6 Ways to Speak English with an American Accent

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hi everybody welcome back to english

topics i’m joined again today by Davey

hi Davey and today we’re going to be

talking about American accents these are

different American accents that you will

hear in TV in movies and if you visit

the USA perhaps in different regions as

well so we’re gonna share and try our

best to share what these accents might

sound like but forgive us in advance if

it’s not perfect anyway let’s begin you

want to start us off

alright sure well guess I’ll go in

alphabetical order and my first 20 is

Boston all right a nice Boston accent is

a sort of classic strong American accent

and they’re really famous the famous

thing that boss the Boston accent does

is it drops the Rohtak are that are that

follows a vowel so the classic example

is if you have a car you park your car

and Harvard Yard but you don’t say it

that way so your pocket car and have it

Yad that’s the that’s the classic Boston

example and that’s probably all I can do

of that oh I’ve got another one that my

mom used to use for the boston accent er

has the same thing what’s your which was

let’s go up to 33rd and 3rd Street and

listen to the boys chew it sure that

that our sound is it totally it’s

totally different from the way that

we’re speaking now yes so but it’s hard

I think if you’re not expecting that

no it’s shocking actually it’s

interesting because I think a lot of

accents in the US and a lot of places

are often regional right therefore a

whole region and sometimes they’re very

specific specific to a city and I think

Boston is that case it’s very specific

to very kind of small location mmm is

this this city in the Northeast yeah you

I think you do see that in movies

actually a lot definitely yes for sure

it’s interesting to me the way that

different accents are associated with

different like stereotypes of people mmm

in movies and things like that so in

movies or on television often times that

Boston accent is associated with a kind

of like tough no-nonsense attitude yeah

I’m sure they’re tough no-nonsense

people in Boston I’m sure there are

people that are not so tough and

tolerate a lot of nonsense that is

probably true true anywhere all right I

i’m gonna choose I’m gonna start where I

was born and a place that I love to make

fun of all the time the Californian

accent I say the Californian accent but

there’s not just one so there may be my

favorite accent to make fun of is what’s

called the valley girl accent the valley

girl accent is known for making all

statements sound like a question and

having a very whiny manner of speech

there’s also this sort of weird thing

that seems to be not specific but very

common in speech among young women

particularly from California and that’s

something called vocal fry' mm-hmm

where women will like drop the pitch of

their voice in order to well just kind

of create a different manner of speech

there are a variety of reasons why

people do that and I didn’t actually

know but I do it I just grew up talking

that way though I never occurred to me I

should use this kind of speech in a

certain like situation just I just grew

up speaking that way but in recent years

vocal fry' has been the subject of

discussion and some things I’ve read but

anyway so a typical California Valley

girl if I can give an example as like

today I was going to work yeah and I saw

this guy and he was like really really

scary and I didn’t know what to do so

this very like whiny way of sharing

stories and explaining things and not

and actually in that series of example

questions or sorry in that series of

statements nothing I said was a question

but everything had that upward

intonation so those are a few things

that are kind of characteristic sort of

characteristics among women this way but

men on the other hand there’s this image

of the surfer

dude from California and it’s typically

like young men who speak this way and

they’ll be like yeah bro what’s up like

let’s head to the beach sort of thing

this very how would you describe that

it’s like it’s it’s like if you could

imagine your voice being relaxed and yet

rough at the same time sure that’s kind

of what it sounds like do you ever like

to make fun of Californians in the way

they speak it’s my favorite accent to

make fun of well I don’t like to make

fun of accents as a rule Alicia no no I

do well I should say to mimic two

minutes fun it’s my favorite accent to

mimic is a fun accent to mimic and maybe

this I think this accent as as well has

certain associations with it maybe a lot

of people might associate stupidity or

dumbness with a Californian accent which

is unfortunate because that’s not always

the case

there are there are dumb people from

everywhere not only California but this

is an accent that often associate that

with right is unfortunate right that’s

true because of the manner of delivery

and also like apparent like right now

this is vocal fry' I’m not even thinking

about it but like dropping your voice

into a lower register but apparently

people associate that with stupidity

like their chart that people are

specifically young women are trying to

alter their voice to seem more

intelligent or something like that right

I don’t even think about it honestly so

it is quite interesting but California

has a range of accents arranged in

different ways of talking so that’s just

one there you go anyway back to your

side of the table absolutely we’re still

in alphabetical order which I like and I

am going to do a Chicago accent now for

