james seriously get back here now uh now if you're not experiencing
all sorts of different things i was never really afraid of those now
Today we are learning all about English accents with One Direction.
Even if you're not a fan of the band this lesson will help you better understand
English accents and British Culture because every member is from a different part of the UK
or Ireland. You will see lots of examples and have the chance to boost your English listening.
So this lesson is divided into two parts. In part A we will look into each member's accent and the
most distinct characteristics of the region they are from. In part B we will compare and contrast
how each member pronounces some specific sounds like the "th" sound the glottal "t" and different
vowel sounds. The best part is that if you watch until the end you'll see all of this
information synthesized so you can take notes and revisit everything you learned with this video.
Now in case you're new here we make lessons every week to help you learn Real Native English
without getting lost, without missing the jokes and without subtitles just like Stephen who says
that our channel motivates him a lot so be sure to hit that subscribe button and the bell down below
that way you won't miss a single one of our new lessons! Well before we dive into the different
accents let me ask you a question: do you like most learners when hearing about British English
think of received pronunciation the bbc or the queen's English or maybe the cockney accent from
London which is often mimicked in films and TV series? Your answer is probably yes right
after all these are the most common ones taught in language schools, course books and shown in
TV series and movies. But if you watch the video we made about Harry Styles accent
amongst others you probably know that the UK has more than 30 dialects and accents and they
can become quite distinct with just a short trip from one place to another. If you haven't watched
that lesson I highly recommend you watch it next so I'll link it down in the description below.
One direction was originally formed in 2010 by Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan,
Liam Payne and Harry Styles who are from the northeast, north west and midlands of England
as well as Ireland. All of which have their own singular characteristics. However despite those
differences have you noticed how they sound when they sing? It's with one uniform American accent.
Why is that? There are a variety of reasons why this happens. It could be the artist's
musical influence, commercial reasons or the music genre. Whatever it may be it affects how
they pronounce the vowels, which is one of the main characteristics that changes from
one accent to another. When they sing because the muscles are working to project the voice
the vowels are either compressed or extended to fit the rhythm feat and melody of this song. This
also changes the intonation, word stress and rhythm that characterizes different accents.
Both Louis Tomlinson and former member Zayn Malik are from Yorkshire
in northern England. Despite sharing some features their accents are quite different.
Let's take a look at each of them. Louis is from south Yorkshire
Zayn is from a different part of Yorkshire, a city in the west called Bradford. Zayn is of
Pakistani ancestry on his father's side and Irish on his mother's side so that
definitely also influences the way he speaks. We noticed that in the rhythm of his speech.
A strong characteristic of his Bradford accent is that in words like so,
phone ,show, go he elongates the final sound to an "e" instead of o "so",
Another common characteristic of the Yorkshire accent that both Louis and Zayn share is the
tendency to drop the "t" at the end of words like that. Louis actually oftentimes drops both
sounds in the word that and pronounces it just as "a" instead of "that". Check it out!
You can learn more about Louis accent and four
other British ones in this lesson we made which i'll link down below!
Liam is from Wolverhampton, a city in a part of central England
called the Midlands. This region also has a very distinct accent
especially regarding the intonation. You may have noticed that when Liam speaks his voice
has almost a song-like melody going up and down depending on the words he is emphasizing
This is quite typical of more Midland and northern English accents.
Learning a variety of English accents will improve your listening skills and help you
to understand fast speaking natives which is why I highly recommend our Fluent with Friends Course.
Not only will you improve in this area but you'll learn real native vocabulary
understand the jokes and you can also be part of our Fluency Circle which is a Global Community
of English learners just like you! The best part is you can try it for free right now
all you have to do is click up here or down in the description box below. What are you waiting for?
The other members are all from different parts of England but Niall is from Ireland. Sometimes
this can be confusing because the country which is an island consists of northern Ireland which
is actually part of the UK as well as the Republic of Ireland which is not part of the UK. The Irish
accent also varies from region to region. Let's look at some characteristic of Niall's accent who
is from the Midlands region of Ireland. one noticeable characteristic of the irish
accent when compared to the british accent is that Check out how Niall pronounces the words started,
heartbeat, weather and first. Another feature of his accent
is the final diphthong in words like now. The way he says it sounds more like an "o" sound.
Harry Styles is also from the north of England and his accent was highly influenced by the places
he's lived in. However he's probably the band member whose accent most changed over the years.
For example you can notice how his intonation has changed
but also how often times he pronounces the word little,
with the flap "t" americans use or something in between the flat "t" and the glottal "t".
For more on Harry Styles accent don't forget to check out the lesson I mentioned at the
beginning of this video. If you'd like to learn even more British accents such as Cockney, Scouse,
Scottish and even the Queen's English then I highly recommend you check out these two lessons
which are linked down in the description below!
Now let's contrast how some common sounds in the English language are pronounced by the members.
The glottal "t" is the dropping of the "t" sound it's like if the person speaking
swallows the "t" sound in a word rather than speaking it aloud. It results in a
stopping of the flow of air and then a release. Words ending in "y" are usually pronounced with a
long "e" sound. This is how most members pronounce it. Liam however tends to pronounce it as a
short "e" in words like pretty, easy and very. The "th" sound is a very characteristic sound
of the English language and although it's mostly pronounced as when voiced like in that or this
and when unvoiced like in think or theme, the pronunciation of the th can vary quite a lot.
Let's see. Louis tends to pronounce the unvoiced "th" more like an "f" sound in words like
think and thank. The same is true for Harry who has a lot of a Manchester influence in his accent.
Niall in his Irish accent alternates between the standard voiced
and pronouncing it with d or t sounds. In most northern accents the diphthong
two vowel sounds in words like dance and last become one single sound a flat "a".
There are only a few British accents that don't drop the "h" sound in words. "rp" being one of
them. You can see Louis, Liam and Harry pronounce words like him, have, etc. By dropping the sound.
Zayn on the other hand is not consistent with dropping it. Sometimes he does sometimes he
doesn't. Niall however always pronounces it. Check out the "h" in these examples.
All of the band members except for Niall change the sound "uh" in words like up,
mum, done and stuff for round "uh" sound. This is a common feature of British accents in the central
and northern part of England. Take a look at how Niall pronounces it and how the others do it. s
So, let's recap the English accent features we mentioned in this video. As it's common in British
and Irish english all of them drop the "t" sound when speaking words like little, got and right.
In the south Yorkshire accent like Louis you'll hear me instead of mai the drop of the "t" at the
end of words like that and a more open "o" sound in words like show and go in Zayn's accent from
west Yorkshire. Most northern accents drop the "h" in words like hair, horrible and hand. Niall's
Irish accent pronounces it in all words. Another characteristic of the Irish accent that differs
from the British is the "r" sound that is fully pronounced while in most British accents you have
a non-rhotic r sound. Intonation plays a big role in the different accents and it's one of the most
noticeable characteristics. You can see how Liam's intonation goes up and down more frequently while
Niall is more flat the pronunciation of the -ing also changes in the Midlands accent the "g" is
more prominent while in the Yorkshire accent it's usually dropped the th sounds vary from
place to place and sometimes it's pronounced with a "th" sound. So I hope you enjoyed this lesson
and let me know down in the comments below which accent you find more difficult to understand and
which one you find easier to understand. Also are there any other celebrities accents you'd
like us to feature but now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your English. Aww yeah! So
what is rhythm? this is the speed and cadence of how you say a sentence. So as I mentioned
before we don't say each word at the same speed. That would sound very boring and very robotic.
Now the rhythm of English might be different to the rhythm of your native language so it's
really important to understand the unique rhythm of English.