I'm British, but sometimes when I'm using voice chat in games people think I'm just an American doing a bad British accent. Apparently even I can't do a good British accent.
Often enough, it's because people don't know how normal English people sound and only have very well-spoken English actors to go by like Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and Michael Caine. I like seeing comments about John Boyega (Finn from Stars Wars) normal speaking voice because people really struggle to comprehend he speaks with a normal Urban English accent, one you can find in most cities.
You'd be surprise how bad people are at telling accent, sometimes event the accent from their own country. Like aussies accusing Jim Jefferies aussie accent is faked so he can pleased americans because he's living in the U.S. When in fact his accent stayed the same even before he lived here. I've seen his stand up specials in the UK while living in the UK, and even then his accent is the same as it is now. Another one I can name right of the bat are the Canadians saying "we Canadians don't say "eh", I know this because I'm from Canada" meanwhile I watched Highway Thru Hell filmed in British Colombia, Canada, and all those people LOVE saying eh at the end of their sentences, and also oot (btw the oot sounding is not as hard as Americans exaggerated it, it is a lot softer, but we can still hear it). So maybe you don't hear it often in your neighborhood, but people in BC sure as hell do.
I had a similar experience a few years ago. I was chatting to an American girl outside a nightclub in Ottawa and despite using my normal speaking voice was asked to stop speaking in 'that fake British accent'. I'd been in Canada a few months at that point so maybe that had something to do with it.
I worked with a Scottish guy for months in Alaska before I learned he wasn’t American. Another one of our coworkers asked him how and why he had such an American accent. He said “Taco Bell.” We were like “whut?” And he was like “yeah I really like Taco Bell but they could never understand me at the drive through until I started talking like an American.”
Livid Imp because Scots who are around Scots would be speaking in Scots-English so would be able to understand each other. If you don’t speak Scots-English then of course you will have no bloody idea what they are saying as you don’t speak the language.
I think British actors put a lot of effort to perfect their American accent cause they won’t be employed in Hollywood if they don’t have the right accent. American actors don’t have that added pressure Also, most Americans aren’t as exposed to British accents as the brits are to Americans. They most exposure they get (especially while growing up) is like peppa pig or something
I think it’s because most American English is very relaxed, we have lazy mouths. I think Brits of all types use more physical structure to speak so it’s easier to relax into speech rather than have to engage more more movement to do so
I love watching Monty Python, Gordon Ramsay and films from the U.K. I was born in the States but I have English descent, yet kind of taught myself a custom accent because I have had people tell me I sounded like I'm from Britain and that was when I was speaking in my original accent. :) Luckily I didn't learn my accent from Mary Poppins ;D
I think it's partly because of the amount of American media we consume as British people. We are constantly surrounded by american movies and tv shows all our lives so its easier to imitate the accent.
normie twice removed Because I've always wondered what the American accent sounds like to Brits, I like hearing Brits trying to do an American accent. They usually slightly overemphasize certain aspects of our speech, which gives me interesting insight to the way we sound. But you're right. Our exposure to British accents is largely limited to news reporters, Harry Potter, and Top Gear lol.
Not true because many British actors are good at European, African and Australian accents too and there isn't much of their media in Britain. It is just British has so many accents and many of them difficult to do that doing foreign accents is very easy. Charles Dance is from Yorkshire David Craig is from Liverpool but I never heard either actor speak with their true northern accent because you don't get many movies with Northern English men as the hero. That is why so many British black actors are good at American accents because Black actors don't get work in the British movie industry so learn how to speak American to get work.
But then Benedict's American accent as Doctor Strange, opposite Tom Holland, sounds forced. Or maybe I am so used to Benedict's natural voice, thanks to Sherlock.
We had Tom Holland at a local convention and he sounds like he was the product of boarding school so he was probably trained to either speak with a received or high received accent.
The British accent was really good, one of the best I've ever heard... but whether he intended to or not he skipped through about two or three social classes. But we do that sometimes anyway. For example, in a conflict situation when you want to sound tough it doesn't help if you sound like Benedict Cumberbatch. Unfortunately, in real life posh British blokes don't have wands, superpowers or a private army of minions.
I find that English people tend to hit their Ts very hard and Americans deaden their T pronunciation. So in phrases like "a lot" or "at all", you'd find a lot of Americans may pronounce the T like a D or even not at all, and the words tend to bleed together.
Yes, I think Brits use more calories when the speak. Maybe that's why they're thinner. When I (an American) say, "butter," to me, it seems or sounds more relaxed and fluid, the syllables melt together. But when a Brit like Russell Brand might say it, to me it sounds more choppy, interrupted, like two separate words "butt er" - like the second syllable sounds more forced.
@@user-kr2gq9gv9i you dont say picture phonetically tho? you say "pic-chure" like the rest of the english speaking world. wednesday is "wensday" for american english and you guys have no problem with that but then when it comes to saying tuesday differently than how its spelt, you decide to be different for some reason. American english also says "inneresting" or "innernet" or "twenny" so idk why you think its a british thing to not say the "t"
@@greggschroeder- Use a German accent when you train animals. A French one when you order food, use a Spanish one if you believe in a deity and want to pray.
In the USA we recently finished a Batman prequel, "Gotham", which featured a Welsh actress, Erin Richards. Beautiful neutral American accent in her performances. Then in an interview, her natural speech came out. What a shock!
Lmao I had mostly seen him playing Americans, and the few times I’d seen him play Brits I thought he was imitating a British accent, it wasn’t until the first time I saw him in an interview or award ceremony or something that I realized he was British
Peter Dinklage, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr, and Gwenyth Paltrow. Great British Accents. Simon Pegg, Rebecca Hall, Clive Owen, James McAvoy, and Alice Eve, British Actors who nailed American Accents
Ehhh Peter Dinklage's accent wasn't that great (speaking as an English person). His vowel sounds were all over the place. He doesn't sound like an American doing an accent but he doesn't sound properly English either. I'd add Renee Zellweger to the good list though, her English accents are always flawless.
Accents in Game of Thrones never bothered me because it's all made up. Westeros and Bravos aren't real place. It's not like Tolkien who made a world to put his fictional languages into. And even then, it's not like there's native speakers for Sindarin.
@@oh_kay2954 Fair do's, that's definitely true when Americans attempt a "non-posh" English accent. Not that I'm trying to be insulting or anything, I'm English and I'm hopeless at doing an American accent!
@Dante Alighieri Haha! You've totally got me testing those words out to see which way I pronounce them! Conclusion: Both... ways? I think? Prolly depends on whether I'm tired. I think I lean more towards the _t's._ Come to Toronto. No-one will notice or care!
@Dante Alighieri I remember when the Loonie came out, and later when the $2 coin was about to be introduced, there was a contest for naming it. I was all for "dubloon" or "dubloonie" (double loon, double loonie). That'd be so cool! Active pirate treasure! "Ahrrr, matey! Have ye got a dubloon I kin borrow? I've a hankerin' fer a double-double!" (coffee at Tim Horton's, double cream, double sugar) What'd we get? "Toonie." Wtf. Oh well. Anyway, I hope you get a chance to visit other parts of Ontario once we can all safely mingle again! I've lived here all my life and I still feel I haven't explored as much as I could.
This may be something too idk but in the UK, we are bombarded with American culture through music and tv shows and games and books etc from a very young age. I learned how to spell certain words the American way or say certain words that I'd heard in american tv shows and I'd have no idea how to pronounce it in my scottish accent. It may be nothing Americans may be have shows from the uk too but here quite a number of our shows are american from an early age
We use the Queen's English in Malaysia (a former British colony), but because of American TV, movies and music influence, people tend to mix them up now. You'd see 'Lift' written on some place and then 'Elevator' on another... LOL
Calvin M lol sorry I didn’t know and I don’t have a point I just wanted to say it’s just the same thing for americans. We get bombarded with english and british media from a young age- like peppa pig.
@D49 fan07 that's not how It works man... America it's a continent (the 2nd largest continent). People tend to divide it in north america, central america and south america but they're not different continents. It's like saying eastern/western europe.
His English accent slipped a couple of times (or went weirdly posh out of nowhere) and the Welsh was obviously an imitation - clearly not from this side of the pond
he’s american and he’s based in new york. his accent didn’t “slip” into posh for no reason he was showing the different pronunciations in english accents vs. american accents.
As an American, it annoys me that many people - including many Americans themselves - think that all poor whites have Southern accents. My grandmother was a poor white from Indiana, and she never sounded like anything other than a Hoosier. But if she'd been a movie character, they'd probably have given her a Tennessee accent.
The first thing I saw him in was that one Mony dick movie with Hemsworth, I don't recall what accent he had there, but his most memorable thing is Spiderman, so I think it anyways sounds funny when he starts speaking normally in an English accent, and even funnier when he slips between the two.
Produce 101 :D YESSS, when I first watched Spiderman Homecoming, I didn’t even know who Tom Holland was(😢), so I didn’t even know he was British. He was THAT good.
Its all just one island, really. I live in a state larger than the whole of Britain. In the distance they drive from London to Cardiff, I have to drive just to go to the airport.
