British Accents Ranked from Easiest to Hardest with TEST Examples
hello everyone and welcome back to
english with lucy today we are going to
be talking about the big topic of
accents in particular the accents that
you guys find to be most difficult to
understand now when it comes to accents
you can’t just say this one’s easy and
this one is difficult it doesn’t work
like that it all depends on where you’re
from and what you’re used to what you’re
used to hearing i speak english with a
modern received pronunciation accent and
lots of people tell me that they find it
very clear and easy
but that probably is because my accent
is an accent that’s commonly taught in
schools you might hear it in films and
tv shows quite a lot one of the most
important things that you can do if you
want to improve your comprehension and
improve your english listening skills is
to familiarize yourself with as many
accents as possible and this is such a
fun task as a starting point i thought
it would be really fun to identify some
of the accents that learners of english
commonly find hard to understand so that
you can focus on familiarizing yourself
with them even more in order to do this
i created a survey this is just for fun
it’s not scientific but i think it gives
quite a good indication i took 10
celebrities who speak 10 of my favorite
accents and i took little clips of them
speaking i then asked my students on my
email list to tell me on a scale of zero
to ten
how easy they found it to understand
that little bit of speech
i averaged the scores i’ve put them in
order
and i’m really really excited to show
you the results
to make this even more interesting i
will play each clip twice
once
without subtitles and again
with subtitles so that you can test your
own understanding of each accent clip
obviously there will be many variables
the speed at which the person’s speaking
the setting in which they’re speaking
whether it’s formal or informal but
hopefully it will give you a good idea
as always there is a pdf that goes with
today’s lesson it’s got all of the
information that i shared today plus
links to the full clips and some extra
bits as well if you’d like to download
that just click on the link in the
description box you enter your name and
your email address you sign up to my
mailing list and then immediately the
pdf will arrive in your inbox and then
every week after that you will
automatically receive my lesson pdfs
you’ll also receive all of my news
updates and offers and the opportunity
to participate in any future surveys you
don’t want to miss out on that important
research
now a lot of the clips that i’m going to
show you come from tv shows mainly
british tv shows i always recommend
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let’s get started with the video so we
have 10 accents and the person who’s
ranked at number 10
i.e the easiest to understand according
to my students is queen elizabeth ii of
course
it helps a lot that she speaks very very
slowly and this was a formal broadcast
let’s have a listen king james may not
have anticipated quite how important
sport and games were to become
in promoting harmony and common
interests
but from the scriptures in the bible
which bears his name
we know that nothing is more satisfying
than the feeling of belonging to a group
who are dedicated to helping each other
and now let’s listen one more time
with subtitles on screen so you can
check how much of it you understand king
james may not have anticipated quite how
important sport and games were to become
in promoting harmony and common
interests
but from the scriptures in the bible
which bears his name
we know that nothing is more satisfying
than the feeling of belonging to a group
who are dedicated to helping each other
so the queen speaks the queen’s english
she speaks with a received pronunciation
accent on the very top
posh end of received pronunciation now
this is an accent that is traditionally
regarded as the standard for british
english but things are changing
originally this accent was called public
school pronunciation
and public school actually means private
school so an independent school
in in the uk state school is education
paid for by the government public or
private school you pay for yourself so
this is an accident that was
traditionally learnt
and
and it’s quite interesting because it
doesn’t have a specific geographical
location it was originally spoken in
public schools all across the british
isles it was kind of a
sign of class a couple of decades ago
the majority of what you would hear on
the radio and on the television would be
received pronunciation but now that is
not the case and rightly so
let’s move on to number nine
and this is a very attractive to me
celebrity
it is jason statham speaking in his
gorgeous cockney accent i know a lot of
you are huge fans of the cockney accent
let’s have a listen
and you have to accept that i mean we’re
at the end of the day we shouldn’t be
moaning because we’re you know we’re
hired actors you come in you get paid
shut your mouth do your work and go home
