- He's sulking about like some Poncy eye-line-wearing emo twat. - Yes. Yes. See, he says "twat." Actors, if you're doing a British accent, and you have to say this word, it's pronounced twat, not twot. Hi, I'm Aly. I'm an English teacher, a
dialect coach, and today, I'm going to show you exactly
what actors do perfectly and terribly when they try
to do a British accent. Let's rate some accents. Everyone's favorite.
Sherlock, Robert Downey. - Since this room is no longer yours, do you mind if I utilize it? - So, okay, his accent
is pretty good in this. I mean, it's Iron Man. I expect no less. - Neat, like military men. - I like the way he says
the word "military" here. That's very accurate. That's very good. So in American pronunciation,
you might hear military. But in British pronunciation, all the words that end in
-ary, they get smushed. So instead of military,
it sounds like militry. Instead of -tary, try. Same with strawberry. Strawbry. Mandatory. Mandatry. What else? Oh yeah, battery and battry. So keep that in mind. - I can't but agree. - The way he said "can't"
right there, that was perfect. But this is an aspect
of British pronunciation which American actors
just don't understand and they always get it wrong. We have this thing with
British pronunciation called trap bath split. Very simplistically, this
separates British pronunciation into Northern accents
and Southern accents. Basically, words like
"can't," "laugh," "last," "castle," "bath" are
pronounced differently depending on if your
accent is a Southern accent or a Northern accent. So in the South, we would
pronounce these with an A sound. That's this sound. A. Can't. Laugh. Last. Castle. Bath. But in a Northern accent, it would sound like this sound, ah. Can't. Laugh. Last. Castle. Bath. And so the problem is when an
actor is playing a character with a Southern accent like London or RP, but then use the Northern
pronunciation for those words. Just as an example to compare. This guy, John Oliver,
he has a Southern accent so he pronounces can't in the same way. Same way as I do. Same way as Robert Downey
in "Sherlock" does. Can't. However, watch this guy do an
impression of him on "SNL." - You can't talk about Sweden
without talking about Ikea. - See? He doesn't pronounce
it in the Southern way. He pronounces it in the Northern way. If you're playing a character with a Southern British accent, you need to know this
rule and stick to it. Yeah. So when we hear that
mix, it ruins the illusion. - And trust me, I'm a professional. - "I'm a professional." The L hits very weird when
he says "professional." This is about dark and light Ls. Okay, so I'm gonna show
you on this little mouth. He said, "professional." That's a light L. Tongue is in the wrong position. Needs to be a bit more
forward hitting the teeth or just over depending on
your mouth...dimensions. So let's practice this together. When you hit the L sound, hit with the tip of the tongue just here. Just behind the top front teeth. That way of making the L
sound is called a light L, when your tongue hits here. You only want to use
the light L, this one, when a word begins with an L or when there's a vowel
sound just after the L. For example, let Lilly lick
Lionel's lusty leathers. They all have that light L sound because there's a vowel
sound after each L. So the light L is great for those words. However, in the word "apple," the tongue shouldn't hit there. It should be a little bit more forward and hit somewhere here. Obviously, everyone has a
different shaped tongue, teeth, and mouth. So it will be different for everyone. But just know it's a
little bit further forward. Might be hitting the
back of your front teeth or it might be slightly under. But this is called the dark L, and this is when a word
finishes with an L sound or there's a consonant
sound after like apple. Or you have another option, change the L sound at the end of words, that dark L, to an O sound. So the tongue doesn't hit anything. Instead of professional,
just say profession-o. It's an option for you if you like it. And actually Peter Dinklage in
"Infinity War" does this too when he says the word "handle." Notice he uses the
light L, not the dark L. - [Peter] Where's the handle? - The handle. See? It's that pointy tongue
hitting the wrong place. That's a light L. Needs to be a dark L. Handle or handle. Groot, pass me the handle. You should have gone Cockney. That would've been more fun. These these mistakes are not huge. But to a nerdy brain like
me, I'm gonna hear it and I'm gonna be like, "Oh,
it's an American actor, okay." It's not a bad thing,
it's just, like I said, it breaks the illusion. Overall rating though, a nine. I mean, he's Iron Man, we love him. Tessa Thompson in "Thor: Ragnarok." - So drinks. - Do I know you? I feel
