British Dialect Coach Breaks down BAD British Accents!

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- He's sulking about like some

Poncy eye-line-wearing emo twat.

See, he says "twat."

Actors, if you're doing a British accent,

and you have to say this word,

it's pronounced twat, not twot.

I'm an English teacher, a dialect coach, and today,

I'm going to show you exactly what actors do perfectly

and terribly when they try to do a British accent.

Let's rate some accents.

Everyone's favorite. Sherlock, Robert Downey.

- Since this room is no longer yours,

do you mind if I utilize it?

- So, okay, his accent is pretty good in this.

I mean, it's Iron Man. I expect no less.

- Neat, like military men.

- I like the way he says the word "military" here.

That's very accurate. That's very good.

So in American pronunciation, you might hear military.

But in British pronunciation,

all the words that end in -ary, they get smushed.

So instead of military, it sounds like militry.

Instead of -tary, try.

Same with strawberry. Strawbry.

Mandatory. Mandatry.

What else? Oh yeah, battery and battry.

So keep that in mind.

- I can't but agree.

- The way he said "can't" right there, that was perfect.

But this is an aspect of British pronunciation

which American actors just don't understand

and they always get it wrong.

We have this thing with British pronunciation

called trap bath split.

Very simplistically, this separates British pronunciation

into Northern accents and Southern accents.

Basically, words like "can't," "laugh," "last,"

"castle," "bath" are pronounced differently

depending on if your accent is a Southern accent

or a Northern accent.

So in the South, we would pronounce these with an A sound.

That's this sound. A.

Can't. Laugh. Last. Castle. Bath.

But in a Northern accent,

it would sound like this sound, ah.

Can't. Laugh. Last. Castle. Bath.

And so the problem is when an actor is playing a character

with a Southern accent like London or RP,

but then use the Northern pronunciation for those words.

Just as an example to compare.

This guy, John Oliver, he has a Southern accent

so he pronounces can't in the same way.

Same way as I do.

Same way as Robert Downey in "Sherlock" does. Can't.

However, watch this guy do an impression of him on "SNL."

- You can't talk about Sweden without talking about Ikea.

- See? He doesn't pronounce it in the Southern way.

He pronounces it in the Northern way.

If you're playing a character

with a Southern British accent,

you need to know this rule and stick to it.

Yeah. So when we hear that mix, it ruins the illusion.

- And trust me, I'm a professional.

- "I'm a professional."

The L hits very weird when he says "professional."

This is about dark and light Ls.

Okay, so I'm gonna show you on this little mouth.

He said, "professional." That's a light L.

Tongue is in the wrong position.

Needs to be a bit more forward hitting the teeth

or just over depending on your mouth...dimensions.

So let's practice this together.

When you hit the L sound,

hit with the tip of the tongue just here.

Just behind the top front teeth.

That way of making the L sound is called a light L,

when your tongue hits here.

You only want to use the light L, this one,

when a word begins with an L

or when there's a vowel sound just after the L.

For example, let Lilly lick Lionel's lusty leathers.

They all have that light L sound

because there's a vowel sound after each L.

So the light L is great for those words.

However, in the word "apple,"

the tongue shouldn't hit there.

It should be a little bit more forward

and hit somewhere here.

Obviously, everyone has a different shaped tongue,

teeth, and mouth.

So it will be different for everyone.

But just know it's a little bit further forward.

Might be hitting the back of your front teeth

or it might be slightly under.

But this is called the dark L,

and this is when a word finishes with an L sound

or there's a consonant sound after like apple.

Or you have another option,

change the L sound at the end of words,

that dark L, to an O sound.

So the tongue doesn't hit anything.

Instead of professional, just say profession-o.

It's an option for you if you like it.

And actually Peter Dinklage in "Infinity War" does this too

when he says the word "handle."

Notice he uses the light L, not the dark L.

- [Peter] Where's the handle?

See? It's that pointy tongue hitting the wrong place.

That's a light L. Needs to be a dark L.

Handle or handle.

Groot, pass me the handle.

You should have gone Cockney.

That would've been more fun.

These these mistakes are not huge.

But to a nerdy brain like me, I'm gonna hear it

and I'm gonna be like, "Oh, it's an American actor, okay."

It's not a bad thing, it's just, like I said,

it breaks the illusion.

Overall rating though, a nine.

