So you're telling me that I need to make another video for youtube? About what now?
The cockney accent. Right. How much are you paying?
So it seems as though you lot can't live your own lives without asking me for another video, so here
we are. Today we are going to be learning about a very special man and this man has a very peculiar
accent, I'm so lucky that my accent is completely normal and understandable. Yes the focus of
today's video is Alfie Solomons, and we're going to be learning his accent, why? Because if you're
learning English you need to be able to understand lots of different accents, not everybody speaks
English in the same way, you don't want to go to London and find yourself confused when you talk
to a cockney. Right, so for the purposes of this video, although I may look like a Peaky Blinder,
today we are going to be talking like a cockney, all right? I'm not a cockney, clearly, I'm from
Birmingham but it'll do, all right, it'll do. So, right, we're going to learn a cockney accent, the
first thing we need to look at are the consonants, right? So let's have a look at the consonants,
the first consonant I want to look at, well it's actually two consonants but you know, whatever!
TH all right? When we are talking like a cockney a lot of the time we don't need these two letters,
who needs them? Take these two letters, turn them into one: F, all right? I think a lot of things,
all right? In my life, O think a lot of things, yeah, and sometimes I have these thoughts and I
think that I am a very, very, strong, handsome man, that's what I think. So as you can see,
when there is a TH in the word I'm gonna make it an F all right? So have a listen
to this example from Alfie Solomons, see if you can hear that TH becoming an F-
See even Alfie Solomons does it! So, little quiz, if you have this sentence: how do you think we're
going to say it? Exactly: the thorny thing in my thigh, yes! You got it! Obviously there are
lots of cockneys, right? Some cockneys will say a TH, of course, but a lot of them don't. Right
let's talk about another consonant then, so let's talk about the consonant sound
T particularly when the T is in the middle of a word or at the end of a word, all right, so let's
say pretty cat, okay? We don't want to say pretty cat, we want to get rid of the Ts all together,
okay? Pretty cat, oh look at that pretty cat, oh what a pretty cat! As you can hear I'm not saying
those T's, okay? But obviously if you've got a T at the beginning of a word, you say it okay?
If my name is Tommy Shelby, we say Tommy Shelby, we don't say Ommy Shelby, that would be weird.
Listen to this clip of Alfie all right, listen to how he doesn't say the T all right?
Did you hear that? Yeah I bet you did. So how would we say this sentence, here: Exactly,
exactly: I've forgotten my hat, I've forgotten my hat- oh no I have it, it's here! Okay I'm
sorry to keep doing this to you but we've got another letter that we don't like to say,
okay? Another letter that you want to drop if you want to sound like a cockney is the H,
okay? Don't like them, we just don't like the H's if they're at the beginning of a word, all right?
Oh look at that horse, that is a nice horse, I like that horse, hello! Hello! You all right?
See, I'm not saying these H's, I don't want to say hello, I don't want to say horse,
I don't want to say hang about, I say ang about, all right? Listen to how Alfie does it:
You see, he don't have time for the H's, he don't have time! And the final consonant I
don't want you to say is a H at the end of an ING, all right? So if you've got walking,
running, talking- no, walkin, runnin, talkin, okay? I want it to end with an N
not a G. Now obviously say your other H's though, if you're going to say grandma or god or hot dog,
say it, yeah? But if it's ING, don't say it. Okay listen, Alfie Solomon will show you:
Okay, stay with it all right, you're doing well, you're doing well. The last consonant sound I want
to teach you about is an L ending word okay, so a dark L, if you're not sure what a dark L is,
let me tell you, so we have two different L's in the English language, all right? We've got a light
L and a dark L, okay? So a light L is the kind of L you would use before a vowel sound all right,
so let's say we're saying something like love,
ah lovely, okay, when I say love, this is what my tongue is doing okay- there's the top of my mouth,
there's my tongue, hello tongue! And it goes like this:
It's like tapping, you see? However a dark L
is like you're right- this is the top of my mouth, okay? Imagine there's a little button,
a little button on the top of your mouth, right? At the top, just under your nose, right here,
right at the top, there's a button okay? And I want you to try and press the button
with this part of your tongue, uh, try and press that button and hold it down right, like this:
It's not like a light flick, it's a press.
