Poll: Which English accent is the easiest to understand?

Which English accent is the easiest to understand?

American
British
Australian
New Zealand
Canadian
Indian

Statistics Poll Stats

This Poll:

  • Votes: 6,630
  • Comments: 25
  • Added: March 2007

Comments:

Cyndi

I think this poll more likely reflects the different percentage of people taking part because it is more likely that each person will vote for his/her own nationality. :-)

luis enrique

my comment is ..... i prefer to speak brititsh english cause i undertand so much better .... ; on my mind i think it's better ... the best .... and i don't despite the american english because it was the first english accent which i've learnt since i got started my course to learn english.....
what i mean it's what i really like it's the english language ...no matter if it's british or american .... now i know speaking both accents moreover how i said before i prefer british language .... on my mind.
i repect the rest of them who wish learning american english but i get .... i understand more more ... i get easier the british... well i don't know ..... i've always heard both accents. forgive for my bored comment. thanks

DC prof

Cyndi may be right, but as an American I have to say I find the Canadian accent with its clipped, crisp pronunciation very standard and easy to understand. British English is so varied, it's hard to put it into one category when RP or BBC English is really just a posh variety and not that widely spoken. Similar with US English and its various regional accents. Outside of Newfoundland, I find Canadian quite uniform across the rest of that country.

Alan

I am what people call non native speaker of english... and in my opinion queen english is certainly much more understandable than all the others... they enunciate the words very well , good intonation. very clear....still studying hard to improve my listening skills.

Micah

Yes I agree with DC prof. Canadians accents are fairly uniform throughout the country and also don't differ much from the west coast of the states. In particular, people from British Columbia on the west coast of Canada tend to be the most intelligible. You'll actually find that many TV and Radio hosts are from BC :)

Syed Mohammad Sohaib Ali

I am a Pakistani. Born and educated in Pakistani. Its my point of view according to my experience as a telemarketer that Australian and British Accents are similar and American and Canadian accents are similar and I think American or Canadian Accents are easier.

Jim

To compare dialects you should consider only PROPER usages. A lots of comments here are based on corruptions of dialects. You really cannot compare "ebonic" American English to the Proper American English spoken in the Supreme Court. On the other hand, in most British English, non-rhotic speakers do not voice trailing r's in syllables, so "carton" becomes "cahton" (some local Massachusetts dialects do the same). I suggest that, for this poll, users consider only news anchors on the major networks as a basis of comparison. So if listen to CNN, you'll eventually hear virtually all national accents of English and can make a really good comparison.

peterk

Nebbie

Canadian.
American is too varied, and a lot of dialects are nonrhotic. British is often nonrhotic too, and while more enunciated, is also a bit faster than canadian. Speed is by far the biggest issue I think.

Emad

for me American accent is much easier to understand than others .
p.s: I'm from the middle east

Pedro

As a brazilian, for me the British accent is the easiest.

Michael

I've lived in NZ for 15 years, still having hard time understanding locals, but American English, I can understand everything even when I'm doing something else.

Felix Radulian

I'm from Romania and I was studying British English at that time, but after a while I moved to Dubai to another school and there I was hearing more American English accents than British English, and also my teachers are not from USA but they have an American accent. Also on TV, the language is American English and even on movies. Hearing and hearing more American English to the school and to the TV, I think that American English is easy to understand than British and its more popular and better

Terry

Whoever votes British as easiest is misinformed ( or Brit him/herself ). Staying in Liverpool myself & what a mindfuck experience. 2 hours from here to Newcastle you get another set of accent/slang/style. Good luck on other English learners. OK I lived in AUS / NZ briefly , and lived with Americans for a while. Now in the UK I am developing speaking anxiety. X(

Terry

MIichael. You are right. Similar experience here.

Piyush Deshpande

USA, UK, NZ, Australia, Canada are principally English speaking countries. I think that out of all the non English speaking countries, Indian English ascent is the easiest to understand.

sandy

I'm Indian. I speak American accent (which is more simple and smooth as opposed to others which are more like a song with different notes) and English word pronunciation (to-mah-to due to colonial rule). So my answer is American.

Eriberto

I've been studying, learning and practicing English since I was 12. I am now 35. What I can say regarding to the different accents is that one will be more familiar with the accent one is more exposed to. Hence, one might tend to say that a partcular accent is the easiest as a result of such exposure. In my case, I was more exposed to American English so I would say that is the most clear accent if compared to others.

Alice

I think the Scottish accent is the easiest to understand

Pyae Bhone Swe

For me, I totally love American accent which is why the Americans speak slowly at all. Especially, the U.S. citizens who live in the Midwest, Pacific, Southern and many landlocked states. Another accent I would really love is Canadian accent. This is because the people of Canada speak slowly in total. I’ve watched many Canadian TV Shows and reality shows. The dialects are so lovely. But, there’re many differences between American and Canadian accents. For the entire world, American accent is most universal. British, Scottish, Irish and Australian accents are pretty unfamiliar with all ears of the people around the globe.

Lisa Hadeler

AMERICAN English is the easiest to understand. CANADIAN English is a close second. They enunciate words more and they speak a little slower

david

Irish English is the easiest to understand.

Roadmule1

I think the Irish accent is the easiest. It is nice and soft and the country is often referrered to the land of scholars and poets!
Of course I m Irish!

Rashi tripathi

Oh c’mon Indian accent is quite slow and clear and thus easily understandable

Mc

That's a fairly vague question. For example, in Britain, accents vary depending on location(more obvious then other countries).
Also, to people outside Canada or US, a pretend "Canadian accent" is a very inaccurate accent because very few english speakers have this accent(small city in newfoundland & labrador). So it's too vague... Also is the "american accent" texas?

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