How To Speak With A British Accent: 5 Hardest Sounds

47,920 views ・ 2021-10-12

English Like A Native


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Used by approximately 1.35 billion people around the world, English is the most spoken
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language on the planet, and more people speak it as a second language than a first language!
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However, it’s not the easiest language to master, with pronunciation being particularly
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problematic. I blame our very unhelpful spelling.
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Well, in this video we are going to look at some of the hardest sounds in English, that
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even some native English speakers struggle with. And at the end of the video, you can
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enroll onto my FREE pronunciation mini-course to help you to iron out those pronunciation
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wrinkles.
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Let’s get started.
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1 - The ‘TH’ sound.
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Did you know that there are actually two TH sounds? It’s true, a voiced TH and a voiceless
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TH. Both sounds are produced in the same way but,
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as their names suggest, one uses voice and the other doesn’t. To produce these th sounds
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simply place your tongue loosely between the teeth. Not too far out, just a little. Then
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allow the voice or air to pass between the top teeth and tongue creating friction or
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vibration.
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A voiced TH (sounds a voiced TH). Here is the phonetic symbol for this sound /ð/.
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Repeat these words: The, Then, With, Weather.
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Try this sentence. Then the boy ran off with the weathervane.
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The unvoiced TH sound. Here is the phonetic symbol for this sound /θ/
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Repeat these words: Thank, Think, Thief
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Try this sentence. The thief thanked his father for thinking
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of him.
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Now French, German, Russian, and many other languages don’t have a TH sound whatsoever!
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So it’s no surprise that this is often mispronounced and replaced with alternatives like a D, an
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F or even a z. The dropped TH is also a feature within some British regional accents too like
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cockney.
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2 - The ‘R’ sound.
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The English R, internationally speaking, is a peculiar beast! We have a smooth, flat R
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that doesn’t roll or tap like it does in many other languages.
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In contrast, the Spanish R is elaborately rolled, this is also known as a ‘trilled
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R’. Other European languages like Italian and even German also have a trilled R. How
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does your language treat the R?
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“Our Rs are really rock and roll.“
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Beyond that initial difference in the pronunciation of this sound, the English r is non-rhotic,
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which means we do not pronounce it when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed
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by another vowel, like in words such as hard, warm, floor, doctor.
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This is in contrast to American English which is the dominant variation of English being
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taught around the world. Therefore if British English pronunciation is what you are going
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for, then you will need to flatten and in many cases disregard that R.
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3 - The V and the W sounds.
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Did you know that V and W are treated as the same sound in Urdu & Hindi? So creating a
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difference between these two sounds when speaking English can be a little bit tricky at first.
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And did you know that there is no V sound in Thai?
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To make things more complicated, most languages only have one or the other, even though, in
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some European languages, they have both of the letters! How confusing…
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Let’s look at these two sounds side by side, you’ll soon see that there is a big difference
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in the production.
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(Shows both sounds close up, and side by side)
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With the V - get your teeth involved, the top teeth should be touching the bottom lip.
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With the W - forget the teeth, they should not be involved. Round the lips and W
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Repeat after me: Wow - Vow
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I vow to wow you.
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Right so technically we have covered five sounds, the two TH’s, the rock n roll R,
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the V, and the W. But I’m having a nice time so I am going
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to carry on.
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The ‘ed’ ending
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Okay, so this one is more like three in one. The ‘ed’ ending isn’t really a sound
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but more of a misleading spelling issue. Not following? Let me explain…
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In English, ‘ed’ is the ending used for regular verbs in the past tense. And that
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simply means that we use it A LOT.
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What makes it complicated is that there are three different ways to pronounce it, in essence,
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there are three sounds but only one spelling.
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So how do you know which one to use? Well, I’ve got a little trick that will help you
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here.
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The easiest to remember is when -ed is pronounced as an /Id/ sound. This is used when the base
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verb ends with a /d/ or /t/ sound. For example: Complete = Completed
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Need = Needed Haunt = Haunted (so you can let that example
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haunt your thoughts… whuuuuuughuu)
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(Stupid D.T)
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Slightly more complicated is when -ed is pronounced as a /t/ sound.
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You use this when the base verb ends with an unvoiced sound: p, f, s, ch, sh, or k sound
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(but not t - remember, that belongs to the previous rule - stupid DT). That’s it, just
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6 endings to remember. For example, Pop = popped Cook = cooked
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Wash = washed Hiss = hissed
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Laugh = laughed
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The last one is easier to remember, and kind of the default, as it is used for all other
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verb endings. That is the /d/ sound, which is used for all verbs ending with a voiced
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sound, except d. For example:
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Play = played Call = called
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Enjoy = enjoyed Save = Saved
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Bog = Bogged Dab = Dabbed
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Now if I were to keep going, and trust me there are many more sounds that cause my students
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trouble, I would mention the short vowel u (up) and the long vowel OR and ER. Diphthongs
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would need to be touched upon, as would CH. The L’s need attention and
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The H sound - I should have covered the H sound…commonly constricted, or even, not
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pronounced at all. I should have covered the H sound.
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But luckily the H is covered in your FREE pronunciation mini-course, which you can find
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by clicking the link below.
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Is there a pronunciation that you particularly struggle with? Why not let me know in the
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comments below?
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Until next time, bye for now.
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