Americans React to Top 10 Hardest UK Accents To Imitate

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In this video we react to the hardest UK accents to imitate. It's really amazing just how many different dialects and accents there are in the UK. Some British accents are easy to understand, but others not so much. Today Lindsay and I take a look at some really hard UK accents to imitate. After hearing and hilariously trying some of these accents there's no doubt it would be really hard to actually sound like a local with these accents.
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[@WijaLE]

In the UK, Dick Van Dyke is infamous for how bad his cockney accent is in Mary Poppins - proving how difficult it really is!

[@bigfrankfraser1391]

in fact, my wife whose actual cockney, said that where she grew up a bad impression would be called "going full dick"

[@101steel4]

That was a shocking attempt, even by American standards 😂

[@andybaker2456]

Apparently he had a voice coach to help him with the accent, however that voice coach was from Ireland! 😆

[@101steel4]

@@andybaker2456 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Aloh-od3ef]

‘Alright, I’ll do it myself’ 😂😂😂😂

[@G0ldfingers]

Not many of the accents in the video were actually very strong representations.

[@PedroConejo1939]

Yeah, there's plenty of much thicker clips available. For Norn Iron, for example, I would have gone with the 'frost bit kid'.

[@EtherealSunset]

Yeah, they were mostly mild, diluted versions of the accents.

[@janescott4574]

My husband and I are from the south east, one of my lovely daughters in law comes from Newcastle in the north east. My husband jokes that he hasn’t understood a word she says in 30 years!! (She then hits him!!!!)

[@boontime]

They used a clip of a Black Country girl speaking rough Yam Yam as an example of the Brummie accent :(

[@eoinlucas5058]

Fact, these were the most diluted examples you could find

[@Parker8752]

Growing up in the uk during the 90s, you could tell if someone came from the next town over by accent. The difference in accent from just a ten mile difference was huge.

[@Witcher14]

I love this about the UK

[@aimeehall1742]

it’s still like this in wales! can tell from a 15min drive that you’ve moved into a new area

[@callum4796]

Gerald from Clarkson's farm is probably the hardest person in the uk to understand 🤣

[@85stace85]

100%!! Not a clue what he's saying, but he's hilarious!! 😂

[@javierhillier4252]

they should definitely check out clarksons farm

[@javierhillier4252]

they should definitely check out clarksons farm

[@jkasaunder228]

There is a youtube video that basically teaches you to understand Gerald (I think it's "This is what gerald said"). Once you watch it, everything suddenly makes sense. (If you grew up around it, no need to watch the video)

[@liannfoster5467]

I disagree the strongest English accent very broad Scottish.

[@hufflepuffgirl5437]

Honestly think some of the clips didn't represent the accents enough 😂 but it was hilarious.

[@susanashcroft2674]

I agree.

[@andybaker2456]

Yes, many of the examples were pretty mild, and didn't really give a good representation of how some of those accents really sound.

[@GillNotRelatedToTom]

Totally agree

[@xarisstylianou]

Most accents on tv are toned down so people can understand Birmingham has so many ascent from the black country to Wolfhamton to Dudley even Yam Yam .and Newcastle is just as bad the softest is the midleland

[@hardywatkins7737]

Yeah i thought that also.

[@brokenphoenix6730]

A lot of the accents you heard in the video were accents for TV shows, so an element of a variety of different viewers being able to understand it would be taken into account. The everyday accent you hear across different towns and cities in real life are usually a bit stronger and the differences tend to be greater.

[@neilgayleard3842]

Many by actors who are not even from that area. Including the RP one with a Australian playing the part.

[@beckyallsopp5695]

I don't think this was a very good representation of any of the accents tbh

[@wessexdruid7598]

@@neilgayleard3842 So many of these vids use Peaky Blinders as an example of Brummie - when the actor is actually Irish.

[@mickleather2119]

No representations of British accents at all in the video. Missing the real accents via actors. Missing Yorkshire, The Midlands, East Anglia, Scottish other than Glasgow. All areas have slightly different accents. The shown video is nowhere near representation. Just to put the record straight, don't attempt to reproduce. It's offensive. You enjoy our melodic English speech. Maybe the odd exceptions.

[@SoupMagoosh]

I disagree, accents are much more diluted now and tend to be exaggerated by actors

[@tomreviews9668]

As a British citizen, I didn't think the examples shown were that great or shown off the accents in a particularly obvious way to an outsider. Thinking about it, I wished they had shown clips of the eighties drama, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, as the mixture of different characters clearly demonstrates the diversity and broadness in UK dialects.

[@EtherealSunset]

Very true, there were lots of different accents in that.

[@thadtuiol1717]

@@EtherealSunset Funny thing was, only the Geordie characters accents were authentic because the actors actually were Geordies, but all the other actors actually weren't from the region their character was from.

[@RcGhost-V8]

i am not British and i agree with you, anyone could understand what was said that was not the best video to show the British accents

[@Athena621]

Jump, loved Jimmy Nail in it!!!

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

Why aye!!! Geordies 😇

[@AndrewBroadhead-kb7oc]

I'm from Wakefield, went to school in Leeds, went to university in Hull, worked in Harrogate, now live in Barnsley and my girlfriend is from Sheffield. All Yorkshire towns and cities. Every single one has a completely different accent to the others.

[@charlienerd]

I'm from Sheffield lived in Leeds, hartlepool, Wolverhampton and now barnsley

[@kristoferhailes4627]

A know what thar on abart theer mate. Tintintin tha knows

[@Nesseveraf]

I'm from Pontefract and there's even a slight difference between here and Wakefield.

[@user-xg6zy2oi9c]

From Huddersfield to hull there’s a good 4-5 accents and from Sheffield to Richmond the same. Yorkshire is a massive county.

[@molliesmomma]

I’m a Scouser living in Barnsley, I’ve been here 4 years and I’ve noticed that Barnsley, Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster accents are all so different yet there’s only a few miles separating each place.

