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  • - Do you want to speak English like the Queen? Because if you do, you're in the right place.

  • - Some cultures believe a long life brings wisdom. I'd like to think so.

  • - We're gonna watch a speech she gave and I'm gonna break down her pronunciation, sound

  • by sound, and show you how to speak like the poshest person in the world. If you're ready, let's do this.

  • Welcome to Eat Sleep Dream English, if you haven't met me before, my

  • name is Tom, and I teach fresh modern British English so that you can take your English

  • to the next level and achieve your life goals, whatever they may be. In this series and over

  • the next few weeks, I'm gonna teach you all about Received Pronunciation, or RP as it's

  • also known. It's a British English accent that's associated with education, wealth,

  • and privilege. Now, it's not constricted to one particular geographical area, although

  • it does have associations with London and the South of England. It's often used as a

  • model for students who are learning British English. And for a long time it was the preferred

  • accent of the BBC. Now, in this series, I'm gonna focus on two forms of RP: the Queen's

  • English or Conservative RP, or upper RP as it's also known, and Contemporary RP, which

  • is a modern version. But today, we're starting with the Queen. So whether you're learning

  • English or whether you're just interested in accents, I think you're gonna find this

  • really useful. So let's get going.

  • - It starts with a chorister singing the first verse of Once in Royal David City.

  • - Okay here's the first feature. On that word city, she says city, city Now in my accent,

  • in most other accents in Britain, it's an e sound at the end. On that y, it's e: city,

  • city, or city if you prefer. Now she says city, city It's an ehsound.

  • - Of Once in Royal David City.

  • - So, when you have a y at the end of a word, in conservative RP, in the Queen's English,

  • it's eh, not e. Other examples would be like, really, really, or Italy, Italy Very, very

  • - Once in Royal David City. The priest who introduced this service to King's college

  • chapel exactly 100 years ago.

  • - 100 years ago, ago That osound there. Now she's forming that sound at the front of her

  • mouth. Ago, ago And in conservative RP, or in the Queen's English, it is formed further

  • forward in the mouth than most other accents. So you know how the words like show and know,

  • that osound, really distinctive. So if you take the phrase "oh no", "oh no", it would

  • be "oh no", "oh no" And as you can see there, I'm forming it at the front of my mouth. "Oh

  • no."

  • - The Priest who introduced this service to King's college chapel exactly 100 years ago

  • was Eric Milner White.

  • - Eric Milner White, White. Now this is a big feature of Received Pronunciation is the

  • articulation of the t, the true t sound. Now, in many accents, in British English, we are

  • dropping that t, I've talked about it a lot in Cockney, and various other accents. In

  • Conservative RP accents, you are keeping that t. The reason for this is because, a big part

  • of Conservative RP, or the Queen's English, is that every sound is articulated, it's pronounced.

  • So that you are clear and you are true to the sound and the words that you are speaking.

  • So therefore, the t's are true. You can hear them. So White, and when we see that again

  • later on.

  • - Was Eric Milner White. The Royal Air Force celebrated its 100th anniversary.

  • - Okay, again there's another example of the ehsound on the y at the end of a word. So

  • anniversary, anniversary Not anniversary. Anniversary

  • - [Queen] The Royal Air Force celebrated its 100th anniversary. We owe them and all our

  • armed services our deepest gratitude.

  • - Okay, this is really interesting. Gratitude, gratitude. Now, what has happened there? I

  • would say, in my accent, gratitude, gratitude. That is a feature of most accents in Britain.

  • You got Contemporary RP, Cockney, whatever you've got. Gratitude, gratitude. Now in the

  • Queen's English, there is a 'y'sound after t u, or a d u, so you'd have tuu -ed, tu-ed,

  • but through something called yod coalescence, that 'y'has merged with the t to form a 'ch'

  • in my accent. So I'd say gratitude, but in her accent, gratitude Think of other examples,

  • like for example, the fish tuna, for me, she would say tuna, tuna Other examples, instead

  • of super, it would be super, super This is really quite rare now, you won't hear many

  • people saying these words in this way.

  • - We owe them and all our armed services our deepest gratitude. With two weddings and two

  • babies and another child expected soon.

  • - Hear the 'oo'sound of two. The articulation is right at the front of the mouth and she's

  • not really opening her lips very wide, is she? Two, two If you want to say that word,

  • you'd have to sort of, have rounded lips but very close together. Two And making that sound

  • at the front of your mouth. Two As I would normally say, I'd say two, two, two. It's

  • coming from further back in my mouth. But twoin the Queen's English.

  • - [Queen] There's two weddings and two babies and another child expected soon. Even the

  • power of faith...

  • - This is a good one. Right, we've got the word power, power. Now, we have a triphthong.

  • This is when you have three sounds: "ah", "oo", "eh"together. Power Now in the Queen's

  • English, a triphthong is reduced to one sound. It's smooth. So instead of "ah", "oo", "eh",

  • she's just saying "ah" So power Can you see the difference there? Power to power

  • - Even the power of faith...

  • - Now, of course we can have this with other words. So, tower becomes tower Or hour becomes

  • It's quite hard to replicate actually, it's used very unnatural. But this is a feature

  • of the Queen's English.

  • - And the hope that birth 2,000 years ago brought to the world.

  • - Brought to the world. Here we have two t's. Brought, ending in a t, and then two, beginning

  • with a t. In most other accents, you would lose one of those t's. It would disappear.

  • So I would say, brought to the world, brought to the world. I'm using a weak form on the

  • two, so 't' and I'm dropping that first t on brought. Brought to the world. Now the

  • Queen, because she's the Queen and she speaks the Queen's English, is pronouncing every

  • sound that she can. So both those t's get the full attention that they require. In her

  • opinion. So broughttothe world, not broughttothe world.

  • - And the hope that birth 2,000 years ago brought to the world. A very happy Christmas

  • to you all.

  • - Did you hear how she said very there.

  • - A very happy Christmas.

  • - She said very, very Now the way she's pronouncing that r, we call it a tapped r. So it's kind

  • of a, when the tongue flicks up onto the roof of the mouth as she says it, so very, very

  • As I'm saying that, my tongue is kind of hitting the roof of my mouth and coming back down.

  • Very So when you see that r in the middle of the word usually, you can use a tapped

  • r. So berry, berry Ferry, ferry It sounds quite affected, doesn't it? It sounds like

  • you're really trying to sound posh when you're using that tapped r.

  • - A very happy Christmas to you all.

  • - So as you can see, there are many features of the Queen's English that are distinct from

  • any other British English accents. As I said, this form of Received Pronunciation is not

  • used as much as it used to be, so you won't find a lot of people speaking like this. Obviously,

  • with the Royals, they will speak like this. In the upper classes of Britain, certainly

  • some politicians, an example might be Jacob Rees-Mogg, speaks with this accent. You'll

  • find it in television shows, like The Crown, but apart from those places, you're not gonna

  • hear it. Certainly when you're walking around London, you're not really gonna hear this

  • accent. When you're walking around any other part of Britain, you're not gonna hear this

  • accent. But, it's a great accent to know and to understand. Keep your eyes open for part

  • 2 of this series about Received Pronunciation. If you've enjoyed it, hit the like button,

  • share and, of course, subscribe. Until next time, guys, this is Tom, the chief dreamer

  • saying goodbye.

- Do you want to speak English like the Queen? Because if you do, you're in the right place.

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