it should be a little bit of that but
sometimes you want to try and get
involved and you try to try and
collaborate and get things done can we
just have a moment of appreciation for
men rocking bald heads
absolutely love them right let’s listen
again with subtitles and see how much
you understood and you have to accept
that i mean we’re at the end of the day
we shouldn’t be moaning because we’re
you know we’re hired actors you come in
you get paid shut your mouth do your
work and go home it should be a little
bit of that but sometimes you want to
try and get involved and you try to try
and collaborate and and get things done
okay a dorth’s accent
it originates from the east end of
london supposedly you were only a true
cockney if you were born with an earshot
of bow bells within earshot means within
listening distance within hearing
distance
and bow bells are the bells in a church
a historic east london church now the
east end of london is changing
and a lot of the people who were born
there or who grew up there are moving
further out to essex so it’s very
interesting to me to see that number
eight
was the essex accent so let’s play a
clip of that we have a celebrity called
gemma collins who i personally adore she
is
so sassy
so entertaining if i ever feel sad i
look at her top moments on youtube
because
ugh what character she’s just completely
herself i have become one of the biggest
reality stars in britain i am a global
icon
it’s weird but that’s the gc and that’s
what i do i make great tv i provide you
with entertainment
um and i kind of explain it to people
it’s like paul o’grady and lily savage
you know it’s it’s it’s how i make my
money i mean she’s so confident isn’t
she i loved the guy eamon holmes’s face
just as she was praising herself
brilliant let’s listen again with
subtitles i have become one of the
biggest reality stars in britain i am a
global icon
it’s weird but that’s the gc and that’s
what i do i make great tv i provide you
with entertainment
um and i kind of explain it to people
it’s like paul o’grady and lily savage
you know it’s it’s it’s how i make my
money okay so the essex accent is found
in and around essex a lot of people from
the east end originally cockney did move
to essex or are continuing to move to
essex it is like a mixture of the
estuary accent and the cockney accent
it’s become incredibly popular over the
past decade due to a tv show called the
only way is essex it’s a reality tv show
that follows young people in essex very
glamorous people and gemma was one of
them and her career has just exploded
okay moving on to number seven we’re
going to another country we’re not in
england anymore we are in wales and it
is the cardiff accent as spoken by
charlotte church who is an opera singer
well i suppose in terms of uh
what the film would end the milk woods
is such an incredible um play uh dylan
thomas’s writing is so unusual
um
yeah and i i just i’m not really i’m
quite a newbie to acting i’ve done bits
and bobs in the past
very interesting there can you hear her
say unusual
uh well i’d say unusual
so it’s almost like she’s adding in an
extra syllable there
and she also said incredible uh with
an r sound i struggle to do it’s like a
thing it’s like a a rolling r sound
i love listening to the welsh accents
they’re very
melodious to me
let’s listen again with subtitles well i
suppose in terms of uh
what the film would end the milk woods
is such an incredible
play
dylan thomas’s writing is so unusual
um
yeah and i i just i’m not really i’m
quite a newbie to acting i’ve done bits
and bobs in the past
if you are interested in learning a
little bit more about the welsh accents
then i highly recommend a comedy called
gavin and stacy
actually goes quite well with this video
because it shows an essex family and a
welsh family
joining because the son and the daughter
are getting married hilarious some
fabulous welsh accents in there
let’s move on to number six it’s the
yorkshire accent as spoken by louis
tomlinson from one direction
basically right i mean my name is louie
but i didn’t love it when i was younger
like once i was old enough i don’t know
why i just didn’t really love it so i
got known as louis all my friends from
home call me louis
and then i get there it’s close enough
sorry
and then i get there on me on my first
day at the x factor with simon and you
know i mean all the judges and he called
me louie so for me one of the most
distinctive things about his accent is
that he says me
instead of my my name instead of my name
that’s really distinctive to me where
i’d say love he says love
i didn’t love it
but for me it’s i didn’t love it i find
this accent very warm love
yeah it’s just lovely isn’t it let’s
listen again but with subtitles so you
can see how much you understood
basically right i mean my name is louie
but i didn’t love it when i was younger
once i was old enough i don’t know why i
just didn’t really love it so i got
known as louis all my friends from home
call me lewis
and then i get there it’s close enough
sorry and then i get there on me on my
