How to learn a British accent

[FernandoGutierrez]

Hi

Can anyone recommend a course (it does not matter if it's books or an e-course) on how to learn the British accent?
There are free online resources, but they are simply not detailed enough or really list everything you need to know to speak with a good British accent.

Has anyone got any experience with learning that accent? How did you do it?

[Mr_Ben]

I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that I'm American and lived in Ireland for five years and I still can't do a convincing Irish (or British--whatever that is) accent.

The good news is that your writing makes a good impression so if that's accurate I imagine you'll be able to communicate just fine. People just have accents, they're not seen as negatively in English as learners seem to think. In fact, there will always be somebody who thinks a certain accent is sexy so there are benefits too!

The only accents I can do is when I am copying someone, so you can try my method... it's free! Take a video or audio recording of an accent you like/admire, preferably with a transcript, listen to it and record yourself copying it. Listen to yourself and the original again and self-correct until you get it right. You can use websites or ask more questions here if you need help with the technical aspects.

You can get videos here:
euronews.net: all of the Top Stories have videos with transcripts
BBC Learning English: all of the Words in the News stories have recordings of the article (the pace of the speech is a little slow)
TED.com: a wide variety of speakers, but it's natural language at a natural presentation pace and the community will transcribe and translate all of the talks

Don't worry so much about the individual consonant and vowel sounds (as long as they are distinct and comprehensible), try to notice sentence stress patterns and intonations and you'll soon be more comfortable with your own unique accent. Check out Amy Walker if you haven't already.

[Tdol]

Also, remember that there are many different British accents.

[bagzi94]

Longman Dictionary helps me a lot!

[LordJenkins]

Also, remember that there are many different British accents.

Most of which are truly awful. RP is an accent liked by most people around the world. Its a lot less harsh than an american/canadian accent, and it just sounds nicer. Im not talking about the lazy sloane accent, or the over the top hyperlect accent. In fact my favourite RP accent is the one Freddie Mercury attained at a British boarding school in India.


An example of his accent. This is the clearest audio of Freddie on the net.

YouTube - Freddie Mercury In-depth & Rare Interview - part 2 of 8




The reason why I prefer this RP accent is because its very soft, and all the dipthongs and triphthongs are used, yet not in a snobby way if you know what i mean lol Hugh grant is another example.


Best accent in the world imo! :)

[sten4556]

I have used " Acting with an Accent" tapes by Dr. Stern.. on " RP" English which is basically Queens English. I don't really know how I feel about the tapes and how they affected me. I would say to not really waste your money on that kind of thing unless that is the exact accent you are wanting to acquire. Most people, aside from some areas in London and the south of england don't really speak like that, but if posh is what you want, the tape is perfect for that.

It depends on what specific "regional" accent you want; there are SO many in England and the UK as a whole that it's just not even funny. So I'd pick an area of England that you like and that fascinates you and then try to find some famous people from that area and listen until you pick it up. Imitation is really the best way. I've been studying these accents for about 2 years now and still haven't picked up a full accent. The more different ones you listen to repeatedly is the more the mixture will be, so be careful what all you expose yourself to.

This is a great site for listening to samples of accents from all over england:
you have to type into google "IDEA accents", it will be paul meier's site and it helps greatly.