English Accents (American, British, Irish, etc...)

A Pontypridd accent isn't as strong an accent as most Valleys accents though.

Not to people within Wales perhaps, but I've known people from outside Wales who have sometimes struggled with what a person has said. I only picked Ponty because of the connection to famous people that people from outside Wales may know.

*pops in to add her bits*
In like scottish accents :D

I was watching Gangs of New York last night and realised, once again, that hardly anyone can do a credible Irish accent. What is it about our accent that makes people imitate it either with a weird Scottish accent, or even worse, do some horrible "top of the mornin to ya" accent that people associate with leprachauns and Tom Cruise in that film Far and Away....

:rotfl: you have reminded me why I don't ever "do" accents - my scottish always turns into a bad irish accent... my only passable Irish accent is when I say "drink" like Father Jack out of the "Father Ted" telly series.

I had heard Gangs of New York was a good film so I tried to watch it. I really did try my very, very best. Is that seriously what people think we sound like? They sounded absolutely nothing like any Irish person I have ever encountered in my life. And I've been to Cork. Several times. Oh the embarrassment of watching those 30 seconds. People can copy English accents, Welsh, Scottish, US, Australlian, South African but they really can't do an Irish accent.

~TheInvisibleFiend~

Thank you thank you thank you. Why can't no one in Hollywood do a decent Irish accent. They all seem to end up sounding like Darby O'Gill. Take Brad Pitt for example. The man spends over 6 months in and around the North to pick up our accent and even makes friends with a family from West Belfast, invited them to Jennifer Aniston and his wedding. He still didn't get it right and I'm not talking about that mess of an accent in Snatch either.

Well enough ranting from me

:rotfl: you have reminded me why I don't ever "do" accents - my scottish always turns into a bad irish accent... my only passable Irish accent is when I say "drink" like Father Jack out of the "Father Ted" telly series.

Hahah, I never even try to do accents, because I'll make an incredible fool out of myself.

Today I was reading my Prisoner of Azkaban British edition, and (I've never read it before) it said "torch" instead of "flashlight", but it took me a while to figure out that it meant "flashlight." I was sitting there like "HE'S GOING TO BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN! WHY HAVE I NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE?!" But then it hit me that it meant "flashlight," I forgot that that word was different.
ANd then I laughed at myself :D.

I'm American, but any UK accent to me is the BOMB! I love it and can almost get any of them down, but the Scotish one is a bit tricky for me, :p. I would switch a brit anyday though!

I had heard Gangs of New York was a good film so I tried to watch it. I really did try my very, very best. Is that seriously what people think we sound like? They sounded absolutely nothing like any Irish person I have ever encountered in my life. And I've been to Cork. Several times. Oh the embarrassment of watching those 30 seconds. People can copy English accents, Welsh, Scottish, US, Australlian, South African but they really can't do an Irish accent.

~TheInvisibleFiend~
I suspect very few actors can do a foreign accent well enough to convince someone who speaks in that accent. Certainly very few pull off a convincing English accent.

In fairness though, LOADS of actors and actresses to very good English accents. An English accent is easier to imitate than ours for some reason, I don't know why. Johnny Depp in Chocolat (mmmmmm) does a decent Irish accent and he always does great accents- in Finding Neverland for example.
You're right about Gangs of New York though it ruins the film. I don't know how Leo can do a great South African accent and not an Irish accent!

I don't know how Leo can do a great South African accent and not an Irish accent!

I think a South African accent is easier than Irish, you just harden your sounds, and shorten certain words. You've also got Dutch and German to help you out, whereas Irish only have Irish. The danger is that you can slip into sounding Australian/New Zealand.

If you want to hear a really strong Scottish accent - listen to Billy Connolly. My mother used to love him and I would just stare at the TV thinking to myself, what the flip is he saying???

If you want to hear a really strong Scottish accent - listen to Billy Connolly. My mother used to love him and I would just stare at the TV thinking to myself, what the flip is he saying???

Ah! I love Billy Connolly.

I'm able to understand accents very quickly, but as for serious imitation :lol:

I see you are from Devon, I'd say your accent is as hard to imitate as an Irish one? LIke for people from America or somewhere, who wouldn't be used to hearing it. I love that accent!

When I went to the US (Im from New Zealand) EVERYONE thought that I was from somewhere in England. I can't see the resemblance at all in the accents!

Buffybot wrote
In fairness though, LOADS of actors and actresses to very good English accents.
I'm sure they sound right to you (not all actors are as dismally poor as Dick Van ****) but they rarely sound convincing to me. I guess that whilst I would find it difficult to recognise the finer nuances of Irish accents so an Irish person would find the same with English accents

edit I just love the censor:lol: :lol:

Yeah, loads of actors and actresses do British accents. In Elizabeth town, Orlando Bloom had to pull off an American accent and he said that doing that everyday tired him. I actually think that it's because our grammer is not as good as their's :p. English American is also the hardest to pull off, (even for those who speak it like me! :D) Even I can pull off a decent (I haven't exactly heard a recording or anything so I don't know if it's any better) accent on English Accents. I'll be having a normal conversation with my mom (or mum) and a few sentences will come out with an accent. Then she gets mad and says that I spend to much time watching Harry Potter and all the other British Movies (theres hardly any other movies I watch besides that :D) and need to stop. Well, I better stop. It actually sounds as if I'm boasting instead of talking about accents. Sorry.

I didn't 'buy' Orlando Blooms accent in Elizabeth Town, though you must give him credit, it wasn't exactly terrible either.

I think it would be a lot harder to do an English to an American one. All the ones I've heard are just over emphasising the R's and sound...whiney?? It seems really hard to pulloff is what I'm saying

I know what you mean. I have a friend here who tries to do it, umm. Yeah, she needs more practice before she goes out doing it in public :rolleyes: But I didn't even know that Orlando Bloom was British until Elizabeth Town! :lol: I'll cut him a break though because it did sound decent in some parts. But I was shocked that he was British.

Its difficult for any actor to hold an accent *cough* Sam in Lord of the Rings 'they're still out there' *cough*. I guess it is just easier to pick up if you speak with that accent yourself.

All the ones I've heard are just over emphasising the R's and sound...whiney??

Yep, all 'fake' English accents sounds whiney, squeaky or for some reason rather nasal.

Do you Brits think that Johnny Depp does a good English accent? I mean..that's sort of what he's doing in POTC right?

If it's something crazy, don't yell at me! I'm only American!
I guess he IS a pirate, but to me it sounds English.

He does mostly British movies because he can do one. :drool: So, I think he does a pretty good job.

Oh, and not all of them sound whiney, I have quiet a few friends, (and even a few teachers which are clowns) who can do wide vorieties of accents and English is their best!

Do you Brits think that Johnny Depp does a good English accent? I mean..that's sort of what he's doing in POTC right?
His accent in PotC is questionable to say the least, but he gives such an amazing performance I'll forgive him! :D He couldn't quite decide where in Britain he came from!

His accent in PotC is questionable to say the least, but he gives such an amazing performance I'll forgive him! :D He couldn't quite decide where in Britain he came from!


:rotfl: well I thought the point of his accent was to sound like Keith Richards - so IMO he nailed it because I don't think Keith knows where he is from :rotfl:

:rotfl: well I thought the point of his accent was to sound like Keith Richards - so IMO he nailed it because I don't think Keith knows where he is from :rotfl:
:rotfl: :rotfl:

I thought he nailed it too, personally!

Do you Brits think that Johnny Depp does a good English accent? I mean..that's sort of what he's doing in POTC right?

He has said in interviews that Jack Sparrow is based on Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones, who by the way is supposed to have a cameo on the next film

Oh and yeah he definitly nailed the accent

He has said in interviews that Jack Sparrow is based on Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones, who by the way is supposed to have a cameo on the next film

Oh and yeah he definitly nailed the accent

Haha, yeah, reading everyone's comments just now I remembered that he did model him after Keith Richards. But I don't know where Keith's from exactly anyway :p!

Haha, actually..besides knowledgeable people, I would imagine that Americans who try to do English accents don't have a clue where they're trying to be from either! Teehe, silly us. If I ever try..I just..I don't know. I try to not say "r"'s or something..not move my mouth. I have no idea what goes on when I attempt accents.

Whatever it is, it goes horribly wrong.

Keith Richards is English yeah. Johnny Depp always does great accents I think. Even his Irish accent in Chocolat is good, like I said. And his Scottish accent in Finding Neverland.

I see you are from Devon, I'd say your accent is as hard to imitate as an Irish one?

As you say, I live in Devon but I don't have a Devon accent - I can't even imitate a Devon accent - I was born in South Africa so my accent is a mixture of South African and English...but I think it's slightly posh English (my accent is NOT posh) because my mother spoke quite clearly, and my husband does not come from Devon and although he has lived here most of his life he too does not have a Devon accent.

Do you Brits think that Johnny Depp does a good English accent? I mean..that's sort of what he's doing in POTC right?

I think Johnny Depp is very good at the accents he does.

I've been in scrooge (Aka a christmas carol) And thoes people have the worst attempts at accents i have ever herd. i know that its sopposed to be the very old school, lower class, accent (forgot what is is called)
Then theirs the Old school snooty higher class accent (sorry i dont want to offend anyone but i cant think of any other way to describe it)
Other than that im from the west coast of america in CENTRAL new york (NOT with the nyc accent though) No body does here it seems so plain to me......
I love australian i have no idea why, but i always did.

