How to Speak in a British Accent

 Start with the Rs. Understand that in most British accents, speakers don't roll their Rs (except for those from Scotland, Northumbria, Northern Ireland, and parts of the West Country and Lancashire), but not all British accents are the same. For example, a Scottish accent varies greatly from an English accent. After a vowel, don't pronounce the R, but draw out the vowel and maybe add an "uh" (Here is "heeuh"). In words like "hurry", don't blend the R with the vowel. Say "huh-ree".^[2]

• In American English, words ending with "rl" or "rel" can be pronounced using either one or two syllables, completely interchangeably. This is not the case in British English. "-rl" words like "girl", "hurl", etc., are pronounced as one syllable with silent R, while "squirrel" is "squih-rul", and "referral" is "re-fer-rul".
• Some words are easier to say in a British accent. For example, mirror, which sounds like "mih-ra". Do not say "mirror" like a "mere"; British people almost never do that.
• Some awkward pauses in sentences are also removed by the addition of "r" before a vowel. For example, "I saw it" becomes "I saw-rit", to avoid the pause between the words 'saw' and 'it'. Another example is "Bacteria are small", pronounced "Bacteria-rar-small".

Pronounce U in stupid and in duty with the ew or "you" sound. Avoid the oo as in pronounced ; thus it is pronounced stewpid or commonly schewpid, not stoopid, etc. duty would be pronounced dewty or more often jooty. In the standard English accent, the A (for example, in father) is pronounced at the back of the mouth with an open throat—it sounds like "arh". This is the case in pretty much all British accents, but it's exaggerated in RP. In southern England and in RP, words such as "bath", "path", "glass", "grass" also use this vowel (barth, parth, glarss, grarss, etc.). However, in other parts of Britain "bath", "path", etc. sound like "ah".

Enunciate on heavy consonant words.^[3] Pronounce that T in "duty" as T: not as the D as doody so that duty is pronounced dewty or a softer jooty. Pronounce the suffix -ing with a strong G. This way it sounds like -ing rather than -een. But sometimes it is shortened to in as in lookin.^[4]

• The words human being are pronounced hewman being or yooman been in certain areas, though it could be pronounced hewman bee-in.

Sometimes drop the Ts. With some accents, including cockney accents, Ts aren't pronounced in words where Americans use D to replace it. However, there is usually a short pause or "hiccup" in its place. So "battle" might be pronounced ba-ill but it would be a rare occasion to find someone saying "Ba-ill" catching the air behind the back of the tongue at the end of the first syllable before expelling it on pronunciation of the second syllable. This is known as the glottal stop. use glottal stops, too, for words like "mittens" and "mountain". It's just that British use them more often.^[5]

• People with Estuary English, RP, Scottish, Irish and Welsh accents do consider it lazy and rude to drop the Ts, and this feature doesn't exist, but in almost all accents it's accepted to do it in the middle of words in casual contexts and almost universal to put a glottal stop at the end of a word.

1

Observe that some words are pronounced as written. The word "herb" should be pronounced with an H sound. The word "been" is pronounced "bean", rather than "bin" or "ben". For RP, "Again" and "renaissance" are pronounced like "a gain" and "run nay seance", with the "ai" as in "pain", not "said." The words ending in "body" are pronounced as written, like "any body", not "any buddy." But use a British short O sound.

2

Observe that H is not always pronounced. The "H" is pronounced in the word "herb," in contrast erb. However, in many British accents, the H at the beginning of a word is often omitted, such as in many Northern accents and the Cockney accent.

3

Say "bean," not "bin" for the word been. In an American accent, this is often pronounced been. In an English accent, been is a common pronunciation, but "bin" is more often heard in casual speech where the word isn't particularly stressed.

4Notice that two or more vowels together may prompt an extra syllable. For example, the word "road" would usually be pronounced rohd, but in Wales and with some people in Northern Ireland it might be pronounced ro.ord. Some speakers may even say "reh-uud."