British Accents Ranked from Easiest to Hardest (with TEST & Examples)

hello everyone and welcome back to english with lucy today we are going to be talking about the big topic of accents in particular the accents that you guys find to be most difficult to understand now when it comes to accents you can't just say this one's easy and this one is difficult it doesn't work like that it all depends on where you're from and what you're used to what you're used to hearing i speak english with a modern received pronunciation accent and lots of people tell me that they find it very clear and easy but that probably is because my accent is an accent that's commonly taught in schools you might hear it in films and tv shows quite a lot one of the most important things that you can do if you want to improve your comprehension and improve your english listening skills is to familiarize yourself with as many accents as possible and this is such a fun task as a starting point i thought it would be really fun to identify some of the accents that learners of english commonly find hard to understand so that you can focus on familiarizing yourself with them even more in order to do this i created a survey this is just for fun it's not scientific but i think it gives quite a good indication i took 10 celebrities who speak 10 of my favorite accents and i took little clips of them speaking i then asked my students on my email list to tell me on a scale of zero to ten how easy they found it to understand that little bit of speech i averaged the scores i've put them in order and i'm really really excited to show you the results to make this even more interesting i will play each clip twice once without subtitles and again with subtitles so that you can test your own understanding of each accent clip obviously there will be many variables the speed at which the person's speaking the setting in which they're speaking whether it's formal or informal but hopefully it will give you a good idea as always there is a pdf that goes with today's lesson it's got all of the information that i shared today plus links to the full clips and some extra bits as well if you'd like to download that just click on the link in the description box you enter your name and your email address you sign up to my mailing list and then immediately the pdf will arrive in your inbox and then every week after that you will automatically receive my lesson pdfs you'll also receive all of my news updates and offers and the opportunity to participate in any future surveys you don't want to miss out on that important research now a lot of the clips that i'm going to show you come from tv shows mainly british tv shows i always recommend watching tv shows and movies in english as a language learning tool but one really frustrating situation is when you find the perfect tv show for you and your language learning journey and it's blocked in your country well i highly recommend nordvpn as a solution the sponsor of today's video i experience this myself when i'm trying to watch programs in spanish i go to spanish netflix and it's not available in my country nordvpn hides your location allowing you to improve your security but also allowing you to overcome geographical restrictions meaning you can unlock access to all of these entertainment providers it just takes one click you open the map you click on a location and in seconds you'll be connected it really is that easy and there won't be any annoying delays speed tests have confirmed that nordvpn is the fastest out there they have given me a special offer to pass on to you all you've got to do is go to nordvpn.com lucy i've linked it down below in the description box you can get a two-year plan plus four additional months with a huge discount that is 73 off plus four months for free just visit nordvpn.com lucy and if you don't like it they have an amazing 30-day money-back guarantee so it's risk free to try it out right let's get started with the video so we have 10 accents and the person who's ranked at number 10 i.e the easiest to understand according to my students is queen elizabeth ii of course it helps a lot that she speaks very very slowly and this was a formal broadcast let's have a listen king james may not have anticipated quite how important sport and games were to become in promoting harmony and common interests but from the scriptures in the bible which bears his name we know that nothing is more satisfying than the feeling of belonging to a group who are dedicated to helping each other and now let's listen one more time with subtitles on screen so you can check how much of it you understand king james may not have anticipated quite how important sport and games were to become in promoting harmony and common interests but from the scriptures in the bible which bears his name we know that nothing is more satisfying than the feeling of belonging to a group who are dedicated to helping each other so the queen speaks the queen's english she speaks with a received pronunciation accent on the very top posh end of received pronunciation now this is an accent that is traditionally regarded as the standard for british english but things are changing originally this accent was called public school pronunciation and public school actually means private school so an independent school in in the uk state school is education paid for by