British English Accents | The Queen's English Part 1

- 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.