British English declared most 'attractive accent'

[lushlala]

I recently read an article that stated that British English emerged victorious in a survey conducted to find the 'most attractive' accent. I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for accents, and among my favourite are posh English, posh American, Irish, Italian and Scottish. I must stress though, that I prefer neutral-posh accents over heavy/broad accents that can barely be understood. For instance, there are certain accents such as Scouse (Liverpool) and Geordie (Newcastle) in England that I'm not big on.

Do you also have a thing for accents? Do you agree the British English accent is hot? If not, which accents work for you?

 

[pesic87]

I have always been attracted to British English. I love London accent because it sounds very posh and very understandable, well at least for those of us that are used to British accents.

It does not strike me as a shock or a surprise that exactly that language emerged as a winner as the 'most attractive' accent. It is such a sophisticated way of expressing yourself, almost poetic.

Exactly that is the reason why I adore English poetry, especially Jane Austen, Wordsworth and many others, which I have already mentioned couple of times, so far.

[JapanGuy]

Yeah, I've sort of understood that a normal British English accent was the most attractive, at least to American people. My issue with that was there are some people that don't know how to look beyond the accent and try to understand whether the person is actually intelligent or not. I knew a lot of people from small towns that would assume that someone had a British accent was automatically intelligent. It's important to get past people's accents and try to understand what kind of person they are. It's cool if you love the accent, but it's the person under it that counts more, I think.

I'm really glad that I got to work with people from the UK and Australia at my job because I was able to learn lots of phrases and slang that I normally would not have known if I stayed in the US. Accents are just awesome!

[Chris_A]

British English accents surely have a certain charm to them. But as for attractive, I always loved Scottish accents. There is just something to them.

[agentzero]

My preferred accents for speaking are Scottish and Scouse. I like Geordie as well  I usually speak with a generic American accent, but I definitely have the most fun either Scouse or Scottish. As far as British being declared the most attractive, I'll just assume they mean posh London accent since that's the most common one in media and I have to say I don't really care for it. I love girls with New Zealand accent though. I also have a thing for southern accent and the whole southern belle thing. 

[lushlala]

20 hours ago, JapanGuy said:

Yeah, I've sort of understood that a normal British English accent was the most attractive, at least to American people. My issue with that was there are some people that don't know how to look beyond the accent and try to understand whether the person is actually intelligent or not. I knew a lot of people from small towns that would assume that someone had a British accent was automatically intelligent. It's important to get past people's accents and try to understand what kind of person they are. It's cool if you love the accent, but it's the person under it that counts more, I think.

I'm really glad that I got to work with people from the UK and Australia at my job because I was able to learn lots of phrases and slang that I normally would not have known if I stayed in the US. Accents are just awesome!

Hehe you make a valid point there, @JapanGuy......there's that misconception that anyone with a British accent has to be smart, intelligent. The world also seems to think that just because someone is British, they're posh....that makes me laugh. We can't ALL be posh and/or intelligent! The Americans especially love the British accent.  You're right, accents are awesome

[lushlala]

10 hours ago, agentzero said:

My preferred accents for speaking are Scottish and Scouse. I like Geordie as well  I usually speak with a generic American accent, but I definitely have the most fun either Scouse or Scottish. As far as British being declared the most attractive, I'll just assume they mean posh London accent since that's the most common one in media and I have to say I don't really care for it. I love girls with New Zealand accent though. I also have a thing for southern accent and the whole southern belle thing. 

I must admit that when I saw that article, I also thought hmmm....they do know that there's not really one British accent, right? British English is very multi-faceted, in terms of accents based on regional dialects. So like you, I'm inclined to believe they were referencing the posh English accent. Not even the London accent, because Cockney, especially broad Cockney to me is just not that attractive LOL 

[atanas.velikov]

Whoever said that  Everyone loves my British London accent but I really don't understand what is so appealing and as for the rest of the accents, i.e Scottish I haven't a clue what is being said and would take me a lot of nodding and pretending to understand before I finally caught the gist of what they are saying. I love Spanish and Italian accents though. 