the government public or private school you pay for yourself so this is an accident that was traditionally learnt and and it's quite interesting because it doesn't have a specific geographical location it was originally spoken in public schools all across the british isles it was kind of a sign of class a couple of decades ago the majority of what you would hear on the radio and on the television would be received pronunciation but now that is not the case and rightly so let's move on to number nine and this is a very attractive to me celebrity it is jason statham speaking in his gorgeous cockney accent i know a lot of you are huge fans of the cockney accent let's have a listen and you have to accept that i mean we're at the end of the day we shouldn't be moaning because we're you know we're hired actors you come in you get paid shut your mouth do your work and go home it should be a little bit of that but sometimes you want to try and get involved and you try to try and collaborate and get things done can we just have a moment of appreciation for men rocking bald heads absolutely love them right let's listen again with subtitles and see how much you understood and you have to accept that i mean we're at the end of the day we shouldn't be moaning because we're you know we're hired actors you come in you get paid shut your mouth do your work and go home it should be a little bit of that but sometimes you want to try and get involved and you try to try and collaborate and and get things done okay a dorth's accent it originates from the east end of london supposedly you were only a true cockney if you were born with an earshot of bow bells within earshot means within listening distance within hearing distance and bow bells are the bells in a church a historic east london church now the east end of london is changing and a lot of the people who were born there or who grew up there are moving further out to essex so it's very interesting to me to see that number eight was the essex accent so let's play a clip of that we have a celebrity called gemma collins who i personally adore she is so sassy so entertaining if i ever feel sad i look at her top moments on youtube because ugh what character she's just completely herself i have become one of the biggest reality stars in britain i am a global icon it's weird but that's the gc and that's what i do i make great tv i provide you with entertainment um and i kind of explain it to people it's like paul o'grady and lily savage you know it's it's it's how i make my money i mean she's so confident isn't she i loved the guy eamon holmes's face just as she was praising herself brilliant let's listen again with subtitles i have become one of the biggest reality stars in britain i am a global icon it's weird but that's the gc and that's what i do i make great tv i provide you with entertainment um and i kind of explain it to people it's like paul o'grady and lily savage you know it's it's it's how i make my money okay so the essex accent is found in and around essex a lot of people from the east end originally cockney did move to essex or are continuing to move to essex it is like a mixture of the estuary accent and the cockney accent it's become incredibly popular over the past decade due to a tv show called the only way is essex it's a reality tv show that follows young people in essex very glamorous people and gemma was one of them and her career has just exploded okay moving on to number seven we're going to another country we're not in england anymore we are in wales and it is the cardiff accent as spoken by charlotte church who is an opera singer well i suppose in terms of uh what the film would end the milk woods is such an incredible um play uh dylan thomas's writing is so unusual um yeah and i i just i'm not really i'm quite a newbie to acting i've done bits and bobs in the past very interesting there can you hear her say unusual uh well i'd say unusual so it's almost like she's adding in an extra syllable there and she also said incredible uh with an r sound i struggle to do it's like a thing it's like a a rolling r sound i love listening to the welsh accents they're very melodious to me let's listen again with subtitles well i suppose in terms of uh what the film would end the milk woods is such an incredible play dylan thomas's writing is so unusual um yeah and i i just i'm not really i'm quite a newbie to acting i've done bits and bobs in the past if you are interested in learning a little bit more about the welsh accents then i highly recommend a comedy called gavin and stacy actually goes quite well with this video because it shows an essex family and a welsh family joining because the son and the daughter are getting married hilarious some fabulous welsh accents in there let's move on to number six it's the yorkshire accent as spoken by louis tomlinson from one direction basically right i mean my name is louie but i didn't love it when i was younger like once i was old enough i don't know why i just didn't really love it so i got known as louis all my friends from home call me louis and then i get there it's close enough sorry and then i get there on me on my first day at the x factor with simon and you know i mean all the judges and he called me louie so for me one of the most distinctive things about his accent is that he says me instead of my my name instead of my name