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  • Hello, welcome to this YouTube video

  • we're going to learn 6 ways of sounding more authentically British

  • Possibly the easiest way to sound British

  • is to put the word 'quite' in every sentence before you describe something

  • 'quite'

  • if you're describing something, if you're using an adjective, if someone says to you

  • 'How was that movie last night?'

  • don't say, 'yeah it was good', say 'it was quite good'

  • if someone says to you, 'How's Mike's Arabic?' Don't say, 'it's good'

  • say, 'it's quite good'

  • or, 'it's quite bad'

  • or, 'it's quite nice'

  • 'how are you today?' you'd say, 'yeah, I'm quite good, thanks'

  • always be polite, we like to be polite and say 'thank you'

  • 'how was that movie last night?'

  • 'yeah it was quite good actually'

  • 'how was the circus?' 'oh, it was quite fun'

  • 'how was bubble football?' 'oh it was quite fun, yeah I enjoyed it, it was quite fun'

  • 'what's the weather like?' 'oh quite nice out'

  • 'it's quite nice, it's quite sunny, it's quite hot, it's quite cold'

  • 'it's quite big, it's quite small', just say 'quite'

  • quite quite quite

  • always say 'quite'

  • and you will sound British. I don't think any other countries really use 'quite', quite as much as we do

  • 'it's quite difficult, it's quite difficult'

  • 'are you well Mr. Darcy?'

  • 'quite well'

  • second word you can use

  • is 'mate', call everyone 'mate'

  • 'alright mate? how you doing?'

  • 'alright mate? how's it going? alright?' 'alright' means 'are you alright?'

  • and then 'mate is like 'friend', we use 'mate' all the time

  • 'yeah, mate'

  • 'I wen't out with a few mates last night'

  • 'I'm seeing some mates later'

  • 'alright mate? how you doing?'

  • 'yeah he's my mate, she's my mate'

  • 'we're good mates'

  • 'yeah, we've been mates for years'

  • 'I haven't got many mates'

  • 'I've got loads of mates'

  • always say 'mates' instead of 'friends'

  • or 'pals' or 'buddies', we don't really say 'buddy'

  • we don't really say 'pals', although in the north they say 'pal' a little bit more

  • but 'mate' would be like a typical British thing to say

  • 'alright mate? how's it going? yeah he's my mate, he's a good mate'

  • 'oh, it's good to see you mate'

  • 'really enjoyed that mate, thanks a lot mate'

  • always add 'mate' on the end of each word

  • 'mate', say 'mate'

  • just say it all the time and you'll sound British

  • '... and I will enjoy taking the piss out of him for that Time cover'

  • 'taking the piss out of him?'

  • 'yes'

  • 'what does taking the piss out of someone mean?'

  • now onto pronunciation, in the British accent, we like to pronounce our Ts

  • if you're speaking proper English like the Queens English

  • or we like to not pronounce them at all

  • so let me give you some examples

  • so the word 'water'

  • 'water' in the British accent, we pronounce the 'T'

  • war-ter... water

  • now if you're form London, and you speak cockney, or a bit like slang

  • you might say 'water'... 'water'

  • 'give us some water would you?'

  • 'give us some water'

  • 'water'... 'but'

  • the important thing is here in the British accent we either pronounce the 'T'

  • like 'water', that's how I would say it personally... water

  • or you just don't pronounce it at all

  • 'water'

  • now, the third way which you'd hear in other accents is to pronounce the 'T' as kind of like a 'D'

  • so... water... water... water

  • I did 3 random accents really, which could have been anything but

  • in some... in some accents, they might the 'T' as like 'D'

  • but in the British accent, the 'T' is a 'T'... water or not at all

  • 'Mr. Potter...'

  • 'totally', we'd say 'totally'

  • in other accent's they'd say 'totally'

  • 'totally'... listen to that

  • 'totally'

  • 'totally'... the 'T' becomes like a 'D'

  • 'totally'

  • we would say 'totally'

  • 'totally'

  • ta... ta... ta... totally

  • 'totally'

  • rather than 'totally'

  • or you might say if you're from London, you might say 'totally... ah it was totally awesome it's totally good'

  • 'yeah it's totally good, yeah totally sick... totally sweet'

  • 'it was totally good... it was totally amazing'

  • 'witty'... 'witty'

  • 'witty... don't be so witty'

  • again they're pronouncing the 'T' as like a 'D'

  • for example in the American accent, they might say 'witty'

  • 'ah, he's pretty witty'

  • in British English we'd say, 'witty... witty... water... totally'

  • always pronounce that 'T' in the middle of the word

  • as a 'T', not as a 'D' or anything like that

  • 4. pronunciation again, Americans say 'been... where've you been?'

  • in England we say, 'been'

  • we pronounce 'been' like b-e-e-n

  • like the same as we'd pronounce 'seen'

  • or 'spleen'

  • we would pronounce 'been' like b-e-e-n, 'where have you been?'

