A commercial solicitation designed to sell some commodity, service or similar. |
| herb noun | /hɜːb/ | A plant whose stem is not woody and does not persist beyond each growing season. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| aluminum noun | /əˈlu.mɪ.nəm/ | American, Canadian, and Philippines standard spelling of aluminium. |
| tomato noun | /təˈmeɪ.toʊ/ | A widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, having edible fruit. |
| accent noun | /ækˈsɛnt/ | A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to… |
| vitamin noun | /ˈvɪt.ə.mɪn/ | Any of a specific group of organic compounds essential in small quantities for healthy human growth, metabolism, development, and body function. They are found… |
| vase noun | /veɪ̯s/ | An upright open container used mainly for displaying fresh, dried, or artificial flowers. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
| differently adverb | /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/ | In a different way. |
| foil noun | /fɔɪl/ | A very thin sheet of metal. |
| shadow noun | /ˈʃædəʊ̯/ | A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object. |
| coat noun | /ˈkoʊ̯t/ | An outer garment covering the upper torso and arms. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 36 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, vibration /vaɪˈbɹeɪʃən/, shock /ʃɔk/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/
- Long words — get the stress right: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, advertisement /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/, aluminum /əˈlu.mɪ.nəm/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pronounce, pronunciation, advertisement.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being considered · is not pronounced · being pronounced |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · one, which is |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might hear · might have · may hear |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | was saying · was snowing |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.