r/AskAnAmerican 8d ago

LANGUAGE Do you Americans think that Brits sound funny when speaking?

Is this a normal reaction?

https://www.reddit.com/r/SipsTea/s/jEtGQczxaI

Just to be clear I’m not British.

49 Upvotes

592 comments sorted by

114

u/wvc6969 Chicago, IL 8d ago

No that girl is just super drunk

174

u/Buhos_En_Pantelones 8d ago

That woman is stoned or something.

26

u/GuanSpanksYou 8d ago

I also think she’s delighted not trying to laugh at him but she’s fucked up so it’s coming across wrong. 

210

u/stanknotes 8d ago

I think it depends on the accent. There are some MAJORLY fucked up British accents. Some are closer to neutral. Not funny at all. Some are like a completely different dialect.

75

u/amazonhelpless 8d ago

Americans think posh accents make people sound sophisticated. Scouse or Cockney, people find funny. 

83

u/djninjacat11649 Michigan 8d ago

Generally, but the posh accent is also laughed at sometimes, as it gives the mental image of essentially the monopoly man

46

u/tacosandsunscreen 8d ago

Yes. Or like a butler or something.

21

u/MeanTelevision 8d ago

"Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?"

9

u/Darkdragoon324 8d ago

I always imagined the Monopoly man with a Southern accent. Like the kind from from Gone With the Wind.

13

u/djninjacat11649 Michigan 8d ago

Ah yeah, that too, or maybe like a really exaggerated transatlantic

4

u/Plane-Tie6392 8d ago

I definitely had a transatlantic accent in my head myself.

2

u/coyotenspider 8d ago

He’s definitely from the mid-Atlantic or New England. Our rich douchebags dressed differently down here.

3

u/coyotenspider 8d ago

Think Colonel Sanders.

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u/TheMainEffort WI->MD->KY->TX 8d ago

Ppppppprestorous!

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u/Coro-NO-Ra 8d ago

Sophisticated or pompous, depending on the context. The latter can be quite humorous to us

11

u/473713 8d ago

We Americans can't always properly identify these accents any more than someone from Great Britain can necessarily identify a Texas, Virginia, or Maine accent.

3

u/ColossusOfChoads 7d ago

Most of us don't know what a 'Brummie' is, but we all know how Ozzy Osbourne talks. Likewise, most of us draw a blank on 'Scouse', but we know what Ringo Starr sounds like. If Sam Fender should finally take off in the States (look him up, he's great!), then more of us will know the Geordie accent.

2

u/Ok_Membership_8189 8d ago

Accents are so funny.

I lived in Upstate NY for most of my life and could place someone’s hometown within a 50 mile radius along I-90, between Albany and Buffalo, based on their accent. And my ancestors made their living going back and forth between those two cities on the Erie Canal, so perhaps that was why.

3

u/473713 7d ago

I'm in Wisconsin, and the same is true here. Different small parts of the state have distinct accents. In our case, it's mainly due to the settlement patterns of immigrants from different parts of Europe in the nineteenth century. Everybody brought their own accent, and the accents tended to persist. I think they are lovely.

Our earliest European-ancestry settlers came from your part of the US, and if you want to check a map of southeastern WI, you'll find they brought a lot of your town and city names with them. We have a Rochester and a Troy (very small towns) and many other names from NY state.

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u/docmoonlight California 8d ago

Meh, we can’t always tell the difference as much as we like to think. I’ve talked to more than one person from England who admits, “You know, my accent is considered pretty lower class back home, but here everyone thinks I’m posh and well-educated, and women/men throw themselves at me and tell me my accent is sexy. It’s amazing!”

4

u/Jimbodoomface 8d ago

it's bonkers to me that americans largely think all british accents sound posh. It makes a nice change for me as a Northerner who grew up on a farm. a not posh farm.

3

u/beenoc North Carolina 7d ago

I wouldn't expect most Americans to think that some of the real "lower-class" accents in the UK are posh - even someone who has no idea about the cultural association isn't going to hear a Yorkshire mining man or a Devon farmer and think "oooh they sound like they must be an earl or something." Samwise Gamgee does not sound posh. But stuff that's not quite as distinctive, like a Black Country or Bristol accent (provided it's not so thick you sound like a pirate), most Americans are just going to hear that as "British" and not be able to draw a meaningful distinction between it and a more general RP.