@@barkboingfloom the US is mostly all on one island too. there's a heck of a lot of people, subcultures, and extremely different regional accents between Cardiff and London
Battle Of Trenton For such a small place, the UK has a load of very distinct accents though. I live in China now and the way they talk about accents here covers vast swathes of land. My province in China is much bigger than the UK yet someone in my city meeting someone from the other end of the province wouldn’t know they’re from a different place. Whereas in England, if you met someone from Newcastle, one from Manchester, one from Birmingham, one from Liverpool, you’d know each of them instantly from them just saying “Hello, how are you?”
@@barkboingfloom Yeah but we have 4 distinct cultures, 67 million people and a few thousand years of history. There really isn't anything like it in the US
@@smokyjoe321 Sure but people always act like it was so offensive. And I'm not saying it wasn't but again nobody ever told him while they were making it.
Well, it was a comedy film so a few extra laughs make it even better. In a musical, your disbelief is already suspended because of all that totally unrealistic singing and dancing! If it had been a serious film, it would have been tragic!
@Danny M Honestly, I was so weirded out when I watched one of his interviews. I was convinced he was taking the piss and doing an American accent for a laugh, but no, apparently he's actually American.
Oh yeah, those are a whole different game entirely. There's so many of them and they differentiate quite a lot. And the really broad varieties have a lot of archaisms that are still used - like using modern pronunciations of "thou, thee, thy" in casual speech
Another thing I've noticed is that when Americans talk about a "British" accent, they are almost always referring to the posh queens English accent. But they never refer to a Scottish accent as a "British" accent. They treat it as it's own thing.
ThatAussieGirl i mean not really, we think it’s dumb that americans don’t realise it’s the same thing. Sure some people want to be independent blah blah but we all still think the americans are just embarrassing themselves
Because it's so different. At least to Americans they sound completely different. Not every American uses the term British when they mean English, they say English.
I'm a british born Indonesian currently live in bali. Back when I was in england, I live in Surrey, but since i came from working class family, peoples around me speaks cockney. After I move to Bali, I met lots of foreign tourist from all over the world, but it doesn't matter how cockney I was, people never thought that I am british until I told them, most of them only said "you have a good english", means that among local people (my look is totally southeast asian) my english is the best, sometimes when I meet russian, ukrainian or other tourist from countries that most of the people cannot speak english, they having a hard time to understand me when I spoke.
‘British accent’ doesn’t exist. As a foreigner who has lived in the UK I can’t stress enough that there’s is a large variety in accents in the UK. Someone from Liverpool can have trouble understanding someone from Cornwall, while someone from London can have trouble understanding someone from Sunderland. Categorizing an accent as ‘British accent’ is just wrong.
Wouldn’t you say a Cornwall accent and a Liverpool accent are two (very) different British accents? It would be weird if we didn’t have an umbrella term for all the different accents found in Britain
‘American accent’ doesn’t exist. As a foreigner who has lived in the US I can’t stress enough that there’s is a large variety in accents in the US. Someone from Texas can have trouble understanding someone from Boston, while someone from Alabama can have trouble understanding someone from New York. Categorizing an accent as ‘American accent’ is just wrong.
Cumberbatch in 12 Years A Slave had me confused during his small screen time. I couldn't tell if he was talking normally or attempting an American southern accent.
Laura Exactly. And like Eric said, since Cumberbatch was doing an American accent, it was much lower than how he usually speaks. And it felt as if it was caught in his throat. Same with Dr Strange, it's good, but sometimes it's a muddy accent, and can't really be defined.
Sean Astin playing Sam in the LOTR has to be the best American doing a British accent. It was regional and just sounded natural. I'm yet to see an American capable of doing a believable Yorkshire, Scouse or Geordie accent. If one exists I'd be very impressed.
I knew Elijah Wood was American - but I had NO IDEA until recently rewatching LOTR series that Sean Astin was American too..??? ALSO HE WAS IN THE GOONIES? Anyways, yeah he did quite well.. such a likeable dude.
I'm yet to see those, too (I'm from Yorkshire). But I was pleasantly surprised to hear Sam Niells Irish accent in Peaky Blinders. It's quite strong in places, but overall pretty close.
I was at a party last week with a guy from Glasgow and I was like "my friend does an amazing Scottish accent" so the guy asked him to show us but he refused because he was too wasted. So I was like "okay I'll try then" and started talking. The Scottish guy turned to me and said "wait you're from Scotland! I just completely missed your accent before!" and I'm never going to let anyone forget that ever.
this channel has been terminated. You're doing better than me at least lmao, i've never been to America and lived in England my whole life but for some reason i sound american
too much emphasis on the Rs or they overcompensate for that problem by narrowing the lips too much. Big example of latter is Martin Freeman. Makes a little funnel with his mouth on every R
It might be because British people don’t know how to pronounce R-colored vowels, and use full-on Rs in places where they should use R-colored vowels. Or maybe it’s because the American R is either bunched or retroflex, whereas the British R is alveolar.
I'm British but my partner is American and I visit the states a lot, and a bit part of it is definitely exposure. We hear American accents ALL the time in the UK, through mainstream media and the internet, but British media is still popular in the US, it's not quite mainstream and they don't have as much exposure to it as we do them. Especially when you visit a non-touristy area, you're usually the only true Brit most Americans ever meet, and it's no surprise that they have trouble envisioning a proper British accent if they simply don't hear one often
@@quagsnake i was going to make a sarcastic joke but britain is more superior than america in so many ways. lower cost of medicine because of free healthcare, lower incarceration rates, stricter weapon laws, and better food...the only thing america really has going for it rn is media :(
Chris 389 interesting accent fact, but the modern “standard English accent” (which is technically called Received Pronunciation) didn’t exist in 1776, and the American/Canadian way of speech is closer to the old way of speaking than modern English accents are. So if someone is giving American accents a hard time, just tell them we’re sticking to tradition
I'm always intrigued by accents. Once i worked on a ship for 6 months, which has Eastern Europeans, I didn't realize I (somewhat) picked up their accents. When I return to my native country, my friends pointed that I speak funny, like having a weird foreign accent. It took me maybe a month or 2, before getting back that Singaporean "accent" again. Haha.
+jrgboy I find my accent changes really quickly. My native one is a South Walian accent, but I tend to unconsciously adopt the inflections of whoever I'm talking to. I have a Polish friend who's accent bleeds into mine fairly often. Same if I spend longer than a day or two in France or with French family
This happens to me too. I pick up the inflections of other ppl's speech. It's a version of code switching. One of my friends returned to the states after living in Sydney for years and she sounded SO WEIRD to us. Without the Australian accent, everything she said just sounded like a question instead!
Yeah, lived in America for a year, came back to Germany with an accent for a month or so without even realizing it. Didn’t take that long with me either. Then people started calling it out and I was like yeah wtf lmao. English is my mother tongue but I still just adopt the accent or dialect of whoever I’m talking to
PARTHAMAX that's exactly the same in England. Accents include: Geordie, mackam, scouse, southern, northern, Mancunian. I feel like americans categorise us as posh or cockney which is irritating. Actors should look into our culture deeper.
RMK 79 I don’t think anyone is disputing that. I think you’re missing the point. The assumption here is that there is such thing as “The American Accent” which of course there is not.
depends which part of Britain you're from. I'm from south-west Wales (and bi-lingual Welsh/Eng speaker) so the vowel sound in my accent in "goat" is elongated and with a dip then rising intonation "goh-oat" - i dont know how to type the actual phonemic script on this pc
I'm from Kent and we have a dropped T in our accent for example I'm pu in the ke oh on instead of I'm putting the kettle on. Also words like Butter is pronounced like Bu uh, Hospital is pronounced Hospi all & of course the most popular one to tell if someone is from Kent Water is pronounced Woh uh
I’m a disappointment. Period. The problem is they can sound similar to us. I can hear the difference clearly but when I go to speak Australian it comes out funny.
There's only a handful that can do Aussie accents... It's a little sad because so many times people just miss entirely and end up doing American or English depending on where they're from
Or you’re like me and you’re a god damn accent sponge. I can’t travel or be around people from a different regional area without changing the way I speak. It comes in handy for learning a language, but more often than not it’s embarrassing. I don’t want people to think I’m copying them or am trying to be pretentious. It’s not a conscious thing and I have to catch myself doing it.
same, I spent two weeks at a summer school in my hometown and started speaking my language in another accent (there were many students from another region lol). I don't have a 'real' accent when speaking in my language, because I'm from the capital :/
pathways678 I have always found the welsh accent to remind me of a combination of English and Scottish accent. Although I’m sure I’d be offending any Welshman that heard me say that. If you ever have a chance listen to the way Terry Jones of Monty python talked when he’s was not doing a silly speaking voice.🏴
His Welsh accent suffers from the exact problem he is describing. Sounds like he wasn't really well exposed to what a Welsh person actually sounds like
Great video! I think British actors are generally better at imitating American accents because they have more exposure and more practice. However, it should be noted that British actors often struggle to do other British accents as well. A famous example is Charlie Hunnam (a geordie) who failed to speak with a convincing cockney accent in the film Green Street. Olivia Colman, who speaks with Received Pronunciation, also struggled to produce a convincing cockney accent in the the new Wonka film (although obviously realism is less important in that film). Do Americans also struggle to imitate other American accents?
Hugh Laurie's American accent was so good that he got the role of Dr. House (the director insisted on not casting british actors because they "couldn't do american accents")
??? There are billions of people on this planet. No way am I the only person who thinks Hugh Laurie's accent wasn't perfect. He had plenty of clunkers over the seasons.
