British Accent Training: The 1,000-Word Challenge

Get in touch with Matt at matt@voicehacker.co.uk for Skype lessons or questions about today’s podcast!

Get in touch with Matt at matt@voicehacker.co.uk for Skype lessons or questions about today’s podcast! The list: About Above Across Admit Afraid Again Against Agree Ahead Allow Alone Along Another Apartment Apparently Appear Approach Around Arrive Asleep Attack Attempt Attention Avoid Away

Get in touch with Matt at matt@voicehacker.co.uk for Skype lessons or questions about today’s podcast!

Get in touch with Matt at matt@voicehacker.co.uk for Skype lessons or questions about today’s podcast!

Get in touch with Matt at matt@voicehacker.co.uk for Skype lessons or questions about today’s podcast!

Get in touch with Matt at matt@voicehacker.co.uk for Skype lessons or questions about today’s podcast!

Get in touch with Matt at matt@voicehacker.co.uk for Skype lessons or questions about today’s podcast!

Get in touch with Matt at matt@voicehacker.co.uk for Skype lessons or questions about today’s podcast!

Check out voicehacker.co.uk/flashcards to see the flashcards for today’s podcast. You’re looking for ‘The Schwa’, under Vowels / Neutral.

The ‘tion’ combo is our focus today, and it’s actually incredibly uniform. Any time you see that ‘tion’ at the end of a word, you’ll be turning it into a small ‘schwa’ sound, just like ‘a’, or ‘after’. I know – it’s so tempting to make it huge, like ‘Shaun’ or ‘shun’. But really, it’s just a ‘shn’. Amazing!

Another combination to be aware of today – the ‘oth’ sound doesn’t tend to go how you think it will. It’s actually much more of a ‘uh’ sound, like ‘such’ or ‘much’. Get the lowdown on how to square off the mouth, relax the tongue and prevent the ‘oh’ sound from sneaking more.

Welcome challengers! Now to words you’ll use every day – ‘Is’, ‘This’ and ‘His’. There’s a secret to saying these words, and it’s all about two things: the lip position and the length of the vowel. The ‘ih’ is a short, small vowel – but commonly, Mediterranean and Latin American accents make it more like an ‘ee’. Get the lowdown here!

Welcome challengers! A ‘ire’ combination today, working on the diphthong and feeling the schwa at the end. Master the entire accent, set your voice on fire, and tire out your friends with your knowledge.

Hello challengers! This time, we face up against rhoticity again. That’s the rule where if a ‘r’ is followed by a vowel (rule, rock, roll, right), you say it. But if it’s followed by a consonant (cord, burn, burst) or nothing at all (pair, stair, chair) you don’t! So we learn where the tongue’s home is, and how to pair curtains, paint stairs and choose chairs. Good luck!

Welcome challengers! This time, we’re facing off against the ‘Ah’ sound – a nice big sound which is fairly unique to the British Accent. Learn how to spread your lips correctly and position your tongue to nail this sound. Learn how to fix your back, paint your house black, pack your bag, attack your neighbour, or crack your window.

Welcome challengers! Another letter combination to watch out for here – it’s the ‘ook’. The temptation is – with accents such as French, Mediterranean accents, and even Middle Eastern – to make the ‘ook’ a long sound: ‘ooooook’. But it’s actually a short, simple sound, with a relaxed mouth position. Listen how you can improve the way you look, the hand you shook, your favourite book, and the lessons you took here.

Hello challengers! In this five-word segment, we talk about the light ‘L’ sound, a tricky one for Eastern European, Latin American and North American accents. All of these words have one light ‘L’ right at the start, which contrasts nicely with the dark L’s we did in Episodes 7 and 8. Get the lowdown on lightness right here.

Hello challengers! Welcome to another podcast – this time on the ‘rr’ combination. We’ve looked before at how RP misses out some of its ‘r’ sounds, notably on ‘ur’ combinations, or whenever the ‘r’ comes after a vowel sound. But on ‘rr’ sounds, you always say the ‘r’. So make sure you’re not tapping the ‘r’, or doing anything funny with it. Get your r’s correct here!