6 ways you can trick people into believing you're as posh as the Queen
- You can make people believe you're as posh as the Queen just by altering your accent.
- Insider spoke to Claire Larkin, a cultural expert at Babbel, who said the Queen's speech is "still regarded by many as the 'proper' way of speaking, and a marker of prestige and ability."
- Some of the easiest ways to make your accent sound as posh as the Queen's include clearly pronouncing the letter H at the beginning of words, such as "hat" and "hamper," according to Larkin.
- Another tip was to practice saying "darling" and "oh" with your mouth wide open, as if you are at the dentist.
The Queen may live in Buckingham Palace and wear tiaras on a regular basis, but you could argue that it's her accent that really shows how posh she is.
Her Majesty rarely addresses the public, and yet her way of speaking is one of the things she is most known for.
The monarch speaks in British Received Pronunciation (RP), a speaking style that was adopted in the late eighteenth century among the upper classes.
Insider spoke to Claire Larkin, a cultural expert at Babbel, who explained how using this speaking style will make people believe you're posh, even if you're not.
"The Queen's English is common among those who went to public schools, such as Eton, and elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge," Larkin told Insider.
"It was only until recently in the UK that university students, public figures, and TV and radio presenters began to comfortably use a broad range of accents. In the past, many would have adjusted their accents to get ahead."
Larkin added that many public figures — particularly royals — still use RP, as "it's still regarded by many as the 'proper' way of speaking, and a marker of prestige and ability."
"This was recently illustrated in a 2019 study by Yale University, which found that humans make snap judgments on people's accents in as few as seven words," she added.
How to speak like the Queen in a few simple steps
If you want to learn how to sound posh like the British monarch, follow Larkin's five key instructions:
- Clearly pronounce the letter H at the beginning of words such as "hat" and "hamper."
- Don't pronounce the R in a word unless it proceeds a vowel. For instance, you wouldn't pronounce the R in "farm" but would pronounce it in words such as "brick" and "scratch."
- Make your vowels longer. Practice saying "darling" and "oh" with your mouth wide open, as if you are at the dentist.
- Emphasize the letter T. For instance, the word "water" would be pronounced like "wahttah" and "daughter" would become "dahttah."
- Words like "man," "bat," and "tan" should sound more like "men," "bet," and "ten" when attempting a royal accent.
- Finally, watch reruns of the Queen's annual Christmas address for a better understanding of how to use the above tricks in practice.
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