hello and welcome to real English with real teachers featuring the
pronunciation Pug today we're going to be meeting four non-native speakers of
the English language two of whom speak with a really convincing British English
accent it literally sound like they could belong to the royal family oh and
then two other speakers who don't we're going to analyse the different accents
and pronunciations that we find and give you some top tips so that you can sound
more British don't go anywhere you're watching real teachers before we
get going with today's video we just wanted to let you know it has been
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okay so let's jump into the interviews and see if you can detect where these
guys are from could you describe a book that you have read recently difficult
I hardly read books I think I've read Harry Potter of course I'm a primary school
teacher so you have to read some of the children well Harry Potter is of course the main
character during seven books or something like that and he is on a quest
to find something why do you think that some people prefer to travel abroad than
in their own country oh well in the Netherlands it's very
easy because of the weather all Dutchman go to go south
they don't go north they don't go to Britain but they go south because of the
weather okay so they're in search for Sun yes right and they lie on the beach and get
tanned and you know like we say like a sardine in oil can you describe an exercise
that you know well running, how can I describe? Can you describe a place that you have
visited recently just a place by the river
in Cambridge yeah it's nice with my family spend time, the weather was lovely..
to run you need to have a lot of energy and after go on in the
street usually .. people do running for example here in England is because
they love and they are very healthy so the first thing that stands out to me
when comparing these four speakers is the fillers that they use now fillers
are the things that we say the sounds that we make between our discourse so if
we're speaking about something and we need to think we say something like or
hmm so let's compare some of the fillers that these guys have been using so we
have .. then we have ...so I think it's quite clear that ... is very British
whereas.... doesn't really sound British at all we don't really open our mouths
that much so a little tip to sound a little bit more British you could use a
sound like that so as well as filler sounds we can actually use filler words
as well for example you know or I mean
you know you know now at first when you try to use these filler words it's not
going to sound natural for you but what you should do is just try to force
yourself to say them so think about what you're going to say and then before you
say it say you know you know and I I love I love the pronunciation pug but
you know he's a little sh...so there you go just a couple of ways to sound a little bit more
British it's a small thing but it will make a big difference in how you sound
what's that pronunciation pug you want to tell them about weak forms you're a
naughty pronunciation pug this is something that Queenie and Prince Philip
do very very well oh but what is a weak form so simply put
it is an unstressed word or an unstressed syllable in a sentence for
example if I say the sentence I went to the shop I went to the shop so in
connected speech the structural words in that sentence like articles prepositions
I'm not pronouncing them in the same way that I would in isolation listen to this
I went to the shop I went to the shop so what's happening is we have a couple of
strong forms which are the words that I am emphasising
like I went and shop because these words are the content words they are telling
us what is happening who it is what's he doing and where is he going ..the little
words the structural words we're removing the vowel sound
the original vowel sound and we're replacing it with the schwa the schwa
everyone is fascinated by this vowel sound because it pops up everywhere it's
very British we use it a hell of a lot.. god I'm getting really hot so let's listen together to
how Phillip pronounces this sentence I'm a primary school teacher did you hear
that he didn't stress the article at all he
turned that into a schwa and he stressed the importance words in the sentence
I'm a primary school teacher I'm a primary school teacher look at the way
Maria said to in the following sentence.."i started to do competitions"
so did you hear that this should have actually been a weak form because she
was connecting her speech together she was talking quite quickly but she placed the
same amount of stress on this word as she did on this word I started to do
competitions whereas Peter would have said I started
to do competitions I started to do competitions oh this time I want you to
listen out to the way that Queeny says the word can you can even do it in
winter so did you hear that she didn't the stress can because it's
an auxiliary verb let's listen again you can even do it in winter so in isolation
it's can but as an unstressed weak form it's can-can you can even do it in winter
Now let's listen to the way Maria says the word of in this sentence you need to have a lot
of energy whereas Queeny or myself we would have said a lot of energy a lot of
energy oh so how can you start working this
habit into your day-to-day connected speech well I would recommend that you
don't try a whole sentence I would try to break it
down into pairs of words for example you can start reading out nouns and try to
make sure that every time you say an article you're using a schwa sound like
I want an apple I'd like an elephant I'd like a bath i want a shower I want a massage
you can then start saying some verbs using the preposition to I love to walk
I love to play I love to work on pronunciation is that really bad grammar
I love to walk no I think that's fine okay so you're doing really really well
we've looked at weak forms we've looked at filler sounds and filler words now
we're gonna take a look at the consonant sounds that these speakers are using and
in particular we're going to focus on these four sets of sounds so we've got the
R sound...we have the light L and the dark L so we have 'smaller'
and then we have small we have the th sound and finally the plosive
sounds.. what do you notice about the way these four speakers use these consonant
sounds? You need a lot of energy and as well is quite difficult well it's a good
exercise because as well is work as a meditation I would say you are on as
well is like a competition with your mind because you need to try to keep on
all the time and it's like I need to do my goal .. and
it's.. for me it's so cool how do you think family will change in the future I think
family is changing all the time on the wrong way and that's because we we can't
understand exactly what's mean freedom and what's mean the proper things and
their own things we try to put everything in the proper thing
but not everything is like Christmas day it's not every day Christmas Day
can clothing tell you much about a person I think so if you buy really nice
clothing it can tell you about how much money you have if you dress up like
anyone else you will try to be fit in the group if you just do what you want have clothing which
is different from the others it will tell you that you have different tastes but that you are an individual who doesn't follow the group
what skills do you think are needed to get a job these days I
think more manual labor we are short of of labourers right we have to get them in
you know from from from other countries
but not only manual labourer but also like a mechanic or a plumber or a good
carpenter yeah yeah that's true or a shrine maker you know. =yeah it's always hard to find a
good plumber these yeah yeah yeah it's really hard to find a good plumber
I haven't flushed my toilet for three weeks so what did you notice about the
way these guys were using these sounds .. with the R was anyone pronouncing it in a
more American way were some people using their tongue to pronounce the R
rather than using their lips what about the L was everyone pronouncing the light
and the dark L what about the th sound was everyone able to make that sound or
were some people saying it kind of like a T or a D let me know in the comments
below guys I really look forward to reading those because in the next video
we're going to be looking at the same four speakers but we're going to be
zoning in on their pronunciation of consonant sounds and vowel sounds as
well and another thing I'm really really excited about is I'm going to introduce
you to one of my students who has amazing an amazing British English
pronunciation his name's Gabriel he's from Brazil
and he's going to tell us some of these top tips for getting a really good
British pronunciation I hope you've enjoyed this video please give us a like
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