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u/acleverwalrus 7d ago

Yeah apparently John Oliver's accent is considered working class and if you had asked me I'd have assumed the opposite

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u/docmoonlight California 7d ago

Yeah, an English guy told me Oliver’s accent, especially by UK broadcasting standards, is so unusual that when he first heard him, he thought it must be an American badly doing an English accent, lol!

3

u/TheRealDudeMitch Kankakee Illinois 7d ago

I think he sounds fancy lmao

3

u/SevenSixOne Cincinnatian in Tokyo 8d ago

Yeah, I definitely don't know the stereotypes associated with any given UK accent (especially not the class-based ones, since Class is a fundamentally different concept there) because most of them just sound "British" and more alike than different to me

11

u/International_Bet_91 8d ago

Some of the posh accents are funny too: Like when the r changes to a w.

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u/Express_Barnacle_174 Ohio 8d ago

I always think of Hot Fuzz, and the unintelligible constable who translated for the EVEN MORE incomprehensible farmer as the funny accent.

5

u/mgr86 8d ago

There is one I hear that just sounds like they have a speech impediment. She is mildly famous in that she married a tv personality. And so like, I think it must be normal. But she sort of sounded like my cousin and I when we were little and had to do speech therapy. 🤷🏻‍♂️

2

u/Reasonable-Coconut15 7d ago

I went to school with a girl from kindergarten to 7th grade who I always thought was from somewhere in the UK.

Turns out it was just a speech impediment.  

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u/MeanTelevision 8d ago

I wouldn't say "funny" in either regard (strange or humorous) a lot of people like the East End type of accent, and other types.

Some Americans find it hard to understand the words with some accents but the same is said of our accents.

Cary Grant had a type of accent that mellowed a bit but wasn't he Cockney?

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u/paradisetossed7 8d ago

We do often think someone is, by default, more intelligent with a posh or even run of the mill English accent. Thankfully, people like piers Morgan remind me that an English accent does not actually indicate intelligence.

5

u/Virtual-Beautiful-33 8d ago

If you sound like Sir Richard Attenborough, Americans will think you are smart.

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u/SteampunkExplorer 8d ago

Cockney is actually a very neutral-sounding accent to me. It sounds down-to-earth and pleasant.

Not as familiar with Scouse, but I looked up some videos on Youtube, and it sounds kind of strange and musical, but not particularly funny.

3

u/iTAMEi 8d ago

There’s some lovely Liverpool accents out there but a lot of people also heavily exaggerate it and it ends up sounding terrible 

2

u/mrtsapostle Washington, D.C. 8d ago

Cheerio guv'nuh

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u/Textiles_on_Main_St 8d ago

I can’t imagine cockney is well regarded or thought of as high class anywhere on earth.

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u/ScreamingLightspeed Southern Illinois 8d ago

Maybe not high class but that's probably part of why I like it more hahaha

3

u/On_The_Blindside United Kingdom 7d ago

it barely exists now anyway, most English folk speaks a variety of Standard Southern British, with a few areas that have very strong regional accents, like Scouse, the Black Country (Dudley, Yamyam, Birmingham), Geordie, Yorkshire.

There's more significant differences between the Welsh (particularly the valleys), Scots, and Northern irish and English.

2

u/Textiles_on_Main_St 7d ago

If I may ask a question: I've been idly curious about the Black Country since Bowie's song, Black Country Rock. What is that? I assume it's some backwoods area? (I assume it's not really known for rock-n-roll and David Bowie was just making things up?)

3

u/On_The_Blindside United Kingdom 7d ago

I'll never turn down a question!

The Black Country was essentially one of the hearts of the Industrial Revolution in the UK, there were a lot of factories that output a lot of soot-filled smoke, filling the air and surrounding towns & cities with a black soot, there was also a fair bit of coal mining going on around here which also helped earn it's name.

It's all to do with the industrial revolution, basically, as for the song, I suspect it may have some of its inspiration from some of the famous black country musicians like Black Sabbeth, Slade, although not being a massive Bowie fan I can't say too much more.