like I've known you. - I feel like I know you too. - Yeah, I had to look up where she grew up and went to school because I genuinely don't
know why she's so good. She's not trying to sound perfect. So one thing American actors do is whenever they hit a T sound,
they'll always hit a true T. The true T is when you
pronounce this word like bottle. But with a more relaxed British accent, you might use a glottal T. So bottle becomes bottle,
water becomes water. Bottle of water. And you make this sound by closing the airway in your throat. That produces a glottal stop. That sound replaces the T in some words. Not all of them, some of them. But this is where she
takes it to the next level. - It is a he. - That line, I would
expect an American actor to use the true T. "It is a he." Maybe to use the Cockney,
the glottal T way. "It is a he." But if you truly observe
the way we speak naturally, you'll notice we often use
American characteristics in our pronunciation. So listen again to how she says it. - It is a he. - She pronounces the T like a D. That's an American characteristic
that we have stolen. So I think the point is if you want to sound natural
with British pronunciation, don't overcorrect to an extremely posh RP always pronouncing the true T or extremely Cockney
always using glottal stops for every T. You want to be of lazy and understand that no
one is at the extreme end of the spectrum. Everyone sits sort of
in the middle somewhere. And also accept that we have stolen some American characteristics
into our own pronunciation. Remember, we're British. We love to steal everything
and call it our own. Rating. I would give her an 11 out of 10 I've never seen an American
actor sound so natural. So...so she wins. Everyone else can go home. Karl Urban is Billy Butcher in "The Boys." - It's got hard-on for mass
murder and giving kids cancer. And this big old answer to
the existential clusterfuck that is humanity is to
nail his own bleeding son to a plank. - Oh, okay. Yeah, we're
off to a bad start. This is really good because it's showing it's
not just American actors. He's from New Zealand. Earlier, I mentioned the trap bath split. - I can't remember the last
time I had a good cuppa char. - He's very obviously
doing a Cockney accent. And Cockney is the most
famous London accent. And a Cockney would say can't like can't. It should be can't. However, can't. That's
too far back in the mouth. That's definitely a New
Zealand way to pronounce it. Also, his Cockney accent
is so unnatural sounding. It's so forced that it sounds funny. So I kind of think because
the show is so good, the writing's amazing,
the acting's amazing. I kind of think maybe that's
part of the plan of the show and the character. That's just my theory. - I can't remember the last
time I had a good cuppa char. - Okay, like for example, he's using words like a "cuppa char." No one says that. That's like a caricature of a Cockney to always use like Cockney rhyming slang and words like "cuppa char." No one really uses it in real life, but I guess no one has superpowers either. So, again, might be part of the show. - So you wanna take me on, do you? Think you've got a bollocks? - No. Who told him it was
pronounced bullocks? No. Bollocks. Say it with me. Bollocks - You're a bunch of
pathetic supe-worshipping. I bet you'd thank a supe if
they on your mum's best china. - This is what I'm talking
about with overcorrection. Yes, to change the sound for A or V sound is a very important feature of Cockney. So yeah, changing thank you to fank you, or pathetic to pafetic or pafetic. If you change every sound to an F or a V, it will sound weird and
unnatural and forced. - He's sulking about like some Poncy eye-line-wearing emo twat. - Yes, yes. See, he says twat. Actors, if you're doing a British accent and you have to say this word, it's pronounced twat, not twot. Rating, I would give him a 9.3. I'm a huge fan of "The Boys," so I can't go lower than a 9.3. Sorry. The best advice I could give actors trying to do a British accent
would be to expose yourself to as many different
British accents as possible. There's a wide range, and TV shows provide a
great resource for that. "Game of Thrones," lots of
variety for Northern accents. "Fleabag," you've got a great variety of Southern British
accents, not just posh RP. It's quite a good range there. Find a style that you like
personally and copy that. So whose accent do you
want me to rate next? Let me know in the comments. Also remember, this is lesson seven of my free British pronunciation course. You can find it on papateachme.com. Have fun studying and
show me your progress with your British pronunciation style. You can tag me on Instagram
or TikTok @papateachme. And I'll see you in the next class. Bye. (gentle music)
