What's your opinion about the american people and their accent?

Question

By american accent I mean what is called "Standard American Accent" in opposition to "Standard British Accent". I know there several accents variation within all countries, but I reffer to the general idea of the country's accent which is used in books and some dictionaries since they can't feature all its variations.
thanks in advance!

Sorry i should have used the word "pronunciation" insted of accent, because it reffers to a general aspects. So I'm not reffering to especific accents but the general characteristc of their way of speaking, like in the word "got" British English uses an "o" sounds while the American one uses an "a" sound. Some dictionaries (oxford advanced learners for example) features the diferences in the pronunciation between British and American English. So that's what i mean

Answer 1

American accents (some more than others) really grate on me! But in the same way many British accents also sound like fingernails on a blackboard.

There's a fair bit of stereotyping going on the answers above but i could add a fair few comments to those! The only Americans i have ever really encountered are tourists on holiday in Europe. The ones who really grate are the ones who come over to 'do Europe', many of whom have no concept that European countries and cultures are vastly different from each other, and that 'doing' the UK consists of going to London, 'doing France means a quick trip to Paris etc...

Conversation overhead at Zurich airport train station between 2 American packpackers and a ticket clerk....
"We want to get a ticket from here to Rome and then get a ticket from Rome to Prague tomorrow"
"That will only give you 2 hours in Rome, are you sure?"
"Well that'll give us enough time to do Italy"

Grrrrr

Answer 2

Sometimes it is very hard to make out what they are saying.It depends where they are from in the US, they have many Accents. Sometimes they have Inflections of an English Accent in those of the North East ,New England, it has a certain Burr to it.It is not English ,but the odd word has an English sound to it. Dont Forget there is a huge Spanish American Population in the South of the Us they were there First before the Anglo Saxons. The United States Government Robbed half Of The Territory of Mexico in the War of 1846 from Florida to California and Annexed it . And not Forgetting The Native Peoples The American Indian.

Answer 3

Americans, generally, speak very much more clearly than we do here in Britain. Take their TV programmes for example. Everything is clearly understood, and when people are interviewed live, you can almost always clearly understand what they are saying. You cannot say the same for Britain. We are rich in accents and dialects, but the truth is that there are a too many people who have very little grasp of their own language. And there is really no excuse for that!

Answer 4

I think the accent is no one thing, just as their is no singularly definable British accent. I personally love a broad New York/New Jersey accent and the musical quality of the Southern States accents.

Answer 5

language as something organic an example melissa scott the la preacher was born in italy,arrived in us lt 60,s now speaks english with a bit of appalachian ,midwest,southern dialect and also adds a bit of extra breath to final t's ,maybe the addition of sharp t in italian plus the t of middle and old english.the flat regionless tones of nixons staff and cronies were evident during the watergate hearings in 1974.like birds in nature we all chirp & sing differently (or so we like to think)

Answer 6

well british like to say words in a professional manner whereas america is........ my personal opinion=i dont really like it
but there is not that many pure british people left in england due to imigrants, you find that in some places/school your nearly the only english person there. so accents in england isnt the same as what it once was

Answer 7

Like every other nationality, generally OK - except for a few losers.
Same for their accent.

Answer 8

Which American accent

Answer 9

I do like accents, It doesn´t matter where are they from... Sounds so funny,sometimes... I love even Irish accent !!! ( of course, I have troubles understanding them, but...)

Answer 10

Americans are loud and pushy!
For example, if you want to know where the Americans are in a huge crowd; look towards the direction where there's the loudest noise. Americans speak very loud in their conversation.

Americans are pushy because if they want anything, they want it now!

American accent can be many because Americans are made up of different races of different languages and dialects origin from the countries they or their ancestors emigrated from.

Hence, there's no any particular accent. Americans speak at a faster rate in general compare to the English.

Americans tend to be "lazy" in their pronunciation and spelling of words compare to the English. Fo example, Americans say "Yeah" to the English "Yes"; color for colour; check for cheque to name a few.

Adding to these, sometimes a visitor finds it confusing when Americans say "I want nothing." when the English visitor would say "I don't want anything."

Try saying "I can't." in American and then in English. Hear the difference.