# Are American accents sexy to non-Americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761 "2006-09-22T19:19:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/21 "2006-09-22T22:05:58Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] When I worked in Israel, Israelis had a hard time placing my accent, which didn’t register as “American.” For them, an American accent was a New York accent, which they disliked, whereas my dulcet nominally Southern rendition of Hebrew was evidently very attractive. [/QUOTE] Shalom, y’all! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/22 "2006-09-22T22:09:12Z")
[QUOTE=monica] Seriously? I (an American) _love_ an Aussie accent. What don’t you like about it? [/QUOTE] One word - _squawk_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Mr\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/23 "2006-09-22T22:09:50Z")
I am constantly told that I have a “cool accent”. It is usually followed by “So, what part of Ireland are you from?”. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Mr\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/24 "2006-09-22T22:11:56Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] FWIW, no accent is as much of a turn-off as an Aussie one. [/QUOTE] Agreed. I love my aussie mates and my wee cousins are from down under but I find the accent very grating. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/25 "2006-09-23T00:07:19Z")
Having heard various Brits comment on and imitate American accents, I will say that their view of its potential sexiness is clouded by the misperception they have that every American speaks with a nasal New York drone. I don’t know why. They may think more kindly of different American accents, such as the afore-mentioned refined southern belle one. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/26 "2006-09-23T00:09:54Z")
I’ve never listened to an American speak and though “Wow, what a hot accent” but generally I don’t find them horrifying, either. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/27 "2006-09-23T03:11:36Z")
When I visited London some… well, pushing a decade ago now… I was told that I had a sexy accent. Take that for what you will. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/28 "2006-09-23T04:09:44Z")
When I first got on the Internet around a decade ago I met quite a lot of Americans and rang a lot of them around Christmas time etc. I loved the accents but I don’t think you can they are the same- one of the broadest (I thought) was from a lady in Wisconsin while one of the ladies from Georgia was no where near as pronounced. Did I find them attractive? My word! Sexy? Guess so. (What I found amusing was that without hesitation they all commented on my accent. I thought I sounded normal, but was given varying descriptions ranging from sounding like Alex Guiness (not likely) to sounding like I was talking inside a submarine- hardly flattering. Yet when I was in Ireland I was mistaken a few times for an American because of the accent). ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/29 "2006-09-23T07:42:38Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] “phwoooar” ?? [/QUOTE] Roughly translated as “hubba hubba” or “yowzer”. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/30 "2006-09-23T09:20:16Z")
another vote here for a southern accent on women 🙂 Emily Proctor in CSI:Miami does it for me every time (the mix of the sweet looks, gentle accent and gun play… YUM!) ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/31 "2006-09-23T10:03:12Z")
[QUOTE=e-logic] another vote here for a southern accent on women 🙂 Emily Proctor in CSI:Miami does it for me every time (the mix of the sweet looks, gentle accent and gun play… YUM!) [/QUOTE] Gerroff!!! She’s mine I tell ya, all mine!!! drool, slobber, pant ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/32 "2006-09-23T13:23:01Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] I’ve heard that Brits found [Marisa Tomei](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000673/) heavy Brooklyn accent attractive, but I think it had more to do with the looks of the actress that produced the sounds. 😃 Jim [/QUOTE] Whe I read the title of the thread, the first thought that came to mind was a French couple in bed, and the woman, delirious from ecstasy, shouts out, “Talk to me like you’re from New Jersey!” ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/33 "2006-09-23T14:21:08Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I suppose maybe I could go with that. My initial response was, I suppose, mainly directed towards Californian/New York/etc. accents which are the commonest in various media. FWIW, no accent is as much of a turn-off as an Aussie one. [/QUOTE] Are there any Brit accents that are close to the stereotypical Aussie accent? I suppose we all recognize that Aussie accents differ from region to region, don’t we? (Or, better yet: Do they?) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/34 "2006-09-23T16:07:55Z")
[QUOTE=Carnac the Magnificent!] Are there any Brit accents that are close to the stereotypical Aussie accent? [/quote] Not to British ears, no, which is why we find it baffling how the two are mixed up by Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/35 "2006-09-23T17:08:53Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Not to British ears, no, which is why we find it baffling how the two are mixed up by Americans. [/QUOTE] Maybe because while Americans might be dimly aware that there is a variety of British accents they aren’t intimately familiar with most of them? So when they hear an obviously native English speaker talking “funny” (meaning not like an American) the default assumption is that they must be British. **Carnac** I have heard that there is some regional variation in Australian accents but I don’t know if most Americans would be able to distinguish them. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/36 "2006-09-23T17:22:38Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] Not to British ears, no, which is why we find it baffling how the two are mixed up by Americans. [/QUOTE] I don’t know, I cannot tell a Liverpool accent from a London accent, but I can tell Aussie from Brit very easy. I do not hear them as being very similar. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Dottygumdrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Dottygumdrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dottygumdrop)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/37 "2006-09-23T19:40:00Z")
**Carnac** , most Brits and Americans can’t distinguish between Australians and Kiwis, let alone pick regional differences in Aussie accents! But, there is a distinct difference, particularly between country/rural and urban accents. Country accents tend to be a lot more nasal and people also tend to drawl more (some say it’s becuase they need to keep their mouths closed to keep the flies out!). To answer the OP, I don’t find anything particularly sexy about an American accent (particularly when it’s being used to butcher a language other than English), although I do think the Boston accent is quite amusing! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/38 "2006-09-23T20:58:11Z")
[QUOTE=Laughing Lagomorph] Maybe because while Americans might be dimly aware that there is a variety of British accents they aren’t intimately familiar with most of them? So when they hear an obviously native English speaker talking “funny” (meaning not like an American) the default assumption is that they must be British. [/QUOTE] I think this was a main complaint of _The Thorn Birds_, in that most of the actors except for Bryan Brown were English or American. Brown was the only one with an authentic Aussie accent. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/39 "2006-09-23T22:32:11Z")
My [Superfannish](http://snl.jt.org/detail.php?i=4501) Chicago accenting of certain words (vahdcuh=vodka, saawsich=sausage, sangwich=sandwich, innadah=into the) hasn’t exactly netted me the phone numbers I’ve hoped for. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761/40 "2006-09-24T02:23:53Z")
Though a born Californian, I have a transplanted (as a teen, so pretty honest )southern accent, which seemed to be attractive to Euro gents while travelling there, especially Germans. Perhaps, too, that Southern US talk also has gracious pauses, listening, smiles and eye contact as subtext modus operandi. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-american-accents-sexy-to-non-americans/373761.md?page=3)