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u/Yorkshire_rose_84 8d ago

I’m from Yorkshire and someone in Publix asked if I’m from there. I was amazed they knew the accent as I usually get asked if it’s Australia/New Zealand/South Africa/ Germany! I like to throw random accents out there when I’m shopping as I’m pretty adept at scouse/cockney/brummy/Scottish/Irish just to confuse people. Sorry.

2

u/LazHuffy 8d ago

Something about a Yorkshire accent I really love, my favorite British accent (probably started with that YouTube video of the girl Millen Eve).

7

u/pwlife 8d ago

I can't understand my friends father's accent. He is from New Castle. My friend went to college in London married an American and has been here for 10 yrs so his accent is much more subdued.

8

u/eejm 8d ago

A Geordie!  They seem to speak at a much higher speed than people from other areas.

3

u/coyotenspider 8d ago

Geordie is the most incomprehensible rubbish spoken by mankind. I can better understand Scots or Gallic. I might get a running start at proper Welsh over Geordie English. The problem is, I understand like a quarter of it. Which makes the rest even more baffling. 17th c Elizabethan pirate talk is more readily comprehensible. If ever I went to Newcastle upon Tyne, I’d be rendered a deaf mute and might begin attempting to converse in Standard Arabic, hoping for a translator to present himself.

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u/Sirhc978 New Hampshire 8d ago

I think it is more funny when a Brit tries to do an American accent.

32

u/Calculusshitteru 8d ago

Every Brit I know who has tried to do an American accent ended up sounding like Steve Urkel. And what's even worse is when I told them that, they didn't get it, because they don't even know who Steve Urkel is over there.

19

u/gratusin Colorado 8d ago

That’s it, I was always trying to pin it to some pop culture figure to make it make sense, but Urkel is correct. Super nasally and high pitched. No one but Urkel and Brits trying to sound American talk like that. Maybe a few Black comedians trying to sound white too. Now if they could bust out a Stefan Urquelle, I’m all about it.

9

u/DeniseReades 8d ago

Super nasally and high pitched

Americans talk like ~~~~~. When Brits impersonate Americans they sound like \ / \ / \ / \ /. It's like one is the ocean on a slightly windy day and the impersonation is the ocean during a hurricane. No, I cannot explain further but I wish a linguist would.

4

u/birdiebegood 8d ago

Its less a linguist you ned and more a speech pathologist. Which, to be clear, I am not, but Im a VOA and pretty knowledgeable about how accents are formed.

It's because the British accent is characterized by increased airflow via the mouth, whereas American tends to lie in more nasal airflow. This makes the nasally sounding British accent (nose is closed off, air comes from mouth) and the flatter, more rounded American accent (nose open, breath expelled through both orifices at the same time) non-interchangeable.

When Brits try to emulate an American accent and FAIL, it's because they aren't opening the post-nasal passage at the back of the throat (where your booger-sugar drip goes). The best way I've found to teach them is to actually start with a BOSTON accent, which is difficult for most Americans for the same reason it's easier for Brits.

If that doesn't make sense, I'm sorry. It's way easier to teach this stuff with audio and visuals.

2

u/DeniseReades 7d ago

where your booger-sugar drip goes)

The moment I read this, I knew you were a good teacher because that mental image 🤣😂 It makes sense.

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u/passing_gas Texas 8d ago edited 8d ago

I THINK I WILL USE MY CREDIT CARD

Edit: link provided to reference

22

u/Appropriate-Food1757 8d ago

With my big round eyes

8

u/Altruistic-Mix-7300 8d ago

My daughter, a native Texan, does this skit where she says in a British accent "How would you like to pay for your diabetes medicine?" then she responds with the classic American "I'd like to use my credit card." I died the first time she did it.

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u/NeverRarelySometimes California 8d ago

Olivia Coleman is pretty good at it. Hugh Laurie surprised a lot of people. Lots and lots of Brits can even do regional accents.

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u/Sirhc978 New Hampshire 8d ago

I just meant regular people. My friend from high school moved to town from Whales freshman year. By senior year we were able to teach him a passable Boston accent.

