Much of our focus when changing our speech is on pronunciation, or how we say the sounds in words. This is important for being understood, but it is not the only element of an accent. It might not even be the most important element when trying to make yourself understood in English. The musical patterns of our speech, or intonation, might just be more important than how we say the words. Intonation is complex and conveys meaning. There are some rules and distinct American patterns. For an entertaining look at how much we use intonation to convey meaning, check out this video. If you can't understand quite what they are saying, it's probably because they aren't actually speaking English. But despite this, you can almost get the message.
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When you watch a movie from the 1930's or 40's, you might think that Americans used to have a very different way of speaking. Not quite British, but definitely not what you hear in American media today. The real story, however, is that actors were taught a stylized way of speaking, called the Mid-Atlantic Accent, because it was considered sophisticated. It was a hybrid of the British Received Pronunciation and the modern American accent. You can read more about this phenomenon and see movie clips in this article by Trey Taylor in the Atlantic.
In the new film Gone Girl, Rosamund Pike adopts an American accent to play an American character with authenticity. How did she do it? She used an accent coach to help her learn the sounds and patterns she needed to change. In addition, she very likely spent a great deal of time practicing her new speech sounds. Did she lose her native accent? No, she still speaks British English, as you can see on her recent Today Show interview, but she can switch to speaking as an American if she desires. Check her out in the trailer for what is sure to be a popular new movie.
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