What do the British think of American accents?
Which variant of the American accent?In general, we view it as novel and rather quaint, and if we meet an American (much like I imagine Americans do when encountering a British person), we’ll try and get them to say as many words that they pronounce differently as possible (see: banana, process, progress, etc.) and to be honest, we’ll probably (playfully) mock them for it.There are a few things that grind on our nerves though. In fact, I think our distaste for the American accent can be summed up in one word:Tomato.I’m sorry, I couldn’t stand pronouncing it ‘to-may-to’. I could learn to say ‘parking lot’ instead of ‘car park’, ‘cell phone’ instead of ‘mobile phone’, and even pronounced ‘progress’ as ‘prah-gress’, but never could I bring myself to say ‘tomayto’.It’s completely irrational, but no British person I know with a shred of self-respect would say it like that. Slightly racist, but that’s the British for you.Apart from that, I think we generally like it as an accent. We tend to romanticise the Southern accent quite a bit - it conjures up images of the stereotypical Southern Sweetheart tipping his cowboy hat in greeting *sighs dreamily* - but we also tend to put on a more insulting variant of it if we’re being playfully racist; I’ve been hearing the ‘Inbred Texan Accent’ (as I’ve personally dubbed it) more and more since Trump became Republican nominee.We also mock the Valley Girl accent if we ever go to Starbucks. We are very familiar with these stereotypes.In general, I think we’re quite fond of it. It’s different, so naturally we’re interested in it, and having an American accent will probably make you 200% more interesting to your average British person, just as a British accent will make you 200% more interesting to an American (I warn all Americans, though, there are a lot of British accents outside of the one you’re undoubtedly thinking of.)Edit: I somehow forgot about the aluminium vs aluminum debate. I don’t care how you American mutilate the spelling, how on Earth did you come up with al-oo-min-um? Joking aside, aluminium was first discovered by a Danish scientist, and in Danish it’s spelt aluminium.That being said, if an American actually did said aluminium the proper way (or as a commenter mentioned, said to-mah-to), we’d take the piss so much. It’s probably best we keep our linguistic differences, otherwise we’d be reduced to insulting the French accent, and that’s just old hat by now.
Do Britons think the American accent is harsh?
This Brit thinks most American accents are less harsh than some of our own!I think all humans are programmed to find some aspects of 'difference' grating or annoying. In this particular example, I'd say that most British people regard General American as a benign and pretty friendly cousin who occasionally gets on your nerves. After all, we grow up hearing a huge amount of it in the media.An unscientific and unproven guess:Exposure to English accents (in real life or in the media) of a typical resident of, say, the West Midlands, in rank order:West Midlands accentsStandard 'BBC English' and RPEstuary EnglishGeneral AmericanVarious northern English accents.Other British and Irish accentsOther American accentsOther national variants of English (Aussie, NZ etc.)To me, no aspect of General American is harsh. I'm sometimes irritated by the huge elongation of vowels. Americans probably spend about four times longer saying 'dog' than Brits do. There are certain words that grate: many American media people say 'sekints' for 'seconds', as an example, but there are many others. I particularly hate the silly, fancy-ass names devised for metropolitan areas by their local media outlets over the late 20th Century. 'Metroplex' (Dallas-Fort Worth) and 'Chicagoland' for example. A lot of these irritants are media-derived, however, and some of them annoy Americans too. When I'm talking to an American, I notice far fewer, if any.You'd have to either be politically/culturally anti-American, or an extreme British nationalist, to regard General American as out and out harsh, or in itself entirely annoying or bad. Those people exist, of course, but they are small minorities and don't reflect mainstream British opinion, in my view. American is an accent that is very familiar to us, and is one we closely associate with funny or sympathetic film or Tv characters, holidays to the US, and other familiar or benign influences.
Do you think American accents are annoying?
