These are the five sounds that everybody struggles with when doing a British accent. Good morning,
good afternoon, and good evening. Welcome to Smashing English! Before we start this video,
be sure to subscribe because we make new videos all the time,
and I don't want you to miss any. So with that said, let's get on with the video.
So let me get this straight. You are learning English, and you want to speak
with a perfect British accent. Well, first of all, let me tell you a British accent doesn't
really exist. But today, I will be talking about the dialect Received Pronunciation.
Received Pronunciation is the standard British accent that you would hear on the news from the
royal family. This is the dialect we're talking about today. But just to confirm,
a British accent can sound a lot of different ways because in this country,
we have a lot of different accents. But today, we'll be focusing on Received Pronunciation,
and there are five sounds that always seem to be a problem. So I'm going to teach them
to you now in the hopes that you will have no more issues with these sounds after this video.
All of these sounds involve an R, yes, that annoying little letter that in Received
Pronunciation, we don't even really say. Okay, so an R in Received Pronunciation is
only pronounced if it comes before a vowel. So things like "Road" or "Read" or "Red,"
we pronounce those Rs. But if it doesn't come before a vowel, then it gets tricky.
So I want to talk to you about five sounds where the R is at the end of the word because these are
always a problem for people. Okay, so let's focus on the first sound. The first sound I want to talk
to you about is this one. See if you can do it first before I say anything. What do you think?
How do we say that? Now, if you said "nurse," you would be correct in lots of areas of the
USA. So in somewhere like California, they would say "nurse," nurse with that R, that bunched R,
and that's quite easy to say. However, in Received Pronunciation, we don't say that. Okay, so this
is what I like to call the thinking sound because it's the kind of sound you would make if you go to
a cafe, and the person says, "Do you want coffee or tea?" You might make this sound, "uhhh, tea."
Okay, that thinking sound is what's going on here. So I want you to take the N and put it in front of
the thinking sound. So we're going to go Nuhh, Nuhh, and then just put an S on the end. Nurse,
nurse. If you have to make a thinking face to help you do it, it helps me. Nurse, okay? Can you hear
there is no R involved? It's just an, uhh, uhh. That's it. So your lips should be relaxed, uhh,
uhh, uhh. Your tongue is pretty relaxed. The tip of it is just there, just resting on the back of
your bottom teeth. It's just lightly touching it. It's not pressing against the bottom teeth.
It's just sat, it's just chill. Nurse, nurse, nurse, nurse. So it's a very relaxed sound.
Okay, now what you have to fight against when you have an, ur, and then a consonant after it,
like in this word, you have to fight the instinct to go, "UuR" Try not to put an R in there. Just
literally: thinking sound, consonant. So let's think of another word. What about the past tense
of hear? Okay, that becomes comes heard, heard. So we're going to make the thinking sound, uhh,
then put an H in front of it. So you're going to go Huuh, Huuh, then just put a D on the
end. Heard, Heard. So that is the, ur, sound. Let me give you a few more examples with the,
ur. Purse, purse. Her, her. First, first. Okay, so that is sound number one. Uh, uh. Let's go on to
sound number two. Now, this one is so confusing because of the spelling. Often my students are
really confused because this sound can be spelled a few different ways. So we've got or, or. So we
can think of the word or, or maybe something like door. But also saw and war and before and Laura.
So this one involves thinking forward. So your lips, they don't make an oo. It's not a tight oo
like goose. It's or. Think about a fashion model, how they go like this with their lips. Maybe
you've got a bit of lip injection in. So you're going to make a kind of pouty shape like this. Or,
or, or, or like that. So push them forward and imagine the sound going forward. Think of that
word forward. That is the sound you are making. The energy goes forward. This one is really
confusing because it's got an AW, so it looks like it should be Saoo, but it's not Saoo, it's saw,
saw, saw. Let's compare the two sounds we have just looked at. So we had, ur, and or. So let's
think of these two words. We have an animal's hair: fur. And for. Okay, so see the shape of
my mouth. See how it changes. So we have fur, for. Fur, for. Okay, notice my jaw for this one,
how it drops. Fur, for. Fur, for. Okay, moving on to sound number three. This is what I like to call
the choir sound because it sounds like a choir. So imagine you are in a choir and the conductor is in
front of you and you all do a beautiful, ah. Okay, the jaw goes down, ah, it's open, it's beautiful.
It sounds like, I don't know, someone much better than me. Ah, ah. Try and sing it a little bit,
sound as beautiful as you can. Ah, lovely. So this is in words like far. Okay, a lot of the time
people see that ah and they want to end the word. They want to say faR. They do the lovely ah sound,
but then they change it at the end. They go faR or caR. Don't feel the need to give in to that
instinct that makes you want to say the R. You are just doing a choir sound. Ah, that's it. Now, if
you have this sound and a consonant after it, just make your sound and then do the consonant. For
example, heart. Heart, heart. I do my sound, then I put the T on the end. So let's think of some
more words that have this sound. Art, art. Father, father. Jar, jar. Okay, so let's compare all three
of these sounds. So, fur, for, far. Fur, for, far. Okay, practice that until you can hear a distinct
difference between them. Okay, moving on to the next sound. So, let's look at the sound air, air,
air. Can, and you hear that little roller coaster I'm going down? I'm going air, air. It's like
you jump over a hill and then fall down. So, I want you to start this sound by making the
'eh' sound like bed or head. Eh, eh, eh. So, you start there and then you release it. Air, air,
air. If you have to do these hands, great. Air, air, air, that last sound is schwa. If you don't
know what a schwa is, a schwa is a completely neutral sound. So, it's like, uh, nothing going
on, nothing happening. So, you do the hard work at the beginning. You smile, you make eh,
and then you go air and just drop it, release it. Air, I don't know why these hands help, but they
really do. So, let me give you some words that have this sound in it. Hair, hair, wear, wear. So,
let's compare the four sounds that we have. So, we've got fur, for, far, fair, fair, fair. Okay,
so let's try it again. We've got fur, for, far, fair, yes! Okay, we've got one more sound to do.
Let's do it. This one is ear. Okay, so think of words like here or beer or we're. Okay,
so that last one, air, started on the sound eh, eh, eh like bed. This one starts on an ee, ee,
ee, like sheep. So, I want you to get into that ee shape, into that smile ee, and then release
it. Do that same release into a schwa, so you go here, ear, ear. Okay, ear. Okay, let's try that.
Let me say a couple of words that have that sound in it. So, we've got we're, we're mere, mere. So,
let's put them all side by side and see if you can hear the difference. Okay,
so just see if you can hear it. So, we've got fur, fur, for, for, far, far, fair, fair, fear,
fear. Okay, that is subtle. It's so subtle, but it's different. Okay, listen again. Fur, for, far,
fair, fear, okay? So, notice those first three are straight, and the second two have a little
shift. Okay, so try it with me. I will say it, and then leave a pause so you can do it. Okay,
so we've got fur... for... far... fair... fear.... Great. Okay, practice that as many times as you
need to. Okay, record yourself, listen. Do any of them sound the same? Have you got two words
that are exactly the same? If they are, you need to make some adjustments. So go back to the part
of the video where I talk to you about that sound, really practice it, and then go back and try those
five words. These are without a doubt some of the hardest sounds in this dialect. So if you can get
these perfect, you've got nothing to worry about. Thank you so much for watching this video. If you
enjoyed it, please give it a like. If you would like to follow us on Instagram, you can do so.
The link for that is down below. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time. Tata!