[@corringhamdepot4434]

Before they invented the bicycle and the train, most country folk lived, worked and married within a few miles of where they were born. There were also many different local dialect words, as well as different accents.

[@pauldurkee4764]

Its fascinating to look at old maps before the motorcar, market towns were like the hub of a spoked wheel with roads leading to the next settlements, they normally worked out about 13 to 15 miles in-between, a comfortable distance for a man to travel there and back in a day on a horse and cart. So they noticed speech variations about that distance apart.

[@SoupMagoosh]

Even after their invention, most people couldn't afford to use them

[@KenFullman]

They chose the wrong video to react to. You only get to hear a couple of words of each accent. Absolute waste of time.

[@ianbeddowes5362]

After the invention of the the bicycle, young men in rural England were able to roger young women they were not even related to.

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

@@ianbeddowes5362 What are you on about...? Roger? Do you mean fuck?

[@janesalisbury3686]

That film is RUBBISH, it's all actors, many of whom are not getting the accents right. Everybody in the UK makes fun of Mel Gibbs and Dick van Dyke because they got it excruciatingly wrong.

[@XXXX-uy7oh]

(I had to check your comment twice! I thought I had written that & forgotten!😂💜) Hilarious! 🙏🏻💜🇬🇧💜

[@rayaqueen9657]

Can't upvote this comment enough!!! Feel sorry for the reactors because these all sound the same. (UK born linguist). We have so many beautiful wild accents. These are all tamed (and there's WAY too much narration from someone who knows nothing!)

[@DistrictDriver]

As a Geordie myself, I can talk with a strong accent when I'm talking to my family, however I'm also a radio presenter so can talk relatively accent-free! I live in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and am a true Geordie, however just about 12 miles away, there is a city called Sunderland, and their accent is completely different to Geordie! They are known as "Mackems" because they pronounce the word "make" as "Mak"! I love accents, and the huge variations just a few miles away!

[@TheStar798]

As a Londoner I looooooooove a Geordie accent 😂😍 (that and Edinburgh are my favourites)

[@PolarBear4]

Yep! I have my normal accent and my "phone voice" for the rest of the World. I think it's something all of us with stronger regional accent have had to develop so those from other areas can understand us. And yep, I have relatives from Sunderland and Teesside and they're very distinctly different to mine (along with my friend from County Durham). Last time I met my elderly Mackem relative I could barely understand her for a few mins until my brain shifted.

[@Labyrinth_Props]

I went to in uni in Hartlepool. One of my classmates was a geordie. One was mackem. The were besties but fought like cats and dogs. Especially about pronunciation. And ‘phone voice’ is weird. I grew up being forced to speak ‘properly’ so rp or a very relaxed rp is my normal speech pattern but I still manage to slip into a Goole (close to the doncaster accent?) accent when I’m stressed.

[@louisemanley4388]

Aye thiv got a canny accent in the Toon like! 😅

[@rustynail1194]

Haha loads of people are like that. My Mrs is from the black country moved to Somerset with me and she lost a lot of her accent. Stick her on the phone to her family and it all comes flooding back 😂

[@kjdempsey]

Proud West Country boy here. You would know this accent from Hagrid in Harry Potter, Sam Wise in the Lord of the Rings and Captain Barbossa in Pirates of the Caribbean

[@AdamTaylor-RDL]

I'm quite surprised the Broad Yorkshire accent isn't on there. The modern Yorkshire accent for most areas is now fairly watered down, but older generation of people have some truly amazing broad yorkshire accents, they're also the only people that can sing the Yorkshire Anthem with any real hope! The accent local to Sheffield in South Yorkshire, was recently voted as Britain's favourite accent. Received pronunciation does indeed sound 'stuck up' to people here, its generally associated with people who are wealthy, as well as stereotypically the accent of broadcasters, giving it the nickname of BBC English.

[@goose300183]

I know exactly what you mean! My dad is 65 and is a West Yorkshireman. His accent is pure and broad. I live in Glasgow and my father-in-law has a very strong Glaswegian accent and speaks pretty much pure Scots. My dad and father-in-law actually have trouble understanding each other hehe

[@AdamTaylor-RDL]

@@goose300183Sweet, I'm in West Yorkshire myself. Have a wild mix of accents here, all entirely different twangs & local words. Doesn't matter if you're in Halifax, Bradford, Leeds or Wakefield, you'll always not understand 100% of the conversation with anyone from the other places. I have considered getting elocution lessons to try making my accent broad, but oof, pricey! Gonna have to live with my 'modern' Huddersfield one with plenty of input from the Holme Valley & Halifax.

[@goose300183]

@@AdamTaylor-RDL aye, my family is originally from a pretty rural place in the Keighley/Skipton area. A lot of farmers and rural folks still have the traditional accent, especially the older generation like you say. To outsiders, it sounds like people are speaking Old English or something with phrases like "see ya anon" and "you laikin out t'night?" "as't bin man bin?" "hows yasen?" etc lol

[@johnbolton7657]

​@@AdamTaylor-RDLHey up lad, shout out to Halifax. Nice one, that's weer ahm from.

[@gazroyston1035]

I grew up in Bradford, Yorkshire and love the accent there. But since I last live there 30 years ago, I've lived in south Africa, south Wales,Essex, Hereford, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Chester and also worked with a lot of scousers and Geordies. I've lost most of my original accent and people in Yorkshire don't believe I'm from there, but people everywhere else still say I sound northern.

[@adj0191]

I think part of the problem with a lot of these accents is they’re using actors so a lot of them aren’t native speakers of the accent. There is a really good accent video where they use celebrities speaking in interviews so they’re talking in their own accent which is better to help you hear them

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

Agreed!