you Chicago accent very kind of

stereotypical Midwestern accent I think

there is a wider kind of Midwestern

accent and Chicago accent is maybe a

subset of that it’s not just like the

wider Midwestern accent but there’s a

Chicago accent - I don’t know this

accent super well but I chose this one

because it’s an accent that I used to

see in one of my favorite Saturday

Saturday Night Live

when I was a kid which were the Bears

fans hmm

the Bears they’re from Chicago and they

love the Chicago Bears and that’s that’s

the accent some kind of just draws out

what does it do

Chicago it draws out a lot of vowel

sounds a lot of Midwestern accent draws

out vowel sounds and makes them a little

higher on your palate I guess there’s

the bears bears yeah instead of bears so

it’s a little more like open and back

and up with the vowels mm-hmm mm-hmm I

could not do a Chicago accent to save my

life

Chicago tag oh there you go it’s really

hard yeah it’s a nice accent I like it

the Chicago accent has associations with

like a kind of working-class accent

mm-hmm but maybe that’s just right I

don’t know right yeah that’s a good one

I couldn’t I don’t think I could do it I

don’t want to try saying much more than

Chicago because that’s just sort of what

I would have happen right it’s tough I

do okay come on okay

although north of that then so the next

one that I prepared is I called it

Minnesota so Minnesota is a state that

is north of Chicago Chicago is in

Illinois the state of Illinois so this

is sort of the same region but this is

further north so you’re heading towards

Canada so there are a couple of places

like we talked about Wisconsin is

another state that might have a similar

accent here but Minnesota similar to

Chicago has this very drawn-out vowel

sounds and it’s okay I guess I’ll just

try and let’s let’s see one thing that

we all know how to say is like oh yeah

sure you [ __ ] yes sure you bet oh sure

oh sure oh you say Oh iris Minnesota

accents its it sounds very cheery yeah I

think so too that’s kind of what throws

people off very friendly I shouldn’t say

throws people off but it’s like it

sounds kind of

joyful just on its own so anything you

say in like a Minnesotan accent it

sounds just more happy it sounds very

sincere to me ah yeah like if I if I

hear a Minnesota mom saying oh sure

you betcha have some hot dish I know

it’s casserole but they say hot dish hot

dish okay yeah it’s very sincere and

warm and friendly I think they see ya

around advance right I’m not sure

exactly exactly how far this accent goes

in the region if it extends into Canada

for example like Canada is like when we

talk about a Canadian accent we use

words like ending sentences with a that

kind of thing like oh yeah Canada that

sort of thing but a lot of Canadian

accents differ from American accents to

in the vowels rounder longer vowels

compared to sort of a general American

accent and I think Minnesotan accent our

Upper Midwest accents are towards that

end of the spectrum as well so I think

Minnesotan accents are similar to to

maybe a central Canadian accent I think

the most famous example of a Minnesotan

accent is from the movie Fargo yeah Coen

Brothers movie which is Fargo is not in

Minnesota it’s in one of the Dakotas

right North to South Dakota North Dakota

Ferguson South Dakota one of the Dakotas

okay but that accent is a very classic

Minnesotan accent right the characters

use right and I was thinking about that

too and in choosing that accent to

describe because and this is part of the

reason why I said it sounds kind of

cheerful is that that movie is it’s a

suspense movie it’s a it’s a murder

mystery but everyone is speaking in this

kind of cheerful sounding voice and that

really lends that kind of gives this

really kind of strange mysterious feel

to the film yes there’s a good contrast

there I think you’re right I never

thought about that yeah I agree with you

yeah all right anyway that’s a bit about

Minnesota I don’t know if it’s good

enough but anyway let’s go on to your

next run what do you think my last one

is southern accent and now southern

accents also there there’s a lot of

variety in southern accents

different states in the South different

parts of those states have different

southern accents but there’s also a sort

of general southern accent I’m from the

South I grew up in the south but I do

not have a southern accent but I like to

try and pick out when I hear southern

accent I like to try and guess where

people are from from hearing their

accent but I’m not always right so

there’s sort of a general southern

accent and there are pockets of specific

kind of accents in the south

and I also think there’s a big

distinction in southern accents between

like a rural southern accent and the

more urban or City southern accent the

city accents are a little bit more

sought they’re softer a little more

genteel and the rural accents are

twanging year I would say so for example

a gentle southern accent would be

something hey y’all what’s your heart

mm-hmm something like that whereas a

twangy accent would be hey y’all mmm

what’s your heart must sharper sharper a

little more roadie maybe okay okay but

there’s a there’s a drawl and an

elongation and a slowness to a southern

accent yeah that I think is very nice

right and I think going back to what you

mentioned about the Boston accent in the

way the are sounds in particular change

I think that you can hear that was kind

of like like you described the more city

version of a southern accent

like I think back to like when my