Hugh Laurie's American accent might have been better than that of most British actors, but it was far from perfect. He made his voice really scratchy to try to mask his British tinniness.
You forgot to mention, in old film it was done on purpose. For Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland' for example they wanted Alice to sound English because that's where the story took place, but not so English that it was off-putting to American audiences.
@@kasession I've noticed many American actors with a different American accent in interviews to the one that use in movies. I think there's a kind of Hollywood standard accent.
@@sigmaoctantis1892 the Hollywood standard accent (what most people call an American accent) is just a Southern California accent, regardless of where in America the actors are from. Probably has something to do with the immersion in LA
Basically, you have a lot of British actors being fully immersed in the English language when they come to Hollywood. No one leaves the US to go to Britain to be a film/TV star. This is similar to how British people *miraculousy* drop their accent while singing. Whether we like to believe it or not, there is a trend that the U.S. has set with this. This is also evident in the fact that one can be a superstar in the U.K. and a nobody in the U.S., however, once having made it in the U.S. one is deemed to have finally *made* *it*. I personally love British culture, but there are certain things that people tend to forget in discussions like these.
HàTt thËCAT I would also add that I believe this is genre specific. Something closer to grassroots sounds like folk/acoustic is a lot more natural to the native tongue rather than modern pop which is heavily influenced by US sound.
Nicola Bryant in classic Doctor Who does the worst American accent ever! She's an amazing actress but her acting is ruined by her lack of ability to do the accent right
The first thing I think of of Brits messing up American accents is John Barrowman in the new who. He generally does a pretty good job but then theres moments like the first episode of Torchwood where he says estrogen like a brit a thousand times in a row.
im confused you mean you hate the fact British Actors speak with an English accent? a proper English accent, becouse thats what they speak with in the show...
HarpyTheRedPanda I'm talking about Nicola in classic Doctor Who. If they made her character British it would have been better because she is British. But they made her character American and she doesn't know how to perform the American accent correctly which has effected her acting negatively even though she's a great actress
i wasnt talking to you, i was talking to dude who said all the doctors accents were terrible (sadly ive only watched classic who, only seen bits with tom baker) but i see where you are coming from :). sometimes you cant pull of an accent no matter how hard you try.
Well the American culture in movies are all around the world. There's more American movies in England than English movies in America. I can do a general, what I think most Americans think of what an English accent sound like, English accent and also a German accent because I speak German too.
Benedict Cumberbatch does it too, e.g. when he's Doctor Strange. In fact when I first saw the Doctor Strange trailer I was like, "wait, BenCumb sounds a lot like Hugh Laurie here...."
Joey Baseball After many episodes of Jeeves and Wooster, Black Adder, Fry and Laurie, and this and that here and there, I'm aware that he's British. I was making a joke.
I have to disagree that Michael C. Hall does a good accent in Safe. It's a little too over-pronounced which leads to it sounding slightly unnatural to my ear.
Based on the clip in this vid I'd agree. The first part of his sentence was spot on("I'm looking for jenny") but then he goes a bit too posh and it sounds forced. Not bad though
I think he just sounds like he’s come from a really well-off family honestly. I’ve heard some people who talk like him who come from a family of doctors or similar.
I love that the accent coach actually said ‘English’ accent instead of ‘British’ accent!! A Scottish, Welsh or Irish accent couldn’t be more different to an English accent. The ‘British’ accent doesn’t exist 😂
Dev Santos True. But, the differences in American accents aren’t quite as large. That, and saying ‘the British accent’ groups together places that are completely different countries. Wales is not England or Scotland or vice versa.
I am from Boston. I grew up speaking a British style Bostonian accent, not to be confused with the Southie accent many are familiar with. I've had British co-workers who thought I was from the UK. The problem with Americans trying to speak with a British dialect (or a Bostonian one for that matter) is they overdo the soft vowels, and underestimate the well articulated consonants. The narrator for example talks about the "R". Most Americans say "ahh" when trying to mimic a British or Bostonian accent, but it is more like "aahar". The R is there but it's subtle and preceded with a very soft "a".
Peter Dinklage? And while we are at game of thrones ... even to my untrained ear, I found it amusing that the Stark clan, all within a single household had so many varied accents.
Within one family their accents ranged from yorkshire to various parts of lancashire and Manc-ish, i thought to myself Winterfell isnt that big of a place is it surely there couldnt be so many different accents in that small settlement lol
When I hear someone fake a British accent im like "wow they're great" and British people cringe like "what the heck are you doing". I think it is also the same the other way around. I think I can do a pretty good British accent but if a British person heard me they'd probably think I was crazy. Also, I cannot tell the difference between a British accent and an Australian accent.
Crash Course: Australians tend to shorten the begining and stretch out the middle while the English do the opposite; Aussie: Ru'sl Crooowe English: Ruuusel Cro-
Yeah, if you can't tell the difference between Aussie and Brit, I can see how you can't tell if a fake Brit accent is good or not. I've always been an amateur scholar of accents and I've been able to replicate most of the British accents from Welsh to Geordie, but I haven't mastered Aussie yet. However I can definitely tell the difference between Aussie and Kiwi.
If I'm not wrong, but there are more American movies in England than English movies in America. So I would assume more English people have more exposure to American accents. But like he said that a lot of English actors live in America and also have exposure.
@@hollyg7346 Curiously, are there British TV shows or movies set in the US? I can't think of any, except for maybe Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy. Yeah, I know the Batman movies are American made movies, but look at all the British (and UK) actors in the main roles: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Tom Hardy, Colin McFarlane, Linus Roache, John Nolan, Christine Adams, Jack Gleeson (Irish), Liam Neeson (Irish), Cilian Murphy (Irish), Heath Ledger (Australian). Some of them play their roles with British accents, but a lot of them are American characters. (And, yes, I Googled the cast!)
I think this is one of the reasons Game of Thrones did so well. If it were done in America with British Accents it would sound like Downton Abbey. They're rich English-type people, right? The Northern accents really made it stand out in a way it wouldn't otherwise. I really hope this leads to more diverse voices in American entertainment. As Fiona Hill explained in Congress, British accents have a whole socio-political aspect. The one you use says something about the character.
Is there another video of the opposite? British actors who are terrible at American accents. I love Benedict Cumberbatch but damn it he butchers some accents to death. His southern accent and his Boston accent were really terrible.
NoneOfYour Beeswax well no...I think you missed the entire point of what I was saying. Did you read my comment? I never said any British actor had to do a passable American accent just that there are some who butchered different American accents when they attempted them. Nice try points for attempted sarcasm though.
PurelyAfrican I never said there was a comparison but there are plenty of examples of Brits messing up other types of accents. Enough for another video. Why are you so mad? Obviously there are more American actors than British so naturally the ratio would be in favor of the Brits. Not every British actor who attempts an American accent messes it up. Just like not every American who attempts a British accent messes that up. And did I not give an example of a Brit who did in fact mess up? Yeah. It happens. You must not have even read my comment.
I have a better explanation. American entertainment is very abundant in many places, including the UK, so people there are more exposed to that accent and can imitate it easier. For people that live in America, we generally watch a lot of American shows and if there is a British person it's an American actor trying to do their best impression. so that's why we suck. underexposed
S A D - E G G Though some British TV is extremely popular in the states, often more so than it is in UK. I'm thinking The Crown, Downton, Victoria etc -- Americans just love royal costume dramas lol. Maybe they will get better at imitating accents
tacos mexicanstyle yeah that's true I have watched Downton Abbey but it's kind of old-fashioned posh accent but definately more exposure will help Americans with imitation even if some of them are a bit outdated
Downton isn't that old fashioned. Most of the accents are modern (all the servants' accents are still found in Northern England) The only accent that is really historical is probably Cora's transatlantic accent. The three girls all use modern RP, Old RP sounds even more posh: th-cam.com/video/mBRP-o6Q85s/w-d-xo.html
S A D - E G G - yes you have a better explanation than the dialect coach who works in the industry. Particularly like how you explanation ignores the fact that actors are supposed to be trained in their craft and aren’t just the average joe watching whatever is on tv.
I'm British, but sometimes when I'm using voice chat in games people think I'm just an American doing a bad British accent. Apparently even I can't do a good British accent.
Often enough, it's because people don't know how normal English people sound and only have very well-spoken English actors to go by like Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Watson, Keira Knightley, Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and Michael Caine.
I like seeing comments about John Boyega (Finn from Stars Wars) normal speaking voice because people really struggle to comprehend he speaks with a normal Urban English accent, one you can find in most cities.
Do you talk in your videos? I kinda wanted to hear your accent, but I clicked on a video and it seemed you don't talk.
British accent is southern to Americans.
You'd be surprise how bad people are at telling accent, sometimes event the accent from their own country. Like aussies accusing Jim Jefferies aussie accent is faked so he can pleased americans because he's living in the U.S. When in fact his accent stayed the same even before he lived here. I've seen his stand up specials in the UK while living in the UK, and even then his accent is the same as it is now. Another one I can name right of the bat are the Canadians saying "we Canadians don't say "eh", I know this because I'm from Canada" meanwhile I watched Highway Thru Hell filmed in British Colombia, Canada, and all those people LOVE saying eh at the end of their sentences, and also oot (btw the oot sounding is not as hard as Americans exaggerated it, it is a lot softer, but we can still hear it). So maybe you don't hear it often in your neighborhood, but people in BC sure as hell do.