[@saswatchco]

I'm from Dublin and there are many accents in the city alone. You can tell what part of the city someone is from simply by their accent. There are also hundreds of accents all over Ireland and again you can easily tell where someone is from. 😅

[@XXXX-uy7oh]

Amrcns All think they "Know!" Irish ppl..😅 (You know this!) 🤭💜🙏🏻💜🇮🇪💜 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💜🇬🇧💜

[@suzielees5227]

Don’t forget guys, the video was demonstrating accents that are hard to imitate, not necessarily hard to understand. 😊

[@rayaqueen9657]

Lol they're hard to imitate because they're barely there. Most of these sound like rp to me. A proper broad accent is always easy to imitate.

[@whitecompany18]

This vid is people with one accent doing somebody else's accent, it's mostly actors playing a part and they are showing bad examples 😄👍

[@reactingtomyroots]

😂

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

Hear, ear! ☺

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

Agreed!!!!

[@rayaqueen9657]

And barely any of it to listen to anyway. It's mostly narration.

[@lesdonovan7911]

Hi Steve, The woman you saw speaking in the west country clip was not from the west country, her accent was all wrong, she was only playing the part in the tv drama Broadchurch which was filmed mainly in west bay Dorset, It was a type of Dorset accent but spoken really badly, in fact i think her home town is up country somewhere.

[@moyaterry8493]

I don’t think the video gave lengthy enough clips or examples of these accents. I LOVE accents!

[@reactingtomyroots]

Agreed!

[@wrightfamily4373]

The thing is in the UK. There tends to be an accent for each county. Although Norfolk is similar to Suffolk, there will be very small changes and bearing in mind there are 230 something counties. Each county is very different to the other.

[@planekrazy1795]

My Uncle is a Cornishman though and though. He has spoken the Cornish Language from a child. He speaks at a million miles an hour with a very heavy Cornish accent. The Cornish Language was almost lost but is making a big comeback. People think it's just like Welsh but it really isn't its very similar to Breton spoken in Brittany in northern France. These two languages are the closest to Brittonic the language of the Celts.

[@wallythewondercorncake8657]

I'm from Devon and had a Dutch girlfriend and she asked me to slow down my speaking when we video called lol

[@hardywatkins7737]

Yeah it doesn't sound much like Welsh. There are two branches of Celtic in these islands ... Brythonic and Goidelic (from 'Goidel' = Gael). Strangely, Celtic is related to Latin, both belonging to the 'southern indo-European' language group. In France, as well as Breton, they also have 'Gaulish' which was the language the Gauls spoke and isn't really related to Gaelic. So 'Gallic' and 'Gaelic' are not the same thing.

[@susanwestern6434]

​@@hardywatkins7737Dydh da.

[@hardywatkins7737]

@@susanwestern6434 I must admit to not being a Cornish speaker, although i live in Cornwall now and have alot of Cornish ancestry but ... Dohajydh da! 🙂

[@lilachiricli6756]

​@@susanwestern6434 Dydd da I chditha hefyd 😁

[@davebardell]

Etymology From Glasgow, modelled after Galwegian (“inhabitant of Galway”), itself modelled after Norwegian (“inhabitant of Norway”). The noun is from the adjective.

[@reactingtomyroots]

Thanks for explaining!

[@marvinc9994]

Lindsay's got a point: it would be MUCH more interesting to have a SINGLE passage rendered in different regional accents.

[@allenwilliams1306]

You mean something like: “Where have you been since I saw you?”, as opposed to “Wheir 'ast tha bin sinc'ah saw thee?”.

[@marvinc9994]

@@allenwilliams1306 "“Where have you been since I saw you?”" Now that _is_ an interesting dialect (whatever it means). Where's it from? ;-)

[@silverfireUK]

​@@marvinc9994 On Ilkley Moor.

[@NemesisMarple]

Given what a tiny country we are, it’s insane how many different accents we have. 😂

[@reactingtomyroots]

Yeah, kinda blows our minds :)

[@da90sReAlvloc]

​@@reactingtomyroots Steve if you want to show your wife a real Geordie accent watch a show called Spender.(starring Jimmy nail). Jimmy is a Geordie

[@lilachiricli6756]

We also have four languages remember 😁 Welsh, English, Scots Gael and Cornish.

[@karencooper3428]

If you're saying accents and dialects, they pretty much do change every village, coz we refer to tings differently, rhyming slang is a good example

[@matt01506]

The perfect example of a west country accent is the song "drink up thy zider" by the wurzels (adge cutler)

[@rachelpenny5165]

I am from rural Devon (farming area) and when I sing along to the songs by the Wurzels my accent gets stronger. Yes I do like the Wurzels.

[@matt01506]

@rachelpenny5165 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Same here.Their songs are the only ones that remotely suit me, if I try to sing anything else I sound like a crow with laryngitis !

[@silverfireUK]

The Worzels would have been perfect

[@Lighting_Desk]

Geordie is very specific to Newcastle upon Tyne where I'm living, but down the river in South Shields you have Sandancer, and Sunderland and Durham are Makems.

[@rayrecrok]

I am a "Wessie" from Wakefield Yorkshire, Yorkshire folk have their own sayings that are completely understood by most Yorkshire folk, just like Cocknys understand theirs, it just is mostly the Yorkshire accent where folk don't understand a word we say! never mind what we are saying. "Sithie"😁

[@penhullwolf5070]

Nah then!

[@michellerice606]

Yoreyt? 😂

[@rayrecrok]

@@michellerice606 eye love!

[@polheg1]

Liam Neeson is from Ballymena, Co Antrim, N.Ireland. Northern Ireland is made up of six counties and is only a part of Ulster which is made up of nine counties. The remaining three are part of Ireland.

[@matt01506]

I suppose the varied ulster accents would be an "Alternative ulster" !

[@paulthomas8262]

@@matt01506 SLF fan?

[@matt01506]

@paulthomas8262 I do enjoy some punk music but it hurts me to admit it as I'm a conservative !

[@paulthomas8262]

@@matt01506 what type of conservative, what are you conserving?