If it weren’t for the thing - no. I love them and could happily listen to American women all day - and then have them on tape to relax me and help me sleep at night.And it’s such a shame. I just want to enjoy them - all of them - from Southern Belle to Baltimore ghetto.Felicia ‘Snoop’ Pearson’s accent is utterly gorgeous for instance……but then there’s the thing.All British people will know what I mean when I say it.And I know it will sound a little irrational, and a tad unfair, and maybe a bit of an over-reaction when I say this.But until you fix it, a part of us will always despise you and want to beat you to a bloody pulp. And then keep hitting you.And then stamp on you. And then break a few chairs over you.And then reverse a car over you repeatedly.And then hire a marching band, and a carnival parade, complete with a troupe of elephants, to march over you for three days non-stop.Just to make sure you never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever say the word herb again.
How do American accents sound to British ears? Their accents sound so refined to us. Do we sound refined to them?
No, and I think the main reason for this is the “prestige non-rhotacism” of British Received Pronunciation.You know how typically in American accents you can always hear the “r” sound? Well that's rhoticism, and it's perhaps the difference between British and American accents that most stands out. We say “waw-tah” you say “wah-derr” etc.After the World Wars, “America was thus clearly Top Nation, and history came to a . [stop]”. Nigel Molesworth notwithstanding, we have been quietly seething ever since.One of the things that really gets up our noses is “Americanisms”. In Victorian times we would play fast and loose with our own language to our heart's content, but with the old order upended a large number of these innovations started to come from the wrong side of the Atlantic, and so to preserve our Britishness it is now our duty to identify and reject all such dilutions of our pure language. After all, it's called English so it must be ours!One of these pretentious innovations is that awful ARRR. I mean, have you heard that Daft Punk medley by Pentatonix? “We've come too faRRR to give up who we aRRR”? Ugh.Funny thing is, the English actually all spoke like that until the 1700's. Including Shakespeare. Then the upper classes thought it would sound all refined and posh to start dropping them, and before long they forgot they ever had them. But as we said before, it's called English so obviously the way we choose to speak it is the correct way, by definition.Actually some contemporary English accents still pronounce their ARRRs, like in the West Country. But they're all country bumpkins, so of course they don't speak proper English.;)Edit 16 Jan 2018: This is a parody, everybody. I'm mocking the elitists who change their own accent and claim the right to tell everybody else their way of speaking is now wrong. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear enough and I've caused offence.
Do British people like Americans accents as much as Americans seem to like British accents?
There are a lot of different American accents, even we can see that. (There are British accents other than Michael Cain and Dick Van Dyke, too.) Some of them I like, some I find rather grating. They're all somewhat unpleasantly nasal, though. More importantly, I've come to associate an American accent with friendliness and enthusiasm, and that I find endearing, even if you do pronounce your 'r's too much.P.S. There are some things, however, like country music and movie trailer narration, that absolutely require an American accent, and for that we are truly thankful.
Do british people think american accents are hot?
There are so many regional dialects and accents in England. Most people are aware they have an accent and speak with a certain dialect. Mancunians for example, know they sound nothing like a Londoner, in terms of how they pronounce different words. The word 'park' or 'car' is pronounced differently if you were to compare a Londoner and Mancunian person saying it, up North they tend to elongate and soften the 'a' in words. I don't mind any of the American accents, providing they don't constantly say 'like' or 'awesome' or 'totes'.
What do American accents sound like to Australians or British people?
I'm a British girl. younger brits tend to find american accents cool and trendy but older brits tend to find them loud and annoying. Sometimes I find the accent annoying because there can sometimes be a twine at the back of you lots' throat. And when you come to the end of a sentence you go up like every sentence you say is a question. I find it cute and amusing.
What do the British think of Americans?
Now, I know, this question gets asked a lot on here. However, it's typically answered by other Americans as well as the Brits. I was hoping for only British opinions. I've heard a lot. Sometimes people say that you guys look down on us for poor etiquette and stupidity. I've also heard that you love us, like we're your little brother or something. I understand this gets asked a lot, but I'm honestly just interested in hearing some new opinions. What do you think of our accent? What do you think of our democracy? What do you think of our culture? What do you think of the Americans who visit? Yada, yada, yada... You get the idea.
Why do American's like British accents so much?
I'm British myself and people are always like "I love your accent!" but I never understood why? Haha so for you British accent lovers out there help me out?