# What does English sound like--REALLY--to foreigners?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 14, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463 "2010-05-14T19:37:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cyningablod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyningablod)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/1 "2010-05-14T19:37:06Z")
I’ve always wondered this, but the answers one finds by Googling the question are **woefully** uninformative. (“Bien” [“good”] is the pathetically vacuous answer that a lot of Spanish-speakers tend to give.)
I’m looking for actual _descriptions_ of how English sounds…you know, with like, adjectives?
For example, to me, Russian sounds dark and harsh, yet at the same time, velvety and melodious. German to me sounds terse, brusque, and biting, but also rather sing-songy.
So how does English–either British, Australian, or most especially, American–sound to non-English speakers?
Anyone know? Buehler? Buehler?
Danke.
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/2 "2010-05-14T19:46:09Z")
I have been told by more than a few Romance-language speakers (French, Catalan, Spanish) that English sounds like a “hissing” language because of the relative frequency of sibilants (sounds such as /s/, /z/, /sh/) and affricates (e.g. /ch/, /j/). Speakers of other Germanic languages and of Slavic languages may not share this impression.
This kind of thing will vary a lot depending on the language of the non-English speaking listener.
EDIT: _for those who know the IPA, please forgive the way the examples given in the first paragraph_ 😃
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/3 "2010-05-14T19:47:46Z")
It depends on your point of comparison.
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### Author:  [@Cyningablod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyningablod)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/4 "2010-05-14T19:54:27Z")
Umm, yeah, **SageRat** , I know.
That’s why I asked for _adjectives_.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/5 "2010-05-14T19:55:18Z")
There was a thread not too long ago on how different languages sound to speakers of various other languages, but my searches have failed to turn it up. Perhaps someone else will recall it better.
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### Author:  [@Cyningablod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyningablod)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/6 "2010-05-14T20:01:38Z")
> [@bordelond](#):
>
> I have been told by more than a few Romance-language speakers (French, Catalan, Spanish) that English sounds like a “hissing” language because of the relative frequency of sibilants (sounds such as /s/, /z/, /sh/) and affricates (e.g. /ch/, /j/). Speakers of other Germanic languages and of Slavic languages may not share this impression.
Excellent answer. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
Keep ‘em comin’! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/7 "2010-05-14T20:14:51Z")
> [@Cyningablod](#):
>
> Umm, yeah, **SageRat** , I know.
>
> That’s why I asked for _adjectives_.
Okay well then, compared to Russian, English sounds light and gentle, yet somewhat lacking in melodic fluidity…
Just flip whatever descriptor you’d use for another language, and that’s English.
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### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/8 "2010-05-14T20:15:43Z")
Are we describing languages or reading their horoscopes?
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/9 "2010-05-14T20:27:38Z")
According to my five year old son, English sounds something like “warsch farscjh sarsshjf”, I interpret that to mean that English sounds to Spanish-speaking people almost like German sounds to English-Speaking people, something that checks with what I remember from the times before I learned English.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/10 "2010-05-14T20:30:47Z")
Misha misha misha.
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### Author:  [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/11 "2010-05-14T20:34:01Z")
The best example I had ever seem was posted by someone else here a while back
> **[Gibberish rock song written by Italian composer to sound like English | Boing...](https://boingboing.net/2009/12/17/gibberish-rock-song.html)**
>
> In this remarkable and fully rockin’ video, an Italian singer performs a rock piece whose lyrics are gibberish intended to sound like English. Entitled “What English Sounds Like to Fore…
Enjoy!
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/12 "2010-05-14T20:41:54Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> Just flip whatever descriptor you’d use for another language, and that’s English.
That’s not true – there ARE distinct things that can stand out. There’s a lot of subjectivity to picking out what stands out, yes … but there are actual, definable aspects of individual languages that leave impressions on non-speakers.
An example would be the aspects of spoken French that speakers of English commonly latch on to: the relative prevalance of nasal vowels (words like _J **ean** , **in** viter, couch **on** _) and of front rounded vowels (e.g. _l **u** ne, j **eu** ne_), for instance.
Another thing about spoken English (doesn’t matter what dialect) that can come off as … well, “odd”, I guess … is listening to the cadence of the words. Per the first wiki link below: “_English is a stress-timed language … stressed syllables appear at a roughly constant rate, and non-stressed syllables are shortened to accommodate this._” This will sound unusual to speakers of languages such as Spanish and Japanese which “… _have syllable timing (e.g. Spanish) or mora timing (e.g. Japanese), where syllables or [morae](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)) are spoken at a roughly constant rate regardless of stress_.”
These differences in stress/timing are a major reason why some languages sound so quickly spoken – it’s not just because you don’t know the words 😃 Listeners of a stress-timed language may interepret a stream of syllable-timed speech as something of a rapid-fire “breathless” delivery. Thinking of it like this: as English speakers, we’re used to a stressed syllable, then a “downbeat” made up of a few consecutive unstressed syllables. The stressed syllables come at somewhat relative intervals, and there’s an up-&-down to the delivery. To an English-speaking listener, a Spanish speaker is uttering an unusually long and unbroken stream of consecutive “stressed” syllables.