I did lots of plays when I was your age - the best thing I was ever told was that if you can't get close to the accent then keep your own (unless the whole cast does it) because it will be more believable to the audience.

most people consider a Cockney accent to be "low class" (just watch "My Fair Lady"). I ran into a gentleman with a lovely cockney/london accent in one of the London Museums - to this very day I don't have the foggiest what he was saying:lol:

for high class - I presume you are meaning "received pronunciation" which is the English that many spoke when broadcasting - this was when they didn't really like regional accents.

I admit to being a fangirl for any and all British accents. I say British, knowing that I am including Ireland and Scotland (I think, yes I'm pretty sure) in this area. And the Australian and New Zealand accents are pretty great too. As are most African accents I've heard. Pretty much any accent that's not my own gets me interested. I love the New Yowk accent the Boston (pahk the cah in the Hahvahd yahd) accent, the Northern Minnesota (booht) accent... I'm pretty much a hopeless case.

But at least I've gone through the first step and admitted it to myself!! :D

Wah! I want to talk that way!

As you say, I live in Devon but I don't have a Devon accent - I can't even imitate a Devon accent - I was born in South Africa so my accent is a mixture of South African and English...but I think it's slightly posh English (my accent is NOT posh) because my mother spoke quite clearly, and my husband does not come from Devon and although he has lived here most of his life he too does not have a Devon accent.
Wow, someone else from Devon! How cool! I have lived here all my life and don't have much of an accent, though my Mum does and so does my Gran. My gran still calls girls "maids" and stuff like that! :lol:

I never really thought I had much of a Southern accent until I went to the UK last summer. Everyone would comment on my accent or ask me if I was Texas.. is that the only southern state that most people in the UK know about? Because it shouldn't even be Southern.... more like southwestern. Also when I went there I found it was extremely hard to understand a lot of people ESPECIALLY those from Liverpool!!! When I was in Liverpool, I learned to just smile and nod my head... I had to keep asking people to repeat things sloooowlllyyyy or asking them to enunciate... I felt like an idiot.

What kind of accent does the GEICO Auto Insurance Gecko have?

I have been watching a program on the Animal Planet Network called RSPCA in which 19 trainees from around England (only?) are learning to be police officers for animals. The most interesting thing about this program, besides the commentary from the students themselves, is they are far enough into their training to be in the field talking/working with local experts.

It is really fun to hear all the different accents, as they are following several students a show, and they keep switching locales of the incidents (all have been in England).

I couldn't tell you now what the different accents are, but at least, I can begin to hear the differences. I also have the "closed captioning" on so I can "understand" all the words. This show has been very enlightening and fun. :D

I never really thought I had much of a Southern accent until I went to the UK last summer. Everyone would comment on my accent or ask me if I was Texas.. is that the only southern state that most people in the UK know about? Because it shouldn't even be Southern.... more like southwestern. Also when I went there I found it was extremely hard to understand a lot of people ESPECIALLY those from Liverpool!!! When I was in Liverpool, I learned to just smile and nod my head... I had to keep asking people to repeat things sloooowlllyyyy or asking them to enunciate... I felt like an idiot.

could be no more than they think you sound a little bit like George W - also Texas is a pretty big state so they may be going with the odds. But I am with you I would never call Texas southern! But that has more to do with the American Civil war boundaries. Texas is well Texas...:shrug:
:lol: a lot of people from England have the same problem in Liverpool - but once you learn to catch a few words its ok - as I think I said before it has been known for television companies to put up captioning in England when they have filmed some of the Liverpool Football team.

What kind of accent does the GEICO Auto Insurance Gecko have? um English and I think London though would have to hear it a few more times.

I have been watching a program on the Animal Planet Network called RSPCA in which 19 trainees from around England (only?) are learning to be police officers for animals. The most interesting thing about this program, besides the commentary from the students themselves, is they are far enough into their training to be in the field talking/working with local experts.

It is really fun to hear all the different accents, as they are following several students a show, and they keep switching locales of the incidents (all have been in England).

I couldn't tell you now what the different accents are, but at least, I can begin to hear the differences. I also have the "closed captioning" on so I can "understand" all the words. This show has been very enlightening and fun. :D Sounds brilliant - will have to try to catch it.

I admit to being a fangirl for any and all British accents. I say British, knowing that I am including Ireland and Scotland (I think, yes I'm pretty sure) in this area. And the Australian and New Zealand accents are pretty great too. As are most African accents I've heard. Pretty much any accent that's not my own gets me interested. I love the New Yowk accent the Boston (pahk the cah in the Hahvahd yahd) accent, the Northern Minnesota (booht) accent... I'm pretty much a hopeless case.

But at least I've gone through the first step and admitted it to myself!! :D

Wah! I want to talk that way!

only 11 more steps and you are cured! :rotfl:

Wow, someone else from Devon! How cool! I have lived here all my life and don't have much of an accent, though my Mum does and so does my Gran. My gran still calls girls "maids" and stuff like that!

There is/was someone else also from Devon, but I can't remember what their name is/was or whether they are still on this forum.

Do you call people from "up country" "vurriners" (foreigners)?

(I'm not the other one from Devon, but I know the area fairly well.)

Do you call people from "up country" "vurriners" (foreigners)?

(I'm not the other one from Devon, but I know the area fairly well.)

:rotfl: I don't personally, but yes...there are a few of the old skool Devonshire people that do!

Do you call people from "up country" "vurriners" (foreigners)?

If they were coming to visit we would call them "grockels" (not sure of spelling but rhymes with cockels)

If they were coming to visit we would call them "grockels" (not sure of spelling but rhymes with cockels)
Yeah, that's true! But there are still some down here who do call Northerners "foreigners" :lol:

Would just like to jump in (a bit late, I know) and say I thought Johnny Depp did a great job at a British (cos I don't think he's doing a particular accent if you get what I mean) accent in POTC. Or maybe I just listen to his lovely voice and become biased...mmmm... But no I think he is very good at doing accents. His Scottish accent in Finding Neverland is very good. Not overexaggerated as often happens...

I personally am very bad at distingushing accents. Like I can tell a Scottish accent from an English one and an Irish one but within those regions, I can't tell the difference. I can only distinguish a Glaswegian accent but that's only because I'm from Glasgow :lol:

well I thought the point of his accent was to sound like Keith Richards - so IMO he nailed it because I don't think Keith knows where he is from
Ah! I just watched PotC2 again and you are right! :lol:

[QUOTE=RiverIsis;4480862]
most people consider a Cockney accent to be "low class" (just watch "My Fair Lady"). I ran into a gentleman with a lovely cockney/london accent in one of the London Museums - to this very day I don't have the foggiest what he was saying:lol:
QUOTE]

Thanks so mutch the name Cockney was on the tip of my tounge but i couldnt remember:tu:

Anyone here have parents that have accents? My mother is from Luxembourg and I honestly don't hear her accent much at all. However, everyone else does and she's constantly getting questions about where she's from.
I lived in the South for many many years, and when I told an aquaintance this, he said I didn't have an accent. It made me very proud because I had tried my hardest not to get the accent. Sometimes I slip, though, and say something in a Southern accent.

My Dad is from Cambridge but I don't really hear his accent unless I compare it to a really 'Aussie ' accent.
I know that he plays it up when flirting with women :lol:

Well, my dad is British born but has lived in South Africa for most of his life. He says he still has a British accent (would have got it from his parents of course) but both my sister and I agree he couldn't sound more South African if he tried!

I have a friend (living in the US) with a dual citizenship in Austrailia and Italy. Her parents have amazing Australian accents (ok maybe I'm just partial to Australian accents, but whatever) and her grand parents (on both sides) must have heavy Italian accents (though I have never met them, they live in Austrailia now). Just thought that that must be one interesting family, accent wise.

Well, my family is of MANY mixed races so we don't have a set accent accept the Kansan accent :everyone has an accent, even if you live in the same country!: but I know that thats the way it is cause when we moved from Texas everyone used to stare at us and it seemed like we had funny accents, but after a while we grew acustomed to the accent and never noticed the change.

I live in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA. Not quite the "South" but we did have the capital of the CSA here during the civil war! Anyway, my daughters and I have no southern accent but....
My youngest daughter says, "Hey!" when she greets you which is a North Carolina thing.
My oldest daughter sounds like she is European aristocracy (all those years living in France?).
My middle daughter sounds just like me. Exactly.
And I, supposedly with no discernible accent, sometimes slip into "Southern" grammatical forms like the terrible combination of "might could" and I have been known to say "you all" not "y'all" when referring to a large group of people.

Something of an area is bound to rub off on you eventually.

British accent is stronger than American. Have any of you heard Singaporean accent? Singlish that it. I'm Singaporean and I speak Singlish.

Goodness reading this thread has got my head spinning. Well it does give me a reason why I'm glad to be American-not so much fuss over the intricacies of accents!! I never knew Brits placed such an emphasis (heh) on these things. Well, I sort of knew but only from watching really old movies like My Fair Lady. :p

I mean, gosh, in America there are really about 4 accents max and most people do not have accents aside from the standard American accent. I'm from Texas and while we do talk a bit slower down here (it's the weather, you try talking fast when it's sweltering outside) most people here, contrary to popular belief, do not have southern accents. Most of us have the typical American accent with I would say maybe 10-20% having a slight Western accent-distinct from the Southern accent.

Southern: (picture Scarlett O'Hara) "Mah goohdness, dahlin', but this is j-ust lovely whetha."
Western: (picture a cowboy) "Thank yew ma'am. Y'all have a nice day, y'hear now?"

Those are really the only two accents I run into occasionally around this region, but like I said the typical American accent is much more common, with a good number of Western accents and very few southern.