grandmother would use the expression she

she would say oh lordy Oh instead of

saying oh my god like that was the

southern way of saying lordy right that

was a way of saying oh my god but she

would say as you just said Oh lawdy like

the R sound when we spell that word on

paper its lor dy but when she pronounced

it it was like l8w mm-hmm dy Lord that

was that was the way she made an O and

an R sound right - so this is very soft

slow slow accent a lot of the sounds

kind of blend together it’s it’s an I

think it’s a nice accent most of the

time but unfortunately a southern accent

also has associations that are generally

kind of negative in other

parts of the country a lot of people

here a southern accent and think that a

person with a southern accent is maybe

uneducated not very smart and again I

think that’s very unfortunate because

that’s not always the case I think that

is an unfair stereotype associated with

the accent for sure okay then let’s all

go for my last one a bit to the west of

you I suppose though this could probably

be blending a little bit with southern

accents I feel I chose Texas for the

next accent so Texas borders Mexico and

I would I was thinking about this

actually in preparing this card and I

was kind of thinking it’s interesting

that you don’t hear more of an influence

at least I should say at least among

like white English speakers in in Texas

and in that region like there’s not more

of an influence in terms of like the way

Spanish speakers talk but instead the

Texas accent the traditional I guess

stereotypical Texas accent sounds much

more similar to a southern accent

I think um they have what’s called the

Texas drawl so a drawl is like this

continuous style of speaking it’s like

this really well it’s not always slow

but it’s like there are no breaks almost

between words sometimes or there they’re

like kind of rolling the words together

so we make like clear distinctions

admittedly a little bit exaggerated for

this show but making clear distinctions

between words but in Texan in Texas

accents you might not hear such a clear

distinction so some kind of maybe famous

things that people say in Texan accents

like even the way the state is

pronounced we say Texas but Texans might

say Texas Texas oh yeah I don’t know

sure why not don’t mess with Texas right

that’s better I can’t do it very well

Kansas it’s like it’s there’s a cadence

to it mm-hmm

which is nice I am struggling to make it

to make that sound

it’s

without embarrassing myself like it’s

like the image that that kind of speech

conjures like I think you imagine like a

cowboy like don’t you hear somebody who

speaks this way it’s it’s like a big guy

to write like a slow kind of maybe

actually kind of gentle I have an image

of like a slow sort of gentle cowboy it

sounds really weird it’s just a

stereotypical image I think of someone

who speaks I think the stereotypical

Texan accent yes yeah sorry to know I

think that the the stereotypical

southern axe

I think that the stereotypical Texan

accent also inserts a lot of these like

glide sounds there’s a lot of neat like

why and and gliding and blended vowels

in there so when you say like don’t mess

with Texas don’t mess with Texas you

know you’re putting in a little Y to

kind of wedge that vowel apart right

yeah instead of get sort of get ya get

ya that’s a good one then that sort of e

sound gets in there heat up y’all y’all

yeah there’s some cross there’s some

influence for the southern accent in

Texas as well it’s a different accent

but the two are often mistaken they’re

very similar yeah

and these are just a few accents really

there are so many and like some small

regional variations as well absolutely

so these are just a couple examples of

maybe the ones that stood out but it’s

quite I feel anyway it’s quite difficult

to really replicate another accent if

you’re not used to using it that much

it’s true it’s hard and I don’t know

about you but if I’ve been very

self-conscious meteo doing all of these

here hopefully they’re accurate I think

we’re gonna just get completely roasted

in the comments me how terrible our

accents good for you but if you want to

know more about these accents I would

recommend just do a quick youtube search

to see what people actually sound like

using these accents because you know

maybe we can do a Boston accent or like

a Californian accent okay but if you

really want to see a good example of

someone speaking that way just do a

quick youtube search and maybe you can

find some

some better resources some actual

native-speaker resources we often get

asked on this channel what kind of

English are we speaking people usually

ask is this American English is this

British English and the answer is

American English we speak American

English on this channel both of us are

American English speakers but we have

different accents actually we sound

fairly similar in most ways but I am

from the west coast I was born in

California and then I was raised in

Oregon so I have a very mmm

West Coast I suppose accent but I think

that that has also been influenced here

in there right by the people and the

accents that I’ve spent my time around

so it’s mostly West Coast I would say

there’s not really one specific region

for me right how would you define your

accent I would say I have a fairly

standard American accent and so I grew

up in the south as I said but I don’t

have a southern accent when I go home my

family’s still all in the south when I’m

not in the South now but when I go home

some of my southern accent creeps out

and I kind of let it creep out a little

