The
British accent has been rated as the most attractive English accent in the world, according to a new survey by the CEOWORLD magazine. The results were revealed in a global study, which questioned 96,398 people across 32 countries worldwide to list “most attractive English accents” other than their own.
The Southern US accent was recently voted one of the top 50 in the world, making a strong appearance at No. 9 in the world. We wanted to delve a little deeper and find out some characteristics of the accent to see why people find it so sexy.
People tend to think a foreign accent is more interesting and more sexy, says Guy Winch, a psychotherapist from Britain who's long been based in the United States, “because in general we tend to value what's less common.” Americans associate a British accent with someone being “more intelligent, more sophisticated and ...
British accents conjure stereotypes of high IQ and competence while Brooklyn and Southern accents get lower ratings on intelligence. This is not necessarily consistent with actual IQ scores, but the perception persists just the same.
The French accent, previously considered the sexiest in the world, has been dethroned by the British accent, aka the Queen's English, in a global study carried out by Time Out in over 30 countries. Sacrebleu! The French accent has lost the first spot as the world's sexiest accent to Queen's English.
Of foreign accents, the British accent is the #1 most liked, chosen by 69% of respondents. In addition to being the general favorite, it also ranked among the sexiest and most intelligent.
#1 The British accent
The year 2020 saw the British accent ranked No. 1 on the list. It was crowned the sexiest accent in the world with 25 percent of the total votes. The accent proved particularly popular in countries like China, Sweden, India and the USA.
So, what do Aussies think of American accents to be exact? The answer is- many have stated, they find American English to be more forced and stylized than necessary. As Australian English adheres to British pronunciation rules, the American accent appears to be more dominated by its clear “R” sound to Australians.
Accordingly, we asked people what the most and least pleasant accent to listen to is. Overwhelmingly, people like the Southern accent best, followed by British and Australian accents. Southern accents tend to be thought of as friendly and welcoming, while British and Australian accents are more exotic.
For the entire world, American accent is most universal. British, Scottish, Irish and Australian accents are pretty unfamiliar with all ears of the people around the globe. Irish English is the easiest to understand.
The Inner Circle — The smallest circle, this section includes countries in which English is the native language of the majority of the population: mainly the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and much of Canada.
It is believed that there are around 230 million native speakers in the United States, making it the largest English-speaking country, while the United Kingdom has approximately 60 million native speakers.
The results revealed that women and men find different accents attractive, and the only common accents on both lists were Australian and Southern. While men desired Israeli and Colombian accents the most, this was not mirrored amongst the women who were surveyed, who ultimately preferred British and Spanish accents.
According to a Big 7 Travel survey, the accent found among New Jerseyans has the least sex appeal compared to the state accents. "Poor New Jersey dropped down one place from 2019 to end up in the last spot this year, making it the least sexy accent in America.
The French accent has been considered for many years as being the sexiest accent in the world.
Preply, a Brookline-based online language learning platform, took a survey of more than 1,700 people across the country on the most loved and hated accents. The Boston accent came out on top as the most annoying, followed by the Midwestern accent.
The French accent is considered one of the most sensual. After all, the language is known as the language of love – so is it any wonder we find it so sexy? Interestingly, the appeal in the French accent isn't limited to the language.