It's funny how the U.S. is a large country with very few accents and Britian has so many in comparision isn't it? I wonder why that is.

Is an irish accent really distinctive?i dont notice mine but when ever ive been in another country they know where im from straight away.and in other parts of ireland they know the county im from straight away

i love irish and scottich accents...i talk british

^^ I love Irish accents and yes I think they are quite distinctive.
My nan was French and whenever I hear a French accent I always think of her because I miss it so much.
I'm not sure what kind of accent I have, I live in Essex, England but I'm from Buckinghamshire.
My other favourite accents are Northern English, Australian, Scottish, Italian and Welsh.

I really like australian and welsh accents,i think its to do with the fact that it sounds more like singing than talking:lol:

I don't have a favorite accent, but there are a few that I don't like very much. There are a few that are just too nasal or something. I have mostly a "standard American" accent with a few Southernisms here and there, but when I get really tired or stressed, I really do sound Southern. I don't try to hide it or anything, it's just how it happens :shrug:

[QUOTE=Madron;4300560]I'm surprised that no British member has complained about the term "British accent" yet. ;) QUOTE]

Technically, I dont think there is such a thing as a "British Accent", you can tell if someone comes from the UK but they are mostly dialects rather than "accents". Different areas use different words for things and the pronunciation of certain words round here confuses even me sometimes!

I'm from Carlisle in Cumbria (just before the border of Scotland), and you can tell which estate people come from within Carlisle just by their "accent". Then there is West Cumbria etc and every town/city has a different dialect.

Its mad! (you mmight be able to google it and come up with some well known phrases)

I love the Irish accent though, and some American accents too (Southern) and Italian accents are just fantastic!

Lou

Dumbledorerulz: which county are you from because if it's Cork/ Kerry/ Limerick or actually anywhere outside Dublin accents are pretty obvious. All those culchies...

TheInvisibleF:you're only saying that cause you're in dublin! im in cork and we're not all culchies down here!!!!:grumble:

Goodness reading this thread has got my head spinning. Well it does give me a reason why I'm glad to be American-not so much fuss over the intricacies of accents!! I never knew Brits placed such an emphasis (heh) on these things. Well, I sort of knew but only from watching really old movies like My Fair Lady. :p

I mean, gosh, in America there are really about 4 accents max and most people do not have accents aside from the standard American accent. I'm from Texas and while we do talk a bit slower down here (it's the weather, you try talking fast when it's sweltering outside) most people here, contrary to popular belief, do not have southern accents. Most of us have the typical American accent with I would say maybe 10-20% having a slight Western accent-distinct from the Southern accent.

Southern: (picture Scarlett O'Hara) "Mah goohdness, dahlin', but this is j-ust lovely whetha."
Western: (picture a cowboy) "Thank yew ma'am. Y'all have a nice day, y'hear now?"

Those are really the only two accents I run into occasionally around this region, but like I said the typical American accent is much more common, with a good number of Western accents and very few southern.

It's funny how the U.S. is a large country with very few accents and Britian has so many in comparision isn't it? I wonder why that is.

Native English speakers in United States have probably dozens of easily distinguishable accents, and perhaps hundreds if you want to get really technical and spend time pointing out the differences. And it's actually much more difficult to say what all the varieties of American English have in common.

I'm English and I think American accents are ok, except for the relly annoying squeaky ones. I think French and Italian accents are lovely. I hear quite a few Welsh accents were I live and i think Scottish accents are ok except when they're really thick. I won't pass comment on Irish accents(lets just say i woul struggle to hold a connversation with an Irish person).

Native English speakers in United States have probably dozens of easily distinguishable accents, and perhaps hundreds if you want to get really technical and spend time pointing out the differences. And it's actually much more difficult to say what all the varieties of American English have in common.

It's true, but I would say that overall in America the accents are much more similar-IE it's hard to run across a fellow American who you completely can't understand. And being born in a particular region doesn't seem to guarantee that you'll have an accent associated with it. I sort of got the impression from this thread that Brits have a catalogue of accents and its much more a part of the culture and family history, etc. It's probably just because America has a shorter history with the english language, I'd guess.

TheInvisibleF:you're only saying that cause you're in dublin! im in cork and we're not all culchies down here!!!!:grumble:
I was right boy! I was right! The Kark axent is a bit of a giveaway really. Not a culchie eh? What are yay then? A C fa-r?

Like OMG maybe if you come up to Dublin we could like teach you how to like speak proper, roysh? You could travel by dorsh and everything.

Or there's the option to head to the other side of the river with yisser friends.

~TheInvisibleFi-end~

Hey! well im Irish too! and im in loooove with the scottish accent...*drools*... think sean biggerstaff (oliver wood in hp1) ...*sigh*..

I've have a "what do you call it accent" . I'm from Missouri but, I don't sound like a lot of Missourians. It's more.... I don't know what. :D Oh, has anyone ever heard someone from Kentucky? now thats an accent! :p

What is A C fa-r?! should i want to be one?!!:huh:

I've have a "what do you call it accent" . I'm from Missouri but, I don't sound like a lot of Missourians. It's more.... I don't know what. :D Oh, has anyone ever heard someone from Kentucky? now thats an accent! :p Yes, I think the majority of people have heard people from Kentucky - Ashley Judd, George Clooney, Johnny Depp to start. ;)

It's true, but I would say that overall in America the accents are much more similar-IE it's hard to run across a fellow American who you completely can't understand. And being born in a particular region doesn't seem to guarantee that you'll have an accent associated with it. I sort of got the impression from this thread that Brits have a catalogue of accents and its much more a part of the culture and family history, etc. It's probably just because America has a shorter history with the english language, I'd guess.

I think you are along the right lines, I guess to explain it - In my experience there are a huge range of accents in the British Isles. There are also many colloquiallisms as well for each accent... so although you may think you get the accent down - more often than not I have found that a colloquiallism will out you! :lol:

In the US I have noticed that you can pretty much define an accent by a larger region and then get more specific to certain areas. IMO the same holds true in the British Isles its just that the distances to a change in accent are much shorter than in the US.

I'm British and i don't think i have an accent most of the time compared to certain accents in Britain. Obviously i have though and since going to uni i notice different accents even more cause every one is from all over the place. The best accent has got to be the Irish, i love it. American accents are really cool to anything from the norm i think is interesting.

Being a U.S. citizen, I probably couldn't tell the difference between a lot of the accents in my own country, let alone another country. I've never really talked to people from Western U.S., let alone to people from other countries. Like I couldn't tell you the difference between an Irish accent and a Welsh accent but I could probably tell the difference between an Irish and an English.
The problem is lack of exposed to those kinds of accents for me.

Yes, I think the majority of people have heard people from Kentucky - Ashley Judd, George Clooney, Johnny Depp to start. ;)
Yeah, but Johnny barely even has the accent. Normally, he plays a British character, and he just adapts to it. Then you have him playing Willy Wonka...that's not Kentucky or British :p

I think I love Scottish accents the most, especially Ewan McGregor's :love: Also, i think i love any British accent as well.

I'm so glad this thread came back up. I have recently become very interested in accents and found a few things online to further my curiousity.

The first is a the Speech Accent Archive. It's a a project from George Mason University that askes participants to read the same paragraph so that they can compare accents from around the world. I don't know if they have accurately pegged the accents as far as geography goes. I've listened to the British accents and they almost sound the same, but it's possible they haven't had any volunteers with a specific geographical accent.

The Speech Accent Archive (http://accent.gmu.edu/)

The second is specifically for American accents. It links a couple quizzes this guy created to identify your accent then goes through and explains the different accents.

American Accents (http://freeshells.ch/~xavier/survey.html)

I have a Mid-land accent which means I have no accent in particular. This was confirmed by a friend of mine working towards his masters in theatre (he studies accents). It's the accent most American actors have or try to have since it's neutral. I find it weird since most of my family live in Wisconsin and have strong northern accents (my dad does as well, but only when he's up north), but I've lived in the south most of my life. It seems I've been caught in the middle.

I'm Canadian, and what I find to interesting about Canada is that we have the second biggest country in the world based on area, and yet there are relatively few accents here. There is the Newfie accent of people that live in Newfoundland, which i believe is influenced by the scottish accent because many Scottish people live there, and you do find that when you go anywhere on the east coast or even very far north in Ontario there will be a subtle accent, but everywhere else is pretty much the same. There is also the French-Canadian accent in Quebec, but that is a given considering they speak a different language. Anyway, I guess i was just wondering what causes accent to develop and why a country so big doesnt seem to have aquired many dialects or accents, whereas a country which is much smaller in area, such as England has so many.

My favourite accent would definitely have to be English. But I do also love Irish, and Australian. I love watching British television because the accent is so appealing. I've been working on my british accent lately for a play im auditioning for and I'm finding it very hard! How do British people do it?

When I go to England I am always shocked to hear people say I have Scots accent which to be honest I just don't hear!

What is A C fa-r?! should i want to be one?!!:huh:
It is a terrible phonetical 4 written when I really should not have been allowed near a computer :whistle:
Apparently, after the whole D4 (Dublin 4 - posh area in south county Dublin) thing people in Cork based around the Montinotti (sp?) area started saying they were "C4 to the core". Roysh...

~TheInvisibleFiend~

It is a terrible phonetical 4 written when I really should not have been allowed near a computer :whistle:
Apparently, after the whole D4 (Dublin 4 - posh area in south county Dublin) thing people in Cork based around the Montinotti (sp?) area started saying they were "C4 to the core". Roysh...

~TheInvisibleFiend~

oh! my! god! like no way can they have a pretend D4 in Cork! thats loike, so not cool!

