Learn English with Adele | Cockney vs Received Pronunciation

Ladies and gentlemen, today we are learning English with the one, the only, Adele. ♪ Nevermind

I'll find ♪ ♪ someone like you ♪ Adele is one of Britain's biggest stars so I thought

it'd be super fun to learn English with her. I'm gonna show you the main features of her

accent, and how her pronunciation changes dramatically during her conversation with

James Corden. This is gonna be super fun guys. So 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.

Now, let's start off with some context about Adele. She was born in Tottenham, North London,

and she lived there until she was nine years old, and then she moved to Brighton, which

is a seaside town about an hour outside of London. She moved back to London about two

years later and settled in South London, Brixton and West Norwood. So her accent is deeply

rooted in London. So what I'm expecting to hear is elements of cockney accents, elements

of Received Pronunciation, and possibly Multicultural London English. There could be a mixture of

all three. Now when she speaks, she has a very strong distinctive accent, which is in

complete contrast to her singing voice. I'm gonna get into that a bit more later on, but

it's fascinating. Okay, so let's dive into her conversation with fellow Brit, James Corden,

in their carpool karaoke.

- Oh thanks for this.

- Alright, straight away, first word and she's used a feature of the cockney accent. She

said, "'ello." Not "hello", "'ello." She's dropped the 'h', which as I said, is a feature

of the cockney accent. Other examples of that in a cockney accent might be like 'otel.'

It's 'otel', not 'hotel', 'otel.' Or 'Ow are you?', 'Ow are you?' Not 'How are you?', 'Ow

are you?'

- Right here, she has said "thanks". "Thanks". With that 'th' sound being very well pronounced,

right? "Thanks". Now that there is a feature of Received Pronunciation amongst other accents,

but she definitely spoke with Received Pronunciation there. So as you can see, she switched from

a cockney accent with 'ello', and she's moved to Received Pronunciation with "thanks very

much." If that was a cockney accent, she would have said 'fanks' with an 'f' sound. 'Fanks

very much'. So already we can see there's some movement between the two accents. Interesting.

- I feel like I look like all me mum friends. Me mum friends. Me not my. Me. Me Mum. This

is a great example again of a cockney accent. In a cockney accent they're changing that

sound, right, from my to me. Me Nan, me Dad, me Mum. It's not my, it's me. Unless of course

there's emphasis on it, like "That's my cup!" They would use "my" to emphasize that it's

their cup, but generally it's me. Me Mum, me Dad, me Gran, me Nan, me 'ouse. Whatever

it might be. You'll find 'me' instead of 'my' in lots of other accents, particularly up

north, the north-east accent, and in Ireland, the Irish-English accent, you'll also have

me as well. So, it is common, but particularly in cockney English.

- Ah, okay, here's the first time that she sings in the show and she says the word "hello",

and how does she say it? With that "h" sound. ♪ Hello. ♪ So now this is in stark contrast

to how she said it before, remember? At the beginning she went "'Ello" using the cockney

accent, but now it's more Received Pronunciation. She's using that 'h' sound. This is definitely

a feature of Adele. When she speaks, she has one accent or uses different accents. When

she sings it's a totally different accent, a totally different sound. This is, of course,

really common with singers. But it's a really interesting to pick out. So she's very aware

of what accent she's using.

- At this point I wanna just say how much I love her laugh. It is, it's infectious.

- You've got a tea, a tease.

- Here she sounds super cockney. She's using some of the features. So she's using the glottal

T, she's not saying it. So "go'", "I go'", "I go'". With the word new you would expect

her to say new, cause that again is a feature of the cockney accent. "I go' a new", "I go'

a new coat", "I go' a new coat". But she actually says "new", which sounds more like Received

Pronunciation.

- You've got a tea, a tease.

- Now she does say "out of the budget." This is another feature of the cockney accent,

is the broad sound when you have a vowel. For example, "out". So it becomes "out of

the budget, out of the budget."

