# What does English sound like to foreigners? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 28, 2011, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052 "2011-10-28T07:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/21 "2011-10-30T22:03:53Z")
kinda off topic, but one of the videos YouTube offered up as related to the above was this one: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/l3t7qIEuwCI/hqdefault.jpg "How to Become American in 30 Seconds") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3t7qIEuwCI) (purports to be a Brit trying out an American accent, but definitely isn’t. Sounds about as British as Dick Van Dyke). If you know this, the comments become quite amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/22 "2011-10-30T22:14:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **gwendee** : > When I was studying in Argentina my host family told me that to imitate English they added -tion to everything. Which actually isn’t all that far off. A friend of mine from Ecuador sometimes stumbled over English words, and when he did, I would ask him what the Spanish word was. More often than not, chopping off the -io and replacing it with -tion resulted in the correct word. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/23 "2011-10-30T23:42:09Z")
Along similar lines, [this clip](http://youtu.be/jswcSdm86ak?t=13m7s) is from an episode of Frasier where the character Daphne Moon (played by English actress Jane Leeves) is trying to develop an American accent. _Daphne: You see, I’m just sick of people making such a fuss about my accent. I like to be able to blend in on occasion, so I’m learning to speak American. Frasier: And who is your tutor, a drag queen?_ Now I have no idea if that’s what American sounds like to someone from England or not, but it’s pretty funny. Note: I tested that YouTube link, and for some reason it’s not taking me to the spot I have cued up which is at the 13m7s mark in the event you have to cue manually. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/24 "2011-10-30T23:52:54Z")
After his introductions in French, English, German, at 0:30 s, he starts with this: [Raoul Hausmann](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR7N7e04Yak) I couldn’t find the ones I wanted, but that’ll do. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/25 "2011-10-31T08:30:16Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > Along similar lines, [this clip](http://youtu.be/jswcSdm86ak?t=13m7s) is from an episode of Frasier where the character Daphne Moon (played by English actress Jane Leeves) is trying to develop an American accent. > > _Daphne: You see, I’m just sick of people making such a fuss about my accent. I like to be able to blend in on occasion, so I’m learning to speak American. > Frasier: And who is your tutor, a drag queen?_ > > Now I have no idea if that’s what American sounds like to someone from England or not, but it’s pretty funny. > > Note: I tested that YouTube link, and for some reason it’s not taking me to the spot I have cued up which is at the 13m7s mark in the event you have to cue manually. I can’t watch the clip from here, but this is interesting - because I always assumed I was watching an American actress playing a character with a British accent (in all the other episodes, not this one). Turns out the reason for this is that the actress who plays Daphne is from Essex, but affects a Manchester lilt when playing the Daphne character. She does it reasonably well, but something about it isn’t quite right (I suspect it’ll be a consistency thing). Perception and context is so important here (and in the unhijacked GQ topic here) - to a certain, quite surprising extent, what we see and hear is skewed by our expectations - for example, in the \*Prisencolinensinainciusol \*video with subtitles, I heard the words I was seeing in the subtitles - beforehand, they had been fairly unintelligible. EVP exploits the same effect and there is a famous psychological experiment that does too (the name of the experiment escapes me, but it involved people perceiving the emotion they were told to see in a series of photos of faces that were in fact, all the same). The Prisencolinensinainciusol video is also interesting to me, because I don’t find it to sound like English - I think this is probably because it targets a subset of American vocal traits. To me, it just sounds like not-very-identifiable foreigners. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/26 "2011-10-31T16:38:55Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Not to me, since it’s similar to what we call (and yes I know it’s not proper phonetics) “a soft r” in Spanish. OTOH, an Anglo trying to pronounce Spanish Rs does stand out a lot, specially since those who don’t really speak Spanish always try to make every R “strong” and make them a lot longer than we do (where we say RRahmeero you say RRRRRRRRRRR-ah-mee-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-ow!) That’s because getting a nice flip trilled double “r” (perro, eg) is so damned hard, when I manage to pull one off I just relish it with pride. ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/27 "2011-10-31T18:06:38Z")
> [@Beast\_Model](#): > > I told a Chinese friend (who speaks English and Hokkien) that Chinese sort of sounds like “ching chong wow bow” (or something equally inane) to Americans. She told me that her grandmother (who doesn’t speak English) says english sounds like “shhh shhh shhh shhhh” to her. > > I thought that was pretty interesting and kinda wondered if anyone else has ever heard of anything like that? I’m an English speaker and that sounds like my perception of Portuguese: lots of shhh’s. Is it doubly so for the Chinese? ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/28 "2011-10-31T18:17:36Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Not to me, since it’s similar to what we call (and yes I know it’s not proper phonetics) “a soft r” in Spanish. OTOH, an Anglo trying to pronounce Spanish Rs does stand out a lot, specially since those who don’t really speak Spanish always try to make every R “strong” and make them a lot longer than we do (where we say RRahmeero you say RRRRRRRRRRR-ah-mee-RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-ow!) Phonetically, it’s not similar; the Spanish r is a tap while the English retroflex r is quite unusual among languages. It is interesting however that they sound similar to you. Spanish speakers have said to me that it’s difficult for them to pronounce my name “Dara” in English - two simple syllables but they find it hard to follow the “d” sound with an English-style “r”. Of course if they use a Spanish r it’s identical to the phrase “dar a”. I’m not at all surprised that we English speakers exaggerate the Spanish r. I’m certainly guilty of that myself. For us, it is quite an effort to produce it in the first