 

About the misconception that Brits are posh - the world is so wrong, we are probably the least posh people ever and most likely only 0.1 % of the population speaks the Queens English....

[agentzero]

1 hour ago, lushlala said:

I must admit that when I saw that article, I also thought hmmm....they do know that there's not really one British accent, right? British English is very multi-faceted, in terms of accents based on regional dialects. So like you, I'm inclined to believe they were referencing the posh English accent. Not even the London accent, because Cockney, especially broad Cockney to me is just not that attractive LOL 

Haha, I love Cockney as well  I'm pretty sure I like almost all native English accents, but one I really can't wrap my head around is Irish. I can't reproduce it (maybe that's why I dislike it), and I just don't see the appeal of it and certainly don't understand how someone can find it attractive. 

[hungary93]

Well the person who said that probably knows there are a lot of accents is brit English, right?

I would like to see them what they are saying when hearing cockney accent. 

[czarina84]

I don't find accents "attractive".  There are accents that I think are cool, but l don't find them alluring.   I like all accents, but I like Scottish, Irish, and African accents the best. 

[DivaDee]

Not only do I agree on british accents being hot, but I also have a slight thing for Australian accents, French, Japanese, Chinese, Irish, and there are a few others that I can't recall right now... <3

[lushlala]

On 27 November 2015 at 1:47:31 PM, hungary93 said:

Well the person who said that probably knows there are a lot of accents is brit English, right?

I would like to see them what they are saying when hearing cockney accent. 

But this is the interesting thing, because to me it doesn't really make sense that someone would believe that, yet say British English is the most attractive LOL British English has many dialects, among them very diverse and sometimes very broad accents. I know that some people hear posh British English and think that's how all Brits speak. If you go off the ones you see in most American movies, most of them have  posh accents, so I guess that's what some people refer to as the British English accent as that's the only reference point they have.

[Heda]

I wouldn't say attractive..but it's beautiful!!! And sometimes kinda funny..:D

[tsubasa123]

13 hours ago, Heda said:

I wouldn't say attractive..but it's beautiful!!! And sometimes kinda funny..:D

agree, Brit accent is more elegant to me. compared to American accent

[lushlala]

On 27 November 2015 at 1:29:04 PM, atanas.velikov said:

Whoever said that  Everyone loves my British London accent but I really don't understand what is so appealing and as for the rest of the accents, i.e Scottish I haven't a clue what is being said and would take me a lot of nodding and pretending to understand before I finally caught the gist of what they are saying. I love Spanish and Italian accents though. 

 

About the misconception that Brits are posh - the world is so wrong, we are probably the least posh people ever and most likely only 0.1 % of the population speaks the Queens English....

 

Hehe I find the Cockney accent CUTE, as opposed to attractive LOL It sounds to me like a fun accent

I know what you mean about the Scottish accent. I worked in a lot of contact centres in England, and quite often my British colleagues would ask me to take a call over because they just couldn't understand what the customer wanted! -and in as much as I like some of the Scottish accents, sometimes I'd be mortified when a customer asked if I was Scottish....eh, my accent is very far removed from the Scottish accent!

 

[Yessica11]

On 11/26/2015, 4:58:52, lushlala said:

I recently read an article that stated that British English emerged victorious in a survey conducted to find the 'most attractive' accent. I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for accents, and among my favourite are posh English, posh American, Irish, Italian and Scottish. I must stress though, that I prefer neutral-posh accents over heavy/broad accents that can barely be understood. For instance, there are certain accents such as Scouse (Liverpool) and Geordie (Newcastle) in England that I'm not big on.

Do you also have a thing for accents? Do you agree the British English accent is hot? If not, which accents work for you?

 

I read an article that did a study (N. Coupland and H. Bishop) in the UK to see which "British" accent is the favorite.  They overwhelming chose the "Queen's English" as the most appealing accent.  The "Queen's English" is also called Received Pronunciation (RP), which is typically what English Teachers learn if they learn English as a Second Language to teach it. (Hope that makes sense.)

