Q&A for How to Speak With an Australian Accent

Say "Sis-tah".

With an Australian accent, you don't pronounce the "r" on the end, so it would be "brotha."

In Sydney, pronounce 'think' as 'th-i-nk' with a soft i, and not too much emphasis. If you want to do it the bushy way, it's 'th-ai'nk', almost 'thank', just with a more 'i'sh sound to the 'a'.

1.) Bizzo is 'business', as in 'it's none of your business' or 'mind your own bizzo', but I honestly haven't heard it since the 80s. Even then, 'beeswax' (as in 'mind your own beeswax') was more popular. Both of them are pretty much kid's things to say. 2.) A Furphy is a tall tale. It comes from old steel water carts made by the firm 'Furphy and Furphy' back in the 19th century that were used on farms, but were also taken over to the battlefields in WWI. The troops would gather around them to have a drink of water and swap stories/gossip and information that could end up being second, third, or fourth hand and thus wasn't always reliable. Hence, the phrase telling a Furphy was born.

Yes! That can definitely help.

We don't move our tongues as much, so instead of 'it' it's 'iet' (almost eat, but with a little more 'i' sound).

It's neither "eyw" or "ew". Australians tend to lengthen their vowels, so it depends on the word. For example, "ooohth" for oath or "awwrenge" for orange.

You have to add a slight "r" sound at the end. Instead of "I reckon so," it's "I reckon soer."

Because when the British came down and established penal colonies, the British accent was most prominent, but over time the younger children developed a new accent. It is also believed that, due to immigration, the South England and Southeast Asian accents have had a lot of influence over the modern day Australian accent.

In Australia, it's spelled and said "mum." Pronounced "muhm." Stop would sound like "stoup."

You'd say "lih-uhl," like how you would say "uh oh," with the slight pause in the middle.

Aussie accents tend to be more relaxed, as well as throatier. While it does depend on the area, English people tend to have more emphasis on separate syllables than words as a whole, while Aussies fuse syllables together more. The best way to be able to tell is just by listening to them side by side, on YouTube for example. Becoming familiar with both accents individually will make it easy to immediately tell the difference between the two.

You would pronounce it "uy" with the u sounding like it would when you say umbrella.

It sounds like "now" in British or American English. Pull your tongue as far back as possible, then add the “w” as in “now.”

Zed, rhymes with Ned.

"Hav a gr-eight dahy."

It would either sound the same or have the sound that the letter makes at the start, like “haitch."

The over-pronounced "R" of the North American accents comes from their Irish influence. Australian and British accents have been less influenced by the Irish accent; as a result, they have kept a more subtle "R" sound.

It would sound like "mouth," but with a little bit of a "y" sound in between the "o" and the "u." So it would sound like "mow-yowth" with a softer "y."

There's no separate Australian language from English.

You can use the above mentioned tricks in some of the answers like "dou" and skip the "h" in how so it'll slightly sound like "ow." Also raise your voice at the end.

Gor-johs. Like you are a goat chewing food. Chew the words, but make it smooth.

Make the "A" sound more like an "I." Pronounce the "ger" as "jer" with a slight "R" on the end.

"Tee-cha". Don't say the 'r' sound at the end of the word, unless the next word in the sentence starts with a vowel. It would sort of connect with the next word instead of the one it's at the end of, which would sort of sound like 'pull the cah rover', instead of, 'pull the car over'.

This is because it is not your original accent. You have a different accent and you are still learning how to speak with that accent. It’s the same with learning a new language - you will learn it slowly.

Whilst Americans pronounce 'mirror' as 'meer-rr', Australians tend to say 'mi-rah'.

The "t" never really goes away, it's just pronounced as a glottal stop. You'd still use that same glottal stop with a word like "what's." The important thing to remember is the sound the word ends in, not necessarily the letter or how it's spelled. Since "what's" no longer ends in a "t" sound, you'd still hear a slight "t," it just wouldn't be as enunciated as it might be in other accents.

The phrase, "Good on ya" is used to praise someone or to congratulate them. If an Australian told you they'd scored highly on a test or they'd got a promotion at work, you could say, "Good on ya" or "Good on ya mate".

Some people pronounce it similar to "cool," and others pronounce the "a" like the "ow" in "bowl."

"Wat-uh." Say the first syllable at the front of your mouth.