:lol:

I love this thread. Everyone is so lost with accents tis funny. Im fairly good at discerning accents myself. My latest project is the be able to nail the Aussie/ Kiwi differences, Im getting there though.

What accent can people not understand a word of? For me its a Yorkshire one (in England). I remember a Yorkshire man in Spain talking to me and all I could do was smile and nodd :lol:

Yeah, but Johnny barely even has the accent. Normally, he plays a British character, and he just adapts to it. Then you have him playing Willy Wonka...that's not Kentucky or British :p


oh quite agreed - however, the "member from Missouri" was attempting a political slight upon another state from which a certain Mr Depp was born and raised a fair few years, in my humble opinion, which indeed is not the intention of this thread nor this board. :relax:

What accent can people not understand a word of? For me its a Yorkshire one (in England). I remember a Yorkshire man in Spain talking to me and all I could do was smile and nodd

:lol: well I just think in Yorkshire anything that starts with a vowel actually starts with "t" such t'internet, t'up... but otherwise the accent that throws me the most is a very fast Glaswegian one. I definitely look like a bobble head listening to someone speaking with that one.

I simply adore Australian accents! I could listen to an Aussie speak all day. But I can never quite imitate them. I’m also very fond of the British accent. Oh, and in book 4, whenever Fleur speaks, I always read her parts aloud. I love zee French!

I do like a good accent! :relax:

It is a terrible phonetical 4 written when I really should not have been allowed near a computer :whistle:
Apparently, after the whole D4 (Dublin 4 - posh area in south county Dublin) thing people in Cork based around the Montinotti (sp?) area started saying they were "C4 to the core". Roysh...

~TheInvisibleFiend~

im not from that area i've never heard that before,im in cobh we're definetly not posh down here.thanks for explaining anyway!:)

for anyone who cares by the way i like the english accent in general it's well funny

I love British accents. My friend Kate insists on marrying a guy who has an Engliush or irish accent.

Im,Aussie and have been to England, Scotland and the US and I find it easy to pick different accents and I was surprised to find that every were I went as soon as I said a word people would say "Your Aussie arent you"....Is it that noticeable? ? and OMG did I get sick of Americans asking me to say "G'day mate"........lol

I am from Canada and Canada dosn't really have that many accents. We have sort of a scottish accent in the east coast of Canada, and a French accent but ofcourse we speak another language. We primarly are like the Americans. Our accent is flat but the strange thing is, I don't think I have an accent but when I went to England, people guessed that I was from Canada. My accent is a bit scottish and a bit french but mostly hust like the Americxans. I guess you can sort of call it a North American accent. My parents are from Ghana and they baiscly have sort of an English accent.

My favourite accent is English,Irish,Scottish and Brazillian. I just love it.

i'm american.. but i don't have just any old american accent.. i live in alabama so i have a southern accent.. yes... it is embarassing... but i've got to say my favorite accents are british, irish, and scottish accents... they're cool..

oh! my! god! like no way can they have a pretend D4 in Cork! thats loike, so not cool!

What accent can people not understand a word of? For me its a Yorkshire one (in England). I remember a Yorkshire man in Spain talking to me and all I could do was smile and nodd :lol:Yaw! I know. Culchies. I mean like ***? And also, Welsh accents, are like so impossible to understand. (Once you start talking D4 it's hard to stop)

im not from that area i've never heard that before,im in cobh we're definetly not posh down here.thanks for explaining anyway!:)Cobh is great! Wonderful wee place. Except it has way too many steps for one town. (Also, sorry for the insulting of the Corkishness)

Im,Aussie and have been to England, Scotland and the US and I find it easy to pick different accents and I was surprised to find that every were I went as soon as I said a word people would say "Your Aussie arent you"....Is it that noticeable? ? and OMG did I get sick of Americans asking me to say "G'day mate"........lolSorry to be the one to tell you but Australlian accents are very noticiable. I can see Irish and Scottish can be confuse and the same with Canadian and US but Australia is just there and loud a teency eency bit nagging.

It's true, but I would say that overall in America the accents are much more similar-IE it's hard to run across a fellow American who you completely can't understand. And being born in a particular region doesn't seem to guarantee that you'll have an accent associated with it. I sort of got the impression from this thread that Brits have a catalogue of accents and its much more a part of the culture and family history, etc. It's probably just because America has a shorter history with the english language, I'd guess.
Actually, I read somewhere (a book, I think) that the similarity in American accents has something to do with that back in colonial times, there were American colonists from all different parts of the British Isles (plus some from other countries) all living in the same communities, and with how very mobile those communities were (some families picked up & moved almost every generation) ...and I know that most of this is shown in my own family history (the mixing of people from all over the place* and the moving with the frontier), so the person that wrote that could be onto something.

*for example, if I remember correctly, I've got ancestors representing pretty much every region of England except the North East.

As a Canadian, i don't notice my accent and when i go down to the U.S. I don't really notice one there. Is there a difference between Canadian and American accents (Not the really pronounced ones like from the deep south or anything like that).

As a Canadian, i don't notice my accent and when i go down to the U.S. I don't really notice one there. Is there a difference between Canadian and American accents (Not the really pronounced ones like from the deep south or anything like that).

I don't think so, except I think you Canadians pronounce a few words differently.

I love Irish, Scottish, and Northern English accents (blame Doctor Who for the last one). Really, I love most accents of people in Britain. :)

The Aussie accent is terrible when listened to alongside other accents. (I am Aussie and proud so don't attack me PLEEEEZE) but it is a dreadful accent, although some American accents come close. I love Italian accents and the language is beautiful, as is Spanish. I also like british and Irish and Scottish accents. Aussie accents are easy to lose when you are surrounded by other accents.

Sorry to be the one to tell you but Australlian accents are very noticiable. I can see Irish and Scottish can be confuse and the same with Canadian and US but Australia is just there and loud a teency eency bit nagging.

Nagging.....Im hurt....lol....Ive been called a lot of things in my life but never nagging...:rotfl:...No seriously I'm a little confused (not affended)what a nagging accent is? :shrug:

Rereading it sounds so much worse than I meant it! Opps. Really I was thinking of trying to sleep on a LONG but journey and the Australlian sitting behind me. Nagging... hmm... you know that special quality Marge Simpson has in her voice? The little grate that comes out just below the sound. The way US accents sound nasal, it's a quality like that. I'll go watch more Australian tv aand see whether all this is in my head or not.

I have an American accent, and I love all the UK accents!

I live in aus. but I do not have an aussie accent- it is hard when your father's first language is spanish, second hebrew and speaks english with a mess in between both accents and a mother who, while aussie, speaks about ten languages- english with swings to every other accent in the world.
I like Irish accents best but the welsh is pretty cool too. While I am probably very biassed I find Australian accents realy bland.

I live in Australia and i never really thougth i had an accent. On american TV shows and movies when they have Aussie people they really exaggerate the aussie accent and it's like what! I dont speak like that! lol but i love the aussie accent (which i now accept as an accent) to me it sounds really airy and carefree. dunno why just does.
I like the canadian accent too. It's really drawn out and layed back.

Mine's English, but I delve further. It's cockney, with a bit of Black Country (Birmingham and the area) and a twang of Welsh that comes from being fluent in the lingo.

I have an American Accent but I love British people! I'm gonna move over there for a few years so I can develop an accent to then ill be so happy!

[QUOTE=TheInvisibleF;4603970]
Cobh is great! Wonderful wee place. Except it has way too many steps for one town. (Also, sorry for the insulting of the Corkishness)

QUOTE]

Ha cobh is not great!! i'll forgive you for mocking the corkishness but I might have to mock your dublinerishnesserness!!:p

The Aussie accent is terrible when listened to alongside other accents. (I am Aussie and proud so don't attack me PLEEEEZE) but it is a dreadful accent, although some American accents come close. I love Italian accents and the language is beautiful, as is Spanish. I also like british and Irish and Scottish accents. Aussie accents are easy to lose when you are surrounded by other accents.

I absolutely love australian accents,in fact that's the only reason i watch home and away :lol:

I really dont like most irish accents(i suppose no-one likes their own accent really)-the worst however is north dublin dialect which is awful!

No way! Northside is no way near as bad as some of those culchie ones. Cork, I can get used to. But think about Limerick, Meath, Laois, Roscommon... the list goes on and on. I have a bit of a southside accent but I actually like Northside ones. Living on the southside you might as well live in the US. I don't seem to like any accents at all.

Is it my imagination or is the pop singer Madonna speaking with a British accent these days? I know she lives there, but she spent most of her near 50 years in the US, so it just seems affected to me. Perhaps this is envy speaking, as I, like most Americans would love to have a more exotic (to our ears) way of speaking.

I love most accents, especially all the British ones. I am getting quite good at my british acccent! However, I find it odd that I start slipping into an accent after I read a book with it as opposed to hearing it in a movie or TV show.:shrug:

Does anyone else find it easy to slip into random accents? Or is it just because I live in Canada with soo many outside influences?

I live in Australia and i never really thougth i had an accent. On american TV shows and movies when they have Aussie people they really exaggerate the aussie accent and it's like what! I dont speak like that! lol but i love the aussie accent (which i now accept as an accent) to me it sounds really airy and carefree. dunno why just does.
I like the canadian accent too. It's really drawn out and layed back.