I had a similar experience a few years ago. I was chatting to an American girl outside a nightclub in Ottawa and despite using my normal speaking voice was asked to stop speaking in 'that fake British accent'.
I'd been in Canada a few months at that point so maybe that had something to do with it.
I worked with a Scottish guy for months in Alaska before I learned he wasn’t American. Another one of our coworkers asked him how and why he had such an American accent. He said “Taco Bell.” We were like “whut?” And he was like “yeah I really like Taco Bell but they could never understand me at the drive through until I started talking like an American.”
I honestly don't know how Scotts understand other Scotts.
Livid Imp because Scots who are around Scots would be speaking in Scots-English so would be able to understand each other. If you don’t speak Scots-English then of course you will have no bloody idea what they are saying as you don’t speak the language.
@@Adv18 Are you familiar with the concept of a "joke"?
Scottish ppl r the best british ppl outa Britain
Livid Imp yes, a joke is something that is usually constructed to be funny. Your “joke” came across as a statement rather than a joke.
I'm Scottish, so Siri never had any idea what I was on about until I developed my Californian accent.
Lol.
You made me cringe
I’m Californian. Didn’t know I had a specific accent 😝
@@everythingfunandcrafty2596 stfu
Everything fun and Crafty so you are confirming there is only a single American accent?
I think British actors put a lot of effort to perfect their American accent cause they won’t be employed in Hollywood if they don’t have the right accent. American actors don’t have that added pressure
Also, most Americans aren’t as exposed to British accents as the brits are to Americans. They most exposure they get (especially while growing up) is like peppa pig or something
Tbh you’re right about peppa pig
I think it’s because most American English is very relaxed, we have lazy mouths. I think Brits of all types use more physical structure to speak so it’s easier to relax into speech rather than have to engage more more movement to do so
British actors or directors aspire to have a great American dream and not necessarily vice versa.
@@prash175 Very well put.
I love watching Monty Python, Gordon Ramsay and films from the U.K. I was born in the States but I have English descent, yet kind of taught myself a custom accent because I have had people tell me I sounded like I'm from Britain and that was when I was speaking in my original accent. :)
Luckily I didn't learn my accent from Mary Poppins ;D
I didn't even notice he switched his accent midway through. Iconic.
How you notice then? 🤔🤣
@@bobcatman0121 Comments, bro. But good try
@@WildWaver I know that's why I put the laughing face
@@bobcatman0121 "It's just a joke, bro!"
Tyler Fulco and I can tell your a rude shitpiece 9 year old tryna get into a fight. Go play with your action figures Tyler. Mom’s gonna get upset
Tbf I struggle to do a welsh accent and I’m welsh
North or south accent, I can't get my head around the North accent
Han Solo I’m north and I can’t do a south
Merthyr/Swansea area accent is more harsh while the northern one is more breathy and soft
oh same. i mean i feel like I'm a fake welsh person because I'm from cardiff but id love to have or be able to do a proper welsh accent
I'm not Welsh but can do a better Welsh accent than the Welsh people I know.
I think it's partly because of the amount of American media we consume as British people. We are constantly surrounded by american movies and tv shows all our lives so its easier to imitate the accent.
normie twice removed Because I've always wondered what the American accent sounds like to Brits, I like hearing Brits trying to do an American accent. They usually slightly overemphasize certain aspects of our speech, which gives me interesting insight to the way we sound. But you're right. Our exposure to British accents is largely limited to news reporters, Harry Potter, and Top Gear lol.
Exactly... That just isnt the same in the US... We often just hear Americans speak and that's it
Not true because many British actors are good at European, African and Australian accents too and there isn't much of their media in Britain. It is just British has so many accents and many of them difficult to do that doing foreign accents is very easy. Charles Dance is from Yorkshire David Craig is from Liverpool but I never heard either actor speak with their true northern accent because you don't get many movies with Northern English men as the hero. That is why so many British black actors are good at American accents because Black actors don't get work in the British movie industry so learn how to speak American to get work.
Delboy0 what British actors can sound European and Australian and South African its almost like it’s all the same thing.
Maybe that’s why I’m pretty good at a British accent. I watch British television and films religiously
When Rick was screaming "Carl". It sounded like he was saying "Coral". Which was a key thing for me the actor wasn't American
Omg I wondered what all the Walking Dead "Coral!" memes were about, thanks!
Bingo. It's always exaggeratedly southern or western.
Even the normal American accent kinda sounds like coral
@@jones2277 I‘m from Georgia and I‘d say the way I say it sounds more like car-ull like the ull in dull
@@calebclendenin7073Yes the southern accents still have a lot of holdovers
Tom Holland sounds like he’s faking it when he does his normal accent
thelilcrunchy omg i’ve always thought this
But then Benedict's American accent as Doctor Strange, opposite Tom Holland, sounds forced. Or maybe I am so used to Benedict's natural voice, thanks to Sherlock.
Not really
Not at all
We had Tom Holland at a local convention and he sounds like he was the product of boarding school so he was probably trained to either speak with a received or high received accent.
This dude just went from unarguably American to unarguably British in 0.2 seconds flat. Incredible, I'd love to be that talented at accents.
same I wonder how long he's studied accents
British isn't 1 accent so pick one lol
The British accent was really good, one of the best I've ever heard... but whether he intended to or not he skipped through about two or three social classes. But we do that sometimes anyway. For example, in a conflict situation when you want to sound tough it doesn't help if you sound like Benedict Cumberbatch. Unfortunately, in real life posh British blokes don't have wands, superpowers or a private army of minions.
He actually got the 'o' sound right but still a tad inconsistent
Where in the video? All his accents sounded exaggerated
He’s faking an American accent the whole time
He's actually Canadian
Yeah, plot twist. lmfao
He sounds Irish
MaggiePayne916 he doesn’t sound Irish. maybe the “there” a bit, but not so much
Impressive
I find that English people tend to hit their Ts very hard and Americans deaden their T pronunciation. So in phrases like "a lot" or "at all", you'd find a lot of Americans may pronounce the T like a D or even not at all, and the words tend to bleed together.
Yes, I think Brits use more calories when the speak. Maybe that's why they're thinner. When I (an American) say, "butter," to me, it seems or sounds more relaxed and fluid, the syllables melt together. But when a Brit like Russell Brand might say it, to me it sounds more choppy, interrupted, like two separate words "butt er" - like the second syllable sounds more forced.
@@user-kr2gq9gv9i you dont say picture phonetically tho? you say "pic-chure" like the rest of the english speaking world. wednesday is "wensday" for american english and you guys have no problem with that but then when it comes to saying tuesday differently than how its spelt, you decide to be different for some reason. American english also says "inneresting" or "innernet" or "twenny" so idk why you think its a british thing to not say the "t"
The "t" in "at all" is a voiced alveolar tap [ɾ], which is an rhotic in multiple languages, such as the "r" in the castilian "caro".
@@Unfamous_Buddha I use accents for weight loss, too.
@@greggschroeder-
Use a German accent when you train animals. A French one when you order food, use a Spanish one if you believe in a deity and want to pray.
This whole time I thought Christian Bale was American.
Roxanne Gutierrez Lol!! Really? That’s funny! I believe he’s originally from Wales.
In the USA we recently finished a Batman prequel, "Gotham", which featured a Welsh actress, Erin Richards. Beautiful neutral American accent in her performances. Then in an interview, her natural speech came out. What a shock!
Lmao I had mostly seen him playing Americans, and the few times I’d seen him play Brits I thought he was imitating a British accent, it wasn’t until the first time I saw him in an interview or award ceremony or something that I realized he was British
I just learned he wasn’t American. I don’t know anything anymore.
I was quite surprised as well, but Christian Bale is, indeed, British
Well, Sir Savage the 21st nailed both american and british accents
Lmao
😂😂😂😂😂
It's a knoife
Omg
Alvin hah lol
Fun fact, that dude is like 6’7” lol... I got to work with him on an HBO pilot. Nice guy.
Hot, smart, and tall, wow
I knew he was tall by how large his hands are, but not by that much.
Want a cookie?
Edmund Kemper was 6'9 and he killed people
He says on his own channel that he’s taller than Conan O’Brien😂
Peter Dinklage, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr, and Gwenyth Paltrow. Great British Accents. Simon Pegg, Rebecca Hall, Clive Owen, James McAvoy, and Alice Eve, British Actors who nailed American Accents
Ehhh Peter Dinklage's accent wasn't that great (speaking as an English person). His vowel sounds were all over the place. He doesn't sound like an American doing an accent but he doesn't sound properly English either. I'd add Renee Zellweger to the good list though, her English accents are always flawless.
Accents in Game of Thrones never bothered me because it's all made up. Westeros and Bravos aren't real place. It's not like Tolkien who made a world to put his fictional languages into. And even then, it's not like there's native speakers for Sindarin.
Wait Depp? I thought he notorious for bad accents
@@dtoudassousOP is making a joke that these weirdos are American but have adopted a strange English accent when speaking in their normal voices
@@MbisonBalrogthe joke is they're all weirdo Americans who adopted English accents for no discernable reason other than they got rich
Americans when doing English accents: *pronounces every consonant*
birdspiracy no no, Americans when doing English accents: skips every “t”. Signed, an American.