[@matt01506]

@paulthomas8262 Using conservative as conservation is stretching it a bit ! In the context you are getting at the term "preservation" would be more apt !

[@Emily-J25]

You should react to a better UK accent video! this was not a good one, find one that does more and gives better examples.

[@MrBollocks10]

Scotland, Wales and Ireland don't just have different accents, they have different languages.😱

[@user-pp6jg1kq4i]

Ever tried Anglo-Saxon?

[@slw147]

Hi Steve & Lyndsay, Egian comes from the word Region or area. So Glaswegian is an accent from the Glasgow Region. GLASgoWrEGION. The same for Norway Region NORWayrEGION. Accents often change within ten or so miles here but to people from outside the area this can be more difficult to hear. It is generally safe to assume that each county throughout the UK has it's own distinctive accent alough the bigger counties will have notable differences within the North, East, South and West of their areas. The reason that you both find the westcountry accent easier to follow is that the early settlers in the states had an accent very similar to the Gloucestershire and the Somerset accents we heve here today. Cheers from Trev & Jane from across the pond here in Devon.

[@EtherealSunset]

Definitely, people outside of the areas don't notice the differences. I'm from south County Durham. If I go to the next county south (North Yorkshire) or anywhere further south, they say I've got a Geordie accent. If I go to Newcastle, they say I'm from North Yorkshire 😂 (unless they're a bit more familiar with the accents in between). I understand it though as if I go two towns north, they sound a lot more Geordie than here (although not proper Geordie) and a couple of towns south and they sound fully Yorkshire to me.

[@reactingtomyroots]

That's pretty cool to know...and when you break it down like that (i.e. that it comes from the word 'region') it makes much more sense. :) Thanks

[@karencooper3428]

The west country isn't one accent, but it's a gradient of a similar sound

[@darrenj.griffiths9507]

I'm from the West Country. All you have to do is exaggerate the "Rs" at the end to sound like a pirate and throw in a few colloquial words lol

[@rachelpenny5165]

Yes I agree with you. I am from Devon originally and the accent varies slightly over the whole West Country.

[@wallythewondercorncake8657]

​@@rachelpenny5165I be a Devon bey too, me luvver, an I cans tell doze vurriners in zummerzit apart from us lot

[@susanwestern6434]

The 'West Country' accent examples were from actors who did not come from the West Country. Hardly any actors get it anywhere near right. Let alone the differences fom Cornwall to Somerset. Then there are the accents from Wiltshire,Oxfordshire and Hampshire etc.

[@JonathanReynolds1]

Bill Bailey is from Somerset - he is a good example of the West Country accent.

[@user-zu6ir6kj5g]

They didn't use very good examples in the video to be honest, but it's really true that in some parts of the country, people only twenty miles apart will have a noticeably different accent. Apart from the South-East where accents have got more blended, we know pretty well straight away where someone was brought up. (It's not often mentioned that there's a whole bunch of very different Irish accents too - some of them reeeally hard for foreigners to understand.)

[@MartynWilkinson45]

Sometimes way less than that. The dialects are homogenising these days, but get a bunch of men from my mother's generation and every colliery in my area has a noticeably different accent. One of my lecturers in University was able to guess which village I was from by my accent alone.

[@jennd9091]

yeah it was crap.

[@davefb]

Yeah, using 'actors trying to do the accent, some good some bad' isn't a great idea.

[@dee2251]

Trust me, if you heard old school Brummie or Black Country accents, you’d have a hard time understanding it. It’s said to be closest to the old Anglo Saxon and it’s not just an accent, it’s a dialect.

[@kezlana6907]

It's horrible (the black country accent and dialect 😂 Birmingham not so bad to me, that sounds better. And in this video the one "brummie clip" (Jeremy kyle) was the black country, which many often mix up. The black country dialect is ridiculous I really dislike it and sadly I live there 😂

[@kaycresswell6179]

I’m from the black county originally totally different to Birmingham I love our accent very proud of the people of the Black Country , I’m now living in Cornwall ( perranporth ) took them awhile to get used to my accent but I do work with a couple of brummies lol that helped abit .

[@dee2251]

@@kaycresswell6179 oh brilliant. I’ve been going to Cornwall, near Newquay, for over 40 years on holiday. Absolutely love Cornwall. Often people down there would ask if I was from Liverpool. That happens less often these days since Peaky Blinders as people have recognised the accent. 😂

[@dee2251]

@@kezlana6907 I don’t hate it at all as it’s known by linguistic Professors to be the closest to old Anglo Saxon. It’s more authentic than every other accent and King Richard III whose bones were found under a car park is believed to have had the accent. Very difficult for people outside of the West Mid’s to distinguish between Brummie and Black Country accents.

[@dee2251]

Was on Perranporth beach quite a few times last holiday and finished off the day with a drink at the beach pub and watched the sun set. Bliss!

[@annbaillie9098]

I was in the city one day an some Americans where asking a guy for directions, and the guy in his best Glaswegian accent was telling them how to get to there destination, and the look on there faces was oh my god lol they had no clue what he was saying. And when he finished and walked off I asked them did you get all that and they all said no. And yes I did explain it to them slowly lol xoxoxox

[@reactingtomyroots]

😂 you're a saint!

[@wheelmanstan]

That happened to me once. I was 20 years old and drinking with some friends somewhere in Greece, two Scottish women said something to me and I was totally lost and caught off guard. There's a point where an accent sounds like someone is putting on an act, like pranking you. Haha. I've seen a ton of British TV shows but that Glasgow accent is just on a completely other level. The accent is so tough that I bet they're fully aware of it when speaking to foreigners.

[@jennypurplethefirst]

Oh yes, often when I’ve been abroad and didn’t want to be understood by the local population, we spoke in very strong Weegie accents 😂 Don’t watch Braveheart if you want to hear a Glasgow accent (btw it’s pronounced “Glaz-go” not “Glass cow”) first of all, William Wallace was born in either Paisley or Kilmarnock, and Mel Gibson isn’t good at a Scottish accent! You want anything with Billy Connolly, Taggart, Rab C Nesbitt, Still Game, Scotch and Wry, Sweet Sixteen or The Wee Man both with Martin Compston. There’s plenty of Glasgow accents around if you want to hear them.