that's really distinctive to me where i'd say love he says love i didn't love it but for me it's i didn't love it i find this accent very warm love yeah it's just lovely isn't it let's listen again but with subtitles so you can see how much you understood basically right i mean my name is louie but i didn't love it when i was younger once i was old enough i don't know why i just didn't really love it so i got known as louis all my friends from home call me lewis and then i get there it's close enough sorry and then i get there on me on my first day at the x factor with simon and you know i mean all the judges and he called me louie did you also hear him not pronounce the h in home he said um i would say home from home from um from um i'm not sure if that's quite right from um um i need a bit of help with my yorkshire accent another thing i noticed he said i were instead of i was when i were younger when i was younger is what i'd say that's part of his dialect okay number five so this is sort of mid-range in difficulty for you it's the brummie accent which is the accent from birmingham and we have adrian charles speaking it so anyway look you actually when they're trying to get me to come on here they give a list of all the brilliant people you've uh you've had on the past that has the opposite effect on me i said you know richard e grant and stuff why would anybody be interested so anyway that's my i suppose that's my turn you're just the best i could get well many a true word said yeah so adrian doesn't actually have the strongest brommy accent that i've ever heard um but if you find him hard to understand he is speaking quite quickly here so if you're managing to understand him you're doing a really good job let's listen again with subtitles so anyway look you actually when they're trying to get me to come on here they give a list of all the brilliant people you've uh you've had on the past that has the opposite effect on me i said you know richard e grant and stuff why would anybody be interested so anyway that's my i suppose that's my turn you're just the best i could get uh well many a true word yeah also how awesome is that sign language interpreter she was really conveying the comedy quite well now as lovely as this accent may sound to you this is actually one of the british accents that faces the most discrimination within the country there is another one that i'll talk about as well when people run opinion polls it often comes up as one of the most disfavored very interestingly when they run similar opinion polls to overseas visitors so non-native english speakers the brummie accent seems to do quite well they find it very melodious this implies that it does badly in poles because of prejudice rather than a genuine dislike of the sound of it i'd be interested to know your thoughts and to know if there are any accents in your country that you think are kind of unfairly regarded i know that living in spain i learned spanish with an andalusian accent and i have definitely been on the receiving end of criticism some of it i take as well meaning a lot of it comes from people from other countries who are saying ah this sort of accident's ugly you should learn my accent but it can be quite hurtful to be honest because that's the accent i speak with now let's move on to the next one you've rated this as number four and i know i shouldn't have favorites but i think i can this is my favorite i absolutely love the way this accent sounds and i love the person who has this accent it is nadine coyle from girls aloud it's just a blessing on the ears it really is she speaks with a dairy accent have a listen of this i enjoy cooking baking and stuff working with flyer and making sweet things i'm not so used to more savory chopping kind of when you just zone out you put your music on and you just chop just have loads of stuff does anyone else want to just chop and cook with flour with her it's just lovely see if you can notice that where i would say flower she says something more like flyer and she also says meccan instead of making as i would say it chopping chopping really really distinct differences let's listen again with subtitles i enjoy cooking baking and stuff working with flyer and making sweet things i'm not so used to more savory chopping kind of when you just zone out you put your music on and you just chop just have loads of stuff lovely truly lovely love it uh let's move on to number three we have another girls allowed member so you voted these two quite high up on the difficulty scale cheryl speaks with a geordie accent which you'll find in the city of newcastle and the surrounding areas let's have a listen we did three hours the night before and those girls are so there's a girl out there called charm who i used when i did my own solo tour i just absolutely adore her i love working with her and we did three hours with those girls and those girls were sick yes i was just watching them the whole time like i don't want to do it like her she's so softly spoken and she she speaks really really gently let's listen again with subtitles and then i've got something to say about this accent we did three hours the night before and those girls are so there's a girl out there called charm who i used when i did my own solo tour i just absolutely adore her i love working with her and we did three hours with those girls and those girls