@@oh_kay2954 Fair do's, that's definitely true when Americans attempt a "non-posh" English accent. Not that I'm trying to be insulting or anything, I'm English and I'm hopeless at doing an American accent!
OH_KAY ••• but when we do say ‘t’, we make sure to make it really sharp
@Dante Alighieri Haha! You've totally got me testing those words out to see which way I pronounce them!
Conclusion: Both... ways? I think? Prolly depends on whether I'm tired. I think I lean more towards the _t's._
Come to Toronto. No-one will notice or care!
@Dante Alighieri I remember when the Loonie came out, and later when the $2 coin was about to be introduced, there was a contest for naming it.
I was all for "dubloon" or "dubloonie" (double loon, double loonie). That'd be so cool! Active pirate treasure! "Ahrrr, matey! Have ye got a dubloon I kin borrow? I've a hankerin' fer a double-double!" (coffee at Tim Horton's, double cream, double sugar)
What'd we get?
"Toonie."
Wtf.
Oh well.
Anyway, I hope you get a chance to visit other parts of Ontario once we can all safely mingle again! I've lived here all my life and I still feel I haven't explored as much as I could.
Tom Hardy and James McAvoy are accent chameleons
Na, Tom Hardy's accent is forced most the time
And they’re both handsome 😍
Yes! They do amazing!!
James McAvoy does an excellent British accent as Professor Charles Xavier. (Yeah, okay. I know.)
He did an awesome job in "Split".
@@thudthud5423 James McAvoy is an amazing actor he needs more recognition
This may be something too idk but in the UK, we are bombarded with American culture through music and tv shows and games and books etc from a very young age. I learned how to spell certain words the American way or say certain words that I'd heard in american tv shows and I'd have no idea how to pronounce it in my scottish accent. It may be nothing Americans may be have shows from the uk too but here quite a number of our shows are american from an early age
We use the Queen's English in Malaysia (a former British colony), but because of American TV, movies and music influence, people tend to mix them up now. You'd see 'Lift' written on some place and then 'Elevator' on another... LOL
Calvin M are you kidding me peppa pig is british
Clam Chowder Delectable no its English. I never said peppa wasnt an english show? Whats your point
Calvin M lol sorry I didn’t know and I don’t have a point I just wanted to say it’s just the same thing for americans. We get bombarded with english and british media from a young age- like peppa pig.
Clam Chowder Delectable ahh i see yeah its the same for u guys then? Awesome
I love how the “good british accents” aren’t how a single brit would ever sound
Don't know what you're talking about. The Michael C. Hall was pretty convincing!
@@seeyouchump I wouldn’t be able to notice he wasn’t english.
not all brits speak "bri ish", personally i speak with a very cultivated english accent, Michael c. halls one was really fking convincing ngl
Brad Pitt in snatch with the best pickey accent
@Wid Eye nah. It was good. stop hating.
"There are countless examples of Americans doing bad British accents"
>smash cut to Canadian Keanu Reeves
I KNOW
America is a continent, dear. A Canadian is an American. People from the US are US Americans.
@@gennydz t. jorge ramirez
try telling canadians they're american
@@gennydz Canadians are not considered American. You sound like someone from Europe, its different here
@D49 fan07 that's not how It works man... America it's a continent (the 2nd largest continent). People tend to divide it in north america, central america and south america but they're not different continents.
It's like saying eastern/western europe.
The way he bled into that English accent was beautiful
And they forgave Mr.Van Dyke for that,too!
@ALPHADick Van Dyke did a bad cockney accent,but the british forgave him for such.
@@georgemaster9271 😂🤣
The dialect coach talks in a vaugely American-ish accent for most of the video, but he could just be doing that for the video for all we know
Hes American.
Isn't he Canadian?
His English accent slipped a couple of times (or went weirdly posh out of nowhere) and the Welsh was obviously an imitation - clearly not from this side of the pond
he’s american and he’s based in new york. his accent didn’t “slip” into posh for no reason he was showing the different pronunciations in english accents vs. american accents.
I think he's from the new York area
ugh it annoys me when people constantly do British accents with RP most of us don't speak like that
I speak RP....
@@arig8905 I meant like overly exaggerated like the queen. Not like BBC English. If that makes sense. This comment was a while ago.
And not all of us eat hamburgers everyday and weight 500 pounds. Welcome to a stereotype
As an American, it annoys me that many people - including many Americans themselves - think that all poor whites have Southern accents. My grandmother was a poor white from Indiana, and she never sounded like anything other than a Hoosier. But if she'd been a movie character, they'd probably have given her a Tennessee accent.
and look at the way that nobody asked@@blnkrse3073
Brits grow up with a lot of film and TV from the USA. Most of the films we see are American.
Bingo
Oh Really? I didn’t know that.
@@Burn143 I can't tell whether you're being sarcastic. Many Americans don't know this.
Mileta Rien I’m not being sarcastic. I genuinely didn’t know...
@@miletarien2142 we know hes a stupid exception
Tom Holland can do his American accent AMAZINGLY
The first thing I saw him in was that one Mony dick movie with Hemsworth, I don't recall what accent he had there, but his most memorable thing is Spiderman, so I think it anyways sounds funny when he starts speaking normally in an English accent, and even funnier when he slips between the two.
Produce 101 :D YESSS, when I first watched Spiderman Homecoming, I didn’t even know who Tom Holland was(😢), so I didn’t even know he was British. He was THAT good.
Produce 101 :D I didn’t know that Tom Holland was English, cool
i understood that reference
Yeah and he's so young too. But if you have it you just have it...
Find it really odd when people talk about British accents when they specifically mean English accents.
Roaming Adhocrat specifically London accents
Its all just one island, really. I live in a state larger than the whole of Britain. In the distance they drive from London to Cardiff, I have to drive just to go to the airport.
@@barkboingfloom the US is mostly all on one island too. there's a heck of a lot of people, subcultures, and extremely different regional accents between Cardiff and London
Battle Of Trenton For such a small place, the UK has a load of very distinct accents though. I live in China now and the way they talk about accents here covers vast swathes of land. My province in China is much bigger than the UK yet someone in my city meeting someone from the other end of the province wouldn’t know they’re from a different place. Whereas in England, if you met someone from Newcastle, one from Manchester, one from Birmingham, one from Liverpool, you’d know each of them instantly from them just saying “Hello, how are you?”
@@barkboingfloom Yeah but we have 4 distinct cultures, 67 million people and a few thousand years of history. There really isn't anything like it in the US
He switched between American and British accents so easily I didn't even realise
Poor Dyck. I’m English and was never bothered about his accent in Mary Poppins. He’s got such great energy in the film and is really likeable.
i know! Im no expert on accents but think of how many English actors there were and no one ever told him he was doing it wrong
@@lilymarie1582 that again comes down to our sense of humour
@@smokyjoe321 Sure but people always act like it was so offensive. And I'm not saying it wasn't but again nobody ever told him while they were making it.
Agree
Well, it was a comedy film so a few extra laughs make it even better. In a musical, your disbelief is already suspended because of all that totally unrealistic singing and dancing! If it had been a serious film, it would have been tragic!
That dialect coach is so good
Nice meme isn’t he though! ❤️
Nice meme He's pretty too
His welsh is quite off
+Niphredyl His speciality isn't doing the accents, it's describing them and helping others do them.
yo we've got the same political compass my man
I'm Scottish and on game chat this guy asked me if I'm from England and I was like....
*_dude, uncool_*
Story of my life
How to make a Scotsman angry 😂
or Irishman, or Welshman, heck some Cornish dislike it too.
same as my Glaswegian accent is very weak.
Everyone that sounds different to Americans are “from England”
As someone from Wales, that accent was disappointing smh
Cut him some slack. It's hard for people to imitate the accent of a vacuum cleaner sucking up a pile of nails.
Gunslinging Bird oh shit...
Gunslinging Bird oh no 😂😭
Have you heard a welsh accent???
Why is that? Genuinely asking, bc I'm tryna learn how to speak in various accents
Peter Dinklage, aka Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones had me totally convinced that he was a fellow Brit. He comes from New Jersey!
@Danny M Honestly, I was so weirded out when I watched one of his interviews. I was convinced he was taking the piss and doing an American accent for a laugh, but no, apparently he's actually American.
Peter Dinklage's accent is really good. Sometimes he sounds more English than Sansa with her weird ass voice
He's not British?!?!?!?!?!
Most Brits find his accent in GoT not quite right, but it’s a fantasy show so whatever
Dinklage's accent can be really inconsistent, the performance is saved by how he emotes and a well written character.
You didn't touch on northern england accents
Like Karl Pilkington airite
Oh yeah, those are a whole different game entirely. There's so many of them and they differentiate quite a lot. And the really broad varieties have a lot of archaisms that are still used - like using modern pronunciations of "thou, thee, thy" in casual speech
You mean south scotland
YangSing1 I was waiting for that one too
(American here), Northern English accents sound more "normal" to me than the Southern ones.
Another thing I've noticed is that when Americans talk about a "British" accent, they are almost always referring to the posh queens English accent. But they never refer to a Scottish accent as a "British" accent. They treat it as it's own thing.
