British Received Pronunciation (“RP”)

For hints on using this resource, please see How to Work on an Accent.

Listening Samples

Gareth
Harry
Stanley

John Cleese
(b. 1939)

John Cleese

“Tries for posh Brighton”
Peter James
(Brighton, b.1948)

Peter James

…perhaps with occasional slips into
a less posh Sussex accent (“Rottingdean”)
Peter Whitehouse
or see the Estuary page.

Hugh Laurie
(as Bertie Wooster)

Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster

A great resource for RP pronunciation is available at https://howjsay.com/. Simply look up the word you want to pronounce and the website will say it for you.

Key Sounds

For each sound, I’ve included audio examples and a dropdown section of practice phrases.

Unless otherwise indicated, practice phrases are excerpted from Lexical Sets for Actors by Eric Armstrong under a creative commons license.

Consonant Sounds

R-Dropping

While R in initial position (e.g. “red roses”) is always pronounced, R is not pronounced when it falls at the end of a word or precedes a consonant sound. Some example word groups are: NURSE, lettER, NEAR, SQUARE, START, and NORTH.

Linking R

R-dropping does not occur when the sound following the R is a vowel sound.

Practice R-Dropping & Linking R

R-Dropping

The worst burnt sirloin.
Better, stronger, faster.
Clearly fearless.
Upstairs Downstairs.
A large star chart.
Play the chord on the organ.
Sherlock searched for the murderer.
Future conservative leader.
They persevered as a volunteer.
Swear with flair.
Sparklers for the garden party.
Norman drove from Yorkshire to Orkney.
The early bird catches the worm.
Tears for Fears appeared in Tangiers.
A square hairline.
Skylarks darkened Denmark’s skies.
Corgis have short legs and long torsos.

Linking R

Jennifer‿is a junior‿in university.
My career‿as an engineer.
The chair‿of the libraRians association.
The cashier wore‿earplugs.
The surfer’s trainer‿is from overseas.
Did you hear the LibeRians cheeRing?
CaRers, paRents, and grandpaRents.

Vowel Sounds

Words like BATH

Southern English accents make a distinction between the vowel sounds in BATH and TRAP. If you’re not sure whether your word is a BATH word or a TRAP word, you can look it up using a British dictionary such as Cambridge, listen at howjsay.com, or ask your dialect coach!

Practice BATH Vowels

On behalf of the calf.
A laughing giraffe.
I said “footpath”, not “bloodbath”.
A half-hour before Flagstaff.
We laughed about the aircraft.
Sample the raspberries at Belfast Castle.
The dancer from France was entrancing.

Words like TRAP

Careful not to over-generalize the BATH sound to TRAP words.

In addition to the usual TRAP words, there are a few notable “set jumper” words that are included in the TRAP set in southern English accents: marry, Harry, carry, Carolyn, carriage, Marilyn, Paris, arrow, parapet