Good articles related to this topic:
> **[Stress (linguistics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(language))**
>
> In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as increased loudness and vowel length, full articulation of the vowel, and changes in tone. The terms stress and accent are often used synonymously in that context but are sometimes distinguished. For example, when emphasis is produced through pitch alone, Since...
> **[Prosody (linguistics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timing_(linguistics))**
>
> In linguistics, prosody (/ˈprɒsədi, ˈprɒz-/) is the study of elements of speech, including intonation, stress, rhythm and loudness, that occur simultaneously with individual phonetic segments: vowels and consonants. Often, prosody specifically refers to such elements, known as suprasegmentals when they extend across more than one phonetic segment.
> Prosody reflects the nuanced emotional features of the speaker or of their utterances: their obvious or underlying emotional state, the form of uttera...
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/13 "2010-05-14T20:50:40Z")
It just sounds like [“bar bar bar”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarian) to me.
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/14 "2010-05-14T20:55:31Z")
Some older threads on the subject:
> **[What does English sound like to a foreigner?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=119772)**
>
> We hear other people talk different languages, and they sound strange, so of course they are gonna think we sound strange too. So I was wondering, what do we sound like to people who don’t speak English?
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb//showthread.php?p=2576369](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb//showthread.php?p=2576369)
> **[What does English sound like to someone who doesn't speak it?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=153254)**
>
> And how can I find out? You know what I mean… we can do “impressions” of German or Chinese or French that are fake and others can recognize what language we’re pretending to speak, there are patterns of sounds in each language that identify it. But...
> **[How do other cultures mimic English?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=191753)**
>
> Not an earth shattering question, and strictly out of curiosity, but I am looking for more fact than opinion, so I am posting it in GQ. If we have to move it later, so be it. Here in the US, it is not uncommon to pretend to speak a language you...
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7803832](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7803832)
> **[What does English sound like to people who don't speak it?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=506853)**
>
> Many languages have very distinctive sounds that allow us to recognize the language even though we don’t speak it ourselves, and allow us to “fake” it by making those sounds, (which some of us do more effectively than others). Spanish, French,...
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11541311](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11541311)
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### Author:  [@Cyningablod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyningablod)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/15 "2010-05-14T21:23:13Z")
> [@Frodo](#):
>
> According to my five year old son, English sounds something like “warsch farscjh sarsshjf” […]
That is the best. band name. EVER.
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### Author:  [@Cyningablod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyningablod)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/16 "2010-05-14T21:32:54Z")
> [@lexi](#):
>
> The best example I had ever seem was posted by someone else here a while back
> [Gibberish rock song written by Italian composer to sound like English - Boing Boing](http://boingboing.net/2009/12/17/gibberish-rock-song.html)
>
> Enjoy!
Omigod that was fucking HILARIOUS!!! Thanks! 😃
Sounded like a cross between George Clinton (music) and Bob Dylan (lyrics)!
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### Author:  [@Cyningablod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyningablod)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/17 "2010-05-14T21:36:59Z")
> [@bordelond](#):
>
> That’s not true – there ARE distinct things that can stand out. […]
>
> Another thing about spoken English (doesn’t matter what dialect) that can come off as … well, “odd”, I guess … is listening to the cadence of the words.
Thanks, **bordelond** , I actually remember that from my grad classes in linguistics, but didn’t recall it 'til you brought it up. (My Master’s is in Spanish language.) You articulated it very well, as it can be something of a dense, academic point.
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### Author:  [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/18 "2010-05-14T23:49:49Z")
Here’s an [earlier thread on this topic](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=506853&highlight=%22english+sound%22), with some good replies.
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### Author:  [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/19 "2010-05-15T00:17:41Z")
> [@lexi](#):
>
> The best example I had ever seem was posted by someone else here a while back
> [Gibberish rock song written by Italian composer to sound like English - Boing Boing](http://boingboing.net/2009/12/17/gibberish-rock-song.html)
>
> Enjoy!
ROFL, that vid is great!
And as a native speaker of English, yeah, it does sound like English. Gibberish English, but the sound is right.
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2010, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463/20 "2010-05-15T01:00:41Z")
> [@lexi](#):
>
> The best example I had ever seem was posted by someone else here a while back
> [Gibberish rock song written by Italian composer to sound like English - Boing Boing](http://boingboing.net/2009/12/17/gibberish-rock-song.html)
>
> Enjoy!
I’m a person who has always found it very difficult to discern words in most songs, especially pop and rock songs with a lot instrumentals in them (drum beats, guitar, etc.). If I’m lucky, I can usually pick out the chorus with enough repetition.
(If you think this is odd, then think about how many people liked the song “Louie Louie” in which most of the song is unintelligible. That’s how all songs sound like to me.)
The upshot is that this song sounded exactly like most songs sound like to me. It didn’t sound like gibberish any more than any other song I hear. I even picked up actual words in the chorus (e.g. the repeated “All right!”).
And I love listening to music. The lyrics just don’t do much for me, because I rarely understand them. If I really like a song, I’ll download the lyrics so I can find out what’s being sung.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-really-to-foreigners/539463.md?page=2)