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People have a form of fascination with the English accent. It is entranced and captivated us for hundreds of years, to not point out the entire British-accented sizzling actors du jour (I am taking a look at you, Andrew Garfield).However pulling off a British accent is less complicated stated than finished. London-based comic, presenter, and self-described “chronically English particular person” Benedict Townsend not too long ago posted to TikTok, saying there’s one phrase specifically that appears to journey up People enjoying English characters.It isn’t that they overlook to pronounce the “h” in “herb,” or hold the American pronunciation of “vite” slightly than “vit” in “vitamin.”It is method much less conspicuous, in actual fact: the phrase “daughter.”People enjoying English characters in motion pictures and tv are inclined to pronounce the phrase as “dah-ter,” however Benedict says that is a “lifeless giveaway” that they don’t seem to be truly from throughout the pond.“I believe any phrase that has that particular ‘a’ sound is all the time a giveaway, like ‘water.’ You will hear somebody doing a fairly flawless English accent, after which hastily, they will say ‘wutter,’ and your eyebrow goes up,” Benedict advised BuzzFeed.He explains in his video that so far as he is aware of, there isn’t any English one who would pronounce “daughter” with a brief “o” sound for the primary syllable. Slightly, it would normally sound just like the vowel sound in a phrase like “north.”Benedict made a follow-up video just a few months later, explaining how he and his spouse “inside one microsecond” noticed the American within the forged of Netflix’s A Good Woman’s Information to Homicide.Benedict’s recommendation for People making an attempt to do a convincing English accent is two-fold. First, consider the English pronunciation of “door” when saying the phrase “daughter.” And second, go for a totally fleshed-out accent primarily based on a particular location in England slightly than the “quasi-English accent” employed by many (together with Peter Dinklage on Sport of Thrones — “however I forgive him,” Benedict stated).“I believe the largest mistake goes too broad. Numerous US actors resolve to do a typically ‘British’ accent that is form of a mishmash of each English accent they’ve ever heard, and so they find yourself sounding just like the world’s poshest northern chimney sweep. The most effective transfer, I believe, is to go for an insanely particular accent (and England has many) and stick with that like glue,” he advised BuzzFeed.The phrase “daughter” is much from the one English accent blunder, although. “There was an obsession for some time with saying ‘pip pip’ when doing an English accent. I do not know what ‘pip pip’ is; no English particular person, regardless of how fancy, has ever stated ‘pip pip,'” Benedict stated. “The phrase ‘lorry’ additionally journeys folks up, and turns into ‘lowree.'”Commenters on his video identified different phrases they’ve seen American actors mispronounce:As some identified, this pronunciation mix-up stems from what’s known as the cot–caught merger, a linguistic sound change during which North American English audio system started to pronounce phrases like “cot” and “caught” (or “tot” and “taught,” “inventory” and “stalk,” and many others.) the identical over time, whereas in British English, they’re nonetheless distinct.I additionally requested Benedict whether or not there are any quirks he notices about the best way English actors do American accents. “Oh, on a regular basis. Probably the most obvious one which a great deal of folks in my TikTok feedback introduced up is the phrase ‘something,’ which English actors like to pronounce as ‘ennything,’ even when enjoying People. I even have lengthy stated that the phrase ‘America’ itself is possibly one of many hardest phrases for a non-American to say in a US accent.”So, pulling off a convincing English accent is not as straightforward as dropping your jaw low and sprinkling in some “pip pips,” however with some research and observe, you may be fooling folks very quickly, Renée Zellweger type.Who’s your “wait, they’re truly British (or American)?” actor? Is there a phrase you suppose is a lifeless giveaway that an actor is imitating an accent? Pontificate within the feedback.