3 Important Tips for an Australian Accent – VIDEO Lesson

3 Important Tips for an Australian Accent – VIDEO Lesson

Check out these 3 important Australian accent tips to instantly sound clearer.

You know, people often ask me what they can do to get a new accent quickly.

Of course, it takes practice over time to make a new accent automatic in your speech because you’re making new muscle memory in your mouth for the new speech movements.

But there are some tips to speed up so that you notice a difference in your speech more quickly, and I’d like to share 3 important tips with you.

Tip 1 – It’s Important To Practise Using The Australian Vowels

If you want an Australian accent or you want to speak Australian English more clearly, it’s important to practice using the Australian vowels. Even more importantly, you need to remember not to shorten your vowels in words. This goes for the short vowels as well.

For example, if I say He (Hi) kept (shorten ‘e’) sitting on (un) the bag. The vowels are too short, and so the rhythm and stress sound choppy or staccato and the words aren’t clear.

I need to hold the vowels on a nano second longer before I finish the word.

So, it’s: He kept sitting on the bag. (watch video above for demonstration)

Make sure you stay on the vowels long enough before moving on to the next sound in the word.

Each of the vowels are stressed in the single words so they are said slightly longer before moving on. He, kept, on, bag.

Tip 2 – You Need To Make Your Lips Smile At First

Learn to say the Australian ‘a’ as in cat sound- you need to make your lips smile at first to help your tongue say ‘a’. Don’t say ‘ah’ for ‘a’. Not caht but cat.

The English ‘a’ is a different sound than in most languages.

Tip 3 – Move Your Mouth More

Move your mouth more. Often students tell me how much more they have to move their mouth to be clearer in English than they normally would when speaking.

What does this mean?

It means dropping your jaw more, opening your mouth more, making your lips more rounded for such vowels as ‘oo’ as in food, and ‘or’ as in for; opening your mouth more for ‘ah’ as in bath. This makes a huge difference when you speak.

For example, I can say a sentence without moving my jaw and lips enough and it won’t sound clear like this: ‘Can you please put the food for the party over there?’ (watch video above for demonstration)

When I move my jaw and lips enough for the vowels in the words in that sentence –   ee, oo, or, ar, and air, then it’s much clearer, and at the same time you allow the words to project properly for people to understand.

I’ll do it slowly at first so you can see, then speed up. ‘Can you please put the food for the party over there?’

Now at normal speed. ‘Can you please put the food for the party over there?’

You need to practise this and may have to overdo it at first.

So, these are 3 tips to instantly sound more Australian.

Also, for more tips to sound Australian check out this blog on 5 Great Tips To Learn An Australian Accent.

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Bye for now, and enjoy practising.