What's up everyone? Today we're learning 5 more real British accents that you need to know!
In case you missed it, we made this lesson not so long ago, which I highly recommend you watch if
you haven't seen it, and I'll link it down in the description box below to make it easy for
you to find. Due to that lesson's popularity and the many requests we've had today you're going to
be learning the Yorkshire accent, the Queen's English, the Cockney accent, a Scouse accent,
which is from Liverpool, and also a Scottish one. So first of all we're going to travel to South
Yorkshire and in fact we're going to Doncaster, or as they would say Doncaster, because they don't
pronounce this long R sound like I do. And we're going to be taking a look at the accent of Louis
Tomlinson. Let's take a look at this clip and then we'll talk about some more features of the accent.
So the first interesting thing to note here is the way that we pronounce his name. Because it could
be pronounced in two different ways some people might say Louis and some people might say Loo-ee,
and that's how he pronounces his. By the way, in case you're new here we help you to learn
fast English without getting lost, without using the jokes, and without subtitles,
just like Jay, who says that it's great waking up to our lessons so don't forget to hit that
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There are some very distinctive parts to this South Yorkshire accent which we'll hear in a
moment with one of Louis interviews. However, one thing in particular is the way that they
connect some words, so they have quite a precise connected speech in Yorkshire, where they link
some words together. For example instead of saying "I'm going to the shop," they'll say "I'm going
to shop," and you'll hear Louis here as well say something about when he was with the band,
he doesn't say with the band, he says wit band. So this is quite an interesting part of their
accent, so in this interview we hear the reduction of the 'th' sound so instead
of saying 'everything' or 'throw', Louis actually says 'everything' and 'throw'.
We also noticed the reduction of the H here, which can be found in many British accents,
so instead of saying 'he' he might say 'ee', and instead of saying 'who' he says 'ooh'.
In this interview we have further examples of the reduction of the H and we also have
the Glottal T. So the Glottal T is when you don't hear the T in words,
but instead the flow of air is stopped and then released. So for example instead of
saying 'butter' some people might say 'butter', so there is a sound there but you don't hear the T.
We also hear that shorter 'uh' sound here with the U, so instead of saying 'bug', Louis says 'boog',
and this is very typical of Northern accents. You may remember this from the lesson that we
made on Harry Styles accent, so if you haven't watched that yet, I highly recommend you do,
and you can click up here or down in the description box below to watch it later.
Now the way he says this phrase is very interesting. So he doesn't say 'have got them',
so we have a reduction of the H sound here, we have a Glottal T and we also
have a reduction of the 'th' sound in them. So instead of saying 'have got them', Louis says:
In this clip we again have the reduction of the H, that short 'uh' sound and the
reduction of the 'th' sound. However we also hear him use 'me' instead of 'my'
So instead of saying "I think my mum did a good job," he says "I think 'me' mum did a good job"
And again this is very typical of Northern English accents. We also hear a short E sound
at the end of words that end with Y, so instead of saying 'personally' he says 'personally'.
So this is very common of Northern accents in England, with words that end in Y,
such as really, personally and probably. If you'd like to improve your understanding
of fast speaking natives, then I highly recommend our Fluent with Friends course. In this 48-week
course you'll learn with the first two seasons of Friends. You'll receive PDF Power lessons every
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much more. And the best part is you can try right now absolutely FREE with our 3-Part Masterclass!
All you have to do is click up here or down in the description
box below to learn more and sign up now. So now we're going to travel a bit further South
to London where the Queen lives, in Buckingham Palace, and we're going to
take a little look at how the Queen speaks. So the Queen has kind of her own style of RP
which is Received Pronunciation, and this type of accent is not spoken by a large percentage of the
population. It's actually a very small percentage and it's synonymous with class. So it's usually
the upper classes that would speak this way and also the BBC. It's known as the BBC English.
So you'll notice that when the Queen speaks her jaw is very stiff, so there's not a lot
of movement around her mouth and her lips also stay quite close together.
One of the best ways to understand natives is by learning connected speech and many people
are quite surprised to hear that even the Queen sometimes speaks with connected speech.
So you can hear here the way that she says 'isn't' it is quite different and
she links those two words together to make it more natural as she speaks.
