Learn Benedict Cumberbatch's British accent (Sherlock) | Received Pronunciation

Benedict Cumberbatch is one of Britain's most talented actors playing iconic roles like Sherlock Holmes and dr. Stephen strange in the Avengers the name Sherlock Holmes in the address is 221b Baker Street in this video I'm gonna analyze Benedict Cumberbatch's accent and then I'm going to show you how he changes it and adapt it for each movie role that he has but before we do that I'd like to take a quick moment to say thank you to link owner for sponsoring this video they are an online language platform that offer English lessons and they have right now their sprint promotion I'm going to tell you more about that later on but right now it's type of Benedict Cumberbatch Cumberbatch was born in West London and speaks with received pronunciation or RP as also know he went to Harrow school which is a prestigious school in Britain and then he attended a lamda which is one of the most renowned drama schools in London now with that education you would expect him maybe to speak with conservative RP which is a kind of higher form a more posh form of our people actually he speaks with contemporary RP which is as the name suggests a more modern version and essentially a little less posh every time you're on the show we get so many messages and tweets and emails right from now they're not Cumberbitches anymore they change name every time I'm on the cumbers cupboard now I'm making it up a gram ya know one of the distinguishing features of RP is that a sound that you just heard on Cumberbatch Cumberbatch now that our sound is present in received pronunciation and other southern English accents but in the north of thing in that our sound doesn't exist it's an O sound o so in the northern thing let it be Benedict Cumberbatch Cumberbatch whereas in the South of England Benedict Cumberbatch now in American English is the same sound that our sound and indeed coma batch uses that up when he does American English accents like this one what's up you finally come and see me in action there are however many different sounds between British and American English here's one example have you put on the doctor strange you call it a costume is it appropriate to say costume I should think so yeah yeah it's a fanáticos Jim the first time what happened when you put that on for the first the first time was was with it was in a costume fitting so we have the word costume there but it said in two different ways Benedict Cumberbatch says costume costume Jimmy Kimmel says costume costume now on the Oh Benedict Cumberbatch says calm calm that sound is present in British English but it doesn't exist in American English it's replaced with an art sound so Jimmy Kimmel says costume costume so it's off in British English and are in American English and you put on the dr. strange you call it a costume is it appropriate to say costume I should think so yeah yeah definitely a costume we'll look at some more examples that later on but I want to quickly look at the St you there Benedict Cumberbatch says costume costume whereas Jimmy Kimmel says costume costume that tomb there and what we call this is you're dropping in American English that year sound it disappears when you've got a t before a new sound it disappears so costume costume whereas in British English we has something called your coalescence wear that when you have a tea and a new sound it combines and we have a kind of shirt so it's costume costume rather than costume its costume so yeah we call that your coalescence and this exists in lots of other words you've got students and students you've got YouTube and YouTube you've got opportunity and opportunity so as you can hear that in American English that you sound it disappears it goes whereas in British English we're keeping it and we're combining it with the sound that just came before so you've got opportunity YouTube student and you've put on the Doctor Strange you call it a costume is it appropriate to say costume I should think so yeah yeah it's definitely a costume now the years sound when you're dropping as we call it does exist in other words there's have another example I was news for a millisecond in this cafe and I just sat down and had at Arnold Palmer ah see he come a batch says news news there's the year found in there whereas in American English it would be news news that looked that year sound was gone news so news and news I was news for a millisecond in this cafe and I just sat down and had at Arnold Palmer alright let's go back to that ah sound and then see a Benedict Cumberbatch do it in an American English accent [Music] mr. strange doctor actually well no not anymore Shirley aha so did you hear it there he says doctor doctor so we've lost the off sound doctor as he would say in his normal accent and he's replaced it with that ah sound the American English doctor let's hear another result I know how to reorient the spirit to better heal the body the spirit to heal the body body not body body so that's his American English let's go back to his normal British English accent ok are you in the next Star Trek no comment ok here we are no comment he Sully sounds a very British doesn't it compared to what we just heard no comment that off sound again the names Sherlock Holmes and the address is 221b Baker Street I just want to take a quick moment to talk to you guys about the lingo des now life is a little different for all of us right now with many of us are unable to live our normal lives work has changed socializing has changed and learning has changed too and that's why more than ever I am proud to be partnering with lingo des an online language school that provides solutions in times like this now they're back with their summer language sprint promotion that's gonna enable so many of you guys to continue on your English language journey and why should you be excited about that well you could get 100 percent cashback on your course fees 100 percent that's amazing so how does it work well it starts on the 1st of July 2020 and for the super sprint you have to do 30 lessons every month for 3 months and if you 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another tiny