They do that with all foreign accents. I find myself watching Desperate Housewives and the English guy Susan likes (can't for the life of me remember his name) and he sound soo posh and ridiculous! :p

I love most accents, especially all the British ones. I am getting quite good at my british acccent! However, I find it odd that I start slipping into an accent after I read a book with it as opposed to hearing it in a movie or TV show.:shrug:

Does anyone else find it easy to slip into random accents? Or is it just because I live in Canada with soo many outside influences?
I find myself doing this occasionally, mostly after I watch like, one of the HP movies, or LOTR or Narnia. I can do a pretty good English accent, or so I'm told. I can also do Scottish, a bit of French, Canadian, and some Aussie. They're just something that comes really easily to me. I was just in a play, The Time Machine, which is supposed to take place (partly) in London, so we were all really nervous before opening night, so like, that entire day before we were all talking with British accents, only some of the kids were really bad at it. It was a ton of fun though.

I myself don't really think I have much of an accent, at least to me. I live in the midwest, near Chicago, but I don't have any sort of Chicago accent. Though my mom grew up in the UP, (Upper Penninsula, part of Michigan, US people probably know what I mean) and she had a slight UP accent, so my brother and I picked up a bit of it, and when we were younger would pronounce the odd word, like bagel, strangely. Or at least, my dad found it strange.

I'm British but British people I meet who live in the same area as me always think I'm posh! Does anybody else get that? I used to find it quite annoying, I just pronounce my words properly! lol, also my mum is from New Zealand & people have said I have a slight hint of kiwi twang, lol. I adore Irish and Scottish accents!

Hey I'm from Minnesota and therefore have an accent that tends to exaggerate vowels. I also love British and Irish and Southern accents.

Ooh, I'm British and I love, love, love the American accent! I just like it and everyone I know thinks I'm weird because sometimes I fake it. I'm really weird.

I don't really think I have an accent. Do people from Hawaii have accents? Not speaking of Pigin dialect, but just the way speech sounds? I've heard we have really soft consonants.

I'm English and I like, and try to speak in, the classic English accent. I live near Reading, in the South of England, which has its own accent, but I know few people with Reading accents.

Maybe it's not an easy accent to pick up. (Not that I'd want to pick it up!)

What does the American accent sound like? I'm from Boston, the real Boston, not Worcester, Gloucester or Martha's Vineyard, and I don't think I have a Boston accent. I haven't picked up the typical accent you associate with Irish-American's who live in Boston and everyone thinks its the "Boston" accent.....I'm not even white, but that has nothing to do with picking up an accent. I can tell different accents, like mid-west and southern accents, but how do you mimic an American accent? I can detect a British, Australian, Spanish etc. accent....but American?? We have one???

I have a Canadian accent I guess lol but I love the British, Irish, Scottish and Australian accent they sound so cool.

I absolutely love Irish accents, I lost mine a long time ago when I moved to England so I've a great liking for Irish accents. I don't really have an accent now, it'sa shame, my voice is so plain now. Evanna Lynch's Irish accent gave me a liking for her.

As for American accents, I like em as long as they're not those awful, fake southern accents with nothing but vowels


Aristocratic British accents are amazing, they sound so classy

I suppose I have some sort of South American accent, even though I don't notice it...however, I prefer the British accent for English-speaking

I like irish accents, But I love Scotish more. Nothing beats 'ole Sean Conery.

I have a mid south accent, as I live in North Carolina. I do say terms like "younun" (young one) and other thinks. I do drop the g's, I don't don't draw out the vowels though.

I Swedish, so I´m quite satisfied as long as I manage to speak without too many grammatical mistakes :whistle:

Anyway, I have to say that I like the British accent best. I think American is okey, though I was quite delighted when I found out that my American relatives speak without a strong accent.

I am from Canada and I have a a bit of a French accent mainly because I was born in Montreal,Quebec(French Province). Also I find that I have a bit o a Scottish accent to for some reason I don't know. But It's mainlyCanadian and I say "eh" alot. lol

I'm from Australia but grew up in Britain. It amazes me that Australia is a huge country but I can't tell the difference between regional accents, although Britain is tiny but you walk down the road and there's another accent! :lol:

I have to say I grew up listening to London and Northampton accents (English) and Welsh (both the accent and the language), as well as Australian, and my accent these days is a mixture of English and Aussie, but when I was a kid I had a Northamptonshire accent, and then I came here and it got Australianised again :p You can still hear twangs of both.

I like the Celtic accents (Irish, Welsh and Scottish) the most.

Im Irish, but Im from America(born there). Most of my family still has a teeny bit of an Irish accent, even though we've been here for bout 100 years. People have just married other Irish Americans so little tiny things still pop up when we talk.

I love hearing Irish Scottish and English accents, and people say Im rather good at mimicking them. A friend of mine from Birmingham England said I could pass for a kid from there if I were to talk like he does.

My two favorite accents are

Scottish:love::love::love:

English


I'm from Georgia in America, so I have a southern accent. It can get pretty thick if you put me around my relatives for too long. :)

I always wondered why I moved here to the U.S from England, everyone had me say "harry potter!" it drove me nuts, i must have said his name 20 times on my first day! Insane!

to be honest i love british accents! and french accents...
they're so amazing!
i'm so bored with being an american... i mean.... it's just lame... i wanna go to london! it looks so beautiful!

i love guys with british and french accents....


yesterday i went into best buy and was buying a season box set of family guy... and these people there in front of us were from a different country... they were so cute with their little traveling backpacks!! they were making like exact change it was cute... i've always wanted to be a tourist in another country... but they didnt talk much so i couldnt hear their accents...

Well i'm proud of my English accent :D

I like all English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Australian accents!

I love Celtic Accents, I'm stuck with a dorset accent :S A bit rubbish, my voice sounds like, a voice.. xD
I can do a rather good Louis Walsh impression though.. xD

I have a midwestern US. Accent,
Though my friend says it mixes with a Boston Accent. Which, those of you outside the US, is abit of a strange combination. My friend says when I pronounce certain words the Boston element comes through, so it's a northern US accent combined with an East coast sound. I don't like the sound of my voice, basically I'd never get a radio job:lol:

I really like Swedish, Irish, British, Australian accents myself.

yeah i def have a southern american accent... but i have perfected myself in hiding it... that way i just have a plain american accent...well as plain as you can get anyways... but as people rarely hear that hillbilly accent from me... when it slips out they make sure to point it out.... it gets rather embarassing... lol

buyt my fav accents are def irish!!!
and whatever accent Jason Statham has... if you dont know who he is... hes the guy in "the transporter", "snatch", "the italian job", "crank", and soooo much more!

"and whatever accent Jason Statham has... "

I think his is Australian.

Can anyone distinguish a Canadian accent? I've never really noticed any, but then again I don't travel much. It is a huge pet peeve, though, when people think we say "eh" and pronounce "about" like "aboot". I've never heard someone say "about" like that and I've seen more people say "eh" on American television then I hear in my daily life!

Can anyone distinguish a Canadian accent? I've never really noticed any, but then again I don't travel much. It is a huge pet peeve, though, when people think we say "eh" and pronounce "about" like "aboot". I've never heard someone say "about" like that and I've seen more people say "eh" on American television then I hear in my daily life!

My best friend has a Canadian accent. Her mom grew up right on the border between the US and Canada, so she has an accent. I live in New York state and it's pretty much the same as ours except with a few differences (if I didn't know her so well, I probably wouldn't even hear the difference).

For example:
she says dohlar (long O) and we say doll-er
Same with Volleyball (Voh-lee ball vs Vah-lee ball) and College (Coh-ledge vs. Coll-ege)

Hmm, now that you point those examples out, I do say those words with a long o, but it is very subtle!

And then there the accents of not how people say things, but certain words they say. For example, where I'm from, we don't say soda, we say pop. We also don't say tennis shoes or trainers, we say sneakers.

And then there the accents of not how people say things, but certain words they say. For example, where I'm from, we don't say soda, we say pop. We also don't say tennis shoes or trainers, we say sneakers.

Yeah, same here.

I've got a soft Scottish accent cos my parents are both English but I grew up on a Scottish island... I'm slowly acquiring a Glaswegian twang though.

My nan was a Londoner and I loved how she spoke! And my dad grew up in Essex so he still has a kind of Essex accent, in fact when I'm talking to him I sometimes find myself slipping between Scottish and Essex like he does.

I am from Canada so I have an Canadian accent. Canadian and American accent are baiscally the same but sometimes youcan tell if that a person is from Canada. Also I say "eh" alot.

LOVE British and Irish accents...especially Jonathan Rhys Meyers' accent.....everytime he speaks I'm like..."Wow!Do all Irish men speak like that?" lol...ditto for Brit accents:)

Can anyone distinguish a Canadian accent? I've never really noticed any, but then again I don't travel much. It is a huge pet peeve, though, when people think we say "eh" and pronounce "about" like "aboot". I've never heard someone say "about" like that and I've seen more people say "eh" on American television then I hear in my daily life!

Yeah, I can definitely hear a Canadian accent. I was even able to tell that "You Can't Do That On Television" wasn't taped in this country, when I was just a small child.
But really, Canada is a huge place, so it must have several accents, like the US? The one "Canadian" accent I think I know sounds like a mid-west accent (Minnesota, North Dakota).
I'm told that I don't have an accent. Or, to be more precise, that I don't sound like I'm from a particular place: In Boston, they could tell I wasn't from there, and in Memphis, they can tell I'm not from there. But no one can tell me where I'm from.
As an aside, Canada seems like a nice place, and I'd like to visit some day. Some Americans have a ridiculous bias against Canada, but whenever I hear those views voiced, I shut the speaker up with the nearest hockey puck or fistful of maple leaves.

EDIT: I just saw how old that original post was...and now I feel like a schmuck.