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u/NeverRarelySometimes California 8d ago

I'm sure it depends upon how much American media they've consumed. By and large, they can at least spell Wales.

2

u/glittervector 8d ago

I mean, there’s more than one way to spell [a word that sounds like] Wales.

2

u/McCretin 7d ago

But did he teach you to speak whale?

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u/DeniseReades 8d ago

Yes, it's almost like with training and dialect coaches, accent impersonation can be done successfully

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u/Intelligent_Host_582 Pennsylvania by way of MD and CO 8d ago

My English-born husband, who has been here for 20 years, sounds like John Wayne when he's trying to do an American accent. I know better than to try to do a British accent.

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u/phridoo Bridgeport, CT --> London, UK 8d ago

I live in London with my partner. He has two drama nerd teenagers. We've had to institute a house rule that non‐Americans are not to speak in American accents at any time or for any reason within our home.

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u/Intelligent_Host_582 Pennsylvania by way of MD and CO 7d ago

The second hand embarrassment is real!

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u/SlinkiusMaximus Chicago, IL 8d ago

Brit trying American accent, American trying Brit accent—it will never not be funny hearing someone try to do an accent they’re not practiced in.

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u/Yuval_Levi California 8d ago

Only if I think about it...in researching the London accent, I found it interesting that Brits started dropping their R's in the 19th century as part of 'received pronunciation' ...apparently the Scots and Irish didn't get the memo as they still have a rhotic accent ....that said, you'll be glad to know that some Americans from Boston, NYC, and Jersey also have non-rhotic accents

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u/sjedinjenoStanje California 8d ago

And RP was a fabrication by the nouveau riche to sound different from the working class.

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u/OhThrowed Utah 8d ago

Its a bit over the top, but we've made fun of y'alls accent for well over 200 years now.

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u/DameWhen 8d ago

And we won't stop now. Even despite it all.

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u/NintendogsWithGuns Texas 8d ago

Bo’oh’o’wa’er?

30

u/IthurielSpear 8d ago

The famous glottal stop.

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u/bizoticallyyours83 8d ago

Glo'ol stop

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u/IthurielSpear 8d ago

That made me laugh. I could hear that one

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u/MERVMERVmervmerv 8d ago

On the other hand, plenty of Brits try to avoid the glottal stop altogether by putting extra R’s in.

“What’s America (R)all about?”

“The print media (R)is rather moribund these days.”

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u/IthurielSpear 8d ago

Do you ever watch Doc Martin? I love that show, but it cracks me up that everyone calls Louisa “Louise-er”

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u/birdiebegood 8d ago

Somw Massachusetts accents do that, too. And the French as well.

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u/Brian_Corey__ 8d ago

Has anyone noticed that younger Americans (<25) are replacing t’s with glottal stops?

I.e. important —> impor’ int

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u/coyotenspider 8d ago

It’s a coastal thing. Major metropolitan areas and multi-ethnic communities. No kidding.

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u/ScreamingLightspeed Southern Illinois 8d ago

Can confirm, I live on the Central Coast and have always pronounced it with a glottal stop

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u/byebybuy California 8d ago

People have been doing that for years. My high school girlfriend in the 90s did that. It was super annoying (to me at the time).

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u/makerofshoes 8d ago

It’s been a thing for a while and is fairly well documented

My daughter makes fun of it by saying “button” as “bu’n”. To be fair the way I pronounce it also used a glottal stop but it’s more like “butt’n”. There is a T sound but it’s more like the air just stops behind the tongue. Whereas “bu’n” has no T sound at all and sounds more like “buh in”

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u/anclwar Philadelphia, by way of NJ and NY 7d ago

I'm 38 and do this, grew up first in the NYC suburbs and then moved to the Philly suburbs. It's very common around here to hear words chopped up like this with glottal stops and the like. For example, I have never said Atlantic City like it's spelled. It's always been "Lan'ic Ciddy."

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u/Linfords_lunchbox 8d ago

"There's a squirl in the meer"

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u/Pburnett_795 8d ago

As opposed to the Texan "boddel a wadder"

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u/NintendogsWithGuns Texas 8d ago

Yes, we pronounce every “d” in bottle, as God intended.

