Learn David Beckham's British English Accent (Cockney or Posh?)

- Footballer, fashion icon, one half of Posh and Becks, UNICEF ambassador, and he has an

OBE from the queen. David Beckham is a man that represents modern Britain like no one

else. So today, we're gonna look at how his accent has changed over the years, and we're

gonna learn some fantastic, British English along the way. I'm excited, I hope you are

too, let's get going.

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. Now David

Beckham was born in Whipps Cross University Hospital, and he grew up in Northeast London.

So he's not a Cockney in the strictest sense, but he does have a very strong London accent

with Cockney features. Now I'm gonna look at three interviews today, and I'm gonna show

you how his accent has changed, it's evolved, and it's softened over the years. Here's a

clip from an interview that he did in 1994.

- One of the most distinctive things about David Beckham's accent, or his voice in general,

is the pitch. The pitch of someone's voice is whether it's high or low. In the early

years, certainly with David Beckham, it was quite high, surprisingly high some would say.

And you can hear that in that interview. Here he says, rumors floating about. Now the huge

feature of the Cockney accent and many accents, as many of you will know, is the dropping

of the T, we call it a glottal T. Instead of saying about, it's abou'. Abou', so it

stops just before you pronounce it. You just stop it in your throat there. Now a glottal

T is something that I've talked about a lot on this channel. It's a sound that we use

to replace the T in a word, which can either be in the middle of the word or at the end

of a word. Now this is a feature that's common in a lot of British accents, particularly

in the Cockney accent.

- So here he said floa'ing. Flo'ing and abou'. So in floating, the T is in the middle of

the word, and with about, the T is at the end of the word. Note that we never use a

glottal T at the beginning of a word. It's always a true T sound.

- Let's look at the glottal T in floating. Now you got two syllables there, floa-ting,

floating. The stress is on the first syllable, floa, floa, and the T is a part of the second

syllable, which is unstressed. So when there is an unstressed syllable, including a T,

then we can use the glottal T there, so floa'ing. Floa'ing. With about, it's at the end of the

word, and you've got a vowel in front of it, so it's common for a glottal T to be used

there as well.

- We've got a nice bit of British English slang there, chuffed, chuffed, this is an

adjective, and it means very pleased, you're very pleased with an outcome or a situation.

So if you passed your driving test, you might say, oh I'm really chuffed you've passed your

driving test. Or here, I think he scored a goal, so he's chuffed that he scored a goal,

he's very pleased that he scored a goal. Chuffed, very British, that one. Nice bit of British

English slang there.

- Interesting little feature here. He says knew, K-N-E-W, the past of know, and he says

it, knew, knew. Now in received pronunciation and many other accents, you might have knyew,

knyew, that yuh sound, knyew. But he just says knew, knew, so no yuh sound in there.

That's also true of new as in the opposite of old, new. So New York, so later on, he

says, New York, instead of Nyew York. So this is another little feature of a Cockney accent

that I particularly find interesting.

- Here's just a curious little bit of British English, and that, and that, and he says,

I'd seen it in the papers, and that. And that means, kind of everything connected to that

subject so I'd seen it in the papers, maybe on TV, in the magazines, whatever it might

be, on the radio. So everything connected to the thing that I just mentioned. He uses

it a couple of times here, and it's, yeah, super informal British English.

- Nice, headbutted. So headbutt, someone is to use your head to hit someone, but you can

do it by accident. Here he's talking about his dad doing it by accident. He uses two

features here, of a Cockney accent. First of all, he used that glottal T again, so headbutted,

bu'ed. And then, the H, where did it go? It disappeared, right? So it's 'eadbu'ed, not

headbutted, 'eadbu'ed. 'Eadbu'ed, 'eadbu'ed, he 'eadbu'ed the man the man behind him, 'eadbu'ed.

This feature here of a Cockney accent, you will find dropping that H at the beginning,

or indeed in the middle of a word. In fact, let's look look at an example of that.

- The person be'ind him. Be'ind, not behind, be'ind. So dropping that H in the middle position

of a word as well as at the beginning. Now remember that word behind and the way that

he says it in this interview, because we're gonna see it again in a later interview.

You 'afta give up a lot of things. Right, there's a lot going on here. So you hafta,

you 'afta, so he's dropped the H of have, and then put those two together. He's using

the weak form of to there, so 'afta. 'Afta, not have to, 'afta. Very common in spoken

English to use a weak form on the to there, so 'afta, And then things. He says fings,

not things, fings. So he's using a fuh sound rather than a thuh sound. Again, really common

on that TH, thuh, for a Cockney accent to use fuh, fuh. So fings, fank you, fought,

all that kinda stuff. So that F sound replacing the thuh sound.

- You know, you have to give up a lot of things.

- Okay, so you can see how strong his London accent is, back in 1994, let's move on to

2000, where it's starting to change. So obviously he's got more famous, and in turn, his accent

is starting to evolve.

- The first thing you'll notice there is that the pitch of his voice is still quite high,

similar to his interview in 1994. You'll also notice that he's still using that glottal

T, so sor' of suppor'. So not sort of support, those Ts disappear.

- Aha, let's look at the H sound here. So having, he's using the H sound there, so it's

not 'aving, it's having. But then in the next word, behind, he's dropping that H again,

be'ind. So he's using the H in the first word there, dropping it in the second word. Hmm,

so starting to mix his accents slightly or just change or evolve, if you will.

