Learn English With One Direction

james seriously get back here now  uh now if you're not experiencing  

all sorts of different things i was  never really afraid of those now

Today we are learning all about  English accents with One Direction.  

Even if you're not a fan of the band this  lesson will help you better understand  

English accents and British Culture because  every member is from a different part of the UK  

or Ireland. You will see lots of examples and  have the chance to boost your English listening.  

So this lesson is divided into two parts. In part  A we will look into each member's accent and the  

most distinct characteristics of the region they  are from. In part B we will compare and contrast  

how each member pronounces some specific sounds  like the "th" sound the glottal "t" and different  

vowel sounds. The best part is that if you  watch until the end you'll see all of this  

information synthesized so you can take notes and  revisit everything you learned with this video.  

Now in case you're new here we make lessons  every week to help you learn Real Native English  

without getting lost, without missing the jokes  and without subtitles just like Stephen who says  

that our channel motivates him a lot so be sure to  hit that subscribe button and the bell down below  

that way you won't miss a single one of our new  lessons! Well before we dive into the different  

accents let me ask you a question: do you like  most learners when hearing about British English  

think of received pronunciation the bbc or the  queen's English or maybe the cockney accent from  

London which is often mimicked in films and  TV series? Your answer is probably yes right  

after all these are the most common ones taught  in language schools, course books and shown in  

TV series and movies. But if you watch the  video we made about Harry Styles accent  

amongst others you probably know that the UK  has more than 30 dialects and accents and they  

can become quite distinct with just a short trip  from one place to another. If you haven't watched  

that lesson I highly recommend you watch it next  so I'll link it down in the description below. 

One direction was originally formed in 2010  by Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan,  

Liam Payne and Harry Styles who are from the  northeast, north west and midlands of England  

as well as Ireland. All of which have their own  singular characteristics. However despite those  

differences have you noticed how they sound when  they sing? It's with one uniform American accent.

Why is that? There are a variety of reasons  why this happens. It could be the artist's  

musical influence, commercial reasons or the  music genre. Whatever it may be it affects how  

they pronounce the vowels, which is one of  the main characteristics that changes from  

one accent to another. When they sing because  the muscles are working to project the voice  

the vowels are either compressed or extended to  fit the rhythm feat and melody of this song. This  

also changes the intonation, word stress and  rhythm that characterizes different accents.

Both Louis Tomlinson and former  member Zayn Malik are from Yorkshire  

in northern England. Despite sharing some  features their accents are quite different.  

Let's take a look at each of them. Louis is from south Yorkshire 

Zayn is from a different part of Yorkshire, a  city in the west called Bradford. Zayn is of  

Pakistani ancestry on his father's side  and Irish on his mother's side so that  

definitely also influences the way he speaks.  We noticed that in the rhythm of his speech. 

A strong characteristic of his Bradford  accent is that in words like so,  

phone ,show, go he elongates the final  sound to an "e" instead of o "so", 

Another common characteristic of the Yorkshire  accent that both Louis and Zayn share is the  

tendency to drop the "t" at the end of words  like that. Louis actually oftentimes drops both  

sounds in the word that and pronounces it  just as "a" instead of "that". Check it out!

You can learn more about Louis accent and four  

other British ones in this lesson  we made which i'll link down below!

Liam is from Wolverhampton, a  city in a part of central England  

called the Midlands. This region  also has a very distinct accent  

especially regarding the intonation. You may  have noticed that when Liam speaks his voice  

has almost a song-like melody going up and  down depending on the words he is emphasizing

This is quite typical of more  Midland and northern English accents. 

Learning a variety of English accents will  improve your listening skills and help you  

to understand fast speaking natives which is why  I highly recommend our Fluent with Friends Course.  

Not only will you improve in this area  but you'll learn real native vocabulary  

understand the jokes and you can also be part of  our Fluency Circle which is a Global Community  

of English learners just like you! The best  part is you can try it for free right now  

all you have to do is click up here or down in the  description box below. What are you waiting for?