I mean, he's Iron Man, we love him.

Tessa Thompson in "Thor: Ragnarok."

- Do I know you? I feel like I've known you.

- I feel like I know you too.

- Yeah, I had to look up where she grew up

and went to school

because I genuinely don't know why she's so good.

She's not trying to sound perfect.

So one thing American actors do

is whenever they hit a T sound, they'll always hit a true T.

The true T is when you pronounce this word like bottle.

But with a more relaxed British accent,

you might use a glottal T.

So bottle becomes bottle, water becomes water.

Bottle of water.

And you make this sound

by closing the airway in your throat.

That produces a glottal stop.

That sound replaces the T in some words.

Not all of them, some of them.

But this is where she takes it to the next level.

- That line, I would expect an American actor

to use the true T.

Maybe to use the Cockney, the glottal T way.

But if you truly observe the way we speak naturally,

you'll notice we often use American characteristics

in our pronunciation.

So listen again to how she says it.

- She pronounces the T like a D.

That's an American characteristic that we have stolen.

So I think the point is

if you want to sound natural with British pronunciation,

don't overcorrect to an extremely posh RP

always pronouncing the true T

or extremely Cockney always using glottal stops

You want to be of lazy

and understand that no one is at the extreme end

of the spectrum.

Everyone sits sort of in the middle somewhere.

And also accept that we have stolen

some American characteristics into our own pronunciation.

Remember, we're British.

We love to steal everything and call it our own.

Rating. I would give her an 11 out of 10

I've never seen an American actor sound so natural.

So...so she wins.

Everyone else can go home.

Karl Urban is Billy Butcher in "The Boys."

- It's got hard-on for mass murder and giving kids cancer.

And this big old answer to the existential clusterfuck

that is humanity is to nail his own bleeding son

- Oh, okay. Yeah, we're off to a bad start.

This is really good

because it's showing it's not just American actors.

He's from New Zealand.

Earlier, I mentioned the trap bath split.

- I can't remember the last time I had a good cuppa char.

- He's very obviously doing a Cockney accent.

And Cockney is the most famous London accent.

And a Cockney would say can't like can't.

It should be can't.

However, can't. That's too far back in the mouth.

That's definitely a New Zealand way to pronounce it.

Also, his Cockney accent is so unnatural sounding.

It's so forced that it sounds funny.

So I kind of think because the show is so good,

the writing's amazing, the acting's amazing.

I kind of think maybe that's part of the plan of the show

and the character.

That's just my theory.

- I can't remember the last time I had a good cuppa char.

- Okay, like for example,

he's using words like a "cuppa char."

No one says that.

That's like a caricature of a Cockney

to always use like Cockney rhyming slang

and words like "cuppa char."

No one really uses it in real life,

but I guess no one has superpowers either.

So, again, might be part of the show.

- So you wanna take me on, do you?

Think you've got a bollocks?

- No. Who told him it was pronounced bullocks? No.

Bollocks. Say it with me. Bollocks

- You're a bunch of pathetic supe-worshipping.

I bet you'd thank a supe if they on your mum's best china.

- This is what I'm talking about with overcorrection.

Yes, to change the sound for A or V sound

is a very important feature of Cockney.

So yeah, changing thank you to fank you,

or pathetic to pafetic or pafetic.

If you change every sound to an F or a V,

it will sound weird and unnatural and forced.

- He's sulking about like some

Poncy eye-line-wearing emo twat.

See, he says twat.

Actors, if you're doing a British accent

and you have to say this word,

it's pronounced twat, not twot.

Rating, I would give him a 9.3.

I'm a huge fan of "The Boys,"

so I can't go lower than a 9.3. Sorry.

The best advice I could give actors

trying to do a British accent would be to expose yourself

to as many different British accents as possible.

There's a wide range,

and TV shows provide a great resource for that.

"Game of Thrones," lots of variety for Northern accents.

"Fleabag," you've got a great variety

of Southern British accents, not just posh RP.

It's quite a good range there.

Find a style that you like personally and copy that.

So whose accent do you want me to rate next?

Let me know in the comments.

Also remember, this is lesson seven

of my free British pronunciation course.

You can find it on papateachme.com.

Have fun studying and show me your progress

with your British pronunciation style.

You can tag me on Instagram or TikTok @papateachme.

And I'll see you in the next class. Bye.