American accents?

econut2000

... basically any European accent is hot. :blushing:

Haha, I bet you haven't heard Finnish English accent x) That is horrible. Luckily I have seemed to get rid of mine, mostly. According to Americans or Canadians I have spoken to, I have light Maryland accent Lived there for a year, so it stuck with me. I do have funny way of catching an accent from people I speak with, and I do it unconsciously. I even do it with Finnish accents :laugh:

I actually have no favorite American accent, but really thick accents makes it hard for me to understand what that person is saying :ohwell: But I guess it's common problem to us non native English speakers

lol! I'll have to listen to that Finnish English accent to see what I feel about it! :laugh:

raindropwishes

However, British people always sound smart no matter what they say :blushing:

I suggest visiting some parts of London, and also the West Country. The West Country accent especially is just... well, it makes you sound totally stupid and inbred - trust me, I'm very well versed. :laugh:



Disclaimer: I AM NOT INSULTING ANYONE, I'VE LIVED IN LONDON & THE WEST & HAVE HAD BOTH ACCENTS DURING MY LIFE - PLEASE DON'T GET YOUR KNICKERS IN A TWIST OVER MY COMMENTS ABOVE.

persephone87

I find it interesting that people have said UK accents, there is NO UK accent we have hundreds of different dialects, for a start the UK is comprised of England Scotland Ireland (Northern) and Wales so theres 4 straight away, then Scotland has Glaswegian and many many more people from the highlands speak differently to people from Edinburgh, Ireland has Northern and Southern (though not technically the UK) Wales has the stronger Welsh accent or the more mellow. Then we have England which has far to many to mention in my area alone we have Geordies from Newcastle, who sound different to Mackems from Sunderland, who sound different to people from South Shields, different again from those in Hartlepool and thats only within about a 30 mile radius of where I live, Londoners are meant to say oh cheerio pip pip etc. they don't thats just in the movies. Few people from the UK sound like Daniel Craig.

Anyway back to the original question, American accents I love anyway though I slightly prefer Canadian, I don't know where she's from but the accent of the lead in 'The Closer', her voice really grates on me, the Texan drawl that is stereotyped is also irritating but thats not limited to Texas. Also I watched a programme with some people from SC in and the 3 women in it kept saying 'home' but it sounded like HUUME and it was getting right on my nerves.

Veganniee

However, British people always sound smart no matter what they say :blushing:

I suggest visiting some parts of London, and also the West Country. The West Country accent especially is just... well, it makes you sound totally stupid and inbred - trust me, I'm very well versed. :laugh:

As someone from Essex I suspect you might mean me as well! I love this thread. These people will think I sound clever!

Can't remember who it was, but someone said that they thought it odd someone would pronounce pawn and porn the same way. Everyone in England does exactly that. I am from very near London and say it. My husband is from Yorkshire and says it too. I'm trying to imagine how you could pronounce them differently and failing ..... Anyone?

ejohndrow

Most pleasant, just a neutral accent that doesn't really sound like anything. I like clean diction and being easily understood.
Most annoying, a deep southern accent. Yes, I'm from MS. I find it hard on the ears as well. And no, I don't have one.

This, except I' m from UT not MS.

dhakiyya

I was just about to post to say that there probably aren't many non-US comments on here because while *we* hear a clear difference in our accents, to most who aren't from the US, they will all sound close to the same, or else at least someone who isn't from here won't know how to distinguish which one is which -- and I just saw a few comments on here that seem to support that.

I would imagine it's similar to the fact that most of us have the impression that every "British" or other accent is the same, when really there are many, many variations to them. We very rarely differentiate which specific accent we like because either we don't know what the difference is or don't hear it at all.

That being said, I'm a total sucker for the one I just mentioned above (and don't forget an Irish accent, too :blushing:).

That is true, I'm British and I can kind of tell roughly between some USA accents, but my husband who's American can tell them apart much better than me, and I can tell the different British accents apart much better than him. I'd be surprised though if an American couldn't tell the difference between North and South British though. They're so different I can barely understand Geordie (i.e. accent from Newcastle) and I'm from London. My husband can't understand west country (i.e. British south west) accents or Welsh accents. I struggle to tell the difference between some USA accents and Canadian accents.

