we're going to learn 6 ways of sounding more authentically British

Possibly the easiest way to sound British

is to put the word 'quite' in every sentence before you describe something

'quite'

if you're describing something, if you're using an adjective, if someone says to you

'How was that movie last night?'

don't say, 'yeah it was good', say 'it was quite good'

if someone says to you, 'How's Mike's Arabic?' Don't say, 'it's good'

say, 'it's quite good'

or, 'it's quite bad'

or, 'it's quite nice'

'how are you today?' you'd say, 'yeah, I'm quite good, thanks'

always be polite, we like to be polite and say 'thank you'

'how was that movie last night?'

'yeah it was quite good actually'

'how was the circus?' 'oh, it was quite fun'

'how was bubble football?' 'oh it was quite fun, yeah I enjoyed it, it was quite fun'

'what's the weather like?' 'oh quite nice out'

'it's quite nice, it's quite sunny, it's quite hot, it's quite cold'

'it's quite big, it's quite small', just say 'quite'

quite quite quite

always say 'quite'

and you will sound British. I don't think any other countries really use 'quite', quite as much as we do

'it's quite difficult, it's quite difficult'

'are you well Mr. Darcy?'

'quite well'

second word you can use

is 'mate', call everyone 'mate'

'alright mate? how you doing?'

'alright mate? how's it going? alright?' 'alright' means 'are you alright?'

and then 'mate is like 'friend', we use 'mate' all the time

'yeah, mate'

'I wen't out with a few mates last night'

'I'm seeing some mates later'

'alright mate? how you doing?'

'yeah he's my mate, she's my mate'

'we're good mates'

'yeah, we've been mates for years'

'I haven't got many mates'

'I've got loads of mates'

always say 'mates' instead of 'friends'

or 'pals' or 'buddies', we don't really say 'buddy'

we don't really say 'pals', although in the north they say 'pal' a little bit more

but 'mate' would be like a typical British thing to say

'alright mate? how's it going? yeah he's my mate, he's a good mate'

'oh, it's good to see you mate'

'really enjoyed that mate, thanks a lot mate'

always add 'mate' on the end of each word

'mate', say 'mate'

just say it all the time and you'll sound British

'... and I will enjoy taking the piss out of him for that Time cover'

'taking the piss out of him?'

'yes'

'what does taking the piss out of someone mean?'

now onto pronunciation, in the British accent, we like to pronounce our Ts

if you're speaking proper English like the Queens English

or we like to not pronounce them at all

so let me give you some examples

so the word 'water'

'water' in the British accent, we pronounce the 'T'

war-ter... water

now if you're form London, and you speak cockney, or a bit like slang

you might say 'water'... 'water'

'give us some water would you?'

'give us some water'

'water'... 'but'

the important thing is here in the British accent we either pronounce the 'T'

like 'water', that's how I would say it personally... water

or you just don't pronounce it at all

'water'

now, the third way which you'd hear in other accents is to pronounce the 'T' as kind of like a 'D'

so... water... water... water

I did 3 random accents really, which could have been anything but

in some... in some accents, they might the 'T' as like 'D'

but in the British accent, the 'T' is a 'T'... water or not at all

'Mr. Potter...'

'totally', we'd say 'totally'

in other accent's they'd say 'totally'

'totally'... listen to that

'totally'

'totally'... the 'T' becomes like a 'D'

'totally'

we would say 'totally'

'totally'

ta... ta... ta... totally

'totally'

rather than 'totally'

or you might say if you're from London, you might say 'totally... ah it was totally awesome it's totally good'

'yeah it's totally good, yeah totally sick... totally sweet'

'it was totally good... it was totally amazing'

'witty'... 'witty'

'witty... don't be so witty'

again they're pronouncing the 'T' as like a 'D'

for example in the American accent, they might say 'witty'

'ah, he's pretty witty'

in British English we'd say, 'witty... witty... water... totally'

always pronounce that 'T' in the middle of the word

as a 'T', not as a 'D' or anything like that

4. pronunciation again, Americans say 'been... where've you been?'

in England we say, 'been'

we pronounce 'been' like b-e-e-n

like the same as we'd pronounce 'seen'

or 'spleen'

we would pronounce 'been' like b-e-e-n, 'where have you been?'