  • 'have you been to Kuwait?... yes I've been to Kuwait... have you been to Saudi Arabia?... no I haven't been to Saudi Arabia'

  • so we in Britain, say 'been'

  • we don't say 'been'

  • like b-i-n, or b-e-n

  • we say 'been', we pronounce it 'been'

  • 'where have you been?... have you been there?'

  • 'no, I haven't been there'

  • 'have you been to England?... no I haven't been to London'

  • 'have you been to America?... yes, I've been to America'

  • 'been'... Americans would say 'been'

  • we say 'been'... easy way to sound more British, just say 'been' instead of 'been'

  • now this one's a little bit... difficult to explain

  • but... something which is going to make you really stand out as speaking the British accent is...

  • if you... say certain phrases such as this one here

  • now... on a first glance it seems grammatically incorrect, and it actually technically is

  • but it's so commonly used in the British accent that... it's kind of considered a British dialect

  • and its very widely accepted, certainly in spoken English, to say something like this

  • 'I was sat on the step'

  • 'I was sat on the step'

  • now if you're British, you're thinking... yeah, I was sat on the step, that's fine... I was sat on the bench...

  • i was sat at the bus stop.... where are you?... I'm sat outside the library

  • I't so common, we don't even think anything of it

  • but interestingly, if you're from a different country, you probably wouldn't say this

  • it's a very uniquely British way of saying something

  • now what's interesting here is we've got 'I was'

  • which is already a past tense... 'i was'... and then we've got the past tense verb, 'sat'

  • so we've got, 'I was sat' now we've doubled up those past tense verbs

  • 'I was sat'

  • now Americans would say, "I was sitting'

  • Australians would say, "i was sitting'

  • they wouldn't say, I was sat'

  • it's a very British... a common British colloquialism to say 'I was sat'

  • if you're teaching a class, you might tell your class to say, 'stay sat.... stay sat'

  • now that's wrong English... you know you can't really argue that, but it's so common in the British accent

  • that it's... it wouldn't even be noticed if you heard that 'stay sat'

  • of course the correct thing to say would be, 'stay sitting'

  • 'don't move... stay sitting'

  • but we say, 'stay sat'

  • deosn't really make any sense, but it's what we say

  • 'I remember exactly where I was sat'

  • cause I was sat right down on broken roses

  • so why am I sat here wiping away these tears? ♪

  • we were sat upon our best friend's roof

  • other examples of this funny rule would be 'I was stood'

  • 'I was stood'... again 'I was stood'... not 'I was standing'... 'I was stood'

  • 'I was stood outside a shop, when I saw a celebrity come out of the door'... whatever

  • 'I was stood outside the shop when I heard a gunshot'

  • 'I was stood outside the shop, and all of a sudden, it just poured with rain'

  • 'I was stood next to my car when there was a collision right next to me'

  • ♪ i was stood in your light

  • 'I was stood next to the lake when all of a sudden I saw 12 shooting stars at once'

  • 'we were just sat out on the step'

  • 'we were just sat out on the step', maybe if Jurassic 5 were British and not American, they might have changed their lyrics

  • 'we were sitting out out on the step you know'

  • 'I was stood at the bus stop, when 3 buses just drove right past me'

  • yeah, so we'd say 'I was stood', now this is a unique British thing

  • so, I'm just going to put a few phrases there

  • these are phrases which we would say in a British accent but you wouldn't really hear in other languages

  • 'do you have a moment to talk about your lecture?'

  • 'I'm sorry, I've got plans with my sister'

  • finally number 6, the Rs... the Rs... this is the kind of... probably the most common, number 6

  • going back to our key words we had earlier like, 'water'

  • in the British accent, we would say this as 'water'

  • 'guitar'

  • 'cater'

  • 'slower'

  • 'faster'

  • 'tiger'

  • 'ladder'

  • 'refridgerator'

  • actually we would never say refrigerator, we would just say 'fridge'

  • cause we just say 'fridge'

  • 'translator'

  • see we don't pronounce 'R', there's an 'R' at the end of all these words

  • but we just say it as 'tiger'

  • not 'tiger'

  • 'translator'

  • 'smaller... bigger'

  • 'faster... smaller... bigger'

  • 'slower... we don't say 'er' we say 'a'

  • we just end it in an 'a'... 'water... bigger... faster... slower... tiger... guitar... translator'

  • so there you are, 6 ways of sounding more British very easily

  • 'he's a major, major, major influence on me now, and I feel terrible'

  • 'that stupid english voice... was that me?'

  • 'unfortunately... yes'

  • 'I'm so looking forward to seeing your mother again'

  • 'when I'm with her I'm reminded of the virtues of the English'

  • 'But isn't she American?'

  • 'Exactly'

  • so there you have it, 6 ways of sounding more British when you speak the English language

  • if you follow these 6 tips, then I promise you will sound British

  • I am Arabic Mike

  • because I normally teach Arabic, today I'm teaching English, because I'm British and I can speak about that

  • you've got more videos there and there

  • so you can watch more there

  • and when I disappear you can subscribe right there

  • take care, see you next time, bye bye!

Hello, welcome to this YouTube video

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