How do you speak british?

Question

i am australian who really wants to be able to speak british but really sucks at it any advice or websites that help speak that in like 4 mins or something like that but not advice that helps you in months or years.

Answer 1

There's  no  such  language  as  British,  but  if  you  mean  English  with  a  British  accent;  that's  a  different  story.

The  best  way  is  to  go  and  live  in  England.   Not  only  will  you  be  surrounded  by  the  accent,  you  also  get  to  see  a  great  country.

Bye.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, you have three problems:  Word choices, accent, and an unreasonable grasp of the amount of time it takes.

Word choices you might pick up by reading British newspapers and blogs, but accent you're not going to get any way other than by listening to native speakers.  Even so, you'll only get the accent for whatever particular part of Britain the person you're listening to is from.

Someone from Liverpool does not have the same accent as someone from London.  Much like in America, where someone from New York City talks _nothing_ like someone from the Louisiana bayous.

Having shot your expectations to pieces, allow me now to suggest a possible short term solution.  If you're only looking to mimic a short phrase, you may be able to find someone from Britain who's recorded a similar phrase on the web.  In that case, you can try to mimic their accent/words.

For example, Paul Hogan did a commercial for Australian tourism.  It played frequently here in America, so much so that I got pretty good at saying "Come on over!  We'll throw a few more shrimp on the barbie!".  Regrettably, it's been long enough that I no longer have the accent right, and I know it.

In addition, I know that the BBC used to have a service that you could call to get the correct pronunciation of any word.  You'll have to dig for that number/service though.  I did find a web site that might also be of use:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learni...

Best of luck!

Answer 3

well not all brit's have an accent like all brits arn't called Britney . my gf does not have an accent and her American lookalike also does not and they sound the same sooooooo i believe your invalidation is wrong. !  

Answer 4

You mean English (not Welsh or Scots Gaelic) presumably. Different areas speak very different English.....Newcastle (Geordie), Liverpool (Scouse), Birmingham (Brummie), London (Cockney) sound very different, they even have different words. Which accent/dialect do you wish to speak?

Answer 5

proper english?

I mean... they did start it... basically.

Answer 6

I really think that it comes down to what we are raised with. I can't get away from the scourser influence no matter where I live. If, for instance you were in London for a while, you might pick up the local word meanings and accent, but it is a natural learning thing, not forced.

And as others have said, the regional variations, like any great land, will have differenet intonations and word meanings. Said a mate regarding having one's accent questioned:

"Just say you are from Canada" [Bad Joke]

Answer 7

British isn't a language, it's just the way people from the U.K. have adjusted their tongue, etc. to talking. I've found that australian people sound like british people sometimes, so that's kinda funny :P

The british do use different words, like I think they call cookies biscuits. It's all very interesting.

Answer 8

Become obsessed with correcting American spelling and grammar.

Answer 9

well you would need an accent ajustment

there are humdreds of different accents in Britain .. the most easy to understand is probably the london (and again all parts of london have different accents)

or quite simply Just change your accent to one of the queen but if it isnt natural you will end up looking like a fool !!

the other thing is you will need to change the way you word your sentences and the words you use.

instead of 'ga day mate, you wana put some prawns on the barbie?', you would instead say, 'good afternoon, how do you do?  would you like to have some dinner'.

lol

Answer 10

Well the Australians really speak like British people anyway and use a lot of the same words. I don't know why you would want to try and speak like a British person, but one thing is, don't raise the tone of your voice at the end of a sentence. Like when Australians speak, I always think they're asking a question as they seem to raise their tone at the end.

Also they abbreviate everything. They always use abbreviations instead of saying the full word. Also they say 'Troy' instead of 'try' and have a bit of an 'American drawl' going on.

Though really, I don't know why you wouldn't want to speak with an Australian accent. I love the way you guys speak! :)

Answer 11

I'm assuming you mean Southern English (because British means, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and English) and I'm guessing you won't want a Geordie accent lol!

Try looking up (or listening to speakers on youtube) how the sounds differ. E.g. Australians seem to have longer vowel sounds than English and more diphthongs than monophthongs (diph= two vowel sounds linked together when English people use just one vowel sound = monoph)

- Try looking up the IPA chart (international phonetic alphabet) and the diphthong vowels and compare the sounds. These should be a list of all vowel sounds that it is possible to make but only a few are present in each language.

I'm pretty sure that the consonants are the same between the two accents but English often use the glottal stop - sometimes missing out /t/ in speech

intonation is also slightly different (the kind of musical sound to speech, Australians often go slightly up at the end of a sentence, English don't)

I hope that wasn't too complicated, good luck!

Answer 12

I don't believe there are any websites that teach you how to speak in a British accent within 4 minutes because there is a lot of different slang among other things.  If you really want to have a British accent within 4 minutes, then there's always youtube and Pimsleur. Pimsleur is a scientifically proven audio language learning tool that doesn't use a book - you just put it into the CD player and listen to whatever the instructor tells you to do.

Another effective way is to listen to or watch videos that have British speaking content constantly and repeat repeat repeat after whatever they say. Or, if you really want to have a British accent, then study abroad in England. One of my friends' sister studied abroad in England for a year and she now has a British accent.

Answer 13

No need , mate.Just speak in your usual Strang and you Ozzies will be accepted and welcomed  here.

Answer 14

its basically like english they just have an accent like you do compared to americans