We also have some linking here where she says "wore it," so that final sound, that R sound
links to it and it sounds like "wore it, wore it." Now one very distinctive sound that the Royal
Family has, is the way they say 'off', the way they say the O sound. So I say it like this 'off'
or 'often', however they say it with an Uh sound, so they will say 'oof' or 'ofn'.
It's very interesting the way that the queen says "yes" as well and there's this really funny clip
where Olivia Colman, who plays the Queen in the series The Crown, actually teaches someone how to
say yes as the Royal Family, and as the Queen. If you'd like to learn English with Queen
Elizabeth II, and more about her pronunciation, then I highly recommend you check out this lesson
we made by clicking up here or down in the description box below. So now we're staying
in London, but we're going towards the East of London to learn more about the Cockney accent with
David Beckham. So David Beckham was born and grew up in an area of East London called Leytonstone.
So he does have quite a Cockney accent. In particular we see the reduction of the TH
sound again like we did in Louis Tomlinson's accent and it sounds more like a F sound.
So, in words such as 'father', 'with' and 'everything' we hear David Beckham saying it
with more of a F or a V sound. We can also hear again the reduction of the H and the Glottal T,
which is very typical of the Cockney accent. Another sound that you'll hear with the Cockney
accent is that at the end of words when there's an '-ing' sometimes it changes
to a '-ink' sound. So instead of saying 'everything' here David says 'everything'.
As we've spoken about this before, natives make mistakes too and this is a very common one
so instead of saying were he says was in these sentences.
Now the very talented singer Adele is also known for her very strong Cockney accent, so
have a watch and see if there are any features of the Cockney accent you can hear in hers as well.
So now we're going to travel all the way up North to Scotland, and in particular Perth
where the famous actor Ewan McGregor is from. Now the Scottish accent is a rhotic one, meaning
that the R sound is pronounced in most words. So you might notice that it sounds a little bit
more like the way they pronounce the R sound in American English as opposed to British English.
The O sound as well is quite different in his accent, it's elongated and it's more
at the front of the mouth. So instead of saying "I know," it has more of an
elongated sound and is at the front of the mouth. There's also some connected speech here in the way
that he says suppose. He shortens it to spose. So instead of saying "I suppose," he says "I spose."
Now Ewan McGregor is a very famous hollywood actor and he's made very many movies there,
so his accent has been influenced a little bit by this and you'll notice that he does tend to use
the tap tea quite a lot. So although he does also pronounce his T's you'll also hear his tongue hit
the roof of his mouth there with the American T. So now we're going to travel down just a little
bit to Liverpool, and Liverpool has such a distinctive accent. It's actually only
around 30 miles from Manchester, but the two accents are very different.
So we are going to be taking an interview with Stephen Graham, who is a famous Hollywood actor
and you might actually not even realize that he's from Liverpool because he often plays
characters that are from America. And his American accent is incredible.
So we call this accent the Scouse accent, which comes actually from a dish a type of
stew that was eaten by sailors down at the docks. So their accent is also heavily influenced by the
Irish because it's very close by, and during the 19th and 20th Centuries
there were many Irish settlers. So this can be one of the most difficult accents to understand
even for people from other parts of the UK because there's a lot of connected speech involved.
The T's are quite distinctive, especially at the end of words and they just link to the next words.
So they do speak quite fast and it can be quite difficult to decipher what someone is saying.
You'll also hear the rolling of the R especially at the end of words and then
again that links to the next one. So instead of saying 'our house' here he says "ourouse."
So if you've never heard this before you might actually not even understand what
words he is saying at all. We also have the reduction of the H again so as you can tell
this is typical of many accents around the UK, and when he says "right across here," that T
at the end rolls into the next one, so just have a little listen again to how this sounds.
You might also notice that they have a very distinctive K sound so it's very much at the
back of the throat and it's quite coarse, so when saying words like 'character' and 'back' it's more
you have that coarse sound so "back." Of course I'm no expert and I'm not
great at doing different accents, so let's hear it again from Stephen Graham.
Another aspect of the Scouse accent is that that G is dropped at the end of certain words
So of the accents that you've learned today which one do you like the most?
And are there any other British accents that you would like to be featured?
Let me know down in the comments below and don't forget that I've linked a lot of lessons down in
the description box below, that you can check out next, which I highly recommend
you watch. But now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your English. Aww yeah!!