were sick yes i was just watching them the whole time like i don't want to do a laker did you hear her use the word sick sick i think i've mentioned it in a video recently it's a slang word for cool i remember finding it very confusing as a child because i thought it went bad but that's sick is that's really cool okay so i wanted to talk a bit more about accident discrimination here because cheryl i remember she was in the news quite a lot i'd say around 10 years ago she was a judge on the x factor a singing talent competition in the uk and she was invited over to the u.s to be a judge on the u.s version and then she was quickly fired from it supposedly and apparently it was due to the producers being worried that her accent would be difficult to understand now i don't know if this was just to generate publicity but it sounded pretty harsh i remember feeling really bad for her at the time i feel that even if her accent was kind of new to viewers of the x factor in the u.s they would have gotten used to it quite quickly so i don't know if i agree with that decision but i imagine that it was just for publicity maybe this was all decided before right let's move on to number two number two is a comedian that i'm very fond of he's called frankie boyle he tells the most outrageous jokes he really pushes the boundaries and oversteps them quite frequently but he speaks with a glaswegian accent from glasgow in scotland let's have a listen my um cousins when i was growing up in ireland their dad was like a fisherman like on a trawler in ireland and he would go away for two weeks at a time i remember thinking that's the worst thing you could possibly imagine you know is that your dad's gonna just disappear for two weeks and now it's like you know two months would be quite standard on a tour very very distinctive tour i'm not even gonna try to mimic it this for me is one of the hardest accents for me to mimic one thing i find quite distinctive is that what i would say is they say as or instead of kind for me they say caned let's have a listen again with subtitles see how much you picked up when i was growing up in ireland their dad was like a fisherman like on a trawler in ireland and he would go away for two weeks at a time i remember thinking that's the worst thing you could possibly imagine you know is that your dad's going to just disappear for two weeks and now it's like you know two months would be quite standard on a tour and the last accident the accident that you voted as hardest to understand in all fairness i don't think i gave you the easiest clip he's speaking very quickly but his name's john bishop and he speaks with a scouse accent and there's been a lot of press recently of people who speak with a scouse accent coming out and talking about the discrimination they've faced let's have a listen to the comedian john bishop speaking with his scouse accent have a listen to those distinctive features they have roosevelt them in the book i've called them generation zed because i've given them a full title because i'm old enough to call things by his full title rather than yourself he's gone gen z yeah that's also the only clip with music in the background as well so i'll bear that in mind for next time to make sure it's as fair as possible however it is a very distinctive accent when he says but i he almost says it's very hard for me to reproduce he almost rolls his r sounds another thing i notice is when they say things like school or cool they tend to say skewel or kiwill almost adding in an extra syllable they have rules about them in the book but i've called them generation zed because i've given them a full title because i'm old enough to call things by his full title rather than yourself he's gone gen z right that is the end of today's video those were the 10 accents that you helped me rank from easiest to understand to hardest to understand i really enjoyed making this video i love looking at the ins and outs of lots of accents i'd love to make another video like this so tell me if you enjoyed it and if you'd like more don't forget to download the free pdf that goes with this video it's got links to all of the full clips so that you can explore more of the accents that you like just click on the link in the description box enter your name and your email address and you sign up to my mailing list you'll receive pdfs every week along with my news course information and updates don't forget to check out nordvpn at nordvpn.com lucy you can take advantage of their amazing offer you can connect with me on all of my social media i've got my instagram and my website englishwithlucy.co.uk where i have a really cool pronunciation tool where you can click on phoneme and hear me pronounce those phonemes in words that contain those phonemes it's very fun e word no i've also got my personal channel where i document my life here in the english countryside there are some big changes going on so could be interesting to watch all of the videos are fully subtitled so you can use them for listening practice and to improve your vocabulary this way [Music] i will see you soon for another lesson [Music] [Music] you

Channel: English with Lucy

Views: 908,433

Rating: 4.9188967 out of 5

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Id: oV8_rdjok38

Length: 25min 1sec (1501 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 01 2021