[@chrisaris8756]

My wife’s family come from Hamilton south of Glasgow and after 40 years I still cannot get half of what they say!!! Michael Caine (good bloke!) isn’t really doing a cockney accent. His is more Essex / Thames Estuary. The Northern Ireland accent is truly one of the my favourites. And the people are really lovely. If you want to do an Ulster accent instead of saying Nothern Ireland say NORN IRON. Then you’ve got it!! All lot of those accents in TV shows were really parodies of the real thing as the actors are themselves putting it on!

[@octaviussludberry9016]

There are differences between a Derry, Belfast, Armagh, Derry Linn. Subtle but discernible.

[@jmillar71110]

That's no even a hard Scottish accent 😂

[@eddhardy1054]

Since Caine's from South London he's definitely not doing an Essex accent.

[@benwest6633]

@@eddhardy1054 more like Kent I'd say

[@andybaker2456]

@eddhardy1054 Yep, he was born and raised in inner South East London.

[@radaring]

Americans will not notice the west country accent so much - as it is one of the main sources of the standard American English accent.

[@rustynail1194]

I can hear similarities in there, I'm from Somerset. We pronounce some words very similarly. I had to do an American accent for a school play some years ago and we had Americans visiting and heard it. They actually thought I was American haha

[@radaring]

@@rustynail1194 Exactly, if you asked an American to say "Somerset" - they would almost sound like a local!

[@nigelclinning2448]

I’m from the north west of England and worked for a lot of my life in the south east. When I was at work, people thought I sounded like a northerner, when I went home people thought I was talking like a southerner. We all have our base accent but pick up from all the other places we live and work.

[@hinefamily7565]

Glaswegian (Slang) is a throwback to the vikings who were prominent in the area, Norwegian. The welsh village has the second longest name the Longest is found in New Zealand.

[@chucky2316]

I live in torbay in devon and love it here in the summer being the english riveria and a tourist spot we get folk from all over the uk on holiday the shops restraunts bars are just full of wonderful uk dialects. Im a massive fan of a liverpudlian accent especially from a female. 😂

[@99fruitbat94]

The Glasgow accent varies depending on which part of Glasgow you live in . Glasgow is a large City . North, West, South,East.The accent can be very different . I frequently baffle my English colleagues at work with my Glasgow accent 😂

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

Keep up the good work

[@radaring]

And "how" means "why"?

[@tmndroj612]

I'd personally say the Yorkshire accent is difficult to get simply because there's alot of variation of the accent. Barnsley, Sheffield, Doncaster, and Rotherham are all places in the same area and all have different variations of the Yorkshire accent.

[@lukemorris4065]

Love how you get your family involved now. I hope things continue to go well for you all

[@rekcahlive]

There is a change in accent about every 30 miles in England some are a slight change and others are a drastic change it is kinda crazy

[@PedroConejo1939]

Thirty miles! Ten miles, more like. I could tell which part of town someone came from when I was growing up, and it was only five miles from one side to other. Same in the valleys, you can tell which side of the valley they live.

[@geoffpoole483]

I remember travelling on the boat train which ran from Harwich to Liverpool. The train made many stops en route and it was fascinating to hear the accents change as passengers boarded at each stop.

[@gillfox9899]

​@@PedroConejo1939totally agree with you. I'm from the North East and when I was a child every village sounded different

[@NauiByeolEge]

In London, the distance between accent is even shorter.

[@Angelfee1]

Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield in West Yorkshire all have differences and are within 10 miles of each other

[@misolgit69]

Received Pronunciation used to be frivolously called BBC English all newsreaders and presenters were expected to speak that way

[@AuraBlaze14]

I live in Glasgow, Scotland :) Limmy’s a legend

[@margaretshanahan9754]

I love the two of you doing reactions together ❤.

[@bblair2627]

The Dundee accent is like someone speaking backwards inside a coal sack which is underwater

[@Ruthy-F]

😂

[@kezlana6907]

😂😂

[@EtherealSunset]

I'm not sure I've heard a Dundee accent before, but I now will be looking for one on YT after this amazing description. I need to hear that 😂

[@melodykruck8692]

Scotland, my dad was Scottish from St. Andrews- I could understand him except when he went home.😘 Sean Connery was great too. I lived in London so that was okay. But Geordie and areas of Dublin, no. 😅😊

[@ambermartin3961]

Naaaaah. They're fine!

[@kdog4587]

Im from Warwickshire and my husband is from Leicestershire, although we grew up only about 8 miles away from each other our accents are quite obviously different and because I spend more of my time with our son than him, his accent is closer to mine even though we now live in a village in Leicestershire. Its wild. How I say beer or deer, as someone from the west midlands it sounds like 'beeya' or 'deeya', and my husband makes jokes about it, but now our lad says it the same and he finds it hilarious. It's mad how towns or cities just over the border can sound so different!

[@EtherealSunset]

I'm curious now, how does he pronounce those words?

[@susanmalcolm3434]

Actors are not going to give you a genuine example of the accents as they have watered it down

[@Watching2909]

Gerald Clarkson’s farm… amazing, also true Yorkshire, it’s not really around any more, but please!

[@adj0191]

As a Geordie I agree with the Geordie being number 1 because anyone trying to imitate always does it badly 🤣

[@frankgibson1335]

I totally agree, they're also inclined to mix up Geordie and Northumbrian.

[@AndrewBroadhead-kb7oc]

@@frankgibson1335 And even Geordie and Cumbria. Loads of people think both Hairy Bikers are Geordie, when Dave Myers is from the Lake District, only Si is from Newcastle.