So if we were talking in RP, okay? We would say this: people people
people people, can you hear that dark L, people, can you hear it? Okay however, in cockney it's a
lot more like this, people, ow ow, it's going more towards that shape with the lips, right,
it's like a little circle people, ow, like it comes around and in, people, ow, peopow,
all right? People, forgettable, okay? Regrettable. Big difference between RP and a cockney, okay,
so have a listen to Alfie, see if you can hear that bow at the end of the word, have a listen:
See I know what I'm talking about! All right. finally we can talk about some vowels, okay,
one of the differences between a cockney and a Brummie is how we say words like this: so I
would say past laugh grass however a Brummie would say like: last grass path, so in cockney we do an
AH sound for these A's, okay? So how do you think we would say this sentence:
exactly, that is the last time you put a path on the grass, yes AH, AH, Ah, lovely. Now i have to
teach you about the diphthongs, all right, some people say diphthong, some people say diphthongs,
I don't care. But in cockney. we've got a lot of diphthongs, diphthongs. whatever you want to
call them. Basically a diphthong is just a sound that changes without using any consonant sound,
so let's say something like AE, that's a diphthong because it changes, can you hear the change in the
sound without using any of my lips or my teeth, change, all right? So I want to teach you about
the two most important diphthongs in cockney, so the first can be found in words like this:
like, like, I don't like it, like it I don't lie lie lie , I'm singing a song for you now, lie,
it goes from an I, like it's a big one, all right, all right,
I don't like it- okay you might remember another famous cockney, Billy Kimber- okay-
"I am Billy Kimber!" Okay listen to how he says I, I, there's like three different sounds in there,
it's massive, now listen to how Alfie says that I alright, have a listen:
Okay and the second big diphthong in a cockney accent can be found in a sentence like this:
okay so in RP we would say
how now brown cow, but we're not RP are we? No we're cockney, so we say how now brown cow.
It travels from like a nasal sound down to the oral cavity, all right, ow ow now
brown cow, I'm sure Alfie can do it way better than me:
All right we're nearly at the end, stay with it, okay? Okay so let's take something like
Peaky Blinder, okay? So the ER is an A okay? Blinder, blinder, let's take a word like
mother, mother mother, see how I'm not doing that TH, I'm actually turning it into a V okay, because
it's a voiced TH, if I was in RP and I was saying mother, I have to do a THHH, that's voiced okay?
Because I can feel a vibration in my throat, okay? So if you can feel a vibration, it means it's
voiced, if you can't, it's unvoiced all right? So if you have a voiced TH, you replace it with a V,
so mother becomes mother, mother, mother, mother, or father, ER at the end of a word with two
or more syllables is pronounced like an A, okay? Remember that. Alfie? Some examples please!
Now, another thing that cockneys do is they change words a little bit, well quite a lot actually, so
let's take the words am not or are not, okay, or is not, we change it to ain't, all right, so I am
not going in there would be I ain't going in there or they are not very tall would be they ain't very
tall or that is not a good car would be that ain't a good car, so if you hear the word ain't, it just
means not, it's not, they are not, I am not, he is not, but we use it a lot don't we Alfie?
So I've given you some essential ways to sound a little bit more like Alfie Solomons.
But basically overall the thing to remember is keep things open, Tommy and also, Tommy. the
thing to remember is cockney is ever evolving, not everyone sounds like Alfie Solomons, anymore
you need to remember Alfie Solomons, is a character from a long time ago,
so those are some essential things if you want to understand a cockney accent you need
to know these rules, all right, if you can get familiar with those rules I've just taught you,
you will be able to understand a lot more when a cockney person speaks, all right, but don't worry
if you can't do it, that's not why i'm here, i'm here because you are trying to learn English and
help better your English understanding all right? So take the knowledge I've given you, practice it,
have a little practice, see if you can do a bit of a cockney accent yourself and listen to a lot more
cockneys, the more you listen, the better you will be understanding it all right? Now if you
don't mind I'm gonna go back to being a Brummie, because in this voice I feel very uncomfortable -
that's better. Thank you very much for watching this video, I hope you enjoyed it,
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somewhere down there there somewhere- thanks very much for watching and I'll see you next time, ta
ta!