How to Learn the British Accent: Received Pronunciation (Modern RP)

If you are interested in improving your English pronunciation and in particular

acquiring a British accent then you are in the right place as I'm going

to be giving you some valuable tips to help you to acquire the British

accent and sound more natural and feel more confident when speaking English.

Many students ask me to help them to acquire a British accent.

But what they often mean is that they want to learn modern Received Pronunciation.

Often called RP, Received Pronunciation has a history of being an accent of class

rather than region, though it is widely accepted as the Southern English accent

and there are many RP speakers from all walks of life, not just the upper crust.

The useful thing about learning RP or modern RP is that it is the

form found in the dictionaries.

So if you ever need to know how a word is pronounced in RP, just head

to the Cambridge Online Dictionary.

Ok, that's enough of the introduction.

Let's get into the good stuff.

Oh yeah!

Every student comes with their own unique accent.

So the sounds that you need to work on to acquire an RP accent will be

different to Dave's, just like how different bodies in a gym need different

exercises to achieve a muscular physique.

However, when I'm assessing my student's pronunciation, there are

a handful of features that seem to cause trouble time and time again.

Number one.

The schwa sound.

The schwa.

This is the most common sound in English and it sounds like this, uh, uh..

I call this the lazy sound because the oral posture, the set up

of everything in your mouth is relaxed and neutral, uh, uh, uh.

The lips are parted.

The jaw hangs loose and the tongue lies there completely disengaged

as you can see uh, uh, uh.

Now, the schwa is found in many words, usually in place of the weak

or unstressed vowel within a word.

For example, take the word 'for'.

Independently, it's pronounced /fɔː/.

But, within a sentence, this word often switches to its weak

form and becomes /fə/, /fə/.

Or is replaced with the schwa, uh, fuh, fuh.

Take this sentence.

"Tea for two please and two sugars for me."

Did you notice when I said 'for', both times they were weak,

"Tea for /fə/ two please and two sugars for /fə/ me."

"Tea for /fə/ two, sugars for /fə/ me."

"Tea for two please and two sugars for me."

You will hear the same thing happen with of, of.

It becomes /əv/, /əv/.

Listen to this.

"A piece of cake can cause a lot of trouble."

Piece of /əv/ cake instead of piece of /ɒv/ cake.

Piece of cake.

Lot of /əv/, lot of /əv/ trouble.

"A piece of cake can cause a lot of trouble."

And it happens with was /wɒz/ which becomes /wəz/, /wəz/.

Listen to this.

"I was thinking while he was /wəz/ working on a bridge that was /wəz/ really old."

"I was thinking while he was /wəz/ working on a bridge that was /wəz/ really old."

Now, the schwa replaces words that end with ER, like in the word water.

Water.

So we may ask for a bottle of water, a bottle of water.

Notice, I also replaced the ah with a schwa as well, a /ə/, a

bottle of water, a bottle of water.

A bottle of water please.

It doesn't just replace er endings, it can also replace or, ar, and many

other endings, like in the word doctor.

Doctor /ˈdɒktə/, rather than doctor, and mirror /ˈmɪrə/, rather than mirror.

Often students are caught out when the schwa sneaks in and replaces

the A or the E in words ending with consonant AL or consonant EL, like,

"He was sentimental about the animal on the highest level of medication."

"He was sentimental about the animal on the highest level of medication."

"He was sentimental about the animal on the highest level of medication."

And did you spot the word ending with T I O N?

The schwa is in there too!

/ʃən/, /ʃən/.

Medication.

Master the schwa sound and that will make a huge difference.

Okay, time for you to listen and repeat.

"Tea for two please and two sugars for me."

"A piece of cake can cause a lot of trouble."

"I was thinking, while he was working, on a bridge that was really old."

"A bottle of water."

"He was sentimental about the animal."

"I'm on a high level of medication."

Now learning an accent or improving your pronunciation can seem difficult,

perhaps impossible, but let me reassure you that it is absolutely possible.

And though it does take time, it can also be an enjoyable journey of discovery.

And if you'd like support and guidance on your journey to perfecting

your pronunciation, then click on the link in the description and

I'll tell you how I can help you.

So next I must talk about the R sound in RP.

British English is non-rhotic.

We don't pronounce the R when it follows a vowel.

This can cause pronunciation confusion as other popular varieties of English

are rhotic and do pronounce the R.

But this is not the case in RP.

The R is silent unless it begins the word or is followed by an audible vowel.

So, in words such as real, rock and roll, you will, of course, pronounce the R

just as you would in words like zero, and irate, and carrot, zero, irate, carrot.

In these words, the R is sandwiched between two vowel sounds, zero, EOR.

R in the middle.

Zero.

IA in irate.

AR, RO in carrot.

I don't pronounce the R.

However, if it comes after a vowel and is followed by a consonant, so car for

example, we wouldn't pronounce the R.

But there would be an R if the following word began with a vowel sound.

But let's look at the words car wash.

Because the following sound is a consonant, wuh.

Car wash has no R sound.

Car wash.

Car wash.

"Going to the car wash."

Here's an example.

Part.

Part.

An important part.

We didn't pronounce the R in part.

Or important.

An important part.

But you'd probably drop the last T of important.

When you put it next to P of part, so you'd say, important part.

