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  • What's up everyone! I'm Andrea, your Real-life English Fluency Coach.

  • And today we're learning more about British pronunciation and accents.

  • So, in case you didn't know, I'm from London. I was born and raised there, and so you might notice

  • that i have more of a general London accent. I don't necessarily speak with Received Pronunciation,

  • which another name for it is "RP" and is what the Queen speaks.

  • So, if you've heard the Queen speak English, that's what RP sounds like.

  • You might also hear a "Cockney" accent

  • which is more of an east side of London accent that can be quite strong as well.

  • So, the reason we're bringing you this lesson today is because in media in TV and movies you will normally

  • only see these two British accents represented,

  • which isn't true about the demographic because in the whole of Britain there are many different accents.

  • Now, we're going to take a look at some very exaggerated and not so accurate examples

  • of British pronunciation by American actors in some of our favorite TV series and movies.

  • Now, this will be very funny because they're so exaggerated

  • but they're not a great representation of the British accent.

  • Oh bloody hell.

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  • So first of all, we're going to take a look at this hilarious scene from Friends where Ross is so nervous about

  • teaching his first lecture that he suddenly invents a British accent.

  • Now this is a really really exaggerated Cockney accent.

  • Let's take a look at how it sounds.

  • Okay so the first word we're going to take a look at is "laboratory."

  • Now in English we would say "labora-tree" but he has pronounced every single syllable of the word

  • which natives do not actually do.

  • So this is really really funny and exaggerated and we'll see a lot in this clip.

  • Now the way he says "discovery" is pretty funny too

  • because he pronounces every syllable really clearly again, but there's also an intonation

  • on the way that he says it, which again is not very natural for native speakers.

  • So, when he says it, he says "discovery" because again it's very exaggerated and again it makes

  • for really good humor.

  • In fact, when we say the word "discovery" we don't always pronounce all of the syllables,

  • so he pronounces it as "dis-co-ve-ry" but we often will shorten it to "disco-vree"

  • Usually when you have the "ery" or the "ary" sounds at the end of words,

  • they kind of merge into one sound, to make "vree": "disco-vree".

  • And the same with "laboratory," it's not "laboratory" so that "ory" merges to make "laboratory,"

  • You can also hear this in the way that he says "sedimentary," so "sedimentary" is a type of rock

  • and he says "sedimentary," but again this is not how native speak.

  • We will shorten that last sound to say "sedimen-tree",

  • so the last part of this clip that we're going to look at is at the end where Monica and Rachel walk in to find Ross

  • doing his fake British accent, and so he comes out with...

  • which is actually really really funny but it's quite accurate of a Cockney accent.

  • So remember a Cockney accent is one you'll hear in east London and one that you'll see a lot in TV and movies,

  • especially like Mary Poppins or even some gangster movies like "Clock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"

  • and "The Gentleman" which is Guy Richie's new one,

  • so what is quite typical of the Cockney accent but also in many other places around Britain is that people do not

  • pronounce that first H sound at the start of the word,

  • so instead of saying "Oh bloody hell", he says "Oh bloody el"

  • and you'll find this in many other words that start with H such as "have":

  • If you're Cockney you'd say "ave", so "I wanna ave a cup of tea" rather than...

  • "I want to have a cup of tea."

  • and even things like "hello."

  • Instead of saying "hello" people in east London might say "ello."

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  • Now this clip of James Franco's British accent is actually really really funny

  • because it's hard to even realize he's doing it.

  • It's so, so subtle that it doesn't even seem like he's really trying, and I think that's what makes it so funny.

  • So if you listen very carefully the subtle difference is the way that he pronounces the "Rs"

  • in some words such as "tear", "heart" and "burn".

  • Now in British English we tend to soften this R sound so you don't really hear it

  • whereas in American English you do hear that R sound

  • so this is kind of where he does have a little bit of a British accent but that's really all it is in this clip.

  • So just to explain that a little bit further in American English you'd hear "tear" so you hear that R sound,

  • but in British English we would say "tear" so it's very very soft.

  • The same with "heart" you don't really hear that R sound but in American English you do when they say "heart".

  • Now we've chosen a scene from the film "Parent Trap" where a very young Lindsay Lohan actually

  • plays identical twin sisters.

  • One is American and one is British, so she was actually 11 years old when she filmed this movie

  • and I think that for such a young girl she does a really good job of the British accent,

  • especially when you take into consideration that she had to film both parts at the same time.

  • So the scene we're going to take a look at is deep into the movie when they have already switched places

  • and one of them says there is an emergency because the father is in love with another woman

  • and they need to do something about it.

  • So let's take a look and see how Lindsay Lohan does the British accent.

  • So the British accent that Lindsay is having a go at here as her character Elizabeth which is the Queen's name

  • so it's quite interesting, is a Received Pronunciation accent.

  • so her family is quite wealthy and she's having a go at doing more of a Posh accent.

  • So the first word we're going to take a

  • look at is darling now as you can hear i'm not pronouncing

  • the r it's very very soft and it has more of a long a sound

  • so when we say darling you really hear a long r sound whereas

  • in American English you would hear that R more: darling.

  • so this long r sound is very typical of a British accent

  • you'll hear it in words such as darling card

  • car park and so so many more you can also hear it in the

  • way she says "How are you".

  • So, again we soften that r sound as opposed to how you hear it in American English

  • where they would say "how are you", so you hear that r a lot more.

  • In British English we would say how are you or certainly

  • in an rp accent now another little stereotype that's

  • quite funny in this scene is that elizabeth actually

  • brings up the weather.

  • now I don't know if you know but Brits are often associated with being

  • obsessed with the weather and somehow in conversation

  • the weather always comes up so she actually talks about

  • the chance that it might rain today which is usually pretty often

  • around Britain.

  • So the last word we're going to look at from this scene

  • is emergency.

  • So if you can hear the way i'm saying that emergency so again we have the soft r sound and it's

  • slightly elongated as opposed to American English where it

  • would sound like this emergency

  • let's take a look at the six best tv series to learn

  • british english

  • so the first one is the office when you laugh

  • your brain releases endorphins yeah your stress hormones

  • are reduced and the oxygen supply to your blood

  • is increased so you feel i try and laugh several times a day just because it

  • makes you feel good so let's let's try that

What's up everyone! I'm Andrea, your Real-life English Fluency Coach.

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