British Accents Ranked from Easiest to Hardest (+ Free PDF & Quiz)

Ranking 10 British / UK accents from easiest to most difficult. I sent 10 clips of celebrities with distinctive English accents to my students in a survey. 📝 *GET THE FREE LESSON PDF* _here_ 👉🏼 FREE PDF: bit.ly/10AccentsPDF
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I think we need to hear people from the streets rather than celebrities who train to speak clearly. The difficulty goes up exponentially in this case.

I once had to interpret between a Cornish waitress, and an American couple, in a cafe. They were ordering tea and scones, when the waitress said "Zalroytjawunanthnelsethenm'lovelies." The look of panic on their faces was a picture, so I leaned over and said, "That's alright, do you want anything else, then, my lovelies."

I am English from Kent . Back in 1989 I had my real first encounter with a group of Scots -from different parts of the country - having a joint meeting . I was there to take notes . When the meeting was finished I was asked by the meeting chair -who was from Edinburgh - to summarize the meeting , I said that aside from him I did not understand a word !! I was never asked to join the group meetings again . This is no joke …. I Understood nothing !

I wish that you had included a Highland Scottish accent, which is almost never represented in the media, despite the fact that it is the most beautiful. Whenever the part of a Highland Scot is cast, it usually goes to a Lowlander, whose accent is completely different. It would be like portraying a Mexican by speaking in a Canadian accent.

It was funny watching Frankie as a Glaswegian and thinking how well spoken he was! 🤣 pick someone on the street and you’ll really be in trouble

I have to say, one of my favourite things about the Harry Potter film series is the vast range of different accents. I feel each character speaks in a different way and it is so fascinating to listen to!

as a German it is so much fun trying to understand the many british accents, I love the scottish ones and listening to commedians as Billy Conolly, Sarah Millican and alike frequently helped a great deal to enjoy.

I'm Canadian but I watch a lot of British television shows. I used to have difficulty with some of the accents, some of which sounded like another language to me, but, over time, got to the point where I had no difficulty understanding what was being said. The same goes for a lot of the idioms and expressions used over there. I'd have to say that some of the local Scottish dialects spoken in remote locations were the most difficult for me to get a handle on.

Coolest thing is that the UK has so many accents in such a small country.

The ability of British, Scottish and Irish actors to speak specific regional dialects in the United States always amazes me. I watched The Wire, set in Baltimore, without realizing Idris Elba and Dominic West were British until I later heard them in interviews speaking in their normal accents. Kate Winslet is another one. She spoke in a very specific regional dialect in her recent HBO Max series Mare of Easttown. The attention to detail of these actors and their dialect coaches is remarkable.

Just letting you know, as an American with hearing difficulties, I did struggle most with the last 2 clips. So even though US and UK share a common language, I had trouble understanding the speakers. It makes sense to me that non-English speakers, or second-language English speakers would have the most difficulty with them as well.
And since you asked about regional prejudice, in the US, the 'southern' accent is often perceived most harshly in terms of intelligence by others in the US. The prejudice is even held by some southerners against other southerners, usually ones who grew up in a different region of the south, but also urban vs rural, and dialects termed 'black' English vs 'white' English (I apologize, I don't know what else to call them since I am not a linguist).

I’ve lived in Liverpool for 1 year and I before getting there I did know NOTHING about the scouse accent. The minute I tried to communicate with people on the streets or restaurants it blew my mind because I could NOT understand a single word. As weeks went by, I became more and more familiar to the sounds, the distinctive /j/ sound in words like back or chicken when it comes to the letter “k”, and also to the melody of this accent. Anyways, I’m an English Philologyst and it was such a challenge to survive 1 year in Liverpool.

I am Hungarian and I learned English in school and cartoon network when I was a kid, so I had some "posh English" and kind of US accent mixed with my Hungarian pronunciation. Must be funny to hear me for a native English speaker. Then I moved to a small town close to Liverpool and started to work in a warehouse with English co-workers (I was the only foreign there)...it took me literally 7-8 months to understand like the 80% of what they saying. 😅 From that point it was much easier to understand any native accents. Later I moved to Manchester, that took some time to get used to their accent too, but it was way faster. I love Scottis accent and I like the sound of Irish but for me maybe that's the hardest to understand. Thank you for the interesting video I really enjoyed it.❤

Honestly, all of them speak quite clear. It is totally different in reality.

