“The easiest to teach is the Londoner accent, or Standard British. I really love teaching more complicated ones like French or Australian, which are hard because most people tend to lean toward British sounds or Irish sounds when trying to master a new accent,” Sammi says.
Option 1: the American accent
The most popular English accent of them all. Spread around the world by American cinema, music, television and more than 350 million North Americans (including Canadians, eh), this is the easiest accent for most people to understand, whether native speakers or non-native speakers.
The New Zealand vowel system has undergone what linguists consider a “shift” in pronunciation. This means that a letter, such as “e”, no longer has the same pronunciation that the rest of the English world uses. For example: “Test” in New Zealand is pronounced as “Tist” = /e/ has become /i/.
Perhaps the two most iconic English varieties in the world are British and American accents. Both of them have a form of “general” accent which is perceived as more educated or correct than the other varieties, as if having an accent-free speech was a sign of social status.
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.
Irish. The Voquent community has spoken! And this time around, the Irish accent has come out on top with more than half the votes as the world's sexiest accent.
A very broad Australian accent can be exceptionally hard to understand (a common joke is that we slur all our words together because it's too hot to put spaces in), but if you spend time in Australia you'll likely pick it up.
The Boston accent ranks among the “smartest sounding” accents in America, according to a new survey. The Boston accent ranks among the “smartest sounding” accents in America, according to a new survey. This is probably the best evidence around on how unreliable surveys/polls can be.
The Australian accent is often described as a 'lazy' form of English.
Australian English follows British spelling very closely but many common words are spelt differently in American English. Despite being spelt differently, the meaning of the word is the same. Australian and American English have different ways of spelling certain words, such as those ending with 'yse' or 'ise'.
British is the most likeable accent globally, with 45% of respondents stating they enjoy hearing their native language spoken with a British accent.
Some people believe that RP (Received Pronunciation) is the most standard or general accent in British English. Many EFL (English as a Foreign Language) schools teach it because it is supposed to be the most “polished” pronunciation. It is typically referred to as “Queen's English” or “BBC English”.
Australian English is most similar to British English in spelling and sentence construction, although its accent and vocabulary are very distinct from the UK.
The English accent is the one that is victorious, with the latest survey showing that 17 per cent of people have it at the top of their list. French came in next at 13 per cent, which is unsurprising considering that this is the language spoken in the city of love.
In Australia, this dialect is sometimes called Strine /ˈstɹɑɪn/ (or "Strayan" /ˈstɹæɪən/, a shortening of the word Australian), and a speaker of the dialect may be referred to as an Ocker.
The most common verbal greeting is a simple “Hey”, “Hello”, or “Hi”. Some people may use Australian slang and say “G'day” or “G'day mate”. However, this is less common in cities. Many Australians greet by saying “Hey, how are you?”.
If you say “no” with an extra syllable or two, chances are you are actually saying naur, an Australian-ism defined by its listeners, not its speakers, which continues to be one of the internet's favourite jokes.
In our recent poll of the sexiest accents in the world, the Australian accent came in at No. 5.
The “quality” of your English does not depend on the origin of your accent. There's no such thing as a “good” or “bad” accent. But an understanding of clarity in English, and how your pronunciation can affect communication, does matter, and that's something you can improve.
OnBuy.com discovered that Brits' favourite and most trustworthy sounding accent was the Yorkshire accent, earning 60% of the vote.