ThatAussieGirl i mean not really, we think it’s dumb that americans don’t realise it’s the same thing. Sure some people want to be independent blah blah but we all still think the americans are just embarrassing themselves
ThatAussieGirl true lmaoo
Right? Half of these British accents I rarely actually hear in Britain and I live in England. Probably because they're always queens English.
CozmicK G a close friend of mine is Scots and if you ever even sub-categorized her accent as British she'd probably cut you with a knife.
Because it's so different. At least to Americans they sound completely different. Not every American uses the term British when they mean English, they say English.
I'm a british born Indonesian currently live in bali. Back when I was in england, I live in Surrey, but since i came from working class family, peoples around me speaks cockney. After I move to Bali, I met lots of foreign tourist from all over the world, but it doesn't matter how cockney I was, people never thought that I am british until I told them, most of them only said "you have a good english", means that among local people (my look is totally southeast asian) my english is the best, sometimes when I meet russian, ukrainian or other tourist from countries that most of the people cannot speak english, they having a hard time to understand me when I spoke.
His English accent was superb, but as someone from Wales that was slightly painful.
no who tf says the t in 'that'll'
AlmightyGammon Me
Why
whoop S H it wasn’t very good. Most of his accents are great though
@@AlmightyGammonsayssuckyourmum anyone that knows english
My default British accent: “ELLO GOVNA”
If I want to speak with a much stronger accent (I'm a Scot) I just say every harsh swear I can think of, mainly bastard, fucker and wanker.
@@theviewer6889 so basically you just use our standard scots daily vocabulary. Your accent must be strong all the time lol.
@@tweetiepie551 I'm actually normally a very civil person. I mean, non-Scots can still hear an accent but it's way less pronounced.
I'm insulted
OI, BRUV, 'AT'S A LOAD A BOLLOCKS, INIT?
Erik: *Does the Welsh accent*
Me a Welsh woman: “Why does he sound like a kind of French Mrs Doubtfire?”
Princess of HMV omg 😂
Fropitz Skeeter I agree
YES! 🤣 Even thought it sounded janky as a Scot.
i could tell he was trying to do Welsh, but it was funny how confident he was with it. I am English and even i could tell it wasn't quite right
Wow that was a bit crap wasnt it :/
I forgive them, because emma watson's american accent is awful.
I love Emma Watson, but it's like she's not even trying
‘British accent’ doesn’t exist. As a foreigner who has lived in the UK I can’t stress enough that there’s is a large variety in accents in the UK. Someone from Liverpool can have trouble understanding someone from Cornwall, while someone from London can have trouble understanding someone from Sunderland. Categorizing an accent as ‘British accent’ is just wrong.
Rowan Melton and I applaud you
Wouldn’t you say a Cornwall accent and a Liverpool accent are two (very) different British accents? It would be weird if we didn’t have an umbrella term for all the different accents found in Britain
Or is the situation in Britain notably different to other places? Where are you from? Is there less of a range of accents?
OMG THANK YOU
‘American accent’ doesn’t exist. As a foreigner who has lived in the US I can’t stress enough that there’s is a large variety in accents in the US. Someone from Texas can have trouble understanding someone from Boston, while someone from Alabama can have trouble understanding someone from New York. Categorizing an accent as ‘American accent’ is just wrong.
I remember Emma Watson's Americn accent is Perk of Being a Wallflower was a little wonky at times.
howchildish Emma Watson has one of the worst American accents. Not just in wallflower. She was so awkward in The Circle.
Same with Benedict in 12 Years A Slave
Cumberbatch in 12 Years A Slave had me confused during his small screen time. I couldn't tell if he was talking normally or attempting an American southern accent.
Laura Exactly. And like Eric said, since Cumberbatch was doing an American accent, it was much lower than how he usually speaks. And it felt as if it was caught in his throat. Same with Dr Strange, it's good, but sometimes it's a muddy accent, and can't really be defined.
Emma Watson is just a terrible actress
Sean Astin playing Sam in the LOTR has to be the best American doing a British accent. It was regional and just sounded natural.
I'm yet to see an American capable of doing a believable Yorkshire, Scouse or Geordie accent. If one exists I'd be very impressed.
Sean Astin is awesome
@@francoisrd he is awesome
I knew Elijah Wood was American - but I had NO IDEA until recently rewatching LOTR series that Sean Astin was American too..??? ALSO HE WAS IN THE GOONIES?
Anyways, yeah he did quite well.. such a likeable dude.
I'm yet to see those, too (I'm from Yorkshire). But I was pleasantly surprised to hear Sam Niells Irish accent in Peaky Blinders. It's quite strong in places, but overall pretty close.
Well there’s probably an American out there, out in the wild..
Then you hear "Corallll!" and suddenly exposed
I was at a party last week with a guy from Glasgow and I was like "my friend does an amazing Scottish accent" so the guy asked him to show us but he refused because he was too wasted. So I was like "okay I'll try then" and started talking. The Scottish guy turned to me and said "wait you're from Scotland! I just completely missed your accent before!" and I'm never going to let anyone forget that ever.
I can do a fantastic British accent! And I'm British!
wow! thanks for all the likes, that's a record!
this channel has been terminated. Good for you 👍
this channel has been terminated. You're doing better than me at least lmao, i've never been to America and lived in England my whole life but for some reason i sound american
·angel · sameeeeeee
this channel has been terminated. Nobody cares about your puny joke
Alpha Fortnite Videos apparently you do since you replied to it
I feel like when I hear a British actor doing a poor American accent, it’s usually that they’re putting TOO much emphasis on the R’s.
too much emphasis on the Rs or they overcompensate for that problem by narrowing the lips too much. Big example of latter is Martin Freeman. Makes a little funnel with his mouth on every R
emma watson for sure
Yeah, you can tell they're really thinking about it. As one would, obviously.
I had a professor from Vietnam who did the most comically overdone rhotic "r"s possible
It might be because British people don’t know how to pronounce R-colored vowels, and use full-on Rs in places where they should use R-colored vowels. Or maybe it’s because the American R is either bunched or retroflex, whereas the British R is alveolar.
James Cromwell is the king of doing British accents. I was genuinely stunned to find out he was American.
I thought you meant the British civil war leader and I was confused, only know as I'm typing I remember it's Oliver Cromwell...
@@Flame1611 He’s getting on a bit, but I don’t think he’s quite that old. Maybe a distant relative?
I thought the same thing about Idris Elba when he does an American accent
The kid who plays Jonathan from stranger things can do a great American accent
I had no idea he isn't American until I read this.
Nostalgia nerd same with the girl
He’s briTISH?
Charlie Heaton struggled with it though. They had to overdub him saying Nancy a lot.
what i was thinking and about to comment, also millie
Whenever I hear Hugh Laurie speaking with his normal accent it seems fake
Up until like two/three years ago I legitimately thought he was American.
It’s strange because as a Brit I associate him primarily with Blackadder as opposed to House 😉😛 so his normal English accent seems more natural to me
Bethany B yeah no kidding. Blows my mind when people think he’s American, but I’ve not seen House.
Sounds like a American on a downer like xanax...😅🤣😅😂
I believe in the height of House he actually started to lose his British accent!! I remember hearing that back in the day on some interview!
When he switched to a british accent, that was smooth.
Hassan Khanlopuy
I'm British but my partner is American and I visit the states a lot, and a bit part of it is definitely exposure. We hear American accents ALL the time in the UK, through mainstream media and the internet, but British media is still popular in the US, it's not quite mainstream and they don't have as much exposure to it as we do them. Especially when you visit a non-touristy area, you're usually the only true Brit most Americans ever meet, and it's no surprise that they have trouble envisioning a proper British accent if they simply don't hear one often
Any American who actually watches British TV knows that many British actors struggle with American accents.
English people trying to do an american accent 99% of the time leads to a Georgian who thinks they're South African
True when they get it wrong they really really get it wrong.
I love doctor who but usually when they want an American accent it’s very painful. Every now and then there’s a good one, but it’s rare.
As an American that watches a lot of British Tv, I can agree with this lol.
@@fancyoil216 the accents in the Rosa Parks episode was u n c o m f o r t a b l e
Americans haven’t had to worry about sounding British since 1776 lol
Chris 389 epic gamer moment
explains that disgraceful performance dick van dyke gave in "Mary poppins"
You still speak English though 😉🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
@@quagsnake i was going to make a sarcastic joke but britain is more superior than america in so many ways. lower cost of medicine because of free healthcare, lower incarceration rates, stricter weapon laws, and better food...the only thing america really has going for it rn is media :(
Chris 389 interesting accent fact, but the modern “standard English accent” (which is technically called Received Pronunciation) didn’t exist in 1776, and the American/Canadian way of speech is closer to the old way of speaking than modern English accents are. So if someone is giving American accents a hard time, just tell them we’re sticking to tradition
me: speaks french
every second word: *has a seizure*
But I love French accent though😂😂 it's sounds very sexy just like Italian accent
Happiness
OuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOuiOui
frog
Bloody hell when he changed accents was like magic
I'm always intrigued by accents. Once i worked on a ship for 6 months, which has Eastern Europeans, I didn't realize I (somewhat) picked up their accents. When I return to my native country, my friends pointed that I speak funny, like having a weird foreign accent. It took me maybe a month or 2, before getting back that Singaporean "accent" again. Haha.
I lived with my Aunt in South Wales for 8 months when I was small & came back to London with an accent, it soon went.