first day at the x factor with simon and
you know i mean all the judges and he
called me louie did you also hear him
not pronounce the h in home he said um
i would say home from home from um
from um i’m not sure if that’s quite
right from um
um i need a bit of help with my
yorkshire accent another thing i noticed
he said i were instead of i was when i
were younger
when i was younger is what i’d say
that’s part of his dialect okay number
five so this is sort of mid-range in
difficulty for you it’s the brummie
accent which is the accent from
birmingham and we have adrian charles
speaking it so anyway look you actually
when they’re trying to get me to come on
here they give a list of all the
brilliant people you’ve uh you’ve had on
the past that has the opposite effect on
me i said you know
richard e grant and stuff why would
anybody be interested so anyway that’s
my i suppose that’s my turn you’re just
the best i could get
well many a true word said yeah so
adrian doesn’t actually have the
strongest brommy accent that i’ve ever
heard
um
but if you find him hard to understand
he is speaking quite quickly here so if
you’re managing to understand him you’re
doing a really good job
let’s listen again with subtitles
so anyway look you actually when they’re
trying to get me to come on here they
give a list of all the brilliant people
you’ve uh you’ve had on the past that
has the opposite effect on me i said you
know
richard e grant and stuff why would
anybody be interested so anyway that’s
my i suppose that’s my turn you’re just
the best i could get uh
well many a true word yeah also how
awesome is that sign language
interpreter she was really conveying the
comedy quite well now as lovely as this
accent may sound to you this is actually
one of the british accents that faces
the most discrimination within the
country there is another one that i’ll
talk about as well when people run
opinion polls it often comes up as one
of the most disfavored very
interestingly
when they run similar opinion polls to
overseas visitors
so non-native english speakers the
brummie accent seems to do quite well
they find it very melodious this implies
that it does badly in poles because of
prejudice rather than a genuine
dislike of the sound of it
i’d be interested to know your thoughts
and
to know if there are any accents in your
country that you think are kind of
unfairly regarded i know that living in
spain i learned spanish with an
andalusian accent
and i have definitely been on the
receiving end of criticism some of it i
take as well meaning
a lot of it comes from people from other
countries who are saying ah this sort of
accident’s ugly you should learn my
accent
but it can be quite hurtful to be honest
because
that’s the accent i speak with now let’s
move on to the next one you’ve rated
this as number four
and i know i shouldn’t have favorites
but i think i can this is my favorite i
absolutely
love the way this accent sounds and i
love the person who has this accent it
is nadine coyle from girls aloud
it’s just a blessing on the ears it
really is she speaks with a dairy accent
have a listen of this
i enjoy cooking baking and stuff working
with flyer and making sweet things i’m
not so used to more savory chopping kind
of
when you just zone out you put your
music on and you just chop just have
loads of stuff does anyone else want to
just
chop and cook with flour with her
it’s just lovely see if you can notice
that where i would say flower she says
something more like flyer
and she also says meccan instead of
making as i would say it chopping
chopping
really really distinct differences let’s
listen again with subtitles i enjoy
cooking baking and stuff working with
flyer and making sweet things i’m not so
used to more savory chopping kind of
when you just zone out you put your
music on and you just chop just have
loads of stuff
lovely truly lovely love it
uh let’s move on to number three we have
another girls allowed member so you
voted these two quite high up on the
difficulty scale cheryl speaks with a
geordie accent which you’ll find in the
city of newcastle and the surrounding
areas let’s have a listen we did three
hours the night before and those girls
are so there’s a girl out there called
charm who i used when i did my own solo
tour
i just absolutely adore her i love
working with her and we did three hours
with those girls and those girls were
sick yes i was just watching them the
whole time like i don’t want to do it
like her she’s so softly spoken and she
she speaks really really gently
let’s listen again with subtitles and
then i’ve got something to say about
this accent we did three hours the night
before and those girls are so there’s a
girl out there called charm who i used
when i did my own solo tour
i just absolutely adore her i love
working with her and we did three hours
with those girls and those girls were
sick yes i was just watching them the
whole time like i don’t want to do a
laker did you hear her use the word sick
sick i think i’ve mentioned it in a
video recently it’s a slang word for
