American Reacts Upper-class Accent Examples 

Jacob Rees-Mogg was reciting “This Sceptred Isle” by William Shakespeare from Richard II, and is a “portrait” of England as an earthly paradise- an idyll; on John Gaunt’s death bed he delivers the lines as part of his dying monologue 🎉

They speak slowly, because they don’t expect to be interrupted.

The haunted pencil is quoting Shakespeare.

You speak, then I speak. These actors have been well educated and speak the Kings English. In the early days of British movies, most of the actors were taken from the old music halls or the theatres. The actors had to throw their voices to the back of the theatre ,they had to speak clearly inorder for the audience to hear. Their cut glass accents then transferred to the moves.

They live in large hizes, drive a rails and drink cake-a-cayla.

A vocabulary plays a vital role as well as pronunciation and annunciation... combined it shows education.breeding and class level.. One can use all the above in a regular working class accent but the impact isn't the same

The Jacob Rees Moss speech is lifted straight from John of Gaunts death bed monologue in Richard II (Shakespeare).

if i remember correctly Prometheus was a greek titan who had a hand in creating humans and was an intellectual, master craftsman and trickster

Carers - trained people who care for others in a semi-medical capacity but not usually nurses. Did you see Me Before You? The main actress in that was playing a carer for the paralysed man.

The 'laziness ' you are noting is probably best described as an upper class drawl. Not coincidentally, the upper class Southern Accent or the Patrician New England drawl all share a common origin in the mists of time

Loved your lapse into Dick van Dyke 😂

Ill be honest i love the way, Jacob Rees Mogg speaks

Hello,I'm French and love the English accent❤ Talking about the "British accent" is wrong. Next to the English accent,there is the Irish,Scottish and Welsh accent.They have nothing to do w/ the English accent.Kind regards❤

Prometheus, that's the fire guy, right? 😂😂😂.

What is interesting is that Rose Leslie and Tilda Swinton who are both from upper class Scottish families speak faster which is a characteristic of Scots as opposed to English. No doubt, if we listened to more of their speech, we would be able to pick out other small instances such as the occasional word or grammatical characteristic that is indicative of Scottish English as opposed to the accent. I found this a really interesting study at university.

On "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" Jack Dee gives amusing variations and meaning of words in "The Uxbridge English Dictionary" (if you know, you know?!) and has said what ' _sprites_ ' are (they're what the Royal Family eat at Christmas Dinner... _sprouts_ said with the RP accent) and there are several more, which I've unfortunately forgotten, sadly, 😟

Americans like yourself have easy to understand words almost as if you were middle class English perhaps because we have so many accents that distort words .Of course America has different accents but not to the extent the U.K. has and i have yet to hear an American accent i could not understand well even the most severe Southern accent is little problem, where as there are some U.K. accents i trip over a little.

Upper-class people tend to speak with what used to be called 'advanced' or 'conservative' received pronunciation (RP). Here, there is little movement of the lower jaw and an associated limited movement of the mouth. There is also a tendency to form words at the front upper area of the mouth cavity, to elongate vowels and clip consonants (with some of the latter disappearing altogether if in the middle of long words), and to follow a 'falling' pattern through sentences, which are projected as though the sound is coming from the area between the upper lip and nose. Additionally, there are certain vowel sounds that distinguish advanced RP from the speeech of 'plebs' (like me!); for example, the 'ow' sound in the middle of words is pronounced like an 'i' (house becoming 'hice' and mound becoming 'mind') while the 'o' sound is pronounced like 'e[o]uw' (go becoming ge[o]uw, so becoming 'se[o]uw, and 'ou' sounds becoming 'aa' (our becoming 'aar') or 'i' (round becoming ''rind') (see HM The King). Others, like Boris Johnson tend to have grown up in environments where this pattern is copied 'though to a less exaggerated extent; this is known as 'general RP'. Those like The Princess of Wales (Catherine) and Lord Sumption are, in contrast, simply speaking standard RP (or 'BBC English' as it was once known because all the presenters used to have to use this standardized southern accent); it's also taught to all actors in the more prestigious academies such as RADA and 'Central'. It's very complicated to explain in black and white (as you can see), so I'm sorry if I sound like a complete bore! By the way, Connor, you have an excellent ear and could easily pick up accents, including RP.