+jrgboy I find my accent changes really quickly. My native one is a South Walian accent, but I tend to unconsciously adopt the inflections of whoever I'm talking to. I have a Polish friend who's accent bleeds into mine fairly often. Same if I spend longer than a day or two in France or with French family
+Freya Kinsey *whose
This happens to me too. I pick up the inflections of other ppl's speech. It's a version of code switching. One of my friends returned to the states after living in Sydney for years and she sounded SO WEIRD to us. Without the Australian accent, everything she said just sounded like a question instead!
Yeah, lived in America for a year, came back to Germany with an accent for a month or so without even realizing it. Didn’t take that long with me either. Then people started calling it out and I was like yeah wtf lmao.
English is my mother tongue but I still just adopt the accent or dialect of whoever I’m talking to
But it kinda depends, there is no set “American accent”
People that live in different parts of the country have different accents.
PARTHAMAX that's exactly the same in England. Accents include: Geordie, mackam, scouse, southern, northern, Mancunian. I feel like americans categorise us as posh or cockney which is irritating. Actors should look into our culture deeper.
Literally the case for every country. Some not easily identified to you because you're foreign to them.
PARTHAMAX That could be said for any country though.
PARTHAMAX same here in England
RMK 79 I don’t think anyone is disputing that. I think you’re missing the point. The assumption here is that there is such thing as “The American Accent” which of course there is not.
I, a British man, am sat saying 'goat' now, to see whether I actually say 'goat' like that
depends which part of Britain you're from. I'm from south-west Wales (and bi-lingual Welsh/Eng speaker) so the vowel sound in my accent in "goat" is elongated and with a dip then rising intonation "goh-oat" - i dont know how to type the actual phonemic script on this pc
ME
Sam Talbot-Cross you’re the GOAT man!
I'm from Kent and we have a dropped T in our accent for example I'm pu in the ke oh on instead of I'm putting the kettle on. Also words like Butter is pronounced like Bu uh, Hospital is pronounced Hospi all & of course the most popular one to tell if someone is from Kent Water is pronounced Woh uh
American actors can’t do british accents
*Rami Malek has left the chat*
The guy from Mary Poppins would not have been the same person if he had an actual accent
3:30 british mode activated
I was today years old when I found out Rick from The Walking Dead is British in real life
Harry D It’s a joke meaning that she only realised Rick was British after watching this video (today)! Got it? 😉
Dean Wilcox I noticed when he would break his accent and you can here his English accent. Especially when he said Carl
Even though is American accent is notoriously bad.
I shit myself when I found out 21 Savage was British and I don't even listen to him.
Maggie from TWD is British too!
1:53 - Knowing that Michael C. Hall starred in David Bowie's musical _Lazarus,_ I can't help hearing Bowie's influence on Hall's English accent.
I find it easier to do a british accent while yelling. Guess I watch too much Gordon Ramsay.
Gordon Ramsay is Scottish, not really the same accent that you are thinking of
I didnt even know Ramsey wasn't American....whoa...
THE BEEF WELLINGTON IS RAAAAHHHWWWHHH!!!
Not a bad idea for a comedy skit. The actor that can only speak with a British accent if he’s yelling 🤔
Glitch I always wondered where ramsay got his attitude from th-cam.com/video/ZXTQ8yTWVWQ/w-d-xo.html
Imagine how happy his wife must be. Since he masters all accents, role playing must be real fun.
"Oy mate lemme fok u in thee ass, yeh"
TheAquaticCat unless he’s gay
@@daisydennis1943 damn
bradley orozco *arse
@@bradleyorozco1081 errrrr no
Not just British accents but they are EXTREMELY terrible at Australian accents! 😂🤦🏼♀️😬
I’m a disappointment. Period. The problem is they can sound similar to us. I can hear the difference clearly but when I go to speak Australian it comes out funny.
There's only a handful that can do Aussie accents... It's a little sad because so many times people just miss entirely and end up doing American or English depending on where they're from
@@dirtymike3329 mm definitely in some regions! Lol good luck just drown yourself in Aussie actor interviews or something
I tried to do an Australian accent and all my friends tell me it sounds Kiwi lol
I’m gonna say it.... SHRI-
He’s very good, I wouldn’t know that he was American when he was doing the British accent. (I’m a Brit btw)
Or you’re like me and you’re a god damn accent sponge. I can’t travel or be around people from a different regional area without changing the way I speak. It comes in handy for learning a language, but more often than not it’s embarrassing. I don’t want people to think I’m copying them or am trying to be pretentious. It’s not a conscious thing and I have to catch myself doing it.
JessieBanana sameeeee Dx I travelled a lot growing up as well so even my natural accent is mixed
Same 😪
I know. I moved around a bit, with speech difficulties, and grew up in a diverse area linguistically. So my accent is weird.
w h i t e n o i s e yo that’s me! My normal accent is so confused
same, I spent two weeks at a summer school in my hometown and started speaking my language in another accent (there were many students from another region lol). I don't have a 'real' accent when speaking in my language, because I'm from the capital :/
Why does his Welsh accent sound like mrs. Doubtfire
pathways678 I have always found the welsh accent to remind me of a combination of English and Scottish accent. Although I’m sure I’d be offending any Welshman that heard me say that. If you ever have a chance listen to the way Terry Jones of Monty python talked when he’s was not doing a silly speaking voice.🏴
@@maryannlockwood7806 guessing you offended the scottish too
Maryann Lockwood .. Terry Jones never had a Welsh accent. Tom Jones still does.
His Welsh accent suffers from the exact problem he is describing. Sounds like he wasn't really well exposed to what a Welsh person actually sounds like
@@maryannlockwood7806 Nah. You'd be better with watching Torchwood. It is set in Cardiff and half of the cast is Welsh
Robert Pattinson’s English accent came out in Breaking Dawn 1 at the end of the movie when he said “absolute law”.
Mel omg those parts of Twilight make it even more hilarious
Other than that he's got a good grasp on his "America talk" LOL!
Him being a vampire makes that a lot more excusable.
Great video! I think British actors are generally better at imitating American accents because they have more exposure and more practice. However, it should be noted that British actors often struggle to do other British accents as well. A famous example is Charlie Hunnam (a geordie) who failed to speak with a convincing cockney accent in the film Green Street. Olivia Colman, who speaks with Received Pronunciation, also struggled to produce a convincing cockney accent in the the new Wonka film (although obviously realism is less important in that film). Do Americans also struggle to imitate other American accents?
Alan Tudyk is my fav fake Brit. I legit thought he was English in A Knights Tale.
Yes I was shocked when I found out Alan Tudyk was American!
@@kimberleysmith818 I didn't know until I saw this comments section 😂
HE WASNT?
Great movie.
Hugh Laurie's American accent was so good that he got the role of Dr. House (the director insisted on not casting british actors because they "couldn't do american accents")
His American accent was passable, but there were certain words that took me out of the scene they were so bad.
i literally was looking for anyone in the comments to mention Hugh Laurie. i didn't even know he had an accent!!
delor b Well I think you're alone with that
??? There are billions of people on this planet. No way am I the only person who thinks Hugh Laurie's accent wasn't perfect. He had plenty of clunkers over the seasons.
Hugh Laurie's American accent might have been better than that of most British actors, but it was far from perfect. He made his voice really scratchy to try to mask his British tinniness.
To an Australian they all sound weird
miseltoe1 RISE ALL LIGHTS
We sound weird
I love australian accents
And to everyone else, Australian accents sound weird
Oh yes Bobby
You forgot to mention, in old film it was done on purpose. For Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland' for example they wanted Alice to sound English because that's where the story took place, but not so English that it was off-putting to American audiences.
Yes! The invention of the TransAtlantic accent.
There are many british accents though, most aren’t posh or have no Received Pronunciation
Yeah, I applaud Anne Hathaway for giving it a go, even though it was a bit of a misfire.
There are many American accents as well.
@@kasession I've noticed many American actors with a different American accent in interviews to the one that use in movies. I think there's a kind of Hollywood standard accent.
Yes
@@sigmaoctantis1892 the Hollywood standard accent (what most people call an American accent) is just a Southern California accent, regardless of where in America the actors are from. Probably has something to do with the immersion in LA
Basically, you have a lot of British actors being fully immersed in the English language when they come to Hollywood. No one leaves the US to go to Britain to be a film/TV star. This is similar to how British people *miraculousy* drop their accent while singing. Whether we like to believe it or not, there is a trend that the U.S. has set with this. This is also evident in the fact that one can be a superstar in the U.K. and a nobody in the U.S., however, once having made it in the U.S. one is deemed to have finally *made* *it*. I personally love British culture, but there are certain things that people tend to forget in discussions like these.
That1CoolChick Doesn't everyone drop their accent when singing?
HàTt thËCAT not always and this is definitely more prevalent in the UK
HàTt thËCAT I would also add that I believe this is genre specific. Something closer to grassroots sounds like folk/acoustic is a lot more natural to the native tongue rather than modern pop which is heavily influenced by US sound.
Also we know American culture more since we are exposed to it in a near daily basis
Ditto! Your username should be That1Cool&SmartChick
Nicola Bryant in classic Doctor Who does the worst American accent ever! She's an amazing actress but her acting is ruined by her lack of ability to do the accent right
The first thing I think of of Brits messing up American accents is John Barrowman in the new who. He generally does a pretty good job but then theres moments like the first episode of Torchwood where he says estrogen like a brit a thousand times in a row.