cool i remember finding it very
confusing as a child because i thought
it went bad but that’s sick is that’s
really cool
okay so i wanted to talk a bit more
about accident discrimination here
because
cheryl i remember she was in the news
quite a lot i’d say around 10 years ago
she was a judge on the x factor a
singing talent competition in the uk
and she was invited over to the u.s
to be a judge on the u.s version
and then she was quickly fired from it
supposedly and apparently
it was due to the producers being
worried that her accent would be
difficult to understand now i don’t know
if this was just
to generate publicity
but it sounded pretty harsh i remember
feeling really bad for her at the time
i feel that even if her accent was kind
of new
to viewers of the x factor in the u.s
they would have gotten used to it quite
quickly so
i don’t know if i agree with that
decision
but i imagine that it was just for
publicity maybe this was all decided
before right let’s move on to number two
number two is a comedian that i’m very
fond of he’s called frankie boyle he
tells the most outrageous jokes he
really pushes the boundaries and
oversteps them quite frequently but he
speaks with a glaswegian accent from
glasgow in scotland let’s have a listen
my um
cousins when i was growing up
in ireland their dad was like a
fisherman like on a trawler in ireland
and he would go away for two weeks at a
time i remember thinking that’s the
worst thing you could possibly imagine
you know is that your dad’s gonna just
disappear for two weeks and now it’s
like you know two months would be quite
standard on a tour
very very distinctive tour
i’m not even gonna try to mimic it this
for me is one of the hardest accents for
me
to mimic one thing i find quite
distinctive is that what i would say is
they say as
or instead of kind for me they say caned
let’s have a listen again with subtitles
see how much you picked up
when i was growing up in ireland their
dad was like a fisherman like on a
trawler in ireland and he would go away
for two weeks at a time i remember
thinking that’s the worst thing you
could possibly imagine
you know is that your dad’s going to
just disappear for two weeks and now
it’s like you know two months would be
quite standard on a tour and the last
accident the accident that you voted as
hardest to understand
in all fairness i don’t think i gave you
the easiest clip he’s speaking very
quickly but his name’s john bishop and
he speaks with a scouse accent and
there’s been a lot of press recently
of people who speak with a scouse accent
coming out and talking about the
discrimination they’ve faced let’s have
a listen to the comedian john bishop
speaking with his scouse accent
have a listen to those distinctive
features they have roosevelt them in the
book i’ve called them generation zed
because i’ve given them a full title
because i’m old enough to call things by
his full title rather than yourself he’s
gone gen z
yeah that’s also the only clip with
music in the background as well so i’ll
bear that in mind for next time to make
sure it’s as fair as possible however it
is a very distinctive accent when he
says but i he almost says
it’s very hard for me to reproduce he
almost rolls his r sounds another thing
i notice is when they say things like
school or cool they tend to say skewel
or kiwill
almost adding in an extra syllable they
have rules about them in the book but
i’ve called them generation zed because
i’ve given them a full title because i’m
old enough to call things by his full
title rather than yourself he’s gone gen
z
right
that is the end of today’s video those
were the 10 accents that you helped me
rank from easiest to understand to
hardest to understand
i really enjoyed making this video
i love looking at the ins and outs of
lots of accents i’d love to make another
video like this so tell me if you
enjoyed it and if you’d like more don’t
forget to download the free pdf that
goes with this video it’s got links to
all of the full clips so that you can
explore more of the accents that you
like just click on the link in the
description box enter your name and your
email address and you sign up to my
mailing list you’ll receive pdfs every
week along with my news course
information and updates don’t forget to
check out nordvpn at nordvpn.com
lucy you can take advantage of their
amazing offer you can connect with me on
all of my social media i’ve got my
instagram and my website
englishwithlucy.co.uk where i have a
really cool pronunciation tool where you
can click on phoneme and hear me
pronounce those phonemes in words that
contain those phonemes it’s very fun
e
word
no
i’ve also got my personal channel where
i document my life here in the english
countryside there are some big changes
going on so
could be interesting to watch
all of the videos are fully subtitled so
you can use them for listening practice
and to improve your vocabulary this way
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i will see you soon for another lesson
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you