Your “English with Lucy” channel is delightful. I’m a native English speaker from the US. I really enjoyed your “British Accents Ranked from Easiest to Hardest. “ I wonder if you could do a similar program about American English?

As an Aussie, we got a show here called "All Creatures Great and Small". The thing I loved was the great variation in age of the people, and how different the age groups spoke. I absolutely adored the Yorkshire accent as a result. Particularly the old guy in the show that still used Ye, thee, and Thou, Mr 'errioott!
If I come back after I'm gone I want to come back as a wee Yorkshire boy!

I love listening to people speak with different accents, particularly accents from the UK. I grew up in the Appalachian mountain region of Virginia. My mother always corrected my English, which helped later on when I moved away. One of my professors called me a "code-switcher", meaning that I will almost unconciously change my own speaking to match that of my surroundings. Later, when I was married and went back to where I grew up, I often had to serve as interpreter, because my wife could not understand what people in that area were saying. I also studied Russian and picked up a Muscovite accent, because all of my instructors were from Moscow.

I'm American, and I remember a time I was speaking to an Australian, and she said a sentence I did not understand, and I asked her to repeat it (twice), and I still didn't understand, and I finally asked her to repeat it one more time really slowly, and I finally figured it out. It was not complex, just that the pronunciation was so different I could not parse the individual words at normal speed.

I’m an American, originally from New York City. When vacationing in rural Scotland, my family and I stayed with a couple from Kleish, Kinross. The wife’s accent was so thick, when I asked my English brother in law to translate, he said in his perfect University English “I have no idea what she is saying!”.

As an American traveling in Liverpool a few years ago, I recall picking up a rental car in a downtown office. The Liverpudlian clerk asked for my "mobile" number where I would normally speak of my "cell" number. Between the unexpected term being used and our different accents, I just could not understand what she was asking for -- to the point that she finally had to make the gestures of punching numbers on a phone and holding it to her ear! There we were, two native speakers of English, unable to communicate verbally!

I am a native Spanish speaker living in the USA, I've always been passionate about the British Accent, So Beautiful!

The fact that you used Louis Tomlinson as an example for someone who speaks with a Yorkshire accent made me happy for some reason.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tour of UK accents and dialects. I loved the way you presented them as well: with a appreciation, humor and even love for the accents that others thought more challenging to understand. Bravo !

Oh my goodness all of the accents were so beautiful and still lovely to hear! Although the number one pick for the most difficult sounded absolutely beautiful! I could listen to him talk all day! Surprisingly I understood I understood it. But yes it's extremely thick, but for me it wasn't that hard to understand. Absolutely love all the accents in this video!

I've been learning English for nearly 7 years, I understood most that has been said, though by the end I had to listen real closely. The last one I couldn't fully understand, I only caught words. Nice video, Lucy, I loved it 😊 Thanks.

Absolutely *adore* the Yorkshire accent! Not for its “melodiousness,” but because it seems homely and warm. 🥰

When I was giving Customer Service telephone training, I told to all my students, who were from all over the world, that, "EVERYONE has an accent that SOMEONE finds difficult to understand." I would stress to them that clear diction, pronunciation and slower-than-seemed-normal pacing were the keys. Also, repeating oneself as if the subject had never been mentioned before. Plenty of my very sharp, clever foreign-born Customer Service Representatives would throw their accents under the bus to make it easier to get callers to clarify their questions and also to repeat what they had just told a caller. Instead of getting complaints about people not being able to understand our foreign-born CSRs, people would call and ask for them specifically. "Oh, I have to speak to X (who had a very heavy accent)! S/He's the only one who understands me." As part of my job, I would have to "monitor calls for quality assurance." Many of my CSRs had accents, but they also had very warm, sympathetic telephone manners, (which were often at odds with their office personalities). I was so proud of them all!

I once worked with a woman who had a VERY broad Highland Scottish accent (home was "hame", head was "heed" etc. plus all the slang thrown in), and we became good friends. I of course learned to understand her perfectly - not so the rest of our workmates, for whom I wound up having to translate!! 😅😅 🇦🇺👍

I wish Lucy had lessons in podcasts. Her voice is so relaxing and easy to comprehend, I'd be listening to her while doing something unimportant in my everyday life.