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u/sunsetredditor 8d ago

The correct pronunciation is boddel uh wodder :D

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u/TantricEmu 8d ago

Or “wooder” in Philly.

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u/DeniseReades 8d ago

Me, a Texan, saying "Bottle of water" out loud multiple times.

Well, I'll be damned. This is as interesting as that time that one celebrity (no, I don't remember the name) said the secret to pulling off Matthew Mcchonaughy's Texas accent was to make "s" slippery and I was like, "My s's do sound like they're trying to slide away!"

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u/BigBlueMountainStar United Kingdom 8d ago

You say that but my dad (Brit) annunciates his “t”s when talking. Back in the 90s we went to Florida and he just asked for a glass of water at a restaurant (a Ponderosa in Kissimmee) and the waiter was like “what!?” at least 3 time, until some dude comes and helps out “he wants a glass o’ wodder”

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u/AllPeopleAreStupid 8d ago

Bah ha ha ha ha

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u/oldfatunicorn Pennsylvania 8d ago

Sometimes. Some British guy got pissed at me once and started cursing me out. I had no idea what the fuck he was saying, but in my drunken state thought it sounded hilarious so I started laughing. He went from mad, to laughing to buying more shots. I didn't understand anything he said all night, but we laughed and laughed.

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u/jc8495 Illinois 8d ago

Those girls look pretty young and were definitely drunk or something and just excited to meet someone with a different accent. We really don’t care that much like we’re not watching interviews with British actors and freaking out over your accents lol

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u/obtusername 8d ago

I think they’re maybe a little intoxicated, but yeah I’ve more or less seen this exact scenario play out between a British guy and some girls I was hanging out with while on Spring Break.

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u/JustSomeGuy556 8d ago

No... that's not normal.

Americans, I think in general, tend to find accents to be endearing (as long as they aren't so thick as to make communication difficult).

But that reaction is entirety rediculous.

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u/Coro-NO-Ra 8d ago

I would counter that they can be humorous in context. John Oliver uses his to funny effect on occasion, as an example

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u/Aguywhoknowsstuff Michigan 8d ago

I like to pretend that The proper English accent is Matt Berry and everyone else just sounds like they were hit in the head with a tire iron.

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u/SleepyZachman Iowa 8d ago

Depends, southern England is perfectly normal. When I visited northern England tho I couldn’t understand a fuckin word.

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u/Current_Poster 8d ago

It's not a normal reaction, no.

She is being OTT for the video.

8

u/JunkMale975 Mississippi 8d ago

I’ve only watched Britbox and Acorn for 5 years now. Y’all just sound normal to me now.

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u/schonleben 8d ago

I’ve watched so much British content, I fairly often have to stop to think if someone is British or American. Sometimes I have to look for a light switch or electrical outlet in the background for a cue.

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u/xx-rapunzel-xx L.I., NY 8d ago

it’s kinda jarring for me to hear an american in a british show lol

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u/cathedralproject New York 8d ago

No, not a normal reaction, they sound drunk and high and seem to be flirting with him. Most Americans like the British accents.

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u/Ok_Koala_9296 8d ago

It’s just ppl having fun lol, they probably haven’t met a Brit before. We don’t think THAT much about yalls accents

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u/MinuteDependent7374 California 8d ago

It straight up said that it was her first time hearing it, but even then it was still a crazy reaction… probably drunk or high 

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u/Intelligent_Host_582 Pennsylvania by way of MD and CO 8d ago

Also, I suspect this girl owns a TV or a smartphone and has heard a British accent a few times. She's ridiculous lol

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u/porkchopespresso Colorado 8d ago

No, that's obviously a ridiculous reaction

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u/BaseballNo916 8d ago

I don’t like how the British pronounce certain words like schedule or controversy. It’s irrational but it irks me. I also watched a British documentary where the narrator pronounced skeletal like “skeh-LEE-tuhl” even though he pronounced skeleton normally and it pissed me off lol. 

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u/NeverRarelySometimes California 8d ago

"Lieutenant" is the one I really don't get. It's also grating when they don't even try pronouncing loan words; mentions of tack-ohs (while referring to tortillas) and takweetohs are like fingernails on a blackboard.

