Received Pronunciation
The eight sounds that give you away
A British accent is not a mystery. It is a handful of specific sounds done differently from a General American one. Learn these eight and you lose most of the tells. Each page shows the British target, the common habit, and how to fix it.
The dropped R
The R after a vowel goes quiet, so car becomes cah.
The long BATH
Bath, grass and dance stretch into a long, dark ah.
The rounded LOT
Hot, dog and off take a short, rounded O at the back.
The GOAT glide
Go and home start in the centre, then glide, never a flat oh.
The crisp T
Water and better keep a clean T, never a soft American D.
The retained Y
Tune and news keep the Y, so tune is tyoon, not toon.
The open STRUT
Cup, love and money sit open, central and forward.
The melody
The tune lifts on the key word, then falls to land the sentence.
Find out which ones give you away.
Read three lines aloud and BritSpeech scores all eight on your own voice, on your phone, in about ninety seconds.