How To Do An Australian Accent

I used in Australia. So let's start with the "I" sound that I would normally pronounce as "like" and "right" and "live". For Australians this becomes a little bit like "oi" in "oil".

Don't go that far though! So don't say "loik", "roight".You'll sound ridiculous! It's more like "like" and "right" and "live". "Right", "sign", "life". Listen again to that word "right".

That's R-I-G-H-T : "righ' !" You notice that the t has disappeared from the end of the word? This is called a "glottal stop" and is very common in Australia. The way you want to make your glottal stop, if you don't know how to do it, is to start with the phrase "Uh-Oh!", "Uh-Oh!" and it's the little sound you get in the middle there "Uh-Oh!". So try putting that on the end of your word.

"Righ' ", "Righ' " ! If it sounds a little bit like cockney to you, there's a reason for this. The Australian accent developed from people from the South-East of England who went to live in Australia and their accent changed. So it is very similar.

The sound cockney "oi" in "all right mate" is the same as the Australian "all right mate". But there is a difference here, and if you got a Cockney accent and you want to turn it into an Australian one your best bet is to change your voice from a dry sound to a twangy sound. So we go from "all right mate?" to "all right mate!"- real twang.

Also, Australians tend to have high-rising terminal. That's a technical term for sentences that go off at the end like this, sometimes called the "Australian question inflection". Goes up like this.

Now, that's very easy to do. Some people find it annoying, but it is key for that Australian accent. So you've got the difference between a Cockney "all right mate" and an Australian "all right mate", going up at the end.

Let's also look at the A sound, as in "no way". This becomes more like "Ai". So, "no way, no way mate", going up.

So you notice again, going up at the end. It's "no way, mate". Finally, let's look at "ah", the "ah" you get in "hat", or "man" or "cam", camera.

This changes to something more a bit like an "eh" sound, like we would say in "an egg". So you might say "I love that hat". That's "thet het".

"Thet het". A great person to listen to for that sound is Germaine Greer. She definitely speaks like that.

"I love that hat!" Well, if you want to find out more about accents of course you can do some more research or get a lesson but that's all we've got time for today. I'm Garrett Jamison, thanks very much! .