Important part.

An important part.

Try this.

"The water jet is an important part of the car wash."

Now, with this lack of rhoticity, paw and poor sound exactly the

same, as do father and farther.

Also note that E R E can be pronounced as /eə/ in words

like where /weə/, there /ðeə/.

Or it could be pronounced as /ɪə/ in hear, near, sincere.

I R E can be pronounced as /aɪə/, /aɪə/ in words like fire, higher and wire.

A R E is often pronounced as /eə/ again in words like care, share and bear.

But we do not pronounce the R in any of those examples.

So that's the important bit to hold on to.

Is your head spinning yet?

Trying to learn all these rules can be daunting.

Often, it's best to just let your brain work out the patterns itself by giving

it lots and lots of input, regularly listening, active listening and shadowing.

It can go a long way.

So go and find a great podcast.

The English Like a Native Podcast offers daily podcasts for you to

listen to and they easily fit into your daily life because they're

quite short, but not too short.

So be sure to find it on your preferred streaming platform.

Now repeat after me.

"Carrots are rolling but where are the rocks?"

"Rita is irate."

"Get car hire here."

"Share and care, sharing and caring."

"It's an important part of the car wash."

Okay, moving on to a tricky little short vowel.

The short /ʌ/ vowel.

As a northerner myself, I was surprised to learn all those years ago that RP had a

short vowel which I had never used before.

The /ʌ/ vowel.

This means that the vowel sound in put and good sound different to

the vowel sound in cut and strut.

It also means that the phrase good luck is very tricky for me to pronounce without

slipping back into my northern accent, which would be good luck, good luck,

but in RP it's good luck, not good luck.

Good luck.

This sound we can find it by starting in the lazy schwa position.

Uh, uh, uh.

Then we drop the lower jaw slightly, lift the back of the tongue slightly

to produce an /ʌ/, /ʌ/, /ʌ/, /ʌ/.

It's not as far as an ah sound, which goes a little further with

the dropped jaw and raised tongue.

Listen to the difference between these three sounds.

/ə/, /ə/, /ʌ/, /ʌ/, /æ/, /æ/, /ə/ /ʌ/, /æ/.

You may notice that it makes me smile as I move from the lazy

schwa, /ə/, through to an /æ/.

/ə/, /ʌ/, /æ/.

Repeat these phrases.

"Come up trumps."

"Come up trumps."

"Lump sums of money."

"Lump sums of money."

"Some love, others lust."

Let's move from short to long and discuss the confusion around the /ɑː/ vowel.

You may have noticed earlier I said car with a long open vowel.

Car.

In RP the same vowel is used in words like bath.

Pass.

Last.

And laugh.

Now, in many regional UK accents and in American, the vowel in

these words is a short /æ/.

Bath.

Pass.

Last.

Laugh.

So, keep this in mind when you're working on RP.

Bath, passed, last and laugh.

Practice the RP version with me now.

"The last car drove past."

Past!

Oops typo:)

" Who had the last laugh?"

"My father's in the bath."

"Up the garden path."

Sticking with long vowels, of all the vowels, I would say that most of my

students struggle the most with the oral posture of /ɔː/, found in words

such as sure /ʃɔː/, more and law.

And /ɜː/ found in words such as shirt and work.

In most cases, learners are confused by the non-rhotic R,

which we spoke about earlier.

So with the /ɔː/ sound, you need to drop the lower jaw a long way to make a big

space inside the mouth and round the lips.

/ɔː/ /ɔː/.

Repeat these phrases.

"For your door."

"For more paws."

"He yawns and scores."

With that first example, "For your door," I want you to remember what we

talked about regarding the of the R.

So, rather than, "For your door," in RP, you wouldn't pronounce the R in

any of these words, "For your door."

You will just hear the repeat of /ɔː/, /ɔː/, /ɔː/, /ɔː/ with a few

extra letters, "For your door."

Now when looking at the long /ɜː/ sound, the letter R usually

causes an issue for students.

Take a look at the words, word, work, shirt.

The temptation is to pronounce the R word, work, shirt, but in RP you

would ignore the R and instead use the long, /ɜː/ word, work, shirt.

Repeat these phrases,

"Bert preferred birds."

"I walk to work."

"The world of words."

"He heard her burp."

Is this useful so far?

It's a lonely existence standing in front of a camera alone

in a room talking to myself.

So if you are still with me, let me know by hitting the like

button and comment below telling me why you're watching this video.

I look forward to learning more about you.

Now.

I have to mention the TH.

This is probably the most awkward oral posture to master if you're unfamiliar

with this sound /θ/, /θ/, / /ð/.

Yes, I'm sticking my tongue out, well not all the way out, /θ/, but it's placed

between my teeth with just a slither of space for the air to pass through.

This It's simple to demonstrate, but it's one of the hardest adjustments to make.

But as with all things, practice equals progress.

There are two versions of the TH, voiceless TH, as in thank,

think, path, and voiced TH.

The, that, whether, them.

Repeat these phrases.

"These three ran farther."

"The thief threw it."

"These thoughts are threatening."

As I mentioned earlier, it is possible to transform your voice

just as I did many years ago.

To learn the strategies that I used to transform, come along

to my Pronunciation Masterclass.

The link is in the description.