How do posh people speak? Learn about language and social class in England

How do posh people talk? This lesson is all about posh people in England! How do they talk? What kind of jobs do they have? What kind of lives do they live? I will explain what it means to speak and act like a posh English person in terms of social class and family background. I will also give you some examples of British actors, such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley who, in most of their films, play the parts of posh people. You will also learn about Nancy Mitford’s “U” and “Non-U” language. She was an English journalist and novelist who wrote about posh people in the 1950s. Though society is always changing, awareness of class and the language associated with class is still very important in England, so if you’re studying English or just interested in English culture, watch this video.

it’s draw-ing NOT draw – ring;

it’s AS I said
NOT
like I said.

praestans

Thanks, it has been lovely lesson!

Erkinbek 63

Thanks for the lesson, and the good pronunciation that I learned from you.

abdelkader10

Thank you. Always fascinating to learn the different variations of languages in the society. And can be handy if you want to try to climb your way towards the ‘U’… :-)

Stephane R

Hello jade dentures reffers in french to the real teeths, and dentier to the false teeths.
I am a native french speaker so it help a lot when i learn english.
Thanks for these good lessons.

loginl

Is good to mention that dentures is in the plural, normally the word is used without the (s) in french.
Unless we are talking about several dentures

loginl

The idea behind the instructions was not very clear to me.

Brighteyes

thanks a million

atorabi

It’s not easy to distinguish between U and non-U words. I think I’d better watch this lesson again to understand more. Thanks for the superb lesson and I learned an interesting history of English today.

Insoo Yeo

Thank you so much,Jade

Seyed Ali

That is a good idea having several names for the same thing, the problem is when you mixed them with natives. You can see funny faces at the time you speak and saying to you, oh you speak quite good English which is not true. That’s my experience.