In Britain even the same city can have several accents, for example in London there's clear differences between North and South London, cockney, some areas of London like Brixton and also in places around London, e.g. Surrey, Essex, Kent etc, they all have different sounding accents but people from up North can't usually hear the differences between them. And Birmingham has different dialects within the same city, for example in some parts they say "am you...?" and "you am..." instead of "are you...?" and "you are..." I lived there for a while and constantly had people asking me "Am you from London?" LOL But not all Brummies talk the same. I heard it's the same in New York, i.e. several different accents in one city.

Also I'm quite surprised that some people think they don't have an accent! Everyone has an accent, you just don't notice your own because most people you know speak like that and it sounds normal to you. Everyone's accent sounds normal to them.

And I also LOVE the Irish accent ............not that there's just one of them!! The one I like I think is from Dublin. But I'm not Irish so I don't know the accents that well.

AmandaCaswell1982

I'm from NJ so I feel the same! haha... and only people who were raised near bigger cities or people who want to sound like Snookie sound like that. When I tell people I'm from NJ I almost always hear- "You don't have an accent!" Seriously most people dont. UGH! Thanks for acknowledging that most "Joisey" people probably hang their heads in shame! haha... We aren't like her!

❤B☩❤

@PHOENIX1401

Was this really necessary? It was just their opinion. which they were as free to give as you were. Yikes! Let's be kind to one another, people

You may be interested to know that not EVERYONE realizes that there are different types of Texan accents. So please refrain from name-calling. It is so unbecoming.....and definitely NOT in the spirit of MyFitnessPal

kouzzzz

aaaaeeeee oooooo, I'm from New York...I don't have an accent.

fuhgeddaboudit

lol

kyle4jem

I love the peeps that claim they don't have an accent... everybody speaks with an accent, otherwise it wouldn't be speech! :laugh:

Obviously there are as many american accents as there are counties and states in the USA. Most non-Americans are used to the Californian accent or the New York (Italian-American) accent as well as the Southern Belle (Dolly Parton) accent.

I can usually tell generally whether someone's from New England, New York/New Jersey, The SE, or the West. We have offices in Dallas and Phoenix and there are folks I speak with regularly who all have very different accents.

My own accent changes depending on who I'm talking to. I was brought up in Ayrshire, Scotland and have a west-coast accent when I'm speaking with other Scots. Having lived in England for the past 15 yrs I also have developed a BBC accent which I use with non-Scots which is more neutral but nevertheless distinctively Scots, but much more universally understood.. then again speaking English is technically a foreign language for me as the Lallans Scots I spoke growing up has a different grammar and vocabulary (as I discovered once I left Scotland and travelled the world).

When I speak Dutch I have an accent that has a Rotterdam-lilt. Not sure what I sound like when I speak German or Swedish, but it's probably a slightly foreign one (but certainly not English... probably more Dutch... :laugh:)

I love it when native-Dutch speakers speak English and I can usually tell the difference between the Scandinavians when they speak English too.

slay0r

So are we agreed that American's find the English accent hot? I'm so heading to the USA!

Oh and on topic, Ohio/texas (sorry if there's more than 1 accent) seem to get on my nerves a bit, so does the New Yorker accent I seem to have heard a lot! I seemed to not mind Florida or LA too much..

raindropwishes

However, British people always sound smart no matter what they say :blushing:

I suggest visiting some parts of London, and also the West Country. The West Country accent especially is just... well, it makes you sound totally stupid and inbred - trust me, I'm very well versed. :laugh:

As someone from Essex I suspect you might mean me as well! I love this thread. These people will think I sound clever!

Can't remember who it was, but someone said that they thought it odd someone would pronounce pawn and porn the same way. Everyone in England does exactly that. I am from very near London and say it. My husband is from Yorkshire and says it too. I'm trying to imagine how you could pronounce them differently and failing ..... Anyone?

