What is the best English accent to learn? | EC English live (2024)

The answer may surprise you!

When new students arriveEC Engels live, they often come up with an idea of ​​what correct English sounds like, even if they are just beginners. In most countries around the world, it is common to hear spoken English on TV or in the cinema. For this reason, students may aspire to speak a type of 'Hollywood English'. Others consider the formality of British English, 'Queen's English', perhaps the best English accent to learn.

The reality is that English is spoken with numerous accents all over the world - not only in regional variations by native speakers, but also by international speakers. If you plan to travel or work in a global industry, there is real value in training your ear to understand a much wider range of English accents. It is not at all uncommon to encounter an Indian accent speaking English in London, or a company CEO speaking English with a strong French accent.

At EF English Live we want you to learn to speak English clearly, confidently and correctly, regardless of your accent. But we've also designed our school to sharpen your listening skills so you can better understand the best English accent you can learn: a global English accent.

These are the key features of our school to help you learn a global English accent:

EC English live teachers

Our certified, specially trained online English teachers come from all over the world. They are all native speakers of English or fluently bilingual. This means you can benefit from one-on-one practice with a teacher from the US, Ireland, Canada, Australia or any other part of the English-speaking world, as well as learn from a Brazilian, Japanese or German teacher. All our teachers are experts in the English language and their wide range of accents and expertise will significantly improve your fluency in Global English.

Group conversation lessons

Not only will you get the chance to practice speaking and listening to a range of accents from our teachers, you'll also benefit from learning with other students from around the world in our group conversation lessons. These dynamic lessons will help you understand English better as you will likely hear it spoken throughout your travels and in your career.

Video-based lessons and listening activities

EF English Live's self-study lessons also emphasize the importance of learning global English. Our video-based lessons feature speakers from a wide range of backgrounds – all speaking clear and correct English, but with a range of common real-world accents. Listening activities during your course will test your skills and help you improve your listening comprehension of different accents.

The pronunciation laboratory

Of course, many of our online students still like to imitate British or American accents in their own speech. To help you perfect your pronunciation of either of these two common forms of English, our Pronunciation Lab is a great additional resource. Here you can listen and repeat as speakers pronounce vowels, consonants, words and sentences in standard British and American English.

Ready to practice? Take a test driveEF English Lives online English schooltoday and test your English speaking skills in the real world.

Good luck mastering your global English accent! Is there an English accent that you find particularly difficult to understand? Let us know in the comments below.

What is the best English accent to learn? | EC English live (2024)

FAQs

Which English accent is best to learn? ›

In most countries around the world, it's common to hear spoken English on television or in the cinema. For this reason, students may aspire to speak a sort of 'Hollywood English'. Others may consider the formality of British English, the 'Queen's English', the best English accent to learn.

What is the most desirable English accent? ›

British, Australian, and Irish accents are the top 3 foreign accents people find to be most attractive. When it comes to attraction, 80% of people feel that accents make someone more attractive, with 77% saying someone's accent was what attracted them to a person.

What is the easiest accent to understand in English? ›

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. Irish English is the easiest to understand.

Which English accent is accurate? ›

Is the American English accent or the British accent the correct accent? There isn't one single British accent, but hundreds. There are multiple American accents. There is no such thing as a “correct" accent.

Where is the strongest English accent? ›

Geordie. People from Newcastle speak a dialect called Geordie, which is one of the strongest and most distinctive accents in England.

Should I learn British or American accent? ›

While we teach American English at Engoo, there are no clear advantages or disadvantages to learning either style. If you learn American English, a speaker of British English will still understand you easily. So if you're wondering which one to study, the answer is simply whichever you prefer!

What is the prettiest accent in the world? ›

According to a recent poll in the Independent, the British accent has been chosen as being the most attractive accent in the world, beating the French accent which was once know as the loveliest accent.

What is the most refined English accent? ›

Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English.

Which English accent is hardest to understand? ›

It comes as no surprise then that many people rank the West Country accent as the most challenging English dialect to understand due to its heavy drawl and slurred syllable endings. The West Country accent originates from the region of Southwestern England, bordered by Wales and the Bristol Channel.

What is the hardest accent to imitate? ›

A new study has named Shetland as the hardest accent in the world for actors to emulate.

How can I learn perfect English accent? ›

The following are some tips for improving your English pronunciation with the right accents.
  1. Focus on phonemes. ...
  2. Do mouth exercise. ...
  3. Listen to everything in English. ...
  4. Try some tongue twisters. ...
  5. Pick your accent. ...
  6. Read aloud and record yourself. ...
  7. Listen to some podcasts. ...
  8. Speak Slowly.
Nov 7, 2022

Which accent is difficult to understand British or American? ›

D., CCC-A, senior author of the study and an associate professor of communication science and disorders in the College of Health. “They had a lot more trouble understanding both accents with background noise, but the British was harder to understand than the American.”

What is the most pure English accent? ›

Some people believe that RP (Received Pronunciation) is the most standard or general accent in British English. Many EFL (English as a Foreign Language) schools teach it because it is supposed to be the most “polished” pronunciation. It is typically referred to as “Queen's English” or “BBC English”.

Which English dialect should I learn? ›

If you can speak one dialect, you can understand and be understood by pretty much all English speakers. Some factors might influence it, such as where you are or why you're learning, but it mostly just comes down to which you prefer. The question of American English or British English all comes down to you.

Who speaks the most proper English? ›

Western and Northern European nations won out the category of very high proficiency last year, with the Netherlands in the lead. The second-highest scoring country was Singapore—at 631 out of 800 points far ahead of the Philippines (578), Malaysia (568) and Hong Kong (558).

What is the hardest English accent to learn? ›

The British accent is known for its varied dialects and is often seen as one of the most beautiful accents in the world. However, for Americans, this same accent can be difficult to understand. Of the many British dialects, Americans find the accent from the Northeast of England to be the hardest to comprehend.

What is the easiest accent to imitate? ›

Sammi Grant's Personal Favorite Accents

“The easiest to teach is the Londoner accent or Standard British. I really love teaching more complicated ones like French or Australian, which are hard because most people tend to lean toward British sounds or Irish sounds when trying to master a new accent,” Sammi says.

Which English is best to learn? ›

In the main, British English and American English are very similar, even with differences in spelling. In today's world, American spelling is probably winning thanks to Microsoft's spell checker. There are vocabulary differences and some can cause embarrassing situations if you only know one flavour.

What is the most trustworthy accent? ›

Yorkshire has been crowned as the most trustworthy accent in the UK, with a new study finding it to be 'intelligent' and 'calming'. The research, which was commissioned by OnBuy.com, asked 2,221 people to listen to 15 British accents and say which they would be more likely to trust in job interviews.

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