To add to it, in Norway (another study - U. Rindal), a small group of Norwegian learners of English agree that RP is the favorite over General America (GA).  They see RP as sounding more intelligent and more adult-ish.  However, they prefer GA for informal settings with their friends.  It's a very interesting study.  I believe there is this tug-and-pull affect between the two giants in the English standard accent world because of, not only what the majority of English teachers are teaching...RP..., but that they have a lot of exposure to the American accent through their media.  I live in Sweden for a year and the radio, theater, and tv were all bombarded with America! They were coated with it.  So for social settings, the Norwegian teens preferred GA, but the preferred RP for basically everything else.  

[Wanda Kaishin]

4 hours ago, Yessica11 said:

I read an article that did a study (N. Coupland and H. Bishop) in the UK to see which "British" accent is the favorite.  They overwhelming chose the "Queen's English" as the most appealing accent.  The "Queen's English" is also called Received Pronunciation (RP), which is typically what English Teachers learn if they learn English as a Second Language to teach it. (Hope that makes sense.)

Can you give an example by telling us a famous actor who uses this accent?

[Yessica11]

17 minutes ago, Wanda Kaishin said:

Can you give an example by telling us a famous actor who uses this accent?

Robert Pattinson apparently has the "Queen's British" accent, I believe.

Here is a good example of it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6-cgs34iig

[atanas.velikov]

This post is actually getting hilarious now and I'm sitting here laughing my shoes off. It's weird how some people find some accents sexy where others cannot simply understand it. 

[lushlala]

On 05 December 2015 at 1:10:39 AM, Yessica11 said:

I read an article that did a study (N. Coupland and H. Bishop) in the UK to see which "British" accent is the favorite.  They overwhelming chose the "Queen's English" as the most appealing accent.  The "Queen's English" is also called Received Pronunciation (RP), which is typically what English Teachers learn if they learn English as a Second Language to teach it. (Hope that makes sense.)

To add to it, in Norway (another study - U. Rindal), a small group of Norwegian learners of English agree that RP is the favorite over General America (GA).  They see RP as sounding more intelligent and more adult-ish.  However, they prefer GA for informal settings with their friends.  It's a very interesting study.  I believe there is this tug-and-pull affect between the two giants in the English standard accent world because of, not only what the majority of English teachers are teaching...RP..., but that they have a lot of exposure to the American accent through their media.  I live in Sweden for a year and the radio, theater, and tv were all bombarded with America! They were coated with it.  So for social settings, the Norwegian teens preferred GA, but the preferred RP for basically everything else.  

I think this study is absolutely spot on, @Yessica11. Hollywood is currently lapping up posh English actors, too, I mean the movie industry is awash with them.  Anyone who lives in the 21st century and watches movies can see that. I believe that's why many people have the misconception that everyone in Britain speaks like that, and hence the idea that all British people are posh hehe.

I can also believe the U. Rindal findings based on the Norwegian study, because I have a lot of Norwegian friends, who all seem to have this American twang. Very interesting study. Thanks for sharing, Yessica11

[lushlala]

On 05 December 2015 at 5:35:40 AM, Yessica11 said:

Robert Pattinson apparently has the "Queen's British" accent, I believe.

Here is a good example of it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6-cgs34iig

Yes, Robert Pattinson, Eddie Redmayne, Emma Watson and Gemma Arterton, Emma Thompson and Emilia Clarke are just a few other examples. That's what you call posh. There are many, many more currently storming the movie and TV industry. 

[brooklyn218]

I LOVE British accents! 

But truth be told, I love any accent! It automatically makes a person more attractive! Italian, French and Russian are my three other favorites! 

[wolfette]

I am English, yet my accent has been mocked before by others in my own country, and it has put me off the accent somewhat. I love the Italian accent when Italians speak English. I'm not sure what it is about that I like, I'm just drawn to it. I also love Scottish accents. Admittedly they can be very hard to understand sometimes, but I've got a few Scottish friends and I love all their accents. 

[sillylucy]

I totally agree that it is a very attractive accent. I remember being totally in love with this accent when I was in high school. I was so in love and it would just make me swoon. Now I am so glad that someone else declared it too! Yes!