Lou's accent is so beautiful I just love it and I completely understand him.

When I spent 6 months traveling throughout the UK, I was often at a loss to understand some of the accents. But some local ALWAYS stepped in to help. So much for Brit's being cold/standoffish. My biggest challenge? Liverpool. I still have no idea what was said or how I made it through an entire week. I couldn't understand the kind strangers who tried to help either. One of the best trips I've ever had.

Although this video lasts almost 25 minutes or so, you have this special ability to convey so much information in a very entertaining way....we never get bored. This video reminded me when I was at the university training to understand all of those accents, adding to overseas accents like in America, Australia....funny but harsh 😅

When I saw the title of this video I was like “oh, maybe Yorkshire accent is here, that would be great”. Then, when she said that she was going to put videos of celebrities speaking, I was like “omg please put Louis!”. And I got SO excited at 12:12 😍❤️ Great video, cheers ! ✨

Every one of the celebs have a corrected version of their accent for the regions they represent. It's a reconditioned version of the accent to accommodate the viewing public. I know that as a lad coming from the North East of England, when I first came to live in the USA ( Florida specifically ) I very quickly had to learn to slow my speech down and really try and accentuate certain words in a more "proper" form otherwise I got the "what the hell did you just say" look LOL!
So while I still have my accent 20 years later, as soon as I meet a fellow native or when my friends I fall right back into my native accent and even my wife has problems understanding me again LOL!

Wow what a Beautiful pronunciation! I am from the Dominican Republic and I have been learning and improving my English Speaking skills by talking at work! I always say that it will take me the rest of my life that I have left to get to an advanced level! I really love the British Accent and this is the reason why I decided to learn English! Thank you for this video I will improve my English here by watching your channel! 😁😁

Enjoyed the presentation, charmed by Lucy, but I have to say she picked the clearest, most polished examples of accents. In limited travel to and in the UK, I have instances of greater difficulties in understanding local accents almost anywhere I've been. my ship was docked in Southampton in 1964 and I went to a department store to find some work shoes and the lady who greeted me said "{something incomprehensible}...boots" and I wondered how she knew what I wanted before I had asked. Then I realized she'd been asking if I worked on the "boats", i.e., ships, and I had to laugh at myself.

The Queen's is really a good one: pronunciation, enunciation, articulation, emphasis, shadowing.
All checked! I found the Yorkshire accent the hardest.
Both Welsh and Northern Ireland sound like from a fairy tale.
Cockney sounds like some kick-a** attitude, love it!!!
Gemma is in her own lane!

I must say that my favorite is John Bishop saying "Enough".
Its just as pleasing as hearing Canadians say "About".
Just a Norwegian's point of view.

I lived in Glasgow for almost 5 years, and at the beginning it was really difficult for me. I couldn't understand a word, not even "hello". It took me a year to be able to understand them, now I don't have any problem with them or any other accents, probably only the Newcastle one still impossible to understand for me. Scouse, I love it.

As an American, other than a few, I wasn’t aware there were so many variations in UK accents. Very interesting and educational video!

Kudos to you for having learned the Andalusian Accent. I am from Seville and I agree it is hands down the most challenging one. But also very charming and unique, the most different one in the entire country. I would TOTALLY LOVE to hear you speaking Spanish, now you got me curious.

I took part in its challenge:D Thank u Lucy this is one of the most unique videos you've ever made🥰

WOW!!! I loved watching this. My auntie is a dialect coach and have always been so fascinated with accents. As I was watching this, I was just thinking about all the American actors trying to mimic British accents and all the nuances- so cool!! I could nerd out on this stuff for hours.

Born in Fife but moving to Glasgow when I was 3 1/2 I never knew I had any noticable accent at all until my first trip to London and discovered some people couldn't understand a word I said. Similarly on a school trip to the Bradford /Leeds area in the north of England my B&B host asked me a question. I asked him at least six times to repeat what he said and then gave up. To this day, 55 years later ,I haven't a clue as to what he was trying to tell me .

