Depends on which accent.
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025
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As far as Americans are concerned, there are only 2 British accents:
Villain or wise mentor: Queen's English
Henchman or comic relief: Cockney
I would really like to see a movie about a team up between detectives with Yorkshire, Brummie and Scouse accents; working cross regionally to bring down a gang of criminals. Hardcoded subtitles for the Americans please.
Michael Cain would like to have a word about the Cockney accent typecasting.
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Hey now, I've watched enough Simon Roper to know that's not true.
In Flushed Away, is Rita's accent Cockney? It's certainly not Coruscanti
Many yanks don't tend to think of brummie or scouse...
Why go with two English accents and not Irish and Scottish?
My apologies in advance to the good people of Birmingham but it is well documented that the accent is associated with low intelligence.
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Because Americans tend to have positive views of scottish accents. I picked the two most famous examples of accents generally viewed somewhat negatively.
Because it says British? Ireland isn't British
Assuming “British” is being used colloquially, as it often is, to describe someone or something from the UK, then there are Irish accents in the UK. The island of Ireland contains Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. People from Northern Ireland have Irish accents. Try telling Nadine Coyle she doesn’t have an Irish accent.
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Anecdotal..
British gal is visiting New York. Loves it and makes plenty of friends. She learns that if she has a job offer she can almost certainly get permission to stay. Goes to an employment agency and gets an interview the same day. Hired to a prestigious firm almost immediately. They tell her they love her classy British accent. In the UK she was lower middle class.
edit = silly me. I forgot that 'middle class' means different things.
At home, she would be a barmaid at the local.
In NYC she was a receptionist in a law firm on Madison Avenue.
lower middle class
Do you mean in US terms or UK? That phrase means something very different in the UK.
I'm an idiot.
Yes, I meant USA.
To rephrase, to a Brit she was a slum girl who'd gotten a bit of education.
To americans she was Lady Diana's cousin.
In the UK she was lower middle class.
Did she speak RP tho? Or is this so nuanced in the UK that everyone can tell when you try to speak RP but come from a lower middle class family?
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It does, but I once met a Mancunian who sounded, in his own words, common as muck and rough as fuck to a fellow brit, but in the states was treated like Shakespeare
Oi! That's a right load of poppycock!
+20 intelligence
Lenny Bruce said "Thank God Einstein came from Germany! If he'd told people about the Theory of Relativity in a Georgia accent they'd have laughed him out of the college."
Which British accent though? Like RP will make you sound intelligent, West Country makes you sound like a farmer, Northern Irish makes you sound like you're about to stab someone, Edinburgh makes you sound like a lawyer, Glaswegian makes you sound like a docker, Liverpudlian makes you sound like a rascal, Yorkshire makes you sound like a Union leader, and Shetland makes you sound like a folklorist.
And Welsh (particularly central Wales) makes you sound irresistible. That might just be me mind.
I need a Shetland voice actor to read the Silmarillion...
ASAR - All Scousers are Rascals
We know for certain we can rule out the Dudley accent anyway.
don't worry, this malady can be cured by following british politics for a month or two
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This is true- am British, lived in America. Also good for dating
It’s because we know you didn’t go to school in America
Isn't that already how it works in the UK, for RP? Which is probably the "British accent" that most non-Brits are thinking of, anyway.
Not necessarily. In many places RP labels you as a posh wanker.
...or a Tory, Criminal or Conman (or all of the above).
One summer, when I was 19, I became deeply infatuated with a British girl and it took me two full weeks to realize she was really dumb.
I take twenty away.
I know what you people do at your soccer hooliganeries.
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Clearly never spoken to a brummy
The most sensual accent known to man
Then you see a pack of them getting off a Ryan Air or Wizz flight for a stag party in a place they picked for the sole reason of cheap pints and realize how misguided you were all along.
If you sound like Tom Hiddleston, sure.
If you sound like Shaun Ryder, probably not.
Oi mate how many points do Oi get with my Aussie vibe?
You get 10 fun points, 10 adventure points, and 30 hard drinking points. We'll treat you like people treat every American in places where they don't see a lot of Americans.
"So, uh, do you know Mel Gibson/Hugh Jackman/the Flight of the Concords guys?"
"Mate, I used to live the next Cattle Station over from Mel Gibson/Hugh Jackman/the Flight of the Concords blokes!"
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My boyfriend from the UK is actually staying with us right now and damn, the accent is powerful. Free food at restaurants, free drinks at bars. People just jumping into our conversations because they want to talk to him. Earlier this week we were taking the train to do some shopping, and when the ticket taker came around to get our tickets, he just said 'Oh, I'm from leeds, I didn't know I needed a ticket' (Even though I bought one for each of us already) and it was fine. Ticket taker just said 'Oh its all good, welcome to america' and just.... moved on.
In their defence, Queens English (Kings English now?) or RP was what most (older) Brits grew up hearing from news and documentaries. I'm still conditioned to give more weight to an argument given in a formal accent.
Though I do love how shocked Americans are by the range of British accents. E.g. the pirate, in "Treasure Island" was using a particularly thick West country accent.
Also see "Hot Fuzz" for the best play on accents!
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Depends which British accent. This post is referring to, probably, a fancy southerner accent, but if you speak like a crazed man from Birmingham, less so I'd imagine.
How do You think this works for central Europe?
Americans mostly just engage with the UK through high budget BBC productions or posh Brits who are rich enough to fly over here. Continental Europeans mostly deal with yobs flying Ryanair to Villinus or Amsterdam for Stag parties.
Well, if we're actually talking TX here, wouldn't that just about put you into Mensa territory - relatively speaking, of course?
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