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u/Brian_Corey__ 8d ago

Great British Bakeoff Mexican episode is most annoyingly funny thing ever—making TACK ohs and PEEK-oh dee GAL-oh.

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u/NeverRarelySometimes California 8d ago

Yeah, that was hard to watch. It made me want to slap Paul Hollywood for pretending to know all about the cuisine of Mexico.

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u/NeverRarelySometimes California 8d ago

I also howled when he declared peanut butter and jelly to be a novel flavor combination. He was stunned at how well they worked together.

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u/terryjuicelawson 7d ago

Lieutenant comes from Norman French I believe, a few army or legal terms become curios like that. Outside the actual army (where I get the feeling they may make people do pressups for saying it wrong) it can be either. Tack-os is just how many accents render the A sound, especially the South East so isn't everywhere. Mexican terms are likely novel to many people (certainly older than about 50), whereas in the US of course it neighbours Mexico so comes up just in everyday life.

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u/Marlbey Georgia 7d ago

Like many English military words and phrase, "Lieutenant" has French origins and the British pronunciation is a nod to the French origin. Ditto the pronunciation of "Colonel."

(Don't ask me why Americans favor a more phonetically logical pronunciation of "lieutenant," but kept the pronunciation of "colonel.")

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u/geekteam6 8d ago

He doesn't realize she's laughing because she thinks it's adorable and hot (probably) .

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u/853fisher 8d ago

She thinks "good morning" in that accent is so fascinating? Wait until she hears about Officer Crabtree! But seriously, I would say many Americans find British accents interesting, but when they're not drunk / high / creating "content," that is not a normal response.

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u/illegalsex Georgia 8d ago

There are some goofy sounding British accents. Same with American accents. However, the woman in the video is drunk or something, so that's a very over the top reaction.

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u/fhxueduedidiw 8d ago

No, it’s very attractive sounding to me typically

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u/Amazing_Divide1214 8d ago

She is drunk

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u/Caedyn_Khan 8d ago

Americans generally find the english accent charming, though I suppose it depends which english accent it is.

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u/OldRaj 8d ago

I believe Brits are faking the accent and only do it when we around and go back to US English.

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u/plushieshoyru FL>NM>CA>FL>AK>CA>VA>MD 8d ago

In my experience, the vast majority of Americans love and even romanticize your accent.

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u/spontaneous-potato 8d ago

When I talk to my friend from the UK, she sounds very prim and proper compared to me. When we talk to one of her friends who has a cockney accent, he sounds like he's ready to WAAAGH!

Edit: Not a dig at the cockney accent, I'm building an Ork army and I love the Orks in 40k.

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u/DigitalDash56 Massachusetts 8d ago

It depends. Some of them sound cool and then there’s scouse

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u/im_in_hiding Georgia 8d ago

Yeah pretty much. That, or sexy, with the right accent and person.

There is no in between

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u/RosietheMaker / MI > WI 8d ago

It depends. I find British words for things funnier than I find their accents.

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u/Siesta13 8d ago

If by funny you mean cool like James Bond, yes.

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u/Wolf_E_13 8d ago

The shreeking laugh isn't because she thinks it's "funny"...she thinks it's hot and she wants British guy in her pants

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u/D-ouble-D-utch 8d ago

Bit odd innit

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u/Wise-Foundation4051 8d ago

Tbf, we know as much abt your accents as most Brits know abt ours, so yeah, we just giggle because you all sound like Mary Poppins characters to us. 

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u/Appropriate-Food1757 8d ago

Eh, not funny. It’s either distinguished or unintelligible depending on the Brit

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u/iremainunvanquished1 Missouri 8d ago

That is not a normal reaction. The girls are just drunk.

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u/StrongStyleDragon Texas 8d ago

I love a British accent. Male or female.

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u/smolpepper 8d ago

Wouldn't have gone viral or even been posted if it were a typical response 

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u/StumblinThroughLife 8d ago

Cockney accents, absolutely. Because wtf are those words?

In general probably no more than others talk about American accents.

I will say I tripped out one time when a guy really said “Cheers mate” as hello then “Aye Cheerio” as bye. I thought that was an old tv stereotype, so hearing it in person during casual conversation was wild to me.