Im from spain and im so proud of myself for being able to understand every single one of the accents. Well done, Miguel!!!

The hardest for me (native English speaker from western US) were #1 Scouse and #8 Essex. The subtitles actually hindered it; it was easier to ignore the subtitles and just listen. My favorate accents were #4 Derry and #3 Geordie. The easiest to understand were you and #3 Cockney. Here's a story for you. The first time I saw Quadrophenia in the 1980s, it took fifteen minutes before I realized they were speaking English.

The presentation was as charming as the presenter. Absolutely adorable!

It's lovely to listen to you, Lucy. It would be a bliss if everybody spoke like you.
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As an American from the intermountain west, I'd say the Queen's English is the easiest to understand. The same for Lucy herself. The most fun is the Glaswegian accent.

I have lived my whole life in Southern California; born and raised in San Bernardino. The cardiff accent is very close to my accent. When she came on, it was very comfortable and easy to understand. She just sounded like someone from SoCal. I'm not really sure if that means anything but it's interesting to me.

Picked the lightest accents imaginable for all of those.

You chose the best pronounced examples of each, hardly a challenge there!

During my Erasmus in Italy I met a girl with a very traditional Brummie accent and I LOVED IT! I told her it might be my favourite British accent and then she told me that it is actually "discriminated", as you said. I don't understand why, it's so beautiful :)
Greetings from Poland, great video!

Im still completely in love with all the Scottish accents. Most of the others actually just remind me of watching little Britain, but thats probably because I spent a ridiculous amount of time watching that...

Love this video, Lucy! I need to watch more to get my English refreshed. Thank you

Thank You for explaining the Queens English / Public scool Enlish.
My English teacher in my gymnasium here in Sweden, told us that the Queen of England had the best accent and pronounciation.
I love this survey You have done in this video ! 👍♥️🏆
Cockney - without slangwords - is not impossible to understand, as some people have told me !
Bless You !!!

Lucy every 2 minutes
*Now this is one of my favourite actors*

I’m in Liverpool as a foreigner. Every time Scouse talk to me I just smile😂

A wonderful video! I'm an American who's fascinated with all of the English accents... and this was charming, starting with the Queen's English and then some more difficult ones. You were quite gentle with us, if you'd gone with street Glaswedgian, it could be impossible to translate!

Lovely episode. I'm Dutch and apart from the Scouse I understood it quite well. That's the benefit of not knowing how it "should be pronounced'. Thanks for sharing!

Lucy, I love your videos! I am an American woman, and I appreciate the correct usage of the English language. I have one major pet peeve, and that is the use of “you guys”. It is widely used in the States and hearing it is akin to fingernails scraping on a blackboard. I broke my granddaughter of that habit by responding “I am not a guy” every time she used it. She no longer says it. The word “guys” is superfluous since the word “you” is singular and plural. Slang can be so hard on the ears!

I have found that the stronger (broader) the accent the more narrow the person's cultural values. I also believe this generally is a reflection of education but not always so.

Thank you Lucy very much ! It is really difficult but very interesting to learn British English ! I love English language and culture ! Love your lecture and your accent, your intonation sounds very beautiful !!! Love you and love your style very much !!!!

Love this video so much! I am so pleased, and actually chuffed to bits because I bumped into your amazing videos. I am from Romania, and I am learning English so I can take the Cambridge English exam for C1- C2 level. I love to watch your videos. You're a brilliant communicator. Keep up the amazing work! I have learnt so much from you, and hearing all the pronunciations from you, made me have so much more confidence for the Speaking exam. I'm studying English as my second languages for almost one year, and when I began to watch your videos, my English level has improved dramatically. I was more confident as I say some words, or practice a conversation myself even though my English is not bad. Thanks for your help, I have achieved much. Wishing you all the best and to inspire many of us! More than that, I am learning myself ( self-taught) because don't have money for a tutor! ha!

I am a native English speaker from the United States, and even I had trouble understanding the Geordie, Scottish and Scouse accents. It also goes without saying that we have our own distinctive accents in my country.

I remember watching a Big Country interview in the 80s and they used subtitles because their Scottish accents were so hard to understand.