momentary speck within an indifferent universe okay did you hear him say that matter mater he's using the American tea which is what we call a flap T it kind of sounds like a matter matter obviously that's not his natural T sound let's hear him in his natural accent use that T sound I'm recovery you know it ruins it a little when you call the bad guy Matt Oh Matt he's name is Matt with a knife sorry I better Scott Matt did you hear that now Jimmy Kimmel says better with that American English flap T but benedict cumberbatch mirrors that sound he actually says better as well hey sorry I missed now a better Scott now that's very common in spoken English is that we often kind of mirror the person that we're speaking to maybe in terms of our body language but also in our accent as well I know for me sometimes if I'm speaking to someone with a very strong accent I might pick up certain inflections and pronunciation features that they used and Benedict Cumberbatch is using that T as well he's in America he's surrounded by America things you're gonna adapt he has just heard Jimmy Kimmel say better so he also says better sorry I know about Ascot now however that's not his natural teeth out let's listen to his normal T sound I kind of put the idea that I was playing a soup here on the back burner and then in this costume fitting as the cloak was coming on I just sort of looked in the mirror and I started to smile like a giddy child after there it is fitting that's the true T sound that you would expect from Benedict Cumberbatch that are P sound beats and I kind of put the idea that was playing a soup here on the back burner and then in this costume fitting but here's an example of why he speaks contemporary RP and not conservative our peace who works on Thor and I got to forget all of our other credits now but yeah I know she's done quite a few of the films and that that suited me down to the ground did you hear that word that he actually says is that that he doesn't pronounce the T sound and this is an example of elision which is a part of connected speech is how we blend and sounds together so he says that suited me down to the ground so let's break that down we have that and suited that into tow and the next word begins with a consonant sound so he's merging the two together and when that happens we drop that T sound so it's not that suited that would take a long time to say it's that suited that suited so he's dropping that T and as I said that's something we call elision so when we have a T at the end of a word and the next word begins with a consonant that T is usually dropped and that is an example of contemporary RP you probably wouldn't do that in conservative RP or the Queen's English you're more likely to pronounce every sound articulate every word perfectly so be that suited like that I know she's done quite a few other films and that that suited me that's the ground in many ways in in the film the imitation game Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing and in this role he uses conservative RP here's an example I don't speak German what I don't speak German now there you can hear the word don't his articulation of that is sort of rounded lips and it's educated at the front of the mouth so don't and that's definitely a feature of conservative RP is that the vowel sounds are produced at the front of the mouth don't and it's kind of a closed more of a closed mouth shape than other accent I don't speak German as far as I can tell I've I've barely made par I got you're serious would you prefer I made a joke oh I don't think you know what those are oddly seems fair that that's a requirement for employment here and there again we have requirement requirement required now usually that would be a trip thumb that require is a trip thumb but in conservative RP they'll squash that sound down to make just one sound almost like I'm on earth so it's not require its require require it's an R sound so yeah that's a feature of conservative RP on other words like tire would be tire fire would be fire desire would be desire so you can hear that kind of squashing of three vowel sounds into one without sound and that's something that he wouldn't do in his normal contemporary RP he would say requirement requirement but in this role because it's conservative RP require require kind of hard for me to do but you get the idea and actually going back to his education someone that went to Harrow school you might expect to speak with this accent with this conservative RP certainly in the past anyway these days I'm not so sure but combat doesn't stop there he can do almost any accent here's his southern American accent well I am the God of Abraham the god of Isaac and the God of Jacob and here's his Australian English anyone can take a funnel of information and toss it up on the website and call it news people buy our papers for something a little more discerning people still buying your paper but as you can see coming back it's very versatile when it comes to accents if you're interested in learning more about other accents and British Stars I have lots of other videos I've got Emma Watson the Queen David Beckham and Dell please check them out guys thank you so much for watching guys please remember to share this video with anyone you know that's trying to learn British English and remember to sign up for the lingo de language sprints the link is in the description below go click it check it out take you English to the next level all right guys thank you so much this is Tom the chief dreamer saying goodbye

Channel: Eat Sleep Dream English

Views: 369,091

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Keywords: benedict cumberbatch, sherlock, benedict cumberbatch interview, benedict cumberbatch accent, benedict cumberbatch british accent, benedict cumberbatch american accent, received pronunciation, british accent, how to do british accent, how to do received pronunciation, learn british accent, sherlock accent, doctor strange benedict cumberbatch accent, doctor strange, the imitation game accent, learn english with sherlock, sherlock english lesson

Id: p_k53FwltZM

Length: 15min 54sec (954 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2020