I LOVE accents! I adore british, irish, scottish, australian, new zealand...umm really anything outside of a US accent :lol:

I am from Ohio, so I have a pretty boring accent, they call it the newscaster accent because it is so neutral. :sigh: Oh well, I will just have to move overseas one day :lol:

yeah i def have a southern american accent... but i have perfected myself in hiding it... that way i just have a plain american accent...well as plain as you can get anyways... but as people rarely hear that hillbilly accent from me... when it slips out they make sure to point it out.... it gets rather embarassing... lol

I used to let myself get rather embarrassed by my accent (mine is also Southern - I've lived in GA my entire life), and it's even worse because I am naturally a very soft speaker, so when people from other parts of the country hear me, I sometimes have to repeat myself.
But I'm getting to the point where I'm really beginning to be happy with my accent. I get compliments on it from all of my friends, and from an awful lot of Midwesterners and Northerners.
My friends do take delight in teasing me, though, especially when I'm mad at someone. The other day, for example, I said something to the effect of, "I'm so mad, I could kill her," and my roommate Trisha bursts into laughter at how "cute" I sound, and quotes back to me, "Ah im so mad, Ah culd keel her!" Oh, well. If that's really how I sound, I can live with it! :lol:

I used to let myself get rather embarrassed by my accent (mine is also Southern - I've lived in GA my entire life), and it's even worse because I am naturally a very soft speaker, so when people from other parts of the country hear me, I sometimes have to repeat myself.
But I'm getting to the point where I'm really beginning to be happy with my accent. I get compliments on it from all of my friends, and from an awful lot of Midwesterners and Northerners.
My friends do take delight in teasing me, though, especially when I'm mad at someone. The other day, for example, I said something to the effect of, "I'm so mad, I could kill her," and my roommate Trisha bursts into laughter at how "cute" I sound, and quotes back to me, "Ah im so mad, Ah culd keel her!" Oh, well. If that's really how I sound, I can live with it! :lol:

You only have to become extremely self-conscious, you know...

I have an Australian accent (having been born here and everything :D) but my Dad is English and I've been told that I sound like him a bit sometimes. He's only from Cambridge though so it's not a cool accent.

I have an English accent which I think is pretty boring. I really love the Irish accent for some reason. xx

I have an almsot unnoticeable German accent. I live in Texas, and I make sure not to adopt a Texan accent, I just like to stand out :) I love accents of any and every type. and guys with accents are especially appealing!

Um well I do a pretty good fake British accent, but I don't have one even though part of my heritage is British. I live in Illinois so I dont think there'd be an accent for that.

hahaha i can do fake accents pretty good tto lol

Oh, I can't remember if I've posted in this thread or not.. :lol: Anyway, my accent is a deep, light southern one. A don't call my accent a heavy southern one, because it really isn't. As for talking in other accents, I can do two really heavy southern ones that are both different, I can do one like Ray Ramono, a voice like elmo, and a load of other voices, inculding some that are pretty original. Anyway... :lol:

You're accent sounds quite southern to me, Luke. :p But that's because I live in northern Illinois, so 2 hours south of me people have accents. :lol: Although you can do a very, very hilarious heavy southern accent!

I am an Indonesian but got the plain accent....
Anyways I like the southern american and british accent... It's just cool andsexy... LOL!!!!!!!

OMG! I love seaking in different accents! sometimes i might walk around and me and my mates might start speakin' scottish, or the best one is speakin' in the farmer's accent! That's fun!

i adore the Irish accent, aww....it just makes me melt! :love: Oh, how i wish I was Irish! But no, I'm just British. :grumble: My accent is Northern English but I am quite well spoken, not particularly posh.

"im just british???"
lol! im just canadian :p
hah
i love irish accents th most!!! there so sexy!

I'm English and have a plain English accent - not posh, but I pronounce everything properly, don't drop my "t"s or "h"s, etc. I love Irish and Welsh accents, and some, mild Scottish accents - I don't like women with Scottish accents (I mean I don't like the accents - I've got nothing against the women personally!) and I don't like it when the accents are too thick to understand. most of the "up-country" accents (Liverpuddlian, Manchester, Birmingham, Cockney, etc) annoy me but I like Yorkshire accents to a certain extent.

I don't know the difference between all the American accents - I think I can recognise a Texas accent, a thick New York accent and perhaps a Canadian accent, but to me they're just all American.

I also love accents that people have when English isn't their first language. French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, etc. My freind (Skrewtmaster) does this bit - it's a Russian called Gregory and it's hilarious. Gregory likes the ladies.

:lol:

I'm learnig how to do a British accent, I'm getting better, my friend is British so it's a little easier to do it after hearing her speak...I could do a southern accent alright, I think it still needs some work though; the "hick" (not the stereotypical one!) is one I could do better with....mostly I could do a slavic accent just from hearing my grandma for so long.:lol:

I'm originally from California, I don't know if I have an accent...I live more east now and people say I do...I look at them since I think they have a slight accent, not me. :p

omg i can do this great korean accent lol its awesome!
i am accent-less :(

:lol:

I'm learnig how to do a British accent, I'm getting better, my friend is British so it's a little easier to do it after hearing her speak...I could do a southern accent alright, I think it still needs some work though; the "hick" (not the stereotypical one!) is one I could do better with....mostly I could do a slavic accent just from hearing my grandma for so long.:lol:

I'm originally from California, I don't know if I have an accent...I live more east now and people say I do...I look at them since I think they have a slight accent, not me. :p

california accents are slick but they are there :D

I can do a pretty good British accent. My little bro can do excellent Scottish and Indian accents.

And love the accents of people whose native language isn't English. I'm surrounded by them at work; its great! :drool:

:lol: They are cool. :D


Really? huh...I know my accent is far from valley girl, but I didn't know Californian's had accents. Interesting. :hmm: Thanks. :)

i love irish accents th most!!! there so sexy!

Oh, man! I know!! I lurve them!

:drool: :love:

Oh, man! I know!! I lurve them!

:drool: :love:

like oliver woods rite? omg it was great!
i can somewut fake one but...:cool::lol:

like oliver woods rite? omg it was great!
i can somewut fake one but...:cool::lol:Sean Biggerstaff who played Oliver Wood was Scottish, not Irish.

lol my bad either way i love em both!! and english accents.. iw sh i had an accent

What I can't stand is people using accents to be cool or having an accent so thick that you cannot understand them at all. I have seen some American black people speaking in documentaries and there were subtitles so the rest of us would know what they were saying.

I live in the south of the USA and I made sure that my children grew up without a southern accent because it seemed that the rest of the country associated it with not being too bright. Have any of you every experienced this?

I live in the south of the USA and I made sure that my children grew up without a southern accent because it seemed that the rest of the country associated it with not being too bright. Have any of you every experienced this?


Sometimes, but, just from my experiences, I know it isn't true. I think I speak in more of a southern accent around my family, maybe it's because it's how they all talk or because I'm most comfortable with them, but not so much around other people. I don't try to hide it, it just happens like that.

I'm Welsh, but I don't think I have a thick accent, at least not around my friends who have fairly English accents. When I went to England, I said two words, and the guy I was talking to knew I was Welsh. So it must be pretty distinctive!

Although, other English people have asked me if I am from Scotland and Ireland, so I suppose my accent is a bit muddled!

I love Irish, Scottish and Italian accents - yum :drool:

Canadian :)

I speak mainly English, but I LOVE the British accent. I try to do a British accent as much as possible, and sometimes a French accent. I tried doing a Spanish accent, and I'm horrible at it!

One of my "talents" is mimicking accents. My own one is kind of odd - it's like Black Country (West Midlands) mixed with proper English mixed with Welsh, which is a language I've been hearing and speaking since the age of three.

My favourite accents to hear are Scottish and Irish, my favourites to mimic are Scottish, Irish, American, Cockney, full Brummie, proper English, Black Country and Texan/Southern American accents (Tenesse and places like that).

What I can't stand is people using accents to be cool or having an accent so thick that you cannot understand them at all. I have seen some American black people speaking in documentaries and there were subtitles so the rest of us would know what they were saying.

I live in the south of the USA and I made sure that my children grew up without a southern accent because it seemed that the rest of the country associated it with not being too bright. Have any of you every experienced this?

I, too, live in the South, but I've also lived elsewhere, and yes, the Southern accent is associated with not being too bright. Racism is associated with Southern people, too, I might add.
But, judging by some of the responses in this thread (people claiming they do not have accents, or saying that people don't have accents where they live - these seem to be almost all American responses), I would say that many if not most people with accents are unaware that they have them. Really, I would say that most people have accents BECAUSE they don't notice them.
I wouldn't worry, though, about first impressions. If a few minutes' conversation isn't enough for people to begin to see that your daughters are not dim individuals, then I would say the problem is lies with the other party.
Plus, as you can see from this thread, quite a number of people love Southern accents.

I, too, live in the South, but I've also lived elsewhere, and yes, the Southern accent is associated with not being too bright. Racism is associated with Southern people, too, I might add.
But, judging by some of the responses in this thread (people claiming they do not have accents, or saying that people don't have accents where they live - these seem to be almost all American responses), I would say that many if not most people with accents are unaware that they have them. Really, I would say that most people have accents BECAUSE they don't notice them.
I wouldn't worry, though, about first impressions. If a few minutes' conversation isn't enough for people to begin to see that your daughters are not dim individuals, then I would say the problem is lies with the other party.
Plus, as you can see from this thread, quite a number of people love Southern accents.

I love the Southern accent, because it sounds really nice for some reason :love:

My aunt lives in Tennessee and has a southern accent. She said that me and my parents have Chicago accents. How is that possible? We live in Illinois yes, but is there even a such thing as a Chicago accent?

I love British accents too. I think their accent has been like that since the history of the world started. Haha. I love the way they talk too. I wish I was British instead..

well i believe that we all speak with diffrent accents. Most people say that i speak with more of a London accent as in estuary english . So wondering what accent you people speak .

Nice one - especially because you are stressing that we ALL have accents (at least if someone else listens to us).


Well, my accent depends on the language I speak and the context.
My native language is a particular accent variation of an Austrian dialect, although these days I usually speak formal German with an accent that seems German to Austrians and Austrian to Germans... not sure whether that does anyone any good, but that's what it is.

I am not quite sure what my English accent is like.
It is foreign enough for people to ask where it is from, but not strong enough for them to guess themselves. These days Dutch, South African or Scandinavian are common guesses. At the same time I have been accused of speaking posh - I am assuming that's what 8 years in Oxford did to me.

All in all - I clearly have accents, but none of them seem easy to describe :D

Does there exist something like a Dutch accent? If it does exist - I think I have it. Not that strong, but it is there, I think... But I have practiced an American accent so that I can go to America and pretend to be American :)

Does there exist something like a Dutch accent? If it does exist - I think I have it. Not that strong, but it is there, I think... But I have practiced an American accent so that I can go to America and pretend to be American :)

Well, I know someone from Swizerland that spoke German as her first language, and she has what I would call a "Dutch" accent when she's speaking English.

Luka, I am not surprised about this. If she spoke Ennglish quite well (i.e. didn't have the really obvious features of a german accent any more) then I wouldn't be surprised if Swiss and Dutch can sound similar - I am sure an expert can tell them apart, but the two languages share a few very specific sounds that could account for similarities. :)


Sibbelien - yes, there is a Dutch accent. You Dutch people have a few sounds that most people can't pronounce, and a little bit of that tends to slip into the English, together with a characteristic intonation. But the Dutch are also well known for speaking very good English.... so Dutch accents are often very faint (that's why I am always very flattered if someone asks me whether my accent is Dutch! :)

By the way, if you want to be thought of as a native speaker it is easier to aspire to an English accent that isn't native to the country where you are going: Americans are very good at spotting foreign sounds in an American accent, and (as I have discovered with some satisfaction) less good at spotting a foreign accent if someone speaks British English. Of course, the opposite is also true: it's harder to spot a foreign accent in American English if you are used to British English. Of course, many people are exposed to US English so much, we probably get a little bit of practice in telling the basic accents apart :)

But the Dutch are also well known for speaking very good English.... so Dutch accents are often very faint (that's why I am always very flattered if someone asks me whether my accent is Dutch! :)
I'm Australian of Dutch background and I don't think Dutch accents are necessarily faint. My mother studied english at school and migrated to Australia at the age of 21 but after living in Australia for 40 years she still has a strong accent. My husband said he struggled to understand her when he first met her. Australians are always asking her where she comes from which really annoys her since she only has Australian citizenship. She usually tells these people she's Australian, and if she's feeling benevolent she may add that she's Dutch background. I have met some dutch people with almost perfect British accents, but they were English teachers.

My accent ought to be Australian but since I lived for a few years in the UK when I was young and more recently 2 years in Germany and then almost 5 in
Taiwan (where I still am) my accent has become a little international. When I visit Australia I sometimes get asked where I come from (they give me a weird look when I give them an Australian city). Americans have asked me if I'm British (but Americans are notoriously bad at not being able to distinguish non-American english accents :) ). The British can tell I'm Australian.

That sounds great! What a lovely mix. I'd love to hear it. :)

I guess with Dutch accents there might be a generational difference. Dutch people of my age (mid-30's) seem to have grown up with English language TV and very intensive English teaching - so I haven't come across a single young Dutch person who didn't speak excellent English - some accent, but certainly not a very strong one! I could imagine that this wasn't always the case. German-English accents have also improved considerably between my parent's generation and my own!

Does there exist something like a Dutch accent? If it does exist - I think I have it. Not that strong, but it is there, I think... But I have practiced an American accent so that I can go to America and pretend to be American :)Well I know Irish people refer to the Dutch accent but to be fair we probably recognise certain things and apply them to any Europeans who speak English as a foreign language. The first time one of my Irish friends (who is not very perceptive) met a Dutch girl I know (who has brilliant English) my friend immediately knew where the other girl was from. The stereotype is something to do with a 'tch' or something like that, isn't it? But yeah you lot are known to have excellent English.

Like many people my age in this country I can hear in my voice that I'm moving from an English influenced accent to a US influenced one. It comes across in the words we are using and a more bland, less regionalised accent across the country.

But we have some accents still. Dublin is split in two by the river liffey. People from the Northside make words longer so town is tow - in and hurling can be mistaken for hurdeling. TH doesn't really exist so we say ting and tink; a T at the start of a word is mixed up with a D so this and that become dis and dah; and a T is often ignored at the end of words e.g. sih for sit. The plural of you is use (hey yous!) and from that comes yisser which is possessive e.g. yisser clo-es (your clothes).
On the Southside everything is much more dull. The main thing is changing the final T in certain words to SH e.g. what as whosh and right as rish. It's not as obvious as it looks reading it. It's kind of like the T is so soft it almost disappears but in a completely different way to the Nortside. Southside is considered posh and middleclass. Mostly I have a southside accent but in certain things the fact I lived on the northside comes across.

i am accent-less :(


Well if you're Canadian, you must have an Canadian accent! :D

It makes me laugh that people are saying "British" accents - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all Britain but all have very different accents! I suppose you mean English accents. :D

It makes me laugh that people are saying "British" accents - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all Britain but all have very different accents! I suppose you mean English accents. :D

:) Doesn't the same still apply? I mean Hagrid had and English accent and although I think it is lovely, it reminds me of home :), I suspect that’s not what people mean when they talk about an English accent, silly people :whistle:

Do you mean you're from somewhere else in the UK but an English accent still reminds you of home? *is confused*

I grew up in the west country (part of family from Cornwall btw :D) but not living in one of the best part of the UK any more :( & I really miss it.

my point is that saying English accent is not very descriptive, there are lots of English accents too and they are very different, Birmingham, home counties, west country, Liverpool etc accents are very different

a fun example of this is if you run one of Alec Guinness’s speeches from Star Wars (the only a master of evil one works v well) in your head but change his accent to brummie! :lol:

LOL... yes, there are great differences.... but remember, that for an outsider, the differences seem much smaller.

The closer to home an accent is, the more you'll hear the differences, and yes, you'll find it utterly baffling that an 'outsider' can't tell them apart. To me, say, Scottish, Cornish, Brummie or Scouse also sound very different .... but that's after years of exposure to various accents spoken in the UK, and after living in each, Scotland, Wales and England for some time. Before that, I may have heard slight differences - but it was easier to tell apart 'North American' 'Down Under' and 'British' than telling apart nuances within the British isles.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Americans, for example, just think of all people in the HP films as speaking with a 'British accent'. :)

I for one find it hard to tell apart, say, Texan accents from, say Arizona accents, although I have been told by a friend who lives in Huston that the difference is absolutely obvious! :D

I grew up in the west country (part of family from Cornwall btw :D) but not living in one of the best part of the UK any more :( & I really miss it.


Ooooh, please come and join my Cornishfolk Unite social group! There are three of us so far, and I didn't think there were any more. :tu:

I was born and raised in Australia, but I've been asked several times if I'm from England. Most of my family is from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, except for my mom's two youngest siblings, who were both born here, and everyone since was born in Australia, apart from those who stayed in England.

Apparently, South Australians have a slightly different accent to the rest of Australia. From what I've been told by people who live interstate, our accent is more 'posh' sounding, and I've heard people call South Australia the 'posh state'. My sister went to Perth last year, and she said the accents over there were a lot stronger, and more like Steve Irwin (not quite as bad, though).

But when I went overseas in January, most people could tell by my accent that I was Australian. I stayed in London the longest, but I spent a month traveling through several countries in Europe.

There was one girl on my tour that was born in South Africa, had lived in Canada for around 5 years, and then moved to Australia, which is where she lives now. She had the strangest accent. It was kind of a mix of all three.

My sister's boyfriend also has a weird accent, but what makes it weird is that he has never been outside Australia. He was born and raised in Queensland, and moved to South Australia with his family about 4 years ago. But his accent doesn't sound Australian. He pronounces words with 'ou' in it like a Canadian, and pronounces words like 'car' in an odd way, kinda like 'caw'. My mom says it sounds like a South African accent, but now that I've met someone who has lived in both places, I'm not sure. His dad was born in Malta, and his mom was born in England, but they've both been living in Australia for a long time. His mom still has an English accent, but his dad sounds Australian, so I have no idea where he got his accent from.

I like to delude myself into thinking I have a gift for accents and imitations. I myself am from America, but don't have a really strong (that I notice). Though I really like what abelkoh7 said about us ALL speaking in accents...I agree with that, but don't think mine fits into any of the major groups - maybe because I spend so much time speaking in various voices/accents!

I love the way people speak. It's so cool how unique each voice is, whether it be across the ocean or across the street. :)

I don't think that my accent is so strong or strange. I'm from Philly, and while one would think our 'Philly' accent would be similar to New York's accent, I can pick up the difference very easily, and I can sometimes even tell you what part of the city the speaker is from (north, northeast, west, south; we don't have "east Philly"—that would be New Jersey, lying across the river). Everyone here always (annoyingly) talks about how people from Philly pronounce the word "water" like the word "wood" with '-er' tacked onto the end: WOULD-ER. I think people are just having accent pride when they say this; some people go far enough to say you're not a real Philadelphian if you don't pronounce the word like that. In fifth grade, I tried to see if I could stop pronouncing it like that and made a conscious effort to pronounce it the "proper" way. And it worked. Only recently have I been trying to pronounce it the local way. :) Accent pride.