[@EtherealSunset]

Agreed. I'm from County Durham, so not far away and still can't do a Geordie accent. I have no idea what goes wrong, but it ends up sounding like a weird combination of Geordie, Welsh and Jamaican (I have no clue why or how that happens). I can't do accents at all. I have my own and my telephone voice and that's it.

[@EtherealSunset]

​@@AndrewBroadhead-kb7ocSi isn't from Newcastle either. He's a County Durham lad. Neither of them are from Newcastle.

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

Yes, we get our slang and colloquialisms directly from Norwegian viking invaders. "Gannin doon the ruaad" is almost identical to the Norwegian for Going down the road. 🤗

[@lorrainejohnstone]

You need to listen to the western isles of Scotland accent also orcadian(someone from the orkney islands). I myself hail from north east Scotland we have our own accent called the Doric it's a brammer 😘🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@jmillar71110]

I reckon doric would leave them flabbergasted😂

[@FryingScotsman-zc2zz]

Yip Doric is my fave Scottish Dialect, Scotland the What is hilarious!

[@thepickledpixie9052]

Shetland 😄

[@orangeymaud489]

Doric leaves even people from other parts of Scotland bemused 😂

[@user-ut8ky1fr2g]

Where I come from in north Wiltshire near the Gloucestershire border the accent can change within five miles you can tell sometimes by the pronunciation of certain words, also word change I myself have worked the length and breath of the UK, and I find it absolutely fascinating. Best wishes to you both, Mike.

[@benthompson9517]

Lindsay's RP accent could be good with some practice, well done! My recommendation for videos on accents would be "Anglophenia - One women 17 accents" It's fun but informative. Other recommendations are "Map Men videos on Jay Foremans channel" Educational and very entertaining Also the channel "our Travel Place" for videos on York, Whitby, The Yorkshire dales. Includes good footage of many sights with handy information. From the hills to the village shops, its a great look into what to add to your visit list :)

[@lindyashford7744]

I feel your reference video is not really meant for non-British people but more for those who can laugh at what they already know. A lot of the references are not ‘real’ accents but from TV shows. Exceptions are those who were actually born and bred in their regions, but some of t6em are very dated by how old they people are. I am actually from Birmingham my brother says I am very brummie, but I am probably not, and many accents presumed to be brummy are Black Country which is a thing of its own. With very diverse immigration to all of our major cities you also hear hybrid accents, British south Asian accents for instance, or British Caribbean….. but then the very regional are also quite distinct too, West Country are just as diverse as any city accents. Live here long enough and you can place them. I was brought up and schooled in RP, it was drilled into us, but my school friends were from all over the country and from different classes of people too, you only briefly touched on that, how accents define where people are in the pecking order.

[@maryeaston4874]

Glaswegian is just somebody from Glasgow. Same with Norway as you mentioned. I'm from Fife in Scotland so I'm a Fifer. Love your Channel. I really hope you make it over here. Yes accents change every few miles here xx

[@Brontephile]

As a Brit from Manchester UK, I’ve just discovered your channel, you too are so lovely, and I love your enthusiasm for learning all things Brit ❤ love your channel x

[@chrissampson6861]

I don't think the video didn't emphasise enough is the difference between an accent, and a dialect. The west country - Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Bristol, Wessex, have a dialect a distinct variation of English that is very old, dating back to the Saxon times of King Alfred in the 6th Century, it has a more Germanic grammar, pronunciation, and tenses compared to modern "standard" English.~ There's also the accent - the way west country people speak "standard" English It's often derided as a simple farmers / peasants way of talking

[@fibrown444]

When the British Library's website is fully back up (they had a cyber attack), they have a great resource on regional British accents so you can hear the difference say from South Edinburgh to Stornoway and Aberdeen within Scotland for example. It's called 'Accents and dialects - Sound Archive'. Worth having a listen and looking at a map just to see where things are from.

[@reactingtomyroots]

That's awesome to know! We'll have to see what we can find. :) Thanks

[@jeanlongsden1696]

there are around 170 dialects in the UK, even more if you start adding the British Isles (Channel Islands, Isle of White, Isle of Man etc)

[@user-gt2ud2gw9e]

You're near enough correct. You remember I told you that once I was in a local bus and I heard the accent change three times as we went along the route (you wouldn't experience that if you were driving).

[@Rollarabbit]

Massachusetts, was settled by the Plymouth colony in 1620 i think .so it would make sense for the west country accent to sound a little like the accents in the Appalachian Mountain regions - i actually studied Etymology for my Masters Degree , and found many words in this region could be traced to Old English Norse and French , also particular words that were prominently used in the South West of England were and are used in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maine and others in the NW area. Etymology is the study of word origin ,understanding where a word came from is a good way of understanding the accents of people past and present.

[@brendangallagher5849]

Yeah the amount of different dialects and accents we have are staggering considering the size of us. The changes between places that are close to each other is indeed a real thing, mainly I think due to slang mainly.

[@chrisaris8756]

I think the easiest English accent is the perceived “upper class “ accent - and you both got it pretty close!!!

[@felixhenson9926]

I think it's the non-rhotic R's that were tripping them up

[@martin-hall-northern-soul]

Love the relaxed dulcet tones of the West Country accent, making for the ideal audiobook narration voice to fall asleep of an evening. Not 20 miles over the border from there you'll hear the fast-paced ryhmes of the South Wales accent. Guess it's similar in diversity to accents in the southern states of the US, as mentioned in the video, where you've got the chilled out Carolina tones of a Dale Earnhardt Jnr, contrasted to the energetic ryhmn of a Louisiana St Louis native vis-à-vis a Kenny or Rusty Wallace (my knowledge of US culture is centred around sports like Nascar and NBA).