bit honestly because it helps show

people that I’m from there

I mean accents in a way are like a

membership card to to a community and so

I let myself an accent come out a little

bit when I’m home but otherwise this is

my normal accent sort of standard

American accent and a standard American

accent is sort of like the newscaster

accent it’s the it’s the the flat

overarching accent that you could find

in any part of the country so people

from Boston might not have a strong

Boston accent people from California

might not have a strong California

accent they might have more of a

standard American accent that you might

people might pick up from just watching

TV growing up which is maybe what

happened with me but I also know that I

have one interesting thing about accents

we’ve been talking a lot about

pronunciation but word choice is also a

big part of accents the different words

people use for different things like for

example in Minnesota it’s hot dish but

other parts of the country it’s

casserole and things like that and some

of the words that I use that I have in

my lexicon in

vocabulary my internal vocabulary are

very New England’s because my parents

are from the East Coast and so I say I

pronounce your your mother or excuse me

or your mother or father’s sister is

your aunt

I say aunt how do you say the word for-4

fur really yeah like I’m gonna go to the

store for some milk we safer I might say

for if I’m saying it quickly but I’m

more likely to say for I would say I

think well I’m going to the store for

some milk I definitely safer interesting

so how do you pronounce K and E W K and

E W new yeah I think I say new as well

but I I’ve heard some people kind of

they recognize the K sound and make it

more of like a new new sort of sound

okay I just say new no like it’s you I

knew it I pronounced it yeah yeah but

like dialects for sure yeah yeah they

are a huge part of language as well not

just accent there is one fierce debate

that has raged for a long time fierce

debate means a strong heated discussion

that has raged for a long time meaning

it has continued for a long time

soda pop coke Cola those four words are

used in different regions of the US a

pop you left off pop or did you say pop

that’s a pop did you say pop okay so

soda pop coke Cola those four words all

mean fizzy carbonated drink when I grew

up in California and Oregon we used pop

okay

we used pop absolutely not coke because

in my mind coke is a brand and that is

specific to one item only what did you

use coke coke because I’m from the south

man South people say coke because coke

is a southern brand it’s from Atlanta

but when I moved out of the south and I

moved to the west coast when I was 18 I

realer I taught myself to say soda I

started saying so wait you started

saying soda when you moved to the west

coast yes in growing up in the South I

would go to a restaurant

I was a kid you know with my parents and

what do you want hon I’ll have a coke

please what kind you know sprite

whatever that though all of those things

are coke any soda it was coke I think

that that’s changing now maybe maybe

more people are saying soda in the south

but I definitely said coke growing up I

changed to coke I think I said pop a lot

sure fun vocab for you for the day

mm-hmm if you look at a map say you have

a map of the United States and down here

you’ve got coke and over here you’ve got

soda and over here you’ve got pop the

border between those zones isn’t

isogloss what isogloss isogloss yes a

nice applause is the term used to

demarcate between regions based on

dialect interesting that’s your that’s

your word of the day though I’m

interested that it’s it’s literally

something you could draw a line down

it’s not there’s a lot of crossover and

so you can see isogloss maps if you just

get on Google and you view Google you

know United States isogloss maps you’ll

see different maps for different terms

in different words and sometimes you’ll

see quizzes like these Facebook quizzes

kind of things where how do you

pronounce this word what do you call

this insect and so on and based on how

you answer its those quizzes are pretty

accurate at predicting where you’re from

isogloss is the word is o GL o SS so if

you google isogloss you know United

States or American isogloss map

something like that you can find some

very interesting images that show you

how different words are pronounced or

different words that are used for the

same thing in different parts of the

country and the lines are not sharp

there’s a lot of blending and gray area

where those lines meet interesting hmm

so maybe if you find an accent that you

like and you want to know more about

that you can use one of those slice of

glass study some isoglosses never know

it sounds interesting cool thanks for

telling I didn’t know about that first

time I’d ever heard of an ISIL glossed

map are you going very cool all right

well

guess we’ll wrap it up there so those

are a few accents from the USA again

these are not by any means the only

accents in the USA definitely have a

look at some other videos online if you

want to know more about these accents

and definitely check out isogloss maps

as Davi recommended to learn a little

bit more about each region where

different accents are spoken but I think

we’ll finish up here for now any final

thoughts no she’s gonna squeeze in an

accent but I couldn’t think of a good

one sorry just no no y’all right there

nothing more for me let’s finish up for

that one then alright thanks as always

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