6 Ways to Speak English with an American Accent
wanna speak real English from your first
lesson sign up for your free lifetime
account at English class 101 calm
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
everybody for watching this episode of
English topics don’t forget to give the
video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it
subscribe to the channel if you have not
already and check us out at English
class 101.com for some other study
resources thanks very much for watching
this episode and we’ll see you again
next time bye
[Music]