Me & my mum are sat there talking about pawn and porn now. :laugh: and yes, I mean Essex too hehe

stayxtrue

hottest is definitely UK or australia.
i find any sort of asian to be annoying...sorry. i may be biased tho because i was at work once and i couldn't understand this oriental lady very well. then she got mad, and said i was stupid and didn't know anything.

Hahaha you have it right

jbahrami

I'm from Maryland and can't stand a Jersey accent.

hm_day

I have a really awkward kind of accent. I grew up North of Boston, MA in a small town where we literally have our own accents, separate from the typical "Pahk the Cah in Hahvad Yahd" accent unique to the Boston area. On top of the "Glostonian" accent (grew up in Gloucester), I have a bit of an Irish accent that sometimes comes out. So I definitely have a few accents working against me (or with me?)

rml_16

Americans don't have accents! ;-)

I keeed. I keeed.

I don't really find any of them annoying. I do like a nice Southern drawl, though. Not the Deliverance hick kind of Southern drawl. More the Southern belle type.

And I see we've moved on. I love a British accent. Though I watch so many British TV shows and movies and seem to run into so many British people that it no longer sounds like an accent to me!

HeidiMightyRawr

I'm not great with distinguishing between American accents very well. To me there's a general US accent, (the ones you get on most american comedies), which doesn't sound that strong that I'd find most pleasant....
...and then there's the strong southern accent which are the ones I find the most annoying.

I realise there's more than 2 different accents but being not from America I can't find them myself.

To the person saying all British people sound smart. You obviously haven't been to some parts of England ! :laugh: People have already mentioned the West country and Essex. Also, a lot of the chavs you have here you definitely wouldn't think they sounded smart!

Jacquibennett

However, British people always sound smart no matter what they say :blushing:

I suggest visiting some parts of London, and also the West Country. The West Country accent especially is just... well, it makes you sound totally stupid and inbred - trust me, I'm very well versed. :laugh:

As someone from Essex I suspect you might mean me as well! I love this thread. These people will think I sound clever!

Can't remember who it was, but someone said that they thought it odd someone would pronounce pawn and porn the same way. Everyone in England does exactly that. I am from very near London and say it. My husband is from Yorkshire and says it too. I'm trying to imagine how you could pronounce them differently and failing ..... Anyone?

Nope, Porn and pawn sound exactly the same, in my head anyway as I'm stuck at work and don't want people to think I've gone crazy by saying what would sound like the same thing over and over again out loud!! Lol.

I'm from South East London (the outskirts) and can sound smart when I make the effort but generally I think I sound common as muck! Haha. However there are a lot of accents in England (and if you talk Britain then there's Scottish and Welsh too!) Some do make you sound dim I'll admit that much. My boyfriend is from the midlands and we always argue over how you should say bath and path and glass etc!! I prefer adding the invisible 'r'.

As for Americans accents, I like them all. Have never heard one that made me think 'yuk, who would want to sound like that?!' . Accents from up north in England however..........lol.

Veganniee

Me & my mum are sat there talking about pawn and porn now. :laugh: and yes, I mean Essex too hehe

You are talking about the cockney type Essex accent. You get that the nearer to London you go. I'm not quite like that. More ordinary I suppose.

jpowell3976

I was born and raised in Texas (Houston & surrounding areas). Unfortunately I have only left the state twice in my 31 years, but I can tell you that while I don't think I have an accent...or at least a heavy one...I do...lol! Whenever I would visit my dad in Oklahoma, people would just smile at me while I spoke to them...whether what I was saying called for a smile or not...lol! Same thing happened when we visited New Mexico on vacation. :laugh:

My favorites? English, Austrailan, and nice southern drawl gets me every time. I will NEVER forget the time I had to call tech support for my internet services a few years back and the man on the other end of the phone! He didn't even get through the "Thank you for calling (company name) tech support. My name is (blah blah). How can I help you today?" before I was all giggles and had to ask where he was!!! Mississippi. I had A LOT of internet issues that summer...lol!!!