Rich rounded vowels - sometimes exaggeratedly so (playing a rind of golf?) - every letter enunciated, occasional use of metaphors from Greek myth. The product of the most expensive schools in the land. With many of the actors, though, it was a different accent - the RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) "neutral" accent, especially taught to make it easier to slip into any other required accent.

When the word "lion" rhymes with the word "barn", then you're very posh

Growing up in West Yorkshire, I used as a child to be mocked for "talking posh" because my accent was not as pronounced as many other people's. It was somewhat closer to RP largely because we listened to the radio a lot, so heard BBC English, and my parents did not have very strong accents. I find that in the company of people with noticeable local accents my Yorkshire tends to assert itself. If you think that any of the speakers you hear on this video are posh, find some archival stuff from the 1950s, such as the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth back in 1953, including her own voice then and the BBC commentary. Even Rees-Mogg is mild in comparison.

Connor, if you want an authentic Cockney accent, please tune in to the U-tube video, 'What is Wrong with the Labour Party?/Rosie Duffield is a Legend' from The Famous Artist Birdie Rose. Also, note how the late Queen Elizabeth's accent changed over the years, from her wartime broadcast as a teenager to her latest Christmas broadcast - this is PARTLY, but not entirely, a function of age.

Connor, Promethius drew fire down from the Gods, for use on earth. Ancient Greek legend of course.

Jacob Rees-Mogg was quoting Shakespeare's Richard II, which is probably why it sounds a little repetitive. It's called 'The Sceptered Isle Speech'. And he's talking about England. If you want to hear a wonderful version google Patrick Stewart in The Hollow Crown.

Although the Duchess of Cambridge (now the Princess of Wales) obviously has high social standing now, her background is not 'upper class' but solidly middle class; her parents, for example, were both British Airways employees when they met: he a despatcher, she a flight attendant. They subsequently 'made their fortune' running a party planning business. Far from being upper class, they would (in former days) have been dismissively described by the upper class as being 'in trade' (ie working for a living).

People with money travelling to India by ship, for example government officials, booked the cabins POSH. Port out - starboard home. Those cabins were mostly in the shade while travelling in the hot sun.

When a Brit says "quite" (you are absolutely right), it is usually emphasised in the way you describe... reason... you need to understand Connor that this word sounds as though it is mild, but it is not..... "You were quite good" to English people means "you were damn good" In other words it sounds like an understatement, whereas in fact the best interpretation of it is "very" "We had quite a good time" = "we had a very good time"

R/P is the perfect English vocabulary.

Quite good actually, certainly worth a subscription, methinks.

rees mogg in Parliament was quoting Shakespeare.

It used to be called Queens english and it had a german accent and at times a french accent. and those who copied it were snobs

I was taught to speak with a very standard RP accent. I’ve had it all my life and it’s simply part of who I am, although some people have said I sound posh in the past. Compared to Boris or JRM I’m an absolute beginner! Having lived all around the U.K. I can also sound London or Norfolk or Welsh or Irish or West Country if I try. With RP the emphasis is on giving every part of the word its full value. Europeans say we speak as if we have a hot potato in our mouths so the sound is quite clipped. As well as slightly drawn out vowels all consonants have to be enunciated very clearly. An instantly recognised difference is that RP speakers do not get involved with glottal stops. This is where you drop the middle letters of the word, especially the letter T, resulting in bu*er instead of buTTer, wa*uh instead of waTER, or using an F instead of a TH and dropping the final G resulting in finkin instead of THinkinG and for* instead of THoughT. It’s regarded as lazy speech by those who teach elocution but regional accents and differences in speech patterns are far more acceptable these days than back in the 1950s when society was infinitely more structured and opening your mouth said far too much about you! 😊

You 'certainly' caught the accent 'quite' well. You have a good ear Connor. Our posh English accent cannot sound 'like some of the American accents, dear Sir. No, no, no. Absolutely not! I am 'quite' certain it is the other way round. Some American accents 'certainly' do sound 'quite' English!! 😊 Love from the UK

We talk with accents they talk proper english.