[@Jeanne24601]

Hiya! Love your videos! I'm from Devon, England, and they weren't kidding when they said that accents vary from village to village. And there's also the Devon dialect to contend with! When I was first introduced to my fiance's grandmother, who lived about ten miles from my home town, she walloped me across the back (by way of a friendly, Devon greeting) and said, "Ow be nackin' vore, then, maid?" I had absolutely no idea what she'd said, but my fiance helpfully translated - "She asked, 'How are you getting on? - How are you?" Apparently, "'nackin vore' was 'knocking for'. A sort of 'How are you knocking along?' I'd already understood 'Ow be' to be 'How are' (Ow to rhyme with cow) and 'maid' referred to any young female but the rest? Not a clue. The reply I was supposed to have given would have been, “ I be purt viddy my boody” (pronounced 'oy be pert viddy moy boody'. I just smiled my best, winning smile and said how lovely it was to meet her!

[@daveofyorkshire301]

In the old days you didn't get on TV unless you spoke received pronunciation (RP or Queens English). Now you see a few more, but many still don't go on air because many wouldn't understand it without subtitles... I live in Yorkshire and there are some really heavy accents you really have to concentrate to understand... On a telephone you could struggle without visual clues, maybe pick-up 60% and construct sentences from that.. It's a skill requiring the understanding of context and syntax with a healthy amount of guess work.

[@justme1111]

The change in village to village is not at all an exaggeration, in fact in some areas it changed every couple of blocks

[@vicsaunders9710]

We don’t have blocks in the UK .

[@DuncanHolland]

What are 'blocks'?

[@rippedtorn2310]

Remember Scots isnt just an accent , its different words altogether .

[@traceymcguiggan2163]

Yeah this video went through the accents waaay too quickly for you guys to fully hear the differnces! Love your content ❤

[@quickclipsbyjmj]

As someone from the Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, I can confirm that the Barnsley accent is one of the UK's hardest to translate.

[@lsmith992]

I'm a few miles away, born near Wetherby and have lived in Harrogate most of my life. But that strong west Yorkshire accent hangs on no matter . That Barnsley accent is one of my favourites as its so warm and friendly. Its so identifiable and always reminds me of Charlie Williams.

[@lauriewsmith1]

I'm from South Yorkshire as well, Swinton, Rotherham, and it's fairly easy to tell Barnsley, Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster accents apart even though there isn't more than half an hour driving between us. The Barnsley area is definitely the biggest hold out for the broad Yorkshire accent tho. "Put wood in' oil on' way art." Might be tricky to translate. Biggest divider is the O vowel. Sheffield would generally pronounce tongue "tong" Barnsley and Rotherham would say "tung"

[@kezlana6907]

It would be good for them to make a video with the actual people from those areas, rather than actors who are picked or speak more clearly and less strong in a way, so that viewers can understand it better. Some people even we can't understand from a few towns over 😂

[@possum6562]

I can tell which town people local to me are from based on their accent, and I can narrow down to which villages/areas it is depending on how strong or weak the accent is. It doesn’t work on everyone, but it’s definitely something you can do if you’ve lived in a place long enough to hear the differences, and their accent is strong enough to identify. If you’re familiar with the accents of the towns nearby, then it’s pretty likely the villages along the way are going to have a mix of the towns nearest them too. Like if someone has my accent with a hint of a nearby town, I’ll guess they’re from a village between the two, and it’ll likely be a village closer to my town. Even if you don’t get the exact village, you can get the general area.

[@sarahwhittle4868]

My husband of 34 years is a Macam. From Sunderland. When he moved to Peterborough in the 1970s, his name was Tom, so everyone said ‘rock on Tommy’ from the comedy show Cannon and Ball. lol x

[@stoneoutdooradventures2286]

The Barnsley accent in Yorkshire is the strongest accent in that region I went to secondary school in Barnsley and it took me a good two years to understand it I'm not kidding 😂

[@steveclarke6257]

the Land of Sir Geoffrey and Parky (Geoffrey Boycott - former Cricketer and Michael Parkinson- Journalist and Chatshow Host)

[@stoneoutdooradventures2286]

@@steveclarke6257 ayup lad itiz Indeed

[@michellerice606]

Yep thas reyt anorl 😂 (translated = yes you are right as well) 😂

[@stoneoutdooradventures2286]

@@michellerice606 haha 😅 still got family in Barnsley I revert back to the accent on the phone with them ☺️

[@chrislofotos]

My late mother was welsh, I learned how to pronounce this long place name about 60 years ago and have never forgotten it 😀👍

[@mickleather2119]

Yes, I've got to Lanfair PG.

[@chrislofotos]

@@mickleather2119 😀👍

[@AutisticAl]

The Yorkshire accent is one of the friendliest accents in the world (4th to be exact) and I'm from the South of Yorkshire and the irony is that the worst, most aggressive sounding accent in the world is only 100 miles from Yorkshire. This accent is known as Liverpudlian and sounds like someone with no education trying to speak with a mouth full of spit. It's nice to see some Americans finally embrace and learn about British culture without automatically resorting to insults and criticisms ❤👌

[@johnbruce2868]

The most challenging accent not mentioned, 'Doric' from Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Want a phrase to copy? See the Disney film 'Brave" and try to say, "It's nae richt tae mak us fecht fae th' haund o th' quine." Phrases include, "Foos yer Doos?" and Aberdeen is known in Scotland as "Furry Boots City" because of the dialect question, "Fur aboots?" = "where about's." I'll bet ye dinnae ken fit 'a loon' is eethur?"

[@christinestromberg4057]

Scotland has many regional accents, as does Ireland. Wales has fewer I think. But England has many many regional accents.

[@HandleDeezNutzVoluntarily]

Wales, believe it or not has many… I’d say fifty plus, easily.

[@janice506]

Correction Scotland has its own language as well as English

[@janice506]

Correction Scotland has its own language as well as English

[@christinestromberg4057]

@@janice506 I didn't say it didn't. Your remark is an addition, not a correction.

[@christinestromberg4057]

@@janice506 I know, but this video was about accents.