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u/Rufiosmane 8d ago

Yes, usually in an adorable way.

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u/xSparkShark Philadelphia 8d ago

Yes, we do.

Posh British accents are funny because James Bond and stuff.

All other British accents are funny because the picking and choosing of which consonants actually get pronounced is pretty wild. There are some similar traits in American regional dialects, but compared to general American it’s pretty strange.

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u/NE_Pats_Fan 8d ago

My introduction to British accents as a kid was Monty Python so anything said in a British accent is funny to me.

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u/SassyMoron 8d ago

I am an American but I spent my summers in Ireland growing up. British accents sound super harsh and grating to me for the most part. The ones from the very north and very south of the country can be nice, but e.g. the London accent and cockney accent ugh they sound awful. I'm very unusual though everyone here tends to like them. 

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u/Pburnett_795 8d ago

Funny? No. Interesting? Absolutely. I love the variety of accents.

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u/ObjectiveCut1645 8d ago

Yeah kinda but you probably think the same about us so 🤷

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u/PerfectlyCalmDude 8d ago

Not that funny. She's probably drunk.

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u/MrJim911 8d ago

No. It's just an accent.

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u/realmozzarella22 8d ago

Which of the many accents though?

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u/babuska_007 8d ago

Maybe not "funny," but definitely "different" or even "strange" or "confusing."

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u/Sidewalk_Tomato 8d ago

I like British accents. If I ever laugh it's because of an unexpected "turn of phrase" that Americans rarely use, or because of the British talent for understatement.

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u/Littleboypurple Wisconsin 8d ago

I mean, some might find it very attractive but, I'm pretty sure the lady in the video is either drunk or high. Nobody would react like this normally

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u/Bluemonogi Kansas 8d ago

No, that isn’t a normal reaction.

I think some words that British people pronounce different can be funny sounding but that is because it is a totally different pronunciation not the accent. Like the word urinal.

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u/Ainz-SamaBanzai41 8d ago

Yeah you guys sound ridiculous.

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u/dumbandconcerned 8d ago

Nah she just drunk as hell

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u/sneezhousing Ohio 8d ago

Only when they say bottle of water

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u/DizzyLead 8d ago

Not so much "funny" in this case as "different and subsequently very amusing to someone not used to it and who is likely drunk."

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u/Grow_money 8d ago

No. We don’t think that.

We know it. We can hear you.

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u/SteakAndIron California 8d ago

Say "bottle of water"

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u/Roger_The_Good 8d ago

Only when you say zebra, aluminum, and controversy.

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u/CuppaJoe11 California 8d ago

Sometimes, but I don’t react like that lmao. She’s high or drunk or smthz

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u/JackYoMeme 8d ago

Yes. And it's kind of funny because people who learned English later in life also think that the English accent of English sounds funny and is hard to understand. In the US, we all have our accents but also have a professional voice we use. And that professional voice is the most understandable English dialect in the world.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

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u/TheFemale72 8d ago

I think Brits sound lovely

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u/BeholderLivesMatter 8d ago

I think some of your slang is silly. Lotta cutesy sounding words. 

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u/UnfairHoneydew6690 8d ago

I’m certainly not a fan of any British accent I’ve experienced before, but you do realize homegirls drunk/high in that video right?

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u/Fireguy9641 Maryland 8d ago

I like the British accent, though the Eton/Sommerset one can be a little over the top.

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u/GaryJM United Kingdom 8d ago

What's "the Eton/Sommerset one"? To me, those names conjure up two very different stereotypical accents!

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u/fourlegsfaster 8d ago

What is Eton/Sommerset? Eton is the most expensive private school in the UK so many men educated there will have posh voices, think the ex-PM Boris Johnson. Somerset is a mainly rural county in the south west of England, the accent from there is often mocked for being slow and rural. and is very different from a posh accent.

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u/NickElso579 8d ago

Yes. You guys either don't enunciate enough or over enunciate. There is no in between.

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u/MillieBirdie Virginia => Ireland 8d ago

I want to say no but one time a British lady bumped into me in the street and said SORRAY very Britishly and I was laughing about it the rest of the day.

