Secret British Accent Pronunciation Training

Ah good morning Agent... whatever your name is.

In today's double-0 training, you'll be learning some advanced pronunciation techniques

which could make anyone's accent... like... completely British or whatever

These are very advanced pronunciation techniques, and as so

could make spies hide in plain sight with perfect British accents.

for this reason,

this pronunciation training is

For British eyes only!

Please, take a seat

Today you'll be learning these skills: intrusion elision assimilation and catenation

They do sound sexy but believe me

in the wrong hands they are quite dangerous

Intrusion

Secret sounds will intrude into British sentences between words

these sounds or phonemes are:

For example:

To the not-British ear, this might sound fine

But to the trained British ear

You might notice this isn't 100% natural

Listen again

Did you hear the gap between the words "you" and "enough"?

"Intrusion" will add a /w/ sound between 'you' and 'enough'

This is because at the end of the word 'you',

the mouth shape is

like

"ooh"

and we link the two words together

with a consonant sound which closely matches the mouth shape

In this case "ooh" is similar to /w/

so it sounds like this

Another example of intrusion would be

Between the words "go" and "out"

again a /w/ sound would intrude

There are of course other examples

See I intruded an /r/ sound in that sentence without you even knowing it

That's how dangerous it is

Traditionally as you know,

British English doesn't pronounce the /R/ at the end of words

We would say:

Not:

However, when the next word begins with a vowel sound

We do in this case pronounce the /R/ to link the two words together

Now I'd like to hear you repeat after me

and finally I also mentioned that a /j/ sound can also intrude

between those two words

a /j/ sound will intrude

Why? because 'I' ends in an /ɪː/ sound

the closest consonant sound to this is a

So

doesn't sound right, but with intrusion

Sounds dangerously British!

Again the next word begins with a vowel sound

and you'll start to notice a pattern

we only intrude sounds when the next word begins with a vowel sound

Good now complete the training and practice with me

Intrusion with /w/

/j/ Intrusion

/r/ intrusion

The next pronunciation technique is called "Catenation"

and if the Russians ever learn this

it will be the end of the world

"Catenation" is when the final consonant sound of one word

sounds like it begins the next word

so for example

The final consonant sound /s/ from "This" joins the next word

To sound like

and together it sounds like

The first syllable is reduced to a weak form

and sounds like: /ðə/

The same with:

Let's look at a few more examples:

As you can see this is all super secret stuff

Next is "Assimilation"

this is when sounds change in order to connect words

Common examples are... these:

Here we see what happens when one word finishes in a T

and the next word starts with a Y

It's connected with a /tʃ/ sound

Other common examples are

This becomes

An important question you might have to ask:

The T will connect with that Y again with a /tʃ/ sound

When a D is followed by a Y

it doesn't sound like /tʃ/

It sounds like /dʒ/

Common examples of this are:

It changes to:

Or commonly

and so on, you get the idea

and also the word "Handbag" sounds like:

Which begs the question: Is it secretly "Hand burger"?

These techniques, this information, must not leave this room

Which brings me to the final point:

"Elision"

A common example of Elision is when a word finishes in a T or D

typically in a consonant cluster

and the next word begins in a

consonant sound that T or D will get removed or "Elided"

What? What's a consonant cluster?

Well I'm glad you asked

There are no stupid questions only stupid people

A consonant cluster is a group of consonants together

Think of for example when a word finishes in "xt" or "st"

words like "Next" "Last"

We have covered that "last year" can sound like:

Well we can also elide that last T so it sounds like:

Same with "Next year" could sound like:

But we could also elide that T to sound like:

It is quite easy to learn

You simply drop that final T or D sound

But not always

If the word is alone or the next word begins with a vowel sound

You will pronounce that final T or D

For example: The word "Last"

alone you will pronounce the T

If it's "Last week"

The next word begins with a consonant sound not a vowel sound

That's okay

But if it begins with a vowel sound

For example: "Last Apple"

You should pronounce the T

Not:

Other common examples are:

In this case the Ss blends together very dangerously

and finally

Other common examples of "Elision" are

becomes

in this case the th sound is dropped completely

Resulting in a weak schwa sound

In fact, this is the same with all "How's the...?" questions

Well it seems like you're ready for your final test

You may want to check if someone is a spy or naturally British

In which case, ask them to repeat these code phrases

If they are naturally British they should be able to pronounce them

with perfect pronunciation using these techniques

If not, they are definitely a spy

and finally

Agent I'd like to thank you for attending today's training session

and as I'm very confident you are completely British

I'm glad this training session has been for

For your eyes only