Lesson 5: British pronunciation

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 3

British English

A lesson on pronunciation

American vs. British English

Let's see what you know...

You may know the (American) word "trash."
How do you say this in British English?

What about "vacation"
How do the Brits say this?

A Brit doesn't put on "pants" but... ?

In America, people get "sick." In the UK, one would say "I'm feeling a little _____ today."

American go to a "movie theater..."
Brits go to the _____ ?

In this lesson

... you'll learn how to sound more British.

There are many things to look out for when working on a British accent, but we'll just go over the basics for now.

First of all...

We are aware there are many different British dialects and accents.

In this lesson, we'll talk about standard British pronunciation (also known as RP).

Whenever you see 'British English', it's about that particular accent.

Part 1 - Syllable-final R

In British English, we don't pronounce the R at the end of a syllable (lettergreep).

Examples:

car

mother

horses

Try it! Say the following words out loud.

bark, work, doctor, park

car, sir, pork, actor, after

water, curler, color, winter

former, star, wear, stare

Part 2 - T in between vowels

Another big difference between British and American is the way we pronounce a T-sound in between two vowels (klinkers).

T in between vowels

When there's a T in between two vowels (klinkers), an American would pronounce it as a 'flap'. A flap is even quicker than a D sound.

In British English, you pronounce a T in the middle of a word just like you would at the start of a word.

Now you try. Say these words out loud.

better, cotton, butter

water, fatter, photo

sitting, letter, flatter

ghetto, fitter, attitude

Part 3 - The short O

There's a big difference in how Brits and Americans pronounce the O between two consonants (medeklinkers).

The British version is short and round.

The American version is longer and more open.

Here we go! Pronounce these.

hot, coffee, snob

Rob, not, knock

bomb, rock, robber

block, body, stop

Optional: getting familiar with the difference

Try them again, but in American English this time.

hot, coffee, snob

Rob, not, knock

bomb, rock, robber

block, body, stop

Part 4 - Aspiration

To be frank, this is something that's also done in American English.

Still, to sound authentic, it's important to use aspiration.

To summarise:

P, T and K sounds at the start of a word are aspirated.

P, T and K sounds in the middle of a word are not aspirated.

P, T and K sounds at the end of a word are not aspirated.

Let's hear how you do.

talk, cat, pool

call, part, cake

pig, tool, top

tongue, kind, past

Part 5 - /e/ or /æ/?

Many languages don't have the /æ/ sound. Dutch doesn't have it either. Many Dutch people fail to pronounce the /æ/ correctly.

However, it's not very difficult. The only thing you have to do, is open your mouth a bit further when saying /e/.

Let's give this a go!

bed, red, cat, cab, black

met, strand, and, Fred, that

stack, step, stand, flat, fled

bad, bed, bet, bat

On the next slide...

Take your time to write a sentence that your classmates will pronounce.

Try to include as many of the discussed points in your sentence.

- the syllable-final R

- T in between vowels

- the short O

- aspiration

- /e/ and /æ/

Think of a sentence that's difficult to pronounce. Try to include what we've discussed. The five points are on the right.

Good to remember

We think you already know, but just to be sure:

Spelling and pronunciation are two very different things in English. For example, there are nine different ways to pronounce the combination -ough in British English (but we'll just go over the six most important ones here).

Let's see if you can figure this out. Combine the ough-words with the words that have the same vowel sound.

stuff

off

go

door

new

the

through

cough

thorough

though

rough

bought