'have you been to Kuwait?... yes I've been to Kuwait... have you been to Saudi Arabia?... no I haven't been to Saudi Arabia'

so we in Britain, say 'been'

we don't say 'been'

like b-i-n, or b-e-n

we say 'been', we pronounce it 'been'

'where have you been?... have you been there?'

'no, I haven't been there'

'have you been to England?... no I haven't been to London'

'have you been to America?... yes, I've been to America'

'been'... Americans would say 'been'

we say 'been'... easy way to sound more British, just say 'been' instead of 'been'

now this one's a little bit... difficult to explain

but... something which is going to make you really stand out as speaking the British accent is...

if you... say certain phrases such as this one here

now... on a first glance it seems grammatically incorrect, and it actually technically is

but it's so commonly used in the British accent that... it's kind of considered a British dialect

and its very widely accepted, certainly in spoken English, to say something like this

'I was sat on the step'

'I was sat on the step'

now if you're British, you're thinking... yeah, I was sat on the step, that's fine... I was sat on the bench...

i was sat at the bus stop.... where are you?... I'm sat outside the library

I't so common, we don't even think anything of it

but interestingly, if you're from a different country, you probably wouldn't say this

it's a very uniquely British way of saying something

now what's interesting here is we've got 'I was'

which is already a past tense... 'i was'... and then we've got the past tense verb, 'sat'

so we've got, 'I was sat' now we've doubled up those past tense verbs

'I was sat'

now Americans would say, "I was sitting'

Australians would say, "i was sitting'

they wouldn't say, I was sat'

it's a very British... a common British colloquialism to say 'I was sat'

if you're teaching a class, you might tell your class to say, 'stay sat.... stay sat'

now that's wrong English... you know you can't really argue that, but it's so common in the British accent

that it's... it wouldn't even be noticed if you heard that 'stay sat'

of course the correct thing to say would be, 'stay sitting'

'don't move... stay sitting'

but we say, 'stay sat'

deosn't really make any sense, but it's what we say

'I remember exactly where I was sat'

♪ cause I was sat right down on broken roses ♪

♪ so why am I sat here wiping away these tears? ♪

♪ we were sat upon our best friend's roof ♪

other examples of this funny rule would be 'I was stood'

'I was stood'... again 'I was stood'... not 'I was standing'... 'I was stood'

'I was stood outside a shop, when I saw a celebrity come out of the door'... whatever

'I was stood outside the shop when I heard a gunshot'

'I was stood outside the shop, and all of a sudden, it just poured with rain'

'I was stood next to my car when there was a collision right next to me'

♪ i was stood in your light ♪

'I was stood next to the lake when all of a sudden I saw 12 shooting stars at once'

'we were just sat out on the step'

'we were just sat out on the step', maybe if Jurassic 5 were British and not American, they might have changed their lyrics

'we were sitting out out on the step you know'

'I was stood at the bus stop, when 3 buses just drove right past me'

yeah, so we'd say 'I was stood', now this is a unique British thing

so, I'm just going to put a few phrases there

these are phrases which we would say in a British accent but you wouldn't really hear in other languages

'do you have a moment to talk about your lecture?'

'I'm sorry, I've got plans with my sister'

finally number 6, the Rs... the Rs... this is the kind of... probably the most common, number 6

going back to our key words we had earlier like, 'water'

in the British accent, we would say this as 'water'

'guitar'

'cater'

'slower'

'faster'

'tiger'

'ladder'

'refridgerator'

actually we would never say refrigerator, we would just say 'fridge'

cause we just say 'fridge'

'translator'

see we don't pronounce 'R', there's an 'R' at the end of all these words

but we just say it as 'tiger'

not 'tiger'

'translator'

'smaller... bigger'

'faster... smaller... bigger'

'slower... we don't say 'er' we say 'a'

we just end it in an 'a'... 'water... bigger... faster... slower... tiger... guitar... translator'

so there you are, 6 ways of sounding more British very easily

'he's a major, major, major influence on me now, and I feel terrible'

'that stupid english voice... was that me?'

'unfortunately... yes'

'I'm so looking forward to seeing your mother again'

'when I'm with her I'm reminded of the virtues of the English'

'But isn't she American?'

'Exactly'

so there you have it, 6 ways of sounding more British when you speak the English language

if you follow these 6 tips, then I promise you will sound British

I am Arabic Mike

because I normally teach Arabic, today I'm teaching English, because I'm British and I can speak about that

you've got more videos there and there

so you can watch more there

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take care, see you next time, bye bye!