British Accent Mastering

Before this workshop that I took today, my British accent sounded Indian. Don't ask me how, don't ask me why- I'm not Indian. But I significantly improved after this hour and a half. Now I am not even close to qualified to tell you how to do a British accent, but I though I'd post the handout I got that helped me so much. This is for RP British, I might post the Cockney one later. Hopefully I don't get arrested!

SOUND CHANGES

Vowels

1) OH

Sounds like EH-OO

Start with the EH (red, bed) sound, and slide into OO (who)

Practice Words:

Boat, Home, Wrote, Cone, No, Flow, Toast, Roast, Mope, Throne, Throw, Show, Crow, Stone, Hope, Toe, Alone, Thrown, Open, Sacramento, Ohio

2) AH

Sounds like AW

Substitute the AW (law, claw, bought) sound

Top, Stop, Hop, Potter, Cop, Prop, Shop, Tom, Hot, Mop, Dock, Pots, Mom, Sock, Rock, Rocket, Pocket, Odd, Body, Modern, Shot, Got, October, Oxygen

3) A

Substitute the AH (stop) sound when A falls BEFORE:

F          Behalf, half, staff, laugh

FT        Stagecraft, engraft, daft

NCE    Dance, chance, France

NT       Can't, plant

PH       Graph, epitaph

SK       Ask, task, mask

SP        Grasp, raspberry

SS        Grass, pass, glass, class

ST        Last, cast, nasty, mast

TH       Path, wrath

4) AW

Keep the same vowel sound, but round the lips over it (as if you're whistling)

Law, Straw, Thaw, Claw, Paw, Flaw, Crawl, Stall, Mall, Palm, Bought, Thought, Taught, Fought, Caught, Walk, Talk, Chalk, Beanstalk

Consonants

1) D's and T's

Make them EXCEPTIONALLY crisp and clear

Connect, Succinct, Tent, Part, Dent, Dent, Expect, Respect, Different, Parent, Mint, Heart, Hard, Hurt, Pit, Fit, Hard, Card, Forward, Ward, Bored, Flawed, Wasted, Worked, Pointed

2) R

a) DROP the R when it's the last SOUND in a word

Far, Near, Hear, There, Car, Floor, Under, Over, Door, Four, Stair, Glare, Where, More, Stir, Sure

b) DROP the R when it falls BEFORE a consonant

Hard, Heart, Forgive, New York, First, Morning, Afternoon, Person, North, Orphan, Hearth, Worth

c) Keep the R when it comes BETWEEN 2 vowels (or Y)

Around, arrest, irritate, Eric, torrid, sorry, berry, forest

d) Keep the R when it ENDS a word, and this next word starts with a vowel

Pair of, or else, for us, over it, order another

e) Keep the R when it BEGINS a word

Right, ready red, rain, river, run, rip, roast, rule, rust, root role

f) ADD the R when a word ends with A, and the NEXT word starts with a VOWEL

Virginia-R-and Maryland, Victoria-R-and-Bob

Melody

Add a "dip" in your voice at the ends of sentences

                               arriving

I expect we'll be                    soo-          oon.

                                                       oo-

 

Questions:

• Y/N questions USUALLY end on a DOWNWARDS swing:

                         home

Are you going             la-

                                          ter?

• Other questions, throw in the "dip" at the end.

                                  mo-           vie?

What's your favorite           oo-

Words to Practice

1) Brilliant: Amazing, awesome, incredible...

2) Dodgy: Sketchy, shady

3) Mental: Crazy

4) Bloody: Very, really

5) Cheers: Thanks, goodbye

Steps for Learning Dialects

1) Isolate the major sounds

Choose FUN, engaging examples that reflect the sound you're going for

(movies, TV shows, YouTube)

2) Listen for different melody patterns, vocal inflections, and stressing

3) Identify what sounds are EASY and HARD for you to duplicate

4) REAL LIFE PRACTICE

Play with the sounds in real life AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

(brushing teeth, folding laundry, studying)

5) Pick up a script and test yourself!

Great, right? Will be updating on plays I've seen and other workshops I'll do tomorrow!

Maison