I don't think anyone really thinks that their accent is strong. I certainly don't think mine is - in fact I think mine's quite neutral (I'm Australian by the way). But I can usually pick another accent pretty fast...

I don't think anyone really thinks that their accent is strong. I certainly don't think mine is - in fact I think mine's quite neutral (I'm Australian by the way). But I can usually pick another accent pretty fast...

Not me! The more time I spend with people with other accents, the more Southern (U.S.) I sound! :lol:

But we have some accents still. Dublin is split in two by the river liffey. People from the Northside make words longer so town is tow - in and hurling can be mistaken for hurdeling. TH doesn't really exist so we say ting and tink; a T at the start of a word is mixed up with a D so this and that become dis and dah; and a T is often ignored at the end of words e.g. sih for sit. The plural of you is use (hey yous!) and from that comes yisser which is possessive e.g. yisser clo-es (your clothes).
On the Southside everything is much more dull. The main thing is changing the final T in certain words to SH e.g. what as whosh and right as rish. It's not as obvious as it looks reading it. It's kind of like the T is so soft it almost disappears but in a completely different way to the Nortside. Southside is considered posh and middleclass. Mostly I have a southside accent but in certain things the fact I lived on the northside comes across.

I noticed an accent in a lot of the university kids at UCD, when they pronounced some words the a would morph into an o. So the DART sounded like Dort.

I've got a prairie Canadian accent. Believe it or not there are some very subtle differences between the regions in Canada, although they are not as pronounced as those in the UK. Sometimes it's just one word that gives away where somebody is from, my friend who grew up in Toronto pronounces milk as melk.

I'm from the southeastern US and except for a certain few words I know I have no southern accent. I know this because people have told me I sound like I'm from Ohio. I have never lived a day in Ohio (I have spent a few days there on vacation, though). I have lived my entire life (minus trips) in the southeastern US. I do however :love: to listen to the non-redneck non-country version of the southern accent.

I don't think that my accent is so strong or strange. I'm from Philly, and while one would think our 'Philly' accent would be similar to New York's accent, I can pick up the difference very easily, and I can sometimes even tell you what part of the city the speaker is from (north, northeast, west, south; we don't have "east Philly"—that would be New Jersey, lying across the river). Everyone here always (annoyingly) talks about how people from Philly pronounce the word "water" like the word "wood" with '-er' tacked onto the end: WOULD-ER. I think people are just having accent pride when they say this; some people go far enough to say you're not a real Philadelphian if you don't pronounce the word like that. In fifth grade, I tried to see if I could stop pronouncing it like that and made a conscious effort to pronounce it the "proper" way. And it worked. Only recently have I been trying to pronounce it the local way. :) Accent pride.

Well, to us over here in places like Idaho, Oregon, Utah, people from Philly sound really bizarre. We can't get a word out of it. IS there such a thing as a western accent? If there is, I probably have one.:lol:

I'm from the southeastern US and except for a certain few words I know I have no southern accent. I know this because people have told me I sound like I'm from Ohio. I have never lived a day in Ohio (I have spent a few days there on vacation, though). I have lived my entire life (minus trips) in the southeastern US. I do however :love: to listen to the non-redneck non-country version of the southern accent.

I also live in the southeastern US. My accent is very slight and only with certain words. :lol:

I noticed an accent in a lot of the university kids at UCD, when they pronounced some words the a would morph into an o. So the DART sounded like Dort.Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Kind of like 'I'm tawking about the dorsh, alroysh?' (or in northside 'I'm on abouh da bleeding trayin, rhy?'). Unfortunately it's not just the university ones - it started off as a southside/fee-paying school thing and just spread like some horrible disease across the southside and the greater Dublin area. :no: I can't seem to stop my Ts sounding like SH but at least I caught onto the O yoke fast enough.

I can only hear my accent when I say certain words. Funny my girlfriend is English and we're always arguing over pronunciations we normally have fun but she claims that "Horse" and "Sauce" rhyme. *Shudder*

Funny my girlfriend is English and we're always arguing over pronunciations we normally have fun but she claims that "Horse" and "Sauce" rhyme. *Shudder*
She's right. The Bronx accent is one of the few American accents I can recognise.

I'm from the southeastern US and except for a certain few words I know I have no southern accent. I know this because people have told me I sound like I'm from Ohio. I have never lived a day in Ohio (I have spent a few days there on vacation, though). I have lived my entire life (minus trips) in the southeastern US. I do however :love: to listen to the non-redneck non-country version of the southern accent.

I am not sure whether I could recognise whether a US Southern accent is non-redneck non-country - but I CAN recognise some US Southern accents, and those I recognise I LOVE!!!

BEST ACCENT EVER for story telling. Just imagine someone saying 'once upon a time, a lo---ng, lo---ng time ago....'

Perhaps that is because I used to know someone from South Carolina who loved telling stories and did it so well in that accent.... but it was pure magic. :)

She's right. The Bronx accent is one of the few American accents I can recognise.

I don't have a Bronx accent though. There's really no such thing, it's more from certain ethnic groups from certain areas, like some people think the "Goodfellas" style accent is a New York accent, it's more New Jersey, very few people in the city peaks that way. Kinda disgusts me actually.

The New England accent is easily identifiably and also annoying. :D

I love the different English and Irish accents. Though as much as I try I'm made fun of for attempting them, I tried to do one of mine in front of my girlfriend and her friend and the friend's initial reaction was to say I sounded like an "Australian Hitler". About as random as it gets.

I do a very funny cockney little girl named "Eliza" though, my girlfriend loves that one.

I can only hear my accent when I say certain words. Funny my girlfriend is English and we're always arguing over pronunciations we normally have fun but she claims that "Horse" and "Sauce" rhyme. *Shudder*
An American friend gave us some American BBQ sauce which has 'The sauce is the boss' written on the bottle. It gave us several minutes of amusement to think that some people rhyme 'sauce' and 'boss' :)

Chaucer rhymed "seek" and "sick"...though, IIRC, he spelled both of them something like "seke" (and if my high school Brit Lit teacher was correct, then they were both pronounced with an "ay" sound!) ;)

An American friend gave us some American BBQ sauce which has 'The sauce is the boss' written on the bottle. It gave us several minutes of amusement to think that some people rhyme 'sauce' and 'boss' :)

They do rhyme!

Also the last letter in the alphabet is pronounced "Zee" otherwise the alphabet song gets screwed up at the end.

I LOVE ACCENTS!
I grew up listening to Canadians, Kiwis (New Zealand), and Australians. So I now just love accents. I feel like I am destined to marry some guy with an accent, and if not, some American who can imitate any accent. I'm from Maryland so I say words extremely weird. I say "zink" instead of "sink." There's a whole plethra of things I say strange.

Chaucer rhymed "seek" and "sick"...though, IIRC, he spelled both of them something like "seke" (and if my high school Brit Lit teacher was correct, then they were both pronounced with an "ay" sound!) ;)

I don't think they rhyme... I may be wrong, anyone care to disagree?

sick: \ˈsik\
seek: \ˈsēk\

I can only hear my accent when I say certain words. Funny my girlfriend is English and we're always arguing over pronunciations we normally have fun but she claims that "Horse" and "Sauce" rhyme. *Shudder*

Horse and sauce!? I'm American, and that doesn't seem to rhyme to me!! How do you put an American accent on horse to make it rhyme with sauce? My mind is boggled.

Maybe something more like horse and remorse. That seems to rhyme, with any accent.

I'm French so I had to make 2 years of univ, majoring in English, before becoming truely aware of accents in English.
I don't know many accents, but my favourite are the Scottish one (because I can't understand half the word so it's quite a challenge to listen to it), the Australian one and more recently, I discovered the New-Zealand accent. In fact I didn't know there was a specific accent before watching for the umpth time the making-of from LOTR. As a matter of fact I can't quite define what's different in this accent but I just love it.

I don't know many American accents. When I was in Atlanta I didn't hear any particular accent (but I wasn't as fluent in English as now) and everything was perfectly understandable to me. But when I was in Texas, oh god, that was so hard to understand people ! They had to repeat things like three or four times before I could understand !

As for French, I love the Marseilles accent and the South-West accent. It reminds me of holidays, fiestas, ferias, the sea...I'm from North-East France, near the German border. In some places, like 15km or 20km from my home, nearer to the German border, people have a strong German accent like, they pronounce the "h" in front of the words, like "haricot" (bean). I don't have this accent but my way of speaking have some specific things like pronouncing the "t" at the end of "vingt" (twenty). And also, we here pronounce "oui" more like a "ui".

Horse and sauce!? I'm American, and that doesn't seem to rhyme to me!! How do you put an American accent on horse to make it rhyme with sauce? My mind is boggled.

Maybe something more like horse and remorse. That seems to rhyme, with any accent.

I'm English and they rhyme to my ears, providing you don't pronounce the "r" in horse. And sauce and boss don't rhyme unless you're American.:)

Also the last letter in the alphabet is pronounced "Zee" otherwise the alphabet song gets screwed up at the end.

Well we say "zed" and no one cares that it doesn't rhyme with "v". :) Similarly we say "zeb-rah" as opposed to "zee-bra".