Do you think you have an accent?

[gocek]

Some Canadians to have a bit of a twang to their speech. Not in the Southern sense, so to speak but a Northern twang. It's not an accent, just s different pronunciation of certain vowel sounds. I actually like it. Nothing to be self conscious about.  :grin:

[fredkawig]

It's funny why I don't have an accent given that I'm not a native speaker of English. Maybe it's the way I memorize and mimic the correct pronunciation of words whether English, Filipino, or Ilocano which is why I pronounce the words correctly and accurately.

[mikka254]

I already know I have an accent . I'm from Nairobi, Kenya. My mother tongue is Kikuyu and our country's national language is Swahili; so by the time I start talking in English, my accent is quite clear. However, I like my accent and how some vowels sound when I say them and the girls seem to like my accent as well.

[MoonshineSally]

I think you have to divide this topic a bit into speakers of their native tongue, and speakers of a foreign language. Obviously, almost all speakers of a foreign language will keep an accept, even if a very tiny one, if they are really good speakers. But you will always hear a foreign speaker's accent, if they are speaking in YOUR NATIVE language!

Now, if you are speaking a foreign language and you hear that same guy now talking to you in a mutual foreign language, you might not notice his accent. Because you have that accent yourself!

I am from Germany, have learned English 40 years ago and think I am pretty fluent. Living in the USA for 10 years now, and STILL have that accent! Of course, I would say I have no accent, but my husband tells me I do.

[shamzblueworld]

I dont think so, but it may depend upon the listening, but no one has every told me that I do so I think I dont.

[Lodismel]

I'm from the West Coast of the United States which is pretty well known for not having much of a distinguishable accent. Which is probably because most of the time when people are talking in movies or on TV they talk the same as I do. It does vary though, there are lots of people around where I live that have almost a southern accent.

[broknkyboard]

Yes and no, in Arabic I have a definite and obvious accent (courtesy of the local dialect) but it doesn't affect my English.

[Hardison]

I am from Southern California. I don't believe that I have an accent. But sometimes people claim that they hear an African accent. I have no idea why I get this. It's so weird.

[g2narat]

I agree with the posts saying that everyone has an accent. I think that's what makes a language more interesting. When I hear someone talk in an accent I don't recognize it makes me very curious. I would sometimes go out of my way to talk to that person just so I can ask where they come from. 

[thomas pendrake]

:nerd: Of course I don't have an accent, but Yankees sure do.  Actually I speak with what s considered a neutral American accent due to traveling around a lot when I was young and having an education which was desgned to eliminate regional accents. I can mirror accents quickly.

[angelicagapit]

I was born and raised in California, but I moved to the Philippines about 6 years ago.

My Filipino friends told me that when I was fresh in the country, I had a strong Californian accent, and now my accent has turned a bit neutral. It doesn't sound like an accent at all. It just sounds neutral.

I don't even know what that means, but I got those words from them.

[WeDontSleep]

Born in Lithuania (located in Eastern Europe) so English is not my native language, but I have been exposed to the English language over television, I remember watching Nickelodeon and Discovery Channel ever since I was around 5 or 6 years old. Even though I barely understood anything (if at all), when I started learning English in school at 7 years old, everything sounded so familiar and it was so easy to pronounce the words. I think I have an American accent because of all the American shows that I watched throughout my childhood and early teens

[leafy]

I'm sure I have somewhat of an accent.

But it has happened to me on two occasions now that I spoke to someone from England for a few minutes and they asked me something like "You're from England, right?". So apparently I can hide my accent long enough so that people I just met don't pick up on it.

[Cookiesandcream]

I was born in California but moved around quite a bit because of my dad's job. When I came back to the states, people told me I sounded weird. It's not american or british or anything. It's just got a different ring to it I guess. I made so many friends with different background so I guess mine is just a huge cluster of different accents.

[fluffyducky]

In my "perfect oral examination voice" I somehow have a British-like accent, but otherwise in normal speech I'm a total Singaporean when I'm just talking normally. People still somehow assume I'm from overseas so maybe my accent isn't that bad though? Until I add all the slang terms and start spouting all the lahs.

[sos]

I think that I have an accent when I'm speaking English think it is as a result of my native language.I spoke it for the first 10 years of my life.

[Cadence]

I think this is a hard question to answer and the only way to really know whether or not you have an accent I think would be to ask someone listening to you talk, and still it would be hard to know since people might have different opinions of how a certain language/accent sounds.

When speaking english I think I have some kind of accent, of course, but if people are able to tell what kind of accent I'm not sure. I think compared to other swedes speaking english I don't sound as "swedish" as most others. When I spent a year in the US as an exchange student most people didn't realise that I was actally foreign, many just assumed I had transferred schools so I guess my accent isn't that apparent, at least it wasn't at the time. However I do think my swedish accent would be more apparent if I were to speak english right now, since I don't speak english all that often in my daily life.

When speaking swedish I also have trouble finding an accent that I would consider myself "belonging to". After moving 50km south and spending four years with people from all over the country with different accents I think my accent has changed quite a bit. I generally don't notice it myself but my family and friends have mentioned it several times so I guess it must be true. I suppose my swedish accent is some kind of mix of different accents and not noticeble from one certain area.

But as I mentioned earlier, it's not easy to know yourself how you sound to others.

[Jrh2]

I think everyone has an accent but no one believes that them themselves have an accent as we are used to hearing us and those around us speaking constantly so we don't notice an accent. I have always wondered what my accent would sound like as you can't hear it yourself. People always say they don't have an accent even when they clearly do. It is interesting how there are so many different accents across the world and they all sound so different, it is strange as there are different accents even if you speak the same language.

[thestarsshine]

I have an American accent! It wasn't detectable by anyone I met in Canada, though. They all assumed I was Canadian. (They mostly didn't have accents either.)

When speaking Japanese, hmm, I wonder if I have an accent. I don't think I do, but perhaps my cadence is a bit too bouncy for a native speaker. I've never really asked anyone who wasn't also a learner.

[Daimashin]

I'd like to think everyone speaks in an accent of their own. Each country has their own way of speaking English so I think that every country speaks in a certain accent specific to their country and region. I too speak English in an accent unique to my country.

[JohnSword]

I have an accent, and so do many of my countrymen. You can definitely tell I'm from a particular country from the way I speak. It's quite curious as to how one acquires an accent.

Your accent results from how, where, and when you learned the language you are speaking. We can control the way we speak, and do, both consciously and unconsciously. Most people vary their accent depending on who they are speaking with. We change our accents, often without noticing, as we have new life experiences.

[Ninna]

I´m from Finland so clearly my mother tongue isn´t English. I´m quite fluent though and the people who are from English speaking countries tend to say they cannot figure out what my origin is by hearing my accent. Probably it´s a mixture of American English and the accent of my own.. thanks to social media I suppose

[Peninha]

I think I have an accent, but I don't know which one. I think people notice more my poor grammar (I am Portuguese) rather than my accent lol.

[ericdlee]

Whenever you learn from an actual person, i think it is impossible not to have an accent. The way I learned English was resembling my teachers' and friends' way of speaking.

I have a southern accent, I think, not strong but do.

[Emmanuel]

I think I have a slight Quebecois/french Canadian accent when I speak french. I live in Montreal, but learned french from my mother who's from Paris. I guess I got a mixed bag.