How to get a lovely British accent

“How can I sound more British?” – This is a question our students ask every single day, so we’ve put together a short guide to help you get the British accent you might be looking for!

What is a typical British accent?

There are many different accents in the UK from Essex to Cockney, Cornish to Welsh, Scottish to Geordie, Cumbrian, Yorkshire, Midlands… the list goes on! So when our students ask “How can I get a British accent?” or “How can I sound like someone from the UK?” the answer isn’t that simple as there are many different varieties.

We’ve found that lots of our students think the main or typical accent in the UK is RP, otherwise known as Received Pronunciation. That’s the sort of accent that people from the Royal family have or maybe even some of your favourite YouTubers, like English with Lucy. Yes, of course, some people speak with the RP accent, but it is thought to be only 2-3% of the population – hardy anyone!

So, we want you to know that it’s not about sounding perfect and having that lovely RP twang, it’s about being understood..

Let’s go through some tips on how you can improve you communication skills in English so you are understand. We’ll also give some tips on how you can adapt some of pronunciation to sound more ‘local’.

1. Listen to as much English as possible

The first step to improving your accent is simple: listen.

Of course we recommend our Lovely English Stories channel as a great way to do this but you can also try watching British TV programmes or listen to radio shows from different parts of the UK – you can find a lot of these online or even on Spotify.

When you watch TV shows or films, try to focus on:

• • Mouth and lip movement – how do people from different parts of the UK use their mouths when they speak?

• • The rhythm and stress of sentences – which words do people stress and what is their intonation like?

• • How sounds connect between words – are there any dropped or softened sounds?

You can also try repeating short sentences after speakers, this is called shadowing and we have a story where you can try this technique on our English learning channel. Shadowing helps you copy natural pronunciation and intonation. You could even try recording yourself and comparing it to native speakers or your friends!

2. Learn British pronunciation differences

On our YouTube channel, Lovely English Stories, we often get people questioning how we’ve pronounced certain words, and that’s because they may have learnt the American English version. In the UK we have started to say some words more like Americans, so if you were to pronounce something in an American accent, no one will mind!

But knowing about some these differences could help you with your own intonation and pronunciation if you do want to sound more British than American, Canadian or Australian, for example.

So, let’s look at a few words:

• • Water is often pronounced “WAH-tuh” ([ˈwɔːtə])- there are lots of social media videos ‘taking the micky’ (a great British idiom) out of British people saying “water bottle” and the reason is the way we say water –

• • Schedule sounds like “SHED-yool” (/ˈʃedʒ.uːl/ )

• • Advertisement becomes “ad-VER-tis-ment” (/ədˈvɜː.tɪs.mənt/ )

• • Often is usually said without the “t” sound (/ˈɒf.ən/)

Practising these words regularly will train your ear and your mouth.

3. Use YouTube and social media

There are many online videos created by pronunciation experts and voice coaches. These often include mouth exercises, tongue twisters and detailed explanations of sounds.

Watching these can help you:

• • Understand difficult sounds

• • Improve clarity

• • Build confidence when speaking

Try to practise a little every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes.