Poll of the Day > British people probably have the worst accent on Earth.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'm talking to someone on Xbox Live and I can't understand half of what hes saying due to his accent.
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Which accent? Cockney can be hard to understand, but many speakers are still quite clear. Londoners often have a very clear "Queen's speech" accent (called received pronunciation). Scots are difficult as all hell to understand. There are so many accents in the UK that I'm really curious which you mean.

Probably Chav

right.

SushiSquid posted...

Which accent? Cockney can be hard to understand, but many speakers are still quite clear. Londoners often have a very clear "Queen's speech" accent (called received pronunciation). Scots are difficult as all hell to understand. There are so many accents in the UK that I'm really curious which you mean.

not even close to "often"
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British people actually have accents, you guys just have twangs. Mancunians and Yorkshiremen have accents.
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Yeah I can't deal with it

If even one character in a show/movie has one I'm instantly turned off.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfectchNtQM

This language is nigh impossible.

https://youtu.be/jfectchNtQM?t=179
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

British people actually have accents, you guys just have twangs. Mancunians and Yorkshiremen have accents.

Wrong again.
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I'm assuming you mean one specific type of British accent. They have impossibly many accents over there and they range from extremely pleasant to a verbal assault.

British people probably have the worst accent on Earth.

Clearly a yank. With the exception of that broad/universal accent that most actors adopt, most septic accents are like nails on a chalkboard.
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Spoken like someone who's never heard a French-Canadian accent.
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darkknight109 posted...

Spoken like someone who's never heard a French-Canadian accent.

This.
Or Dutch.
Or Swedish.
Or South African.
Or any Asian accent.

British accents are the most pleasant and easy to understand imo.
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thedeerzord posted...

British people probably have the worst accent on Earth.

Depends where they are from tbf. Just like any other country we have different accents.

SushiSquid posted...

Which accent? Cockney can be hard to understand, but many speakers are still quite clear. Londoners often have a very clear "Queen's speech" accent (called received pronunciation).

Actually most of London is full of Chavs/cockney folk. Those that speak the Queens English are easy to understand though.

SushiSquid posted...

Scots are difficult as all hell to understand.

Not for me. I actually love the accent though and have a cousin who is Scottish. I'd say the Welsh is probably the hardiest to understand out of English, Irish, Scottish and of course Welsh.
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wwinterj25 posted...

Just like any other country we have different accents.

That's an understatement. I drive 2000 miles in the US and end up a place where the accents are barely different from where I've left, but it seems like where you are every other block the people have different accents.

EightySeven posted...

but it seems like where you are every other block the people have different accents.

Not really. Most in my city have the same accent save for foreigners/students. The same can be said for any other city. We do tend to have a few folk who move cities a lot though for work or whatever reason. I'd imagine it's the same in other countries.
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DocDelicious posted...

darkknight109 posted...

Spoken like someone who's never heard a French-Canadian accent.

This.
Or Dutch.
Or Swedish.
Or South African.
Or any Asian accent.

British accents are the most pleasant and easy to understand imo.

I've always kind of liked a lot of the Scandinavian accents, and I've never minded South African accents either. Asian depends a lot on the speaker and the region. Some Japanese people have very pleasant accents; I've heard some grating Chinese accents, but some are not bad. I don't know any Koreans, so I can't comment on their accent.

In terms of pleasant accents, I've always been partial to German, Russian, and some Indian accents.

If we're talking about native-speaking accents, I've always loved Irish and Scottish, while Bostonian and Southern (American) can both die in a fire.
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wwinterj25 posted...

Not really. Most in my city have the same accent save for foreigners/students.

No, there are an obscene amount of accents for your size and population: https://www.quora.com/How-many-accents-are-there-in-the-British-Isles-and-North-America

EightySeven posted...

No, there are an obscene amount of accents for your size and population: https://www.quora.com/How-many-accents-are-there-in-the-British-Isles-and-North-America

We have the same amount of accents as they are cities for the most part. I've never said otherwise. You implied every city has multiple, native accents though and that's simply not the case. I don't need google to tell me that as you know, I live in my city. I wasn't aware America or any other country is different on that front.
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I just realized you got hung up on a colloquialism and in typical PotD fashion became absurdly pedantic. Let me cut through the bullshit. I'm saying The United Kingdom has a lot of accents for an English speaking country. Is that more clear?

Kyuubi4269 posted...

British people actually have accents, you guys just have twangs. Mancunians and Yorkshiremen have accents.

triggered brit detected
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i like the accents that africans have when they speak english. like from the trailer of the black panther with his father speaking. you are a good king. with a good heart.
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SushiSquid posted...

Which accent? Cockney can be hard to understand, but many speakers are still quite clear. Londoners often have a very clear "Queen's speech" accent (called received pronunciation). Scots are difficult as all hell to understand. There are so many accents in the UK that I'm really curious which you mean.

What makes Scottish accents difficult to understand? Given as I speak with one, I'm genuinely quite curious.
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German
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the dude in the purple is difficult at times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMinLmhP4Hw
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lorekai posted...

SushiSquid posted...

Which accent? Cockney can be hard to understand, but many speakers are still quite clear. Londoners often have a very clear "Queen's speech" accent (called received pronunciation). Scots are difficult as all hell to understand. There are so many accents in the UK that I'm really curious which you mean.

What makes Scottish accents difficult to understand? Given as I speak with one, I'm genuinely quite curious.

Probably the way y'all merge seven words into one long angry word.
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lorekai posted...

SushiSquid posted...

Which accent? Cockney can be hard to understand, but many speakers are still quite clear. Londoners often have a very clear "Queen's speech" accent (called received pronunciation). Scots are difficult as all hell to understand. There are so many accents in the UK that I'm really curious which you mean.

What makes Scottish accents difficult to understand? Given as I speak with one, I'm genuinely quite curious.

As a Scouser who lived in Forfar for a year, The DEEEEP accent, with the speed you talk and the strange replacements you make on words. We got a book for our son while we lived in Scotland. Katies Moose a keek a boo.... (Surprise it is about a mouse!)

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/video/bookbug-story-katies-moose
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I like most if not all British accents.

We've got regional dialects, we've got regional accents, we've got what you might call ethnic patois, and we've got class accents. Sometimes our accents change depending on who we're talking to. It's complicated. But there's no such animal as "the British accent".
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Funkdamental posted...

We've got regional dialects, we've got regional accents, we've got what you might call ethnic patois, and we've got class accents. Sometimes our accents change depending on who we're talking to. It's complicated. But there's no such animal as "the British accent".

Well it still doesn't change the fact that British accents are impossible to understand.
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British accents isn't a thing. Each county/country in the UK have their own accent.

The "normal british" accent is a Londoner one, as it's portrayed mostly in film tv etc, but then out of their, they differ massively. Even cockney from London is different to the 'queens english'
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while I don't care for a heavy british accent. i'll take it over a super heavy southern (usa) accent, and i'm from the south here. where i'm at the accent is fine as its not too heavy but I remember some reality tv show where the accents where so thick they actually felt the need (and it was indeed needed) to add subtitles
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the extended empire love borrowing our language but leave behind the accent. pretty annoying.

thevainorphan posted...

the extended empire love borrowing our language but leave behind the accent. pretty annoying.

I would say its pretty smart.

Everything about the English language is beautiful, but you British people tend to ruin its state of being with ya'lls lame ass accents.
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thedeerzord posted...

thevainorphan posted...

the extended empire love borrowing our language but leave behind the accent. pretty annoying.

I would say its pretty smart.

Everything about the English language is beautiful, but you British people tend to ruin its state of being with ya'lls lame ass accents.

*waves hands* irony.. :P
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which british accent are we speaking of actually? the kind more commonly depicted in tv I believe is known as the queen's english? or the other type i've heard called cockney (not sure if that label is correct)
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thedeerzord posted...

Funkdamental posted...

We've got regional dialects, we've got regional accents, we've got what you might call ethnic patois, and we've got class accents. Sometimes our accents change depending on who we're talking to. It's complicated. But there's no such animal as "the British accent".

Well it still doesn't change the fact that British accents are impossible to understand.

You just don't get enough exposure to it -- to be honest, it probably wouldn't take that much. We understand you perfectly easily because we're saturated by American accents, thanks to a ninety-year steamroller of cultural imperialism ever since the talkies.
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mooreandrew58 posted...

which british accent are we speaking of actually? the kind more commonly depicted in tv I believe is known as the queen's english? or the other type i've heard called cockney (not sure if that label is correct)

I'm not sure East End "Cockney" is really so much of a thing any more. The working-class Saaf Lunnun (that's "South London") accent that a lot of people identify with Cockney has, I think, assimilated some of the sounds of Jamaican patois (which in Britain has itself become anglicized over the last 70 years) -- that's how multicultural interactions on London's council estates have influenced the language. Naaah wha'ah min? ("Know what I mean?")
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Funkdamental posted...

mooreandrew58 posted...

which british accent are we speaking of actually? the kind more commonly depicted in tv I believe is known as the queen's english? or the other type i've heard called cockney (not sure if that label is correct)

I'm not sure East End "Cockney" is really so much of a thing any more. The working-class Saaf Lunnun (that's "South London") accent that a lot of people think of as Cockney has, I think, absorbed some of the sounds of what used to be Jamaican patois (which has itself become anglicized over the last 70 years). Naaah wha'ah min? ("Know what I mean?")

somehow I actually understood what "Naaah wha'ah min?" meant without you telling me. I guess cause I voiced it out in my head.

I was told by someone though that cockney sounded similar to what is often portrayed as a australian accent

which made enough sense when I was told that considering the connection to england. can't tell ya why us americans strayed so far from that accent.

only british i've met in person spoke the queen's english. so any other accent i've only seen on tv/movies and I know sometimes accents aren't portrayed 100% correctly. like the one jamacain i've met sounded nothing like the ones you see in movies.
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EightySeven posted...

I'm saying The United Kingdom has a lot of accents for an English speaking country. Is that more clear?

So we have gone from every "block" in my city has a different accent to the UK has a lot of different accents. Sure thing man.

mooreandrew58 posted...

I was told by someone though that cockney sounded similar to what is often portrayed as a australian accent

If you've ever watched a Jason Statham film you've heard a cokeny accent. I would say Michael Caine but his voice blurs the line between the Queens English and Cokney so that wouldn't work.
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thevainorphan posted...

the extended empire love borrowing our language but leave behind the accent. pretty annoying.

Actually the accent came after we left the 'empire'.

So. There's that.

For the US at least.
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Deny, kinda... That woman on survivor from NC sounds brutal. I dont know if its a typical thing or not, so maybe its just her (this gamer neckbeard Youtuber does it too, hes pretty well known - no idea where hes from). Its possibly separate from the accent perhaps, but how she pronounces Os kind of like Us. Like if she were to say home it sounds like huuume...

Some English accents are brutal, but I think regional is more appropriate than national, as many places have multiple accents. I think the stereotypical hows it goin, eh?! Canadian and the Punjabi ones are funny sounding. I generally love Eastern European accents though. They sound really cool.

The East Indian accent is by far the worst. It's made even worse by the fact that a lot of the time that's actually their first language, yet they still talk like that.
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The only 'accent' I tend to hate in the UK, isn't really an accent but scummy chav speak.
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Went to new Orleans recently and had so much trouble understanding some people, they also kept asking me if i was Australian.

That stupid ass southern hick accent is the worst. I have to deal with it constantly. Stupid motherfuckers have the audacity to mock foreigners for bad english, too.
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I like British Accents, jerk!
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only cockney accent is awful