[@chrisaris8756]

The “egein” suffix just means where it comes from. Mel Gibson is Aussie and sounds nothing like a Scot. Braveheart was a truly bad film. It was Mel Gubson’s view of history. Not what actually happened - ignore! My wife’s family don’t say Glasgow. They say Glazgay. !!! “I’ve seen it” is “I sin it”. South Wales accent is also lovely really musical! And I can understand every word you both say! Cheers Steve and Lindsay.

[@orangeymaud489]

I’m from just outside Glasgow in Paisley and we say what sounds like Glez-gah lol

[@raymondporter2094]

The versions of the accents shown in this video were ALL very mild versions. If you heard BROAD Geordie, broad Glaswegian, broad Bummie, they would sound very different to the voices we heard. And accents WITHIN regions can differ. For example people talk about a Yorkshire accent, yet most people from Yorkshire or futher away would have no difficulty in distinguishing a speaker using the accent from part of North Yorkshire (say Middlesbrough), from the accent of another person from Leeds in West Yorkshire, or from Sheffield in South Yorkshire or from Hull in East Yorkshire where some say they can distinguish between 3 different Hull accents. And when the Police were looking for the Yorkshire Ripper a few decades ago, a hoax "Geordie tape" was sent to the Police which many might have thought came from someone from Newcastle (Geordie) but which experts said came from a (Mackem) man from a particular part of Sunderland - Newcastle and Sunderland are 14 miles apart and have a fierce rivalry. They could even say it came from an area within Sunderland. North Wales (where there is a high percentage who speak Welsh) have a very different accent to the people from the South Wales valleys. It's all part of Life's Great British Mystery....

[@SaraMeMeMeeeee]

Our accents differ so much, the town 10 miles from my own has a completely different accent to ours. Were incredibly diverse for such a small island

[@christinepage181]

That isn't a really good choice of how cockney sounds, Dicky Van Dyke isn't English so they should have had a proper cockney speaking. You really need to listen to people who actually come from Liverpool, Birmingham, Wales, Scotland etc, because they are speaking how it really is, it's no good listening to actors who are imitating the accent because they don't always get it right.

[@grahamstubbs4962]

The West Country farmer from the film 'Hot Fuzz' was given a particularly tricky accent for comedic effect. Nobody could bloody understand him.

[@tonibaker3823]

nope what i sound like . cant even get understood in southampton my son has to translate for them lol

[@rekcahlive]

So glad you said that I thought I was dumb not being able to understand my own language

[@rachelpenny5165]

The last sentence said by the farmer is 'what's he moaning about'. I grew up in a farming area in rural Devon.

[@grahamstubbs4962]

@@tonibaker3823 That's how they roll in Hampshire. Oh, crap. I've just dissed my own crew.

[@tonibaker3823]

@@grahamstubbs4962

[@AndrewAHayes]

Your comment that accents change between villages is correct, the village next to mine has a totally different accent!

[@nickgrazier3373]

That is in long hand Glasgow Region!! The best person to listen to for Glaswegian is Billy Connelly ! Received pronunciation used to be called BBC English. It was an imposed accent to make English more acceptable throughout the UK but was hated by all of us.

[@nickrogers7336]

I'm from Plymouth, Devon. They call us Janners because of our thick southwestern accent. We also have lots of phrases that you wont find elsewhere haha

[@zoeboniface5661]

Plymouth lady here 😁🙋🏼‍♀️

[@stevenburgess2856]

In the part of the world I'm in the accent can change valley to valley!

[@kevs4252]

It's not just accents, it's how we phrase things that I love to hear. Using examples from my own extended family....... When meeting up with Bristol family, I'm greeted with, Hello my Lover which comes out like Hello myyy loverrr. My wife who is from Suffolk might say, I'm now going...but me being from Berkshire would say, I'm going now. Accent wise, I'd say... There's a few in the queue at the co-op. My wife would sond like.... There's a fuu in the koo at the ku-oap. I for one love accents and dialects.

[@Arghans]

Definitely one for you to dig more into. Most of those accents are city based but we have many rural ones and so the Westcountry part was a bit misleading for you as it covers several accents which vary a lot. Somerset is a fantastic and jolly accent. Bristolian, Cornish and Devonian are almost comical and you can get away with putting one on as my friends often do when they visit me 😂 Yorkshire also has some very notable twangs and for both it really comes down to words and turns of phrase.

[@muldoon67]

I think you need to try another video. The examples given were too short and missing enough examples.

[@84Squall]

in Liverpool I can tell what road some ppl live on by their accent lol

[@janeburns1278]

Accents change every village and in some cases you can tell whereabouts in a town someone was raised by the words they used.

[@gr1myr4tb0y]

I'm genuinely super impressed by the research you've done on UK accents, you see a lot of american people on twitter being quite ignorant to just how many different dialects there are

[@MartynWilkinson45]

The first west country bit was from the movie Hot Fuzz, and was specifically a joke about varying accents accross a small area. The main characters had to bring another copper to translate him, who himself had to be translated by the local copper, Danny.

[@clarestewart877]

I am a Glaswegian . I may be wrong but I think it means “from Glasgow “ and Norwegian is from Norway

[@JamesWho1]

its true the accents change from a few miles away we have banter about it i am from the north west of England just subscribed to your channel

[@mwestfield5220]

Hi. I've only recently discovered your channel. As a Brit, can I recommend a mid to late 80's series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. You should be able to find it. It is comic and deals with a group of builders who can't get work at home so go out to Germany. As I remember, the accents ranged from Geordie (Newcastle, NE England), Bristol SW England, Liverpudlian, cockney and Birmingham. Ran for years and everyone around me started to use badly pronounced Geordie phrases. I remember watching the first episode (pre-internet obviously) and wishing I had a TV with subtitles because I was baffled by quite a lot of it. Obviously, by the third episode I and everyone else had retuned our ears. Accents aside, it was a great tragicomedy that really depicted life in the 80's for many people.