Have anyone try to write character with british accent?
If you do, do you have any tips?
Just wonderin 
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Nov '17last reply
Nov '17- 40
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Maybe you could consider reading Sherlock? Or watching the show and studying the dialogue? Or adding "bloody" to every other noun might do the trick.
Well there's literally over a hundred "British accents".
Search up some stuff on Wikipedia and see what you like! =w=
a lot of british words are different from american english. like cookies are called biscuits and apartments are flats.
i am british, so they all have british accents by default.
that said, theres like a bajillion british accents. do you want tips on writing a james bond kinda brit or a bill sykes kinda brit or a (example of a famous-to-americans northerner) kinda brit?
Ha! Good tips! Awesome!
@punkarsenic I'm not sure myself which one. Maybe the posh london accent? Lol I dunno yet, I did watch alot of british tv a while ago
I'm thinking of making some of my character british to differentiate them from the rest of the plain accent
- Use phonetic spelling very sparingly.
- Prefer British English vocabulary over American English vocabulary.
- Listen to a lot of "accent challenge" YouTube videos.
But British accents aren't all that different from American ones, relatively speaking. It's easy to overdo it, underdo it, or do both at different times.
Why not pick another nationality? I know from experience that Spanish and German accents are pretty doable.
Actually, I think a good way to write British dialogue is to use British spellings. Colour, centre, criticise, favour, that makes even generic text subtly different from say any Americans in the page
also I would avoid using too much slang. there is a risk of it coming across like Dick Van Dykes 'cockney' accent. Instead i would use English word for american things like:
elevator = lift
Zucchini = courgette
eggplant = aubergine
sidewalk = pavement
freeway = motorway
also there are some very subtle things you can do depending on where the story is set. for example. if your story is set in central Europe, people will be driving left hand drive cars, and in the past i called shotgun and ended up in the driving seat of someones car
also how we cross the road will be different to you. in England we would look to the right first when crossing the road or joining traffic. imagine doing that in a country where they drive on the right and not seeing anything, you would think it was safe to step out without really checking to the left meaning you end up stepping out in front of a car
also , yes loo, quid and bloody are really well known slang , but day to day, i barely use or hear them
beware the 'posh London accent'. what you are describing could be 'received pronunciation' which was a accent adopted by actors and tv presenters in the 1950s to the late 1980s it started fizzling out with the kitchen sink dramas of the 60s and by the late 80s the trend for people to use their own accents became the norm.
Don't, whatever you do, copy British dialect from popular movies and TV series. Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Keira Knightley and the like have pretty posh accents.
There is Received Pronunciation which is probably easier to get your head around than some of the other various dialects but even this can vary massively. I wouldn't go for an accent like Mancunian or Scouse because, from bitter experience, people can't get the subtleties of the speech and mangle it.
And when you search, I'd recommend making sure your search includes the name of the specific dialect. Because of the great variation, another huge give away to anybody who's spent a lot of time around Brits is mixing dialects.
ha, maybe its because I work in an office with people from all over the world
incidentally, I wonder if it would help the OP to know where about in GB wed are from? I am from the Black Country ( example of the accent are the TV shows Peaky blinders )
Also check if writing "different accents" remember some words spelling changes.
For Example; the "-or" or "-our" conflict:
Color - Colour / Flavor - Flavour / Behavior - Behaviour / Harbor - Harbour
Honor - Honour / Humor - Humour / Labor - Labour / Neighbor - Neighbour
And also the "-er" or "-re" trouble:
Caliber - Calibre / Center - Centre / Fiber - Fibre / Goiter - Goitre / Liter - Litre
Luster - Lustre / Manoever - Manoeuvre / Meager - Meagre / Meter - Metre
And we shall not foregt about the "-se" or "-ce" either!
Defense - Defence / Offense - Offence / Pretense - Pretence
Check out this link for some ideas and further explanations (gotta love Wikipedia!):
I'm South African and our English course is taught in British format; so while my English Teachers always 'x' everything I did (cause used American spelling for example "color" as everywhere I post my stories my "British spelled words were lined red) I searched for a way to reason with them!!! Hence got to learn this huge means to how certain words end. (the above 3 aren't the only ones!!!!
oh and dont forget that date structure is different than american dates. we would say 7th November (7/11/17) as opposed to November 7th (11/7/17)
Sorry OP if this is a bit of an information overload!
Well, many of my characters are British, and for almost everything I don't write the words any different than if they were any other English speaker. What I do do however is mix in some British mannerisms and slang. Depending where they're from, British can talk quite differently than other English speakers. I also have a Scottish character, who talks differently again, so I use different slang, and do sparingly use apostrophes where appropriate. For example, havin' instead of having. But overall, whether you're writing a comic or a novel, you probably just have to accept that there can be practical limitations to portraying accents. In general, people aren't interested in strange, phonetic spelling.
Here's a scene I did with two Brits and a Scottish guy:
I have and this has helped me. Listen to British actors, read British books, etc.
Use a Brit’s dictionary or word guide from Google.
Too much work. I just set my word processor to "UK spelling."
No, seriously, I've done that for every fantasy book.
XD that does work too. Brits have a way of speaking though. Their style is different than America’s so keep that in mind.
Highly personal opinion in this post, but I'm not fond of "faking" so-called British English. Not only does it often turn into a sort of blanket stereotype, but imagine being British and reading sum feeked acc'nt when you literally have a common language, but with distinct spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. I'd suggest using that instead of othering the British readers by making them talk a bastardized version of their own language.
It's also weird to read a "British accent" when you're not from author's country of origin in general (let's assume US for now). I mean, think of it. I first of all need to assume everyone is speaking American English by default and then paste the accent on top of that default.
The exception, I think, is if your character has an accent that is distinct enough that a native Brit would write it differently - think Hagrid (apparently it's West Country English).
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that an accent is relative. It's default to the speaker, and only an accent to a foreigner. When you modify sumthin' it's making an assumption about the reader's default language. Look at it from both sides instead!
Just my take on keeping it international.
(I'm sorry if this comes of as a bit negative, that's not my intention.)