John Barrowman spent a lot of his childhood in America, though, so that's actually his natural accent he speaks with.
im confused you mean you hate the fact British Actors speak with an English accent? a proper English accent, becouse thats what they speak with in the show...
HarpyTheRedPanda I'm talking about Nicola in classic Doctor Who. If they made her character British it would have been better because she is British. But they made her character American and she doesn't know how to perform the American accent correctly which has effected her acting negatively even though she's a great actress
i wasnt talking to you, i was talking to dude who said all the doctors accents were terrible (sadly ive only watched classic who, only seen bits with tom baker) but i see where you are coming from :). sometimes you cant pull of an accent no matter how hard you try.
Fun fact: there are actually like 50 accents in Britain so just talk like any one then and ur fine
Well the American culture in movies are all around the world. There's more American movies in England than English movies in America. I can do a general, what I think most Americans think of what an English accent sound like, English accent and also a German accent because I speak German too.
"CORAAAALLL" is my favourite 😂
Haha
Corrall!!!!!
I love rick but I can't say carl
I find men become very "growly" in their voice when doing an American accent. A good case is Hugh Laurie doing House, especially at the beginning.
Yes! It's called vocal fry. It's kinda weird innit
House was a growl, grumpy guy to begin with.
chuck bass from gossip girl too
@Cabbage Robot who?
Benedict Cumberbatch does it too, e.g. when he's Doctor Strange. In fact when I first saw the Doctor Strange trailer I was like, "wait, BenCumb sounds a lot like Hugh Laurie here...."
Matthew Rhys's actual thick Welsh accent is hard to swallow when you hear him speak with an American accent so well in most of his roles!
Hey! Hugh Laurie does an EXCELLENT British accent!
M Crisp
Duh.
his american accent’s so good i want to cry- House was just-
Joey Baseball
After many episodes of Jeeves and Wooster, Black Adder, Fry and Laurie, and this and that here and there, I'm aware that he's British. I was making a joke.
alessia cara House was one of my favorite shows.
I think your joke went over a lot of people's heads.
I have to disagree that Michael C. Hall does a good accent in Safe. It's a little too over-pronounced which leads to it sounding slightly unnatural to my ear.
Jamie Windsor he sounds like Neil’s dad in the inbetweeners which is a joke accent
Based on the clip in this vid I'd agree. The first part of his sentence was spot on("I'm looking for jenny") but then he goes a bit too posh and it sounds forced.
Not bad though
well no one cares
Well, he is supposed to be a robot 🤖
I think he just sounds like he’s come from a really well-off family honestly. I’ve heard some people who talk like him who come from a family of doctors or similar.
I love that the accent coach actually said ‘English’ accent instead of ‘British’ accent!! A Scottish, Welsh or Irish accent couldn’t be more different to an English accent. The ‘British’ accent doesn’t exist 😂
You could say that about any country though. No country has one accent. Even standard accents will change over time.
Well...
I mean it's the same case as "American Accent." It's just a generalization of that area.
But "a" British accent does.
Dev Santos True. But, the differences in American accents aren’t quite as large. That, and saying ‘the British accent’ groups together places that are completely different countries. Wales is not England or Scotland or vice versa.
I am from Boston. I grew up speaking a British style Bostonian accent, not to be confused with the Southie accent many are familiar with. I've had British co-workers who thought I was from the UK. The problem with Americans trying to speak with a British dialect (or a Bostonian one for that matter) is they overdo the soft vowels, and underestimate the well articulated consonants. The narrator for example talks about the "R". Most Americans say "ahh" when trying to mimic a British or Bostonian accent, but it is more like "aahar". The R is there but it's subtle and preceded with a very soft "a".
Hey it's Eric Singer! From Wired! 😃
I love Erik!
Ida Killerrich Yes! Me too!
Lexavax that was... UNHOLY
Rose Tico Enthusiast ... who cares?
Rose Tico Enthusiast lol why did you admit you care about this guys sweat
Meryl Streep my god shes damn terrific at the British accent. Similarly, Angelina Jolie is underappreciated for it.
Jurassic Lion they’re only good at the London posh and cockney accent that’s it
Which is like 1% of the population
Peter Dinklage?
And while we are at game of thrones ... even to my untrained ear, I found it amusing that the Stark clan, all within a single household had so many varied accents.
Within one family their accents ranged from yorkshire to various parts of lancashire and Manc-ish, i thought to myself Winterfell isnt that big of a place is it surely there couldnt be so many different accents in that small settlement lol
“Make sure all the ‘r’s are there when doing an American accent”
*laughs in Massachusetts*
His version of a British person doing a stereotypical American accent was eerily spot-on 😂
When I hear someone fake a British accent im like "wow they're great" and British people cringe like "what the heck are you doing". I think it is also the same the other way around. I think I can do a pretty good British accent but if a British person heard me they'd probably think I was crazy. Also, I cannot tell the difference between a British accent and an Australian accent.
Crash Course: Australians tend to shorten the begining and stretch out the middle while the English do the opposite;
Aussie: Ru'sl Crooowe
English: Ruuusel Cro-
Yeah, if you can't tell the difference between Aussie and Brit, I can see how you can't tell if a fake Brit accent is good or not. I've always been an amateur scholar of accents and I've been able to replicate most of the British accents from Welsh to Geordie, but I haven't mastered Aussie yet. However I can definitely tell the difference between Aussie and Kiwi.
If a British person doesn't think you do a good British accent, then you don't do a good British accent.
Yeah I know I do a horrible accent but whenever I do it in front of a British person I purposely over do it to be funny
You and about 600 million others probably. I still get Australians confused and I'm British!
If I'm not wrong, but there are more American movies in England than English movies in America. So I would assume more English people have more exposure to American accents. But like he said that a lot of English actors live in America and also have exposure.
We see American films and TV shows all the time which probably has an effect
@@hollyg7346 Curiously, are there British TV shows or movies set in the US? I can't think of any, except for maybe Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy. Yeah, I know the Batman movies are American made movies, but look at all the British (and UK) actors in the main roles: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Tom Wilkinson, Tom Hardy, Colin McFarlane, Linus Roache, John Nolan, Christine Adams, Jack Gleeson (Irish), Liam Neeson (Irish), Cilian Murphy (Irish), Heath Ledger (Australian). Some of them play their roles with British accents, but a lot of them are American characters. (And, yes, I Googled the cast!)
@@thudthud5423 if it is a British TV show with British actors it will be set in the UK
I think this is one of the reasons Game of Thrones did so well. If it were done in America with British Accents it would sound like Downton Abbey. They're rich English-type people, right? The Northern accents really made it stand out in a way it wouldn't otherwise. I really hope this leads to more diverse voices in American entertainment. As Fiona Hill explained in Congress, British accents have a whole socio-political aspect. The one you use says something about the character.
Is there another video of the opposite? British actors who are terrible at American accents. I love Benedict Cumberbatch but damn it he butchers some accents to death. His southern accent and his Boston accent were really terrible.
Just think of how huge an international action hero Jason Statham could have been had he been able to muster up even a passable American accent...
Totally agree, his Boston accent was almost cringe worthy
NoneOfYour Beeswax well no...I think you missed the entire point of what I was saying. Did you read my comment? I never said any British actor had to do a passable American accent just that there are some who butchered different American accents when they attempted them. Nice try points for attempted sarcasm though.
PurelyAfrican I never said there was a comparison but there are plenty of examples of Brits messing up other types of accents. Enough for another video. Why are you so mad? Obviously there are more American actors than British so naturally the ratio would be in favor of the Brits. Not every British actor who attempts an American accent messes it up. Just like not every American who attempts a British accent messes that up. And did I not give an example of a Brit who did in fact mess up? Yeah. It happens. You must not have even read my comment.
That's it. There are thousands of different ways to speak. Actors have a tough job to nail it.
I have a better explanation. American entertainment is very abundant in many places, including the UK, so people there are more exposed to that accent and can imitate it easier. For people that live in America, we generally watch a lot of American shows and if there is a British person it's an American actor trying to do their best impression. so that's why we suck. underexposed
S A D - E G G
Though some British TV is extremely popular in the states, often more so than it is in UK. I'm thinking The Crown, Downton, Victoria etc -- Americans just love royal costume dramas lol. Maybe they will get better at imitating accents
tacos mexicanstyle yeah that's true I have watched Downton Abbey but it's kind of old-fashioned posh accent but definately more exposure will help Americans with imitation even if some of them are a bit outdated
Downton isn't that old fashioned. Most of the accents are modern (all the servants' accents are still found in Northern England) The only accent that is really historical is probably Cora's transatlantic accent.
The three girls all use modern RP, Old RP sounds even more posh:
th-cam.com/video/mBRP-o6Q85s/w-d-xo.html
tacos mexicanstyle holy shit I think that's the first time I've heard the queen speak 😂 thanks lol
S A D - E G G - yes you have a better explanation than the dialect coach who works in the industry. Particularly like how you explanation ignores the fact that actors are supposed to be trained in their craft and aren’t just the average joe watching whatever is on tv.
Renee Zelwiger's accent was so good I thought she was a Brit.
*She IS Bridget Jones!!*
Meanwhile Daniel Radcliffe's American accent sounds like it's his real voice...