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.
British, Australian, and Irish accents are the top 3 foreign accents people find to be most attractive.
We'll start with the most obvious one: the Kiwis! In terms of geography, they are quite removed from the rest of the world, and their unique accent is definitely a reflection of that. The New Zealand vowel system has undergone what linguists consider a “shift” in pronunciation.
“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.
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.
Unlike some of the strong accents and dialects used back in England, the Australian accent was clear and easy to understand, because it was developed by people trying to understand each other!
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”.
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. When it comes to the sexiest accent, Boston ranked number six out of 10.
Geordie. People from Newcastle speak a dialect called Geordie, which is one of the strongest and most distinctive accents in England.
The “Brummie monotone” is the least respected accent in the UK, academics suggest, with Birmingham natives mocked, criticised and singled out for the way they speak. The research, published by the education charity, The Sutton Trust, found that “pervasive accent bias” continues to act as a barrier to social mobility.
#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.
Perhaps the neutral accent is that variety of British English known as 'Received Pronunciation' or RP, today often known as BBC English. But RP is a specific type of British English accent, not English spoken with no accent. The accent owes its status to the dominance of London in British life.
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 results revealed that women and men find different accents attractive, and the only common accents on both lists were Australian and Southern.
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.
The British Accent
The Great British accent proved to be the most difficult of all the accents to imitate – along with the regional Yorkshire and Cockney pronunciations, in particular.
Japanese is the fastest recorded language. It has a rate of 7.84 syllables per second.
The UK has the most local accents of any English speaking country. As such, a single "British accent" does not exist. However, someone could be said to have an English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish accent, although these all have many different sub-types.
#1 The British accent
The accent proved particularly popular in countries like China, Sweden, India and the USA. Additionally, the survey showed that Asian countries like South Korea, Japan and Malaysia were also allured by English and other UK accents.
Cockney was found to be the most annoying accent in Britain.
Places with stronger accents, such as parts of Scotland, can be particularly difficult to understand. Often people will use language or words they commonly use in their local community, which may be confusing to non-native speakers of English in general.