- Wipe down.

- There, two more great examples. "I'm all righ'", "I'm all righ'". So glottalizing that

T, not saying it. So instead of saying "I'm all right," it's "all righ', all righ', I'm

all righ'". Now a glottal T isn't just a feature of cockney accents. You can pretty much use

a glottal T in any accent. In modern Received Pronunciation you might have a glottal T.

It's definitely a main feature of a cockney accent.

- Nice bit of language. To down is to finish a drink, right. If you down a drink you finish

it completely. So you might say to someone, "Go on, down it." Like "Finish your drink."

Usually it's with alcohol, here she's downing tea. That's the kind of girl that Adele is.

- Did you listen to the way that she said "three" there?

- Now in my accent, in many accents, three. But in a cockney accent that "th" sound is

gonna become "free". It's a /f/ sound, "free". I got drunk free nights in a row. So the /f/

sound instead of "th". So another example would be a "thing". For example, "thing" becomes

"fing". Or "think" becomes "fink".

- Nice, another example of the glottal T. "Get there at 7:45", "get there at 7:45"

- Forty-five. She doesn't say 't', she doesn't say "forty-five", "forty-five".

- Two interesting features here. Again we've got that glottal T, "security", she doesn't

say that T, not security, "security". And then with becomes 'wiv'. So usually, with

in Received Pronunciation certainly is pronounced with a 'th' sound. With, with, with. It's

that voiced 'th' sound. But in cockney English, its replaced with a 'v' sound. 'v', so its

'wiv', 'wiv'.

- Ooh now, this is great. "Meal", "meal", we've got the dark L sound at the end there.

Meal, in a Cockney accent, that dark L can change into some different sounds she's using

"meal", "meal". It almost sounds like a 'w' sound. So she's saying "meaw" instead of 'meal'.

That's a feature that's going to change a little bit later, let's keep an eye out.

- Now here she uses the phrase, you can't really hear it, but she says, "I was off my

face." "Off my face" an amazing slang term for being really drunk. Very British, I think

this one, 'I was totally off my face last night' means I was completely drunk.

- Ah, now you see here "I found this email address," She says "email" there, its a dark

L, "email". She says it in Received Pronunciation. So instead of saying 'email', she says "email".

She says it in RP. So she's going from a cockney accent with 'meal' and then she's moving to

Received Pronunciation with 'email' ♪ Who would have known how bittersweet ♪ ♪ this

would taste? ♪

- Alright this point we need to give props to the harmonies of James Corden and Adele.

Amazing. James Corden can sing, I'm super impressed with this. Alright, let's keep going.

- Here we've got an interesting feature again, so "girls" with a dark L 'girl' actually becomes

"girls", "girls". So she's using that cockney sound again, "girls". And then "like" "like"

that 'i' becomes 'i'. It's broader, it's wider in a Cockney accent so it's "like" "like".

It's not 'like', "like", wider sound.

- Similar to "life" instead of 'life' it's "life". "Life". Not 'wife', "wife". So, again,

as I say, that broader sound for that 'i' sound.

- Another example of that glottalization, "important". "Important" not 'important',

"important". She's glottalizing the middle 't' and the final 't'. Notice that you can't

use a glottal T at the beginning of a word. You can't say "'Om" instead of "Tom", "'Om',

it doesn't work. It has to be in the middle or at the end.

- Right now, here, "I feel like it's gone well". She says this sentence in almost perfect

Received Pronunciation whereas before she was using a Cockney accent on that dark L

so "meal" for example, now she's really pronouncing that dark L as you would in Received Pronunciation.

So it's "feel", "feel" and also "well"

- Now this is really common, I mean certainly for me as well like moving between accents

using different features of each accent in your own personal accent. That's really common

and I know I do that depending on my context, so it could be my environment, where I am,

and that could be true for Adele. It could be how you're feeling that day, it could be

who you're speaking to, that often might change your accent slightly. Also I think for Adele,

it's a lot to do with how careful she's being with her language. So, when she's really thinking

about what she wants to say, and she's slowing down, I think she uses Received Pronunciation.