The posh say House us common folk say ouse. Connor Did you watch the debate between Biden and Trump it was comedy gold ..made me chuckle anyway 😊

Its important in this context Conor.. There is NO British accent....ITS ENGLISH...not Irish Welsh or Scotish or British its English.

Sir, was Rees Mogg was referring to this Sceptred Isle, this England, this Once United Kingdom.

Boris has a doctorate or master in Greek philosophy and Latin

Theses are NOT posh BRITISH accents !! They are posh ENGLISH accents !!

Jacob Reese-Mogg was the only 'upper class' accent amongst that lot.....

Quite means different things in British and American English. In America it means 'very'. This is a mistake. Quite means precisely, or exactly - no less but also no more than. If you doubt this, date a British girl and tell her she's 'quite pretty'. You might get a slap. To a Brit, 'quite pretty' means: Not ugly... but not exactly beautiful. It can even mean 'nearly or less than' in some contexts. For a man, 5'10" is quite tall. 6'1" is tall. 6'5"+ is very tall. So you see, 'quite' almost means the opposite of what the US thinks it means.

One tip to speaking posh is to speak as far forward in your mouth as you can it makes harder to not pronounce the t in water 😂

Just noticed, PWB doesn't pronounce the 'o' in 'to', she does a 't'.

The finest upper class accent would be Joanna Lumley the actress and travel documentary presenter

Catherine, Princess of Wales has a very attractive voice but that's a middle class accent - which I happen to find easier to listen to.

Listen to the late Queen speaking in the 1950s

Our beautiful late queen Elizabeth spoke perfect English, in a way that nobody else has quite mastered, I added the quite to be annoying 😂

This Sceptered Isle is beautiful referring to England

Maybe because I am from the North in England, I find the northern dialects or even the southern, far more interesting than the received pronunciation dialect. I can mimic the received pronunciation dialect quite easily, it is not hard to do, that's why most north americans can do it "rather well". As a north american say "raaatheeerr weelll", with practice you can do it with other words, then form sentances. However if you're not from yorkshire, merseyside, lancashire, northumbria, kent, black country, I challenge you to mimic their accent, some are easier than others. It does not make you "posh". Rosie Leslie does it with aplomb in the late stage of your video, she's scottish so will have a scottish accent in her relaxed "tongue", she has a north yorkshire accent in game of thrones and then has received pronunciation in the video. Only the royals hold the station/ status of "upper class" in the UK and they're a tourist attraction. Anyone else are plebs, some richer than others.

Sloanes - upper middle class folk, or Preppies you might say - always insert as many adverbs as possible.

RP = Received Pronunciation. Posh people are taught RP from early on. He's describing England.

Is Kate posh? Her parents sell balloons for a living

Divided. Not dividedge. It’s educated English. Some Aussies speak Educated English as well but with an Australian accent.

no S.Fry

Please react to shakespere scenes. React to a bunch!

Mogg proving he's an utter clown. Can't remember the exact details but its only about 3 generations back and one of his relatives was something like a truck driver. No offence to truck drivers.

It isn't correct to describe any accent in English as upper or lower class. I attended school in England from aged eight to 13. We boys acquired a common accent, simply from our masters and each other. So whether a farm boy from Wales, a French lad from Dijon, an East African boy like me, or a son of a wealthy family from Norfolk, each of us four roomies shared the same accent when speaking English, and have maintained it to this day, 60 yrs later.

P.O.S.H. Port Out Starboard Home.

your only posh if your in a bubble.

Javob Rees Mog is a very clever and funny man.

Jacob Rees-Mogg's accent is fake. Multiple people that grew up with him have said he never used to talk like that. He taught himself that accent when he went to university.

Jocob Rees Mogg is the epitome of a fart in the wind; all noise and no substance

What about the bloke in Parliament who yells Ordar Ordar.

English accents, not British

Hate everyone of these posh or wanna be poshos. Give me a regional accent every day.

I've always thought Charles sounds like he's smoked a bong or two.

He is to important to articulate properly. It sounds ridiculous.