🇬🇧 10 WORDS TO LEARN BRITISH ACCENT (Modern RP)

Hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy.

In today's video, I'm going to show you how you can recognise and speak with a

Modern Received Pronunciation accent in just 10 words.

I speak with Modern RP.

I'm going to teach you by telling you a

very short story using real everyday language.

The 10 words that I'm going to pick out

to train you to speak with Modern RP are words that you probably use all the time

in English.

To help you even further I have created a

free PDF guide and worksheet that you can use alongside this lesson.

It contains everything we're going to discuss today alongside more information

and a practice task.

If you want to improve your pronunciation

you're going to find it really useful.

To download the free PDF and worksheet

just click on the link in the description box, you enter your name and your email

address and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox and after that you've

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You will automatically receive my free

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It's a free service and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Right!

Let's get started.

The United Kingdom is packed full of an

amazing variety of accents and I love how diverse our speech is.

But as many of you already know I speak with Modern RP and so that's what I'm

going to teach you how to recognise.

In just 10 words you're going to see how

different Modern RP is from other UK accents and from a general American accent.

Ready?

Here's the first part of my story.

By the way, this would be a great opportunity to practise shadowing with me

so pause and rewind as you need if you want to speak along with me.

One slow Tuesday afternoon, I was feeling a bit bored, so I decided to go online to

make the time pass a bit faster.

I opened my computer, thinking of doing

some shopping.

Okay, we've all been there, haven't we?

Boredom shopping.

I do it a lot.

Anyway, there are four words in that story that I think really showcase the Modern

RP accent.

First, Tuesday.

Tuesday.

I pronounce this like I'm saying the

words ‘choose’ and ‘day.’

Tuesday.

In more traditional RP, Tuesday is pronounced Tuesday.

Tuesday with the u sound.

Tuesday.

You'll still find this pronunciation in many dictionaries but in Modern RP, we

tend to say Tuesday.

/t/ and /j/ come together to form /tʃ/.

Can you hear the difference?

/tʃuː/

/tju:/

/tʃuː/

/tju:/

In American English, the pronunciation is

different again.

You'll hear many Americans say Tuesday.

/tu:/

Tuesday.

They drop the /j/ sound.

I'll speak a little bit more about this later.

First, here are some more words with the /tʃ/ sound in Modern RP compared with a

General American accent.

Listen and repeat if you'd like.

Tube.

Tube.

Tuna.

Tuna.

Tutor.

Tutor.

I apologise for my attempt at an American accent.

It is not my forté.

I take inspiration from Siri on my phone.

Tutor.

Can I help you with that?

Here is a recipe for tomato pasta.

The second word I want to focus on is afternoon.

Afternoon.

Now one key feature of modern received pronunciation is the use of a long /ɑː/

sound here.

Afternoon.

It's that sound you make when you go the dentist.

Ah.

Ah.

Hopefully, you say ‘ah’ and not ‘ow.’

We'll talk about that another time.

Now many people in the north of England

and in North America use a short /æ/ sound here.

Like the /æ/ in apple.

Afternoon.

Afternoon.

Listen to them together.

Afternoon.

Afternoon in Northern English.

Afternoon in American English.

There are two other words in the text that are pronounced with the long /ɑː/ in

Modern RP and a short /æ/ in many other accents.

I say pass and faster, not pass and faster.

That sounds very, very northern now.

Pass.

Faster in American English.

Pass.

Faster in Northern English.

Pass.

Faster.

Received Pronunciation or Modern

Received Pronunciation in my case.

The third one is a very common one.

Listen to my pronunciation.

Online.

Online.

Notice how I use a short vowel sound.

/ɒ/

/ɒ/

Now this sound is really common in

British English, but you won't find it as much in North America.

Most people from the US lengthen the vowel sound to more of an /ɑː/ sound.

Online.

Online.

Online.

Online.

Can you hear the difference?

It's subtle, but it's there.

You also heard this short vowel sound in the word shopping.

Shopping.

Which, in a General American accent, sounds

like this.

Shopping.

Shopping.

Shopping.

Shopping.

Our final word from this section is computer.

Computer.

Listen to the sound at the end.

Computer.

I don't pronounce the letter r at the end

of the word.

Instead, I use a schwa.

That's this funny-looking upside-down e symbol.

This symbol means that my mouth stays

open and relaxed at the end of the word.

Computer.

In Modern RP and in most British accents, we don't pronounce the letter r unless

it's followed by a vowel sound.

In North America, on the other hand, most

speakers usually pronounce the letter r.

So computer sounds more like computer.

Computer with the /r/ at the end.

They do sound quite different, don't they?

Here are some more words that end in er that you can hear this sound in.

Another.

Another.

Discover.

Discover.

Summer.

Summer.

Tell you what, I do find it really hard to force that /r/ at the end.

It just doesn't come naturally to me.

Summer.

Summer.

I love the way it sounds though and I've

got to give it to the Americans.

It does make more sense to pronounce it

if it's there and it does make it easier for learners of English.

Okay, here's the next part of my story.

First, I decided to scan some of the news

sites and one item caught my eye.

A major airline was giving away tickets

to Japan!

You just had to go on their website and

answer a couple of questions.

I had to take a look and try my luck.

Okay, I love travelling so much and free plane tickets are my dream but before I

tell you what happened next, there are 3 words that I want to pick out of

that passage to demonstrate Modern RP.

Number 5, news.

News.

I pronounce the word news with a /j/ before

the /uː/.

News.

As we saw earlier, in many American

accents, this /j/ sound isn't pronounced and this is called ‘yod-dropping’ and

it

can occur after several consonant sounds.

The difference is most obvious when /u:/

follows /n/, as in ‘news,’ and after /t/ and /d/.