- This is such a British English phrase, to get stick. To get stick, this means to get

criticism or abuse or something from people. So if you do something wrong, then you stick.

People criticize that action. It's commonly used in a football context, but of course

it can be used in any context really, where criticism is given. So, Theresa May gets a

lot of stick for here Brexit plans, for example. So yeah, to get criticism, really informal

phrase to say that.

- Alright, deep down he knew. So dropping the H there, 'e, so still keeping that Cockney

drop of the H. Knew, again, the same pronunciation as before. I 'ad, dropping the H again, and

then ability, he's using the true T, so still lots of features of our typical Cockney accent,

but there is slight changes with things like ability. Alright, now lets move on to an interview

he did in 2018, and let's see what changes we can see in his accent.

- Okay, can you hear it? Can you hear the pitch of his voice has lowered significantly?

I think, anyway. So it used to be quite high, like this.

- I think, deep down he knew that I had a bit of ability.

- And now it sounds like this.

- Don't dislike it, to be honest, you know.

- You can hear the difference, right? So why has his pitch changed, well I guess there's

lots of different reasons. It could be just a natural change in his voice, as we get older,

perhaps the pitch of our voice gets lower. It could be coaching or training, maybe he's

being very aware of it. So, yeah, could be a variety of reasons. But it's really significant

and distinct isn't it? Going from his first interview to this interview. Also the way

he holds himself is different. You can kinda tell he's more of a statesman now. He's used

to giving interviews and talking, and, I guess, again, that comes with experience and with

age. And the way that he uses stress, he's much more accomplished and confident in the

way he uses stress to change meaning. So for example.

- Don't dislike it, to be honest, you know.

- They don't dislike it, to be honest. He's using stress and intonation there, to play

with the meaning of a sentence. In a much more nuanced, sophisticated way than he would've

done, when he was younger.

- The word, about, and it. Now we've seen how he pronounces about, as a youngster. Here,

he's kind of joining those two words, about it, with almost like a little D sound, that

is, perhaps more common in American English. Aboud it, aboud it. No, I'm not trying to

do an American accent in there, but there is a slight connecting of those two words

with a duh sound, like a tiny duh. So that's something that, again, wouldn't've been a

feature of his earlier accent. And maybe again, that's because of time spent in America and

L.A. or just the general internationalizing of his British accent.

- Aha, now benefits, here, he says it with a true T, benefits. Doesn't say benefi', benefits.

He also does something that we all do, well at least a lot of people I know do, is that

little grammatical mistake, where there is a lot of benefits. So you're using a singular

form of is with a plural noun, so benefits. It should be, of course, there are a lot of

benefits, but it's really common to say there is a lot of benefits, or there's, because

you're using the contraction, you're probably saying there is, there's a lot of benefits.

It's a silly little mistake, everyone seems to make it. If you make it, I wouldn't worry

about it at all.

- Alright, he uses well there, he says well. He says it, still with that same Cockney well.

Almost like with the L sound, particularly at the end of a word, it might be almost a

wuh sound. So weww, weww, so instead of using that dark L, well, well, he's saying, he's

using almost like a wuh sound, so weww, weww. So that is a feature that has remained within

his accent, that he would've had as a young man and growing up. So he said well, now it's

still well. He also did that in the 1994 interview, he said until. Until, so not until, it's untiw.

So there are still signs of his original accent in the 2018 interview.

- Ah, there it is guys, do you remember how he said behind in the first two interviews?

Be'ind, right, drop that H right out of there. This time, he says it, behind. So he's using

that H sound.

- And that would be more consistent with received pronunciation.

- Another nice bit of British English here, rib me. They rib me, that means to tease.

If you rib someone, you tease them. It's fun, it's affectionate, it's not meant to be mean

in any way, so if you rib someone, you are just joking or you're teasing them in some

way.

- I have in my house, the Hs are all there. They're present and correct.

- Last one, daughter, he uses the true T, doesn't drop that T, daugh'er. Daughter is

how he says it.

- I find it so fascinating how his accent has changed over the years, I hope you can

see and hear that in the different interviews, the examples that I've brought. So not only

has his pitch changed, his accent has definitely changed. He's moved from a strong London accent

with Cockney features right through to received pronunciation. Still got a London feel to

it and still using some Cockney features, but it's softer. Those features are softer

now. His accent, in general, is a softer London accent. Small elements of American English

possibly coming in, but not hugely. It's fascinating to see and to witness that. I've said this

before, but that's a really common thing. I've seen it in a lot of famous people, I've

seen it in my own accent, how it evolves and changes over the years, depending on the influences

that you have in your life. So we've got the pitch changing, the accent changing, and the

vocabulary changing as well. Also, just with him particularly, the way he carries himself

and the way he articulates himself is significantly different in 2018 to how it was in 1994. Again,

that's really normal, really natural for someone in the limelight like he is, he's gonna get

training, he's gonna get help with that, to articulate himself in a clearer way. So, yeah,

brilliant, I just love it. I love all that stuff, I'm such a language geek. I hope you

are too. I guess if you're watching now, you probably are. I hope you enjoyed it guys.

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Thank you so much for watching, guys. This is Tom, the chief dreamer, saying goodbye.