But when she's more instinctive, when she's not thinking, when she's just reacting to

something, she goes into a Cockney Accent. And maybe this is a sign that her accent is

changing over time, that maybe it has always been Cockney or London accent and it's changing

slowly over time. Maybe she's spending more time in America and away from the environment

where she learned how to speak, so yeah, there's lots of factors here, I'd be really interested

to know from her, what does she think about this? So Adele, if you're watching, hit me

up. Let me know. Also you guys, if any of you find that your accent changes depending

on the environment you're in, the people you're with, let me know. I know that when my grandmother

was alive, I would use my best RP accent, I'd be "Oh hello grandmother, yes hello."

I mean, maybe not that posh, but I would certainly try and speak clearer and speak more like

she did. Whereas when I'm in the pub with my friends or I'm at football, I'm a lot looser

with my language, I don't think so much, and so the accent changes maybe I sound much more

like a Londoner, elements of cockney. So yeah, accents are fascinating and they can evolve

and they can change and I think that's what's happening with Adele here.

- Okay here she's saying "my life" not 'me life'. "My life", bit more emphasis perhaps.

And then she's saying "time", "time". Now that sound is more of a London/Cockney accent,

"time", a bit broader not 'time", "time" "time". So again, just widening the mouth a bit there.

- Okay, wow, here she really goes in for the cockney accent, "Adele", "Adele", not 'Adele",

"Adele'. ♪ What if I never love again" ♪

- "I ain't got time for that", "I ain't got time for that". Amazing. Couldn't sound more

cockney if she tried right here "I ain't got time for that", so loads of glottal T's, "I

ain't", "got", "got", "time", "time", "fo' that". Alright, let's break this down, "I

ain't got time for that". Well, 'ain't', very commonly used in cockney so, you know, similarly

to American, means "I don't have". So "I ain't got", I haven't got. She's basically saying

"I haven't got time", "I ain't got time". So 'ain't' is commonly used in cockney, glottal

T there "got", "time", that broad 'ime' sound, again, 'i'. "Time for that".

- I ain't got time for that

- In this sentence, she reacts to what James Corden is saying, so she hasn't really thought

about what she's saying, it's instinctive, its natural. And it's one of the more cockney

sounding phrases that she uses, so I think that plays into my theory that when she doesn't

think about what she says, she drops into her London/Cockney accent, but when she does

really think about what she's saying, she's very careful to switch into a more Received

Pronunciation.

- Finally, "Oh 'fank you", that 'th' there, she is using 'f' sound. Now remember right

at the beginning of this video, she was saying "thank you" now she's saying, "fank you".

So she's moved from Received Pronunciation to a cockney accent. And I think that's what

makes Adele's accent so distinctive, is the way that she shifts between accents just like

so many of us do but I guess people think, "Well they're from this place, they must have

this accent" That's not true, we can blend and merge accents together depending on where

we are, who we're with. We'll switch. And that's what she's done here very clearly in

one interview. Okay, what an awesome video. Adele, I have so much respect for her, oh

my god, what a singer. Unbelievable singer, so talented and she seems to be, I don't know

about you guys, she comes across as being just like a super lovely person like you kinda

want to be her friend, don't you? Just hang out with her whatever. So, I love the chemistry

between those two as well, really cool. So guys, how was that? Did you enjoy the deconstruction

of one person's accent, looking at the features of their accent, what influences they're bringing

in. Did you enjoy that? Would you like me to do someone else, another famous British

person. If the answer is yes please give me a big thumbs up, obviously, and then in the

comments give me some suggestions who would you like me to do next? It could be Jamie

Oliver, could it be the Queen? You let me know, whoever you want, okay. And guys, if

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guys, this is Tom, the Chief Dreamer, saying goodbye.