Canadian here, I enjoyed listening to the Ricky Gervais Show with Stephen Merchant (Bristol) and Karl Pilkington (Mancunian). The three having their own accents made it a joy to listen to and got me curious to different accents.
I even started following a Manchester United podcast "Stretford Paddock" to get more familiar with the Mancunian accent.

I recommend watching Derry Girls if you want to learn and understand more about the Derry accent! It's definitely helped me a lot as a non native English speaker

Jason Statham was born and raised in Shirebrook, which is a small town near Chesterfield. He definitely isn't a cockney or at least not naturally.

Great great content! Love to explore different dialects and would love to try and pick up some cool accents. Thanks Lucy!

Hi Lucy! It's an interesting lesson because you highlighted every aspect of the accents.
Thanks & regards.

I'm glad I took part in this survey. Totally love the scouse accent.

I took the survey even though I’m not actively learning English anymore as I consider myself pretty much fluent now, however, I’d have to say I did have a little bit of trouble understanding some of the accents mostly because of the way they pronounced some names of people they mentioned during their interviews. That’s all I couldn’t make out at first listen, but it was all worth it. Thank you, Lucy! I've always supported you and I will continue to do so as I truly believe you’re doing an incredible job!

I was in a Military chow hall abroad. The ladies who served the Soldiers were local nationals. I had walked in and there was this 7 foot 21 inch tall woman from the British Army was standing there. I mean she was as tall and a sequoia red wood tree. Soon the locals came out with the supervisor. The supervisor reached up and turned off an exhaust fan and apologized to her because it was sometimes hard to hear over the fans, and then there was also a language barrier. She then asked her what she wanted. This big tall woman drew in a deep breath and said what I perceived to be "Almond Armada". I looked at her, then the Chow hall ladies. They, in turned, looked at me, and you could see we were all quizzically lipping the same thing: "Almond Armada?" All I could envision was a flotilla of almonds with little cannons on them coming into port on the Black Sea! I decided to look at the ingredients for the Omelets, and it hit me like a TON of bricks, causing me to double over with laughter. I looked at her and said, "It's your accent!" She said, "Ahz it rahlly?" ("Is it really?") I said, YES, as I looked at the locals and said, "Ham and Tomato". I mean EVERYONE burst out in laughter... everyone but her.

Enjoyed. My Scottish cousins came to visit us in that U.S. when I was young. I knew they were speaking English, but I couldn't understand a word they said. I asked them to speak more slowly. Then, I understood a bit more. We could manage to communicate...

That was a gem of a lesson Lucy! Expect more such wonders. Well conceived and Scrupulously edited!

I consider my English being quite fluent. But when I‘ve been assigned to a project near Liverpool for 6 months I had to adjust to the scouse accent. The first pub quiz in our hotel‘s pub was probably the toughest of my life… ;-)

Thank you. As an American, who's traveled all over the UK, I love all the stuff. Thank you for this guide - I'm actually saving it.
i've had the hardest time with the Geordie accent: one day I was up there, talking to somebody, and he was talking about this poob was no good and that poob was great. I just sort of nodded, not really understanding what he was talking about.
after 15 minutes It dawned on me that's how he said "pub"....

Love that you used Louis as an example :) I've been a fan for a while. I absolutely love the different accents of the UK because of the patterns and melody.

Such a charming teacher! The video is so important for me to understand English better!!! Thank you for your great work!

As a native American English speaker, #1 was the one that was difficult. I've heard a lot of Scottish accents that were even more difficult in my lifetime, but I love listening to them.

it's amazing that your channel has grown up 10 times since I saw it first in 2016!!

I spent my childhood imitating accents as and when I came across them. My father used to listen to me with amusement for the first day or two but after the third or fourth day he'd usually clout me! But that is how I developed the ability to speak with so many different British accents.

I’m American and traveled to England 4 years ago. We visited Liverpool and had a really tough time understanding people. So, yes… a Scouse accent is super hard!