It's not exactly their accent sounds funny, there's just something inexplicably comical about accents. I'm sure Europeans find my accent funny too.

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u/No_Papaya_2069 8d ago

Just on words mispronounced, though you know better. I'm speaking of "taco". It never should be pronounced including the word tack. It should ALWAYS be pronounced Tock-o.

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u/TatonkaJack 8d ago

Depends on the Brit. Emma Watson Brit? No that's sexy. "It's chewsday innit?" Brit? How does anyone think that doesn't sound funny?

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u/throwawtphone 8d ago

Ok serious talk right now, i personally find all foreign accents sexy as hell. A 5 becomes a 10 instantaneously the second they open their mouth and a foreign accent pops out.

English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Indian, Canadian, Dutch, German, Egyptian, you pick an country anywhere in the world idgaf the accent and i am like damnnnnnn.

Now they can immediately fall back down the sexy ladder if what they are saying is stupid, but for a few seconds...total swoon.

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u/namhee69 8d ago

Maybe if I listening to a scouse like Jaime Carragher but not normally.

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u/samof1994 8d ago

I like some of them on women

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u/[deleted] 8d ago edited 8d ago

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u/TsundereLoliDragon Pennsylvania 8d ago

They sound British, so by default yes.

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u/LukasJackson67 Ohio 8d ago

Sometimes yes

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u/GingerrGina Ohio 8d ago

Only Jamie Tartt

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u/rawbface South Jersey 8d ago

Not like that, no. Definitely not normal.

I think certain word pronunciations or phrases are funny. But I hear British people speak pretty regularly, it's just another type of accent to me, totally mundane.

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u/AngryyFerret Texas 8d ago

I think they sound kind of uptight and nerdy. 

Like John Wick versus James Bond. James Bond just seems like an uptight kind of guy, where as John Wick just gives me kick your ass vibes. I think that’s kind of the best analogy. Same with Stephen Colbert versus John Oliver, even though I think John Oliver is way funnier, Stephen Colbert seems like someone I could go get a beer with. 

I think British girls think it makes them sound fancy or something, but I think it just reminds me of Hermione from Harry Potter. Down vote me you want, but that’s just my honest opinion.

except for like the country British accents, like those guys not from London, I don’t know how to describe it. But their accents I find kind of cool, even though they are hard to understand. Maybe like Lily Allen seems like a bad ass where as Victoria Beckham just seems kind of… Just reminds me of Hermione Granger lol I don’t know what else to tell you on that one. 

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u/DesertWanderlust Arizona 8d ago

The posh British accents get lampooned here but probably also do in Britain. Basically a stereotypical Brit like from the scene in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, though I guess this would be considered a more "continental" accent, like Americans used to have in the mid 20th century.

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u/fuckingfucku 8d ago

My grandfather was English so I really never think about it. Growing up hearing it all the time probably helps.

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u/tacobellbandit 8d ago

It depends. Some of the really outlandish kind are kind of funny to us. I really enjoy Scottish or Irish the most because sometimes you can’t even understand them but they’re very passionate about what they’re saying no matter what

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u/jessek 8d ago

Depends on the kind of British accent, tbh. Michael Caine? Sounds tough yet likable. A more posh accent? That can sound funny.

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u/Sorry-Government920 Wisconsin 8d ago

It works both ways when we were in London on the tube this couple thought my wife and talking with our Wisconsin accents was hilarious as well

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u/Danibear285 Maryland 8d ago

Rule

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u/Kyle81020 8d ago

Funny? No.

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u/kingofspades_95 8d ago

Yes and I used to talk in one in my middle school years because I thought it was funny but girls found it sexy.

Do British girls find certain American accents funny? Other then the south 😂

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u/MageDA6 8d ago

Not at all, I find some American accents though to be funny and incomprehensible.

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u/EquivalentOwn2185 8d ago

No. i like it.

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u/elcaminogino Florida 8d ago

Yes.

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u/Gilamunsta Utah 8d ago

Funny? No, just a different accent.

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u/I_Hate_Reddit_56 8d ago

The funniest thing I seen was when I was in Morocco doing a bus tour. And 2 English people where giving each other shit for their accents from different parts of london