How to Write British Speaking Characters

I have! It's definitely a thing.

 

The hand clap is me to a T.

 

I do this!!

 

Yep, same.

 

The best advice that others have given here is not to overdo the British terms. I'm from London and it's very easy to make us cringe by faking it. Honestly, it would be better not to add any British terms at all, than to go overboard. Also, a British beta reader would be the perfect solution to your issue.

Good luck mate

 

Don't attempt British... American British is generally cringe-worthy.

I think there is a little trick Americans are missing, and it is simply this... In Britain we promote good actors; in America you promote talentless pretty people.

 

I'm not too sure how that impacts the art of writing British characters, but sure thing, sport.

 

That's not right, Pinky. You're sounding, in my opinion, either patronising or ignorant on this issue. There's plenty of Americans can nail an English accent - what about Zoe Walemaker, thingy, diary? As for actors...this is a writers' forum, remember the orthodoxy - ALL ACTORS are useless flegs/half-wit dollies [m&f] etcet...

 

A gem:

First ever 'Gardeners' Question Time 1947.' Dialect clash @ 3 minutes, ten seconds, brilliant.

https://audioboom.com/posts/5796753-70th-anniversary-special

 

Not either. I am both patronising and ignorant on this issue.

 

I'm sorry about that, I had no idea. My apologies again.

...

 

I've never experienced the handclapping, but saying "Right," when you're about to do something, is quite common over here. I live in Scotland and see/hear this a lot. But definitely not the handclapping.

After living this side of the Pond for the past 31 years, I find myself saying "Right," at the start of some activity. It's sort of a way of ending whatever you were doing before, and signalling that you're now beginning something new. My Scottish husband does it as well.

If I'm being incredibly twixty-tweeny, between Scot and Yank, I might say "Right. Let's get this show on the road."

 

I do a variation of that as well, and I'm a Yank. I pump my hands in the air and say, "Aight then, let's go."

In addition to this, look up British slang so you don't accidentally have your British character saying, "I like your pants" to a woman. Apparently 'pants' in their vocabulary means 'underwear'. Just a thought.

 

I do this multiple times a day and hear it said by those around me constantly. If someone else walks into me and they are at fault I will still say "sorry."

I also have heard when you introduce a new character and they have an accent, spelling out phonetically how they pronounce words works well at first to establish their way of speaking. If it was done well, when first introduced, the reader should "hear" everything else they say in that accent. From that point on only reminders of the accent are needed as the reader will tire of everything being spelled phonetically.

My WIP is based in WW2 Belgium. I'll have French, Dutch, German, and Canadian accents to deal with... Not looking forward to it...

 

And you would have to be writing a period piece to use the word suspenders for the trouser-holder-upper kind in the U.S. because I haven't seen an actual pair of suspenders in use since the 80's.

 

I saw braces on a fella yesterday, very smart old gent - like an older Monty Don [UK senior stud].

 

The only (rare) people I've seen use a pair of spenders are, obviously, very old people to whom those would have been a very common thing during their youth. Nowadays we just wear pants (trousers for the UKers.)

I think the key is the slang. The word 'torch' in the States brings to mind an old-time Medieval torch. However in the UK, it simply means flashlight. I can't tell you the number of times I got confused reading the James Herriot stories and when he mentioned grabbing his torch, I had an image of him lighting up a Medieval-era torch as he bent over to examine the farm animal.

You can play around with it by having your British character say, "Give me that torch!" and to someone unaware of what he/she means might think him/her silly pointing at the flashlight.

 

'Torch' can be either. You'd write 'flaming torch' probably.

...

And a British man wouldn't refer to his wife's pants, or a woman's pants - that would infer he had 'kind of issues' with underwear or women. [or he might call them pants actually if he was very rugged, or domestic - 'here's your pants, luv, sweetheart,' man passes pants to woman]...Generally, he would, and she would say knickers. Tho' linguistically, the most difficult word for an Anglo would be 'panties' - which sounds like a joke word, snigger.

 

It's a big problem for UK pornographers, and also American perverts. 'Panties' do nothing for me, and whilst 'suspenders' are most evocotive over here, to Americans it's more sex with Grandpa - which is quite fringe, a self-publisher probably.

 

... I would've put that in a spoiler tag BTW.

Just saying.