How to do a British accent: 7 changes that make it believable

Short answer: when people ask how to speak with a British accent, or how to do an English accent, they usually mean the polished southern English of BBC newsreaders, called RP (Received Pronunciation). Seven changes do most of the work: drop the R after vowels, use a long "ah" in words like bath, round your lips for the O in hot, start the O in go from "uh", keep T crisp between vowels, add a Y sound in tune and news, and let your melody rise and fall more. If you're American, the R and the A alone get you halfway there. Practice the changes one at a time, then read the script below and check yourself with a free British accent test.

First, pick which British accent to learn

Britain has dozens of accents, and only a small minority of Britons speak RP natively: the linguist Peter Trudgill's often-quoted estimate is about 3%. Pick one target and stick to it. Mixing them is what makes an accent sound fake.

Everything below teaches modern RP. It's the accent most learners are taught, and the one the British accent test measures you against.

How to do a Cockney accent

If you want London instead of the BBC, start from the same base, with no R after vowels, and add four habits:

• Swallow the T between and after vowels: bottle → "bo'le", water → "wa'er", a lot of → "a lo' of".
• Turn TH into F or V: think → "fink", brother → "bruvver".
• Drop the H at the start of words: house → "'ouse", happy → "'appy".
• Widen the vowel in day until it sounds close to "dye", and let an L before a consonant or at the end of a word turn into a vowel: milk → "miwk".

Treat it as a real accent, not a joke voice. Londoners hear an overdone Cockney instantly, as the mistakes section below explains.

How to sound British: the 7 changes at a glance

1. Drop the R after vowels

This is the biggest single difference. In RP the R is only pronounced when a vowel follows it. Car is /kɑː/ ("cah"), water is /ˈwɔːtə/ ("waw-tuh"), here is "hee-uh". The R comes back when the next word starts with a vowel: far away is "fah-ruh-way", more of it is "maw-ruv-it". Don't drop that one, or you'll sound choppy.

2. Stretch the A in BATH words

A long list of common words uses a long, open /ɑː/ (the "ah" in father) where Americans use the short A of cat: bath, path, grass, class, last, fast, after, ask, can't, dance, chance, plant, half, laugh. The catch is that it's a list, not a rule. Cat, hand, gas and classic keep the short A, even though class gets the long one.

3. Round the O in LOT words

American hot is "haht" with the mouth open and relaxed. RP hot /hɒt/ is short, with the lips slightly rounded and the jaw still open: the vowel sits halfway between "haht" and "hawt". The same goes for stop, not, dog, lot, coffee, watch and what.

4. Start the O in GOAT words from "uh"

RP go /ɡəʊ/ starts in the middle of the mouth with a relaxed "uh" and glides to "oo": "guh-oo", said quickly. The American /oʊ/ starts rounder, closer to "oh". Keep your lips relaxed at the start. Pushing that "uh" further forward is what makes an accent sound posh.

5. Keep T crisp between vowels

Americans turn the T in water and better into a quick D sound: "wadder", "bedder". RP keeps a real T: "waw-tuh", "bet-tuh". Before another consonant, as in not now or Gatwick, modern southern speakers often swallow the T into a catch in the throat. That's natural. Between vowels, though ("wa'er"), it stops being RP and sounds like London or another big city.

6. Put the Y back in tune and news

After T, D and N, RP keeps a small Y sound that American English dropped: tune is "tyoon", news is "nyooz", duty is "dyoo-tee". Younger speakers often blend it, so tune becomes "choon" and Tuesday "chewsday". Both are fine. Just don't say "toon" and "nooz".

7. Let the melody move

RP speakers often let their pitch rise and fall more within a sentence than Americans do, and they end statements on a clear fall. Keep the sound forward in your mouth, use your lips more, and don't rush: much of the "British" effect is clean consonants delivered at a calm pace.

British accent words that change completely

Some words don't follow any of the rules above. You simply have to learn them:

For vocabulary and spelling differences as well as sounds, see British vs American English.

British accent practice script

This short monologue packs in all seven changes. Read it slowly three times, then record it at normal speed:

I can't stop for a chat: my car's parked on the corner and the meter's nearly out. Last Tuesday, after the dance class, I knocked a glass of water over a student's laptop. Total disaster. So no, I'm not going to the party tonight. I'll put the kettle on, have a hot cup of tea and watch the news.

What to listen for: no R in car's, parked, meter's, nearly, disaster, party; a linking R in for a chat, corner and and water over a, because the next word starts with a vowel; the long "ah" in can't, last, after, dance, class, glass; the rounded O in stop, knocked, not, hot, watch; "uh-oo" in so, no, going; the Y in Tuesday, student, news; and a crisp T in water, total, party, kettle.

Common mistakes

1. Making every A long. Only BATH words get the "ah". Say "caht" for cat and you sound like a parody.
2. Dropping the R before a vowel. Far away keeps its R: "fah-ruh-way".
3. Mixing Cockney into RP. Swallowing every T ("wa'er", "be'er") while aiming for BBC English sends a mixed message.
4. Rolling or tapping the R. That sounds Scottish, not southern English. An RP R is soft, with the tongue not touching anything.
5. Overdoing "posh". Real modern RP is relaxed. Slow, pinched speech with a "rahther" in every line sounds like a costume.
6. Learning from one film. The classic warning is Dick Van Dyke's Cockney in Mary Poppins (1964). In 2017, on being honored by BAFTA, he apologized for "the most atrocious Cockney accent in the history of cinema". Use many speakers as your model, not one performance.

How to talk in a British accent: a 2-week routine

This is how to get a British accent to stick. Ten minutes a day is enough to hear a difference, whether you're a beginner or an actor preparing a role:

• Days 1–7: one change per day, in the order of the table. Spend 2 minutes listening to a BBC radio newsreader, 3 on the practice words, 3 on the phrase, and 2 recording yourself and comparing.
• Days 8–14: the whole script, every day. Shadow a native speaker for 5 minutes (repeat half a second behind them, matching their melody), then record the script and run it through the British accent test. The score tells you how close you are to RP, and the feedback tells you which sound to fix next. If you prefer structured British accent training, the Accent Reduction Challenge in the Vocal Image app has a British RP version.

Some sounds may also be giving away your own accent, especially TH, R and L. The 60 hard words to pronounce make a good warm-up. And if your goal is to sound clearer in English rather than to sound British, start with accent reduction instead.

Other accents to try

• Old Hollywood: the Transatlantic accent, a learned mix of American and British features that was taught to film stars.
• Elsewhere in the British Isles and beyond: how to do a Scottish accent, an Irish accent and an Australian accent.
• Across the Atlantic: American accent training.
• All accents in one place: the English accents hub.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Received Pronunciation, including Peter Trudgill's estimate of how many Britons speak it
• Wikipedia — Trap–bath split: which words take the long "ah"
• Wikipedia — Estuary English
• NME — Dick Van Dyke apologises for his "atrocious" Cockney accent in Mary Poppins, 2017