Here are some more examples with /n/.

Numerous.

Numerous.

Nutritious.

Nutritious.

To learn more about yod-dropping after /t/

and /d/, download the PDF because I've put more information in there.

The link is in the description box.

Let's move on to number 6.

Giving.

Giving.

That strange-looking n symbol at the end of the word is for the /ŋ/ sound.

This is the last sound of words that end in -ing like walking, sleeping, running.

That /ŋ/ sound, it's nasal.

You block the air off so it comes out of

your nose.

/ŋ/

I usually keep this sound when I pronounce words ending in -ing.

But in many other British accents and some accents in North America, this sound

is often dropped and replaced with /n/ like the n /n/

/ŋ/

/n/

/ŋ/

/n/

The /ŋ/ sound is produced further back in

your mouth.

When you say /g/, /g/, /g/, /ŋ/, hold it there.

That's the /ŋ/ sound.

/n/ is produced just behind your teeth.

This process is called g-dropping.

So instead of giving, you will hear

people say givin.

Walking, walkin.

Sleeping, sleepin.

Running, runnin.

This especially happens in fast, informal speech and I must say, I sometimes do it too.

Especially if I'm trying to be funny or dramatic.

I want to emphasise something.

That meal was bangin!

Banging means really good or really

attractive if someone is banging.

You will also hear this a lot in pop

music lyrics like in Dolly Parton's 9 to 5.

Workin 9 to 5,

what a way to make a livin.

Bet you've never heard that song in a

British accent before.

And in song titles like Rollin by Calvin Harris.

I've never felt less cool than I do right now.

Workin 9 to 5, Rollin by Calvin Harris.

I'm not here to be cool, I'm here to teach.

This is a completely accurate way of

pronouncing -ing words.

The final sentence in the passage

contained the words look and luck.

I had to take a look and try my luck.

Look, luck.

The first word, look, is made with the

short vowel /ʊ/

It's the same sound we find in words like

book, good and foot.

You can make this sound with the lips

relaxed, or rounded and pushed forward just a little.

Book, good, /ʊ/, /ʊ/

I pronounce the word luck with a

different sound.

/ʌ/, /ʌ/.

We make this sound with the lips relaxed, not rounded and my mouth opens wider.

My jaw opens wider.

/ʌ/, /ʌ/.

Look, luck.

Look, luck.

In my accent, there is a clear difference between these two words.

But many people from the north of England don't use the /ʌ/ sound much, if at all.

And these two words often sound exactly the same.

Look, luck.

My wonderful pronunciation teacher Jane

has a northern accent.

I wonder if she will give me a little

recording of her version of these two words.

Look, luck.

See?

Fairly similar.

For some people, they are exactly the same.

Here are some more words that I pronounce with the /ʌ/ sound that some people from

the north of England pronounce with the /ʊ/ sound.

I'll get Jane to join in on this one.

Up, up.

Country, country.

Become, become.

Right!

Are you ready to find out whether

I got free tickets to Japan or not?

Here's the final part of my story.

I got on their site and what do you know?

I was number 3,576 in the queue!

And the waiting time seemed to be going up, not down.

I was bored but not that bored.

Better luck next time, I guess.

It inspired me to pick up some travel brochures about Japan the next time I was

in town, though.

I'll make it there one day!

Yep, so I didn't get any free tickets but I do have 3 more words to demonstrate

my Modern RP accent.

The first one is know, know.

I said, I got on their site and what do you know?

Know.

The key sound to focus on here is the /əʊ/, /əʊ/.

It's a diphthong.

You heard it in the word going in the

text and it appears in other words like show and home.

The sound in these words varies significantly across the UK.

If we take the phrase, I know I should go home, the /əʊ/ can sound more like a long

monophthong in parts of Yorkshire.

I know I should go home.

Did you hear the difference?

I know I should go home.

I know I should go home.

My next word is better, better.

Listen to how I pronounce it, focusing on the /t/ sound.

Better.

Now listen to how it's pronounced in a

General American accent.

Better.

I say better with a clear /t/ sound.

In fast speech in American English, the /t/

is often closer to a really fast /d/ sound.

Better, better.

This is called a T-flap or a flap T.

Here are some other words that you can hear

this sound in.

Water.

Water.

Little.

Little.

Bottle.

Bottle.

Notice the difference in vowel sound there.

My final word to help you recognise the

RP accent is brochure, brochure.

How you pronounce this word can indicate

if you're speaking with a British or American accent.

I say brochure, brochure.

With the main stress on the first

syllable, I pronounce bro- more loudly.

In an American accent, the stress is

usually placed on the second syllable.

Brochure, brochure.

Here are a few more words that can be stressed differently in modern RP versus

General American.

Let's get Joel in to help with this one again.

I say an address.

Joel says an address.

Vaccine.

Vaccine.

And garage.

Garage.

Garage.

Note that in British English, there are several ways to pronounce garage.

I say garage.

You can also say garage.

Garage.

No matter the pronunciation, the stress

is usually on the first syllable in British English.

All right.

Those are our 10 words.

Something I want to bring up is that one of the best ways to get the accent that

you want is to copy or mimic speakers you want to sound like.

I've made a video all about an amazing technique called shadowing that can help

you with this.

You could watch that video and then you

can shadow alongside this lesson.

Also, don't forget to download the free

PDF and worksheet.

The link is in the description box.

Also, if you are interested in mastering the Modern RP accent, I have my beautiful

British English Pronunciation Programme.

It's a 12-week online pronunciation programme.

You can do it self-study on your own or with feedback from my team of

pronunciation teachers.

Just visit englishwithlucy.com to find

out more information.

I will see you soon for another lesson.