I think yorkshire accent is the most beautiful ever!❤️ Louis Tomlinson is my idol. I love him soooo freakin much🥰

I find this lesson very interesting! Never thought of having so many different dialects in English

When I was 19, I backpacked around Western Europe. One evening I was waiting at the train station in Nice, France. Maybe 20 feet away from me was a group of young men about my age, also backpacking. I was alone and listening to them talk among themselves. I realized it must be a language I didn't know, because I could not understand a word! I moved a little closer so I could hear them better. I speak Spanish, English and Swedish and a little French. I can also recognize Italian and German, too. So I kept trying to puzzle it out -- then suddenly I heard a handful of words that I DID UNDERSTAND! That's when the light bulb went on and I realized THEY WERE SCOTTISH. The End. :)

Loved this video!! So neat to hear all those different accents! The Derry and Scottish, Glasgow accents were my favorite!

The thing with accents in the UK is that even regions have different accents within them. For instance, Greater Manchester. I’m from Salford which is a different accent to Bolton, which is more of a Lancashire accent. Then you have the east side of Manchester, the Liam/Noel Gallagher accent. You also get the softer Oldham accent too. Wigan I suppose could be included in the region, and that’s a unique accent. I’m sure Liverpool, Birmingham etc have different variations within too.

You're a remarkable teacher. Your staunch admirer from Africa.
❤❤❤

When I was travelling in the UK the hardest accents for me were Hull and Brixton. I speak US English (Texas) and watch a lot of British TV so I did not think it would be so difficult but those two places I surprised (and embarrassed) myself at how bad I was at parsing them. In both cases I was asking people for directions.

Interesting tour in your accents over there! For me, as a Swede, I understood them all without subtitles. Maybe it has to do with my Scottish heritage, but when it comes to shows from the US, I encounter more difficulties. If it isn't subtitled into Swedish or Danish, I have to use closed captures to be able to follow the dialogues. Love your channel too, by the way. :)

I really like Emma Watson's accent 😉 I can listen to her whole day 😌

I am also living in Andalusia atm and the locals do find it amusing that I speak with their accent and also that I picked up some of their flair. Catalonians tend to get more outraged by it. It was funny to me when I visited a friend from Ukraine in Barcelona who was dating a catalan guy who sadly passed away, so my husband from Granada and I went to give his family and my friend our condolences. The family of our deceased friend didn't know us before that. After we've spent half a day together, they were shocked to hear me chatting with my friend in Ukrainian, they thought I was Andalusian. I would even say it was cringy to them, that me, a Ukrainian, would choose to speak Spanish with Andalusian accent (their mom is from Seville btw). It's not that much of a choice though, you pick up what you hear on a daily basis. It is funny because my Spanish accent is quite good, but not to the extent to trick people in Granada into thinking that I could be Spanish, once a man thought I was basque though.
Anyway, there's definitely bias against Andalusian accent in Spain, which is really unfortunate, I even heard people from Madrid and Barcelona say they wouldn't hire someone from Andalusia to speak to the customers because of their accent.
In Ukraine, except for some heavy accents from the Western rural areas, our accent is pretty standardized. It's more about the dialects and a phenomenon called surzhyk, which is a spontaneous mix of Ukrainian, Russian and sometimes even Polish or Romanian vocabulary (a reflection of our neighbours' linguistic influence mainly due to century long forced russification). Surzhyk is what gets the worst press, it is widely used for comedy and looked down upon, especially by Russians and Russian speaking part of population in an attempt to make it appear a language of uneducated or peasants. That's also a shame, because I find all the dialects unique and endearing.

As an American I would LOVE for you to give me a tour of the various UK accents!! Love this video

The last guy - John Bishop, I'd say his "rrr" sounds makes him sound like "Boris the blade" from the "Snatch". ))

Me, a native American English speaker, not having any problems. This is so interesting to think about how non native English speakers have these levels to overcome in understanding! Because us natives just hear English with different tones. In some ways, the deeper you get into the accents, you start to hear actual dialects. I have so much respect for anyone trying to learn English... it's so confusing 😂

I'm glad I discovered you! Love your channel.

Hi Lucy. Pity I'm not a linguist, though I do enjoy watching your videos; it helps me brush up my English as I'd left the English shores since '76.
For today's topic my favorite has always been the Yorkshire accent to me it sounds more ancient english. The Corkney is has become to popular (even people who've never been to England know about it.
As for those rated 1-3, I'd have said they're Italian, Spanish & Dutch speaking English with their native accent.