5 Ways to Improve Your RP Accent Quickly

When people talk about “standard” English, they’re usually reaching for Received Pronunciation — RP. It has been called the accent of the BBC, the classroom, even the boardroom. For actors, it’s still one of the most requested dialects. For learners, it carries a certain weight: precise, clear, and neutral enough to travel well.

But “mastering RP” isn’t about sounding posh. It’s about learning a set of very deliberate speech habits — vowel placements, intonation patterns, consonant clarity — that can be practised with care. Let’s look at five ways to make progress quickly, without chasing an artificial “stage English” that never feels lived-in.

1. Start with the Vowels

RP is defined as much by its vowels as by anything else. You’ll notice that long vowels are genuinely long — sheep versus ship, cart versus cat. Diphthongs, too, have a distinctive journey. Think of words like goat or face, where the sound shifts smoothly but decisively.

For Japanese, Hindi, or Italian speakers, vowels can be especially tricky because your first instinct may be to shorten them or flatten their movement. Record yourself reading a short passage in RP and pay close attention: are you letting each long vowel breathe? Are diphthongs gliding naturally? The IPA chart can be a useful map here.

Quick practice: Take a pair like cot and caught. Hold each vowel a little longer than feels natural. It will sound theatrical at first — but the exaggeration helps you internalise the length.

2. Mind Your Consonants

One of the hallmarks of RP is its crisp articulation. Final consonants are not dropped. Better is not bettah; part is not par’.

Where American English may soften or blur consonant endings, RP lands them firmly but without overemphasis. This can be liberating for actors: you can trust that the word itself carries clarity, rather than forcing projection.

Practical step: Read a Shakespeare sonnet aloud. Pay attention to the consonant endings at the line breaks — time / crime, see / thee. They need to be released clearly for the rhythm to work.

3. Tune Your Intonation

RP intonation is often described as “musical but measured”. Compared to General American, it avoids extremes — the pitch doesn’t leap up dramatically at the end of questions, for instance. Instead, the voice tends to fall gently, creating a calm authority.

Actors find that this pattern instantly conveys a certain poise. Learners may notice that adopting RP intonation helps them sound more confident in formal settings.

Coach’s note: Listen to classic BBC recordings or actors like Emma Thompson. Shadow their delivery — not just the words, but the melody of the line.

4. Work on Linking

English, unlike Japanese or Italian, flows with a lot of connected speech. RP in particular values smooth linking. For example: law and order often sounds like lor-and-order. The words knit together, but without the glottal stops that characterise some regional dialects.

Practising linking is vital if you don’t want your RP to sound “stilted”. You can be technically correct on vowels and consonants, but if each word sits in isolation, it won’t sound natural.

Exercise: Take a news article and read it aloud, deliberately pushing one word into the next. Record and listen back. Does it sound fluid, or choppy?

5. Get Real Feedback

The biggest trap with RP is practising in isolation. Because the accent is associated with prestige, learners often overdo it — tightening their jaw, raising pitch, or exaggerating vowels until it becomes parody. Without feedback, it’s hard to know where you’re drifting.

That’s why working with trained ears matters. A coach can point out that your bath still sounds too close to bat, or that you’ve picked up a rising intonation from American English without realising. Even a few minutes of correction can save hours of bad habit.

Accentify was built with this in mind. Our app includes bite-sized RP lessons, alongside Scottish, Irish, Australian, Southern US, Indian and more — over a hundred accents planned in total. You can record your attempts, get feedback from professional coaches (yes, real people), and even practise in real-time conversations with our AI, Tify. Built by actors, for actors, it’s a rehearsal tool that fits in your pocket.

The Practical Rule for Performance

Improving your RP accent doesn’t require years of elocution. It does require focus on the right areas: vowels, consonants, intonation, linking, and external feedback. Work on those consistently and the shift can come surprisingly quickly.

And remember: RP isn’t about “erasing” who you are. It’s about adding a tool to your voice kit — one you can pull out for the right audition, the right role, the right setting. If you’d like to accelerate that process, Accentify’s RP course is ready whenever you are.

👉 Try it, record yourself, and hear the change.