The other members are all from different parts  of England but Niall is from Ireland. Sometimes  

this can be confusing because the country which  is an island consists of northern Ireland which  

is actually part of the UK as well as the Republic  of Ireland which is not part of the UK. The Irish  

accent also varies from region to region. Let's  look at some characteristic of Niall's accent who  

is from the Midlands region of Ireland.  one noticeable characteristic of the irish  

accent when compared to the british accent is that Check out how Niall pronounces the words started,  

heartbeat, weather and first. Another feature of his accent  

is the final diphthong in words like now. The  way he says it sounds more like an "o" sound.

Harry Styles is also from the north of England  and his accent was highly influenced by the places  

he's lived in. However he's probably the band  member whose accent most changed over the years.  

For example you can notice  how his intonation has changed  

but also how often times he  pronounces the word little,  

with the flap "t" americans use or something  in between the flat "t" and the glottal "t".

For more on Harry Styles accent don't forget  to check out the lesson I mentioned at the  

beginning of this video. If you'd like to learn  even more British accents such as Cockney, Scouse,  

Scottish and even the Queen's English then I  highly recommend you check out these two lessons  

which are linked down in the description below!  

Now let's contrast how some common sounds in the  English language are pronounced by the members.  

The glottal "t" is the dropping of the  "t" sound it's like if the person speaking  

swallows the "t" sound in a word rather  than speaking it aloud. It results in a  

stopping of the flow of air and then a release. Words ending in "y" are usually pronounced with a  

long "e" sound. This is how most members pronounce  it. Liam however tends to pronounce it as a  

short "e" in words like pretty, easy and very. The "th" sound is a very characteristic sound  

of the English language and although it's mostly  pronounced as when voiced like in that or this  

and when unvoiced like in think or theme, the  pronunciation of the th can vary quite a lot.  

Let's see. Louis tends to pronounce the unvoiced  "th" more like an "f" sound in words like  

think and thank. The same is true for Harry who  has a lot of a Manchester influence in his accent. 

Niall in his Irish accent alternates  between the standard voiced  

and pronouncing it with d or t sounds. In most northern accents the diphthong  

two vowel sounds in words like dance and  last become one single sound a flat "a". 

There are only a few British accents that don't  drop the "h" sound in words. "rp" being one of  

them. You can see Louis, Liam and Harry pronounce  words like him, have, etc. By dropping the sound.  

Zayn on the other hand is not consistent with  dropping it. Sometimes he does sometimes he  

doesn't. Niall however always pronounces  it. Check out the "h" in these examples. 

All of the band members except for Niall  change the sound "uh" in words like up,  

mum, done and stuff for round "uh" sound. This is  a common feature of British accents in the central  

and northern part of England. Take a look at how  Niall pronounces it and how the others do it. s 

So, let's recap the English accent features we  mentioned in this video. As it's common in British  

and Irish english all of them drop the "t" sound  when speaking words like little, got and right.  

In the south Yorkshire accent like Louis you'll  hear me instead of mai the drop of the "t" at the  

end of words like that and a more open "o" sound  in words like show and go in Zayn's accent from  

west Yorkshire. Most northern accents drop the  "h" in words like hair, horrible and hand. Niall's  

Irish accent pronounces it in all words. Another  characteristic of the Irish accent that differs  

from the British is the "r" sound that is fully  pronounced while in most British accents you have  

a non-rhotic r sound. Intonation plays a big role  in the different accents and it's one of the most  

noticeable characteristics. You can see how Liam's  intonation goes up and down more frequently while  

Niall is more flat the pronunciation of the -ing  also changes in the Midlands accent the "g" is  

more prominent while in the Yorkshire accent  it's usually dropped the th sounds vary from  

place to place and sometimes it's pronounced with  a "th" sound. So I hope you enjoyed this lesson  

and let me know down in the comments below which  accent you find more difficult to understand and  

which one you find easier to understand. Also  are there any other celebrities accents you'd  

like us to feature but now it's time to go beyond  the classroom and live your English. Aww yeah! So  

what is rhythm? this is the speed and cadence  of how you say a sentence. So as I mentioned  

before we don't say each word at the same speed.  That would sound very boring and very robotic.  

Now the rhythm of English might be different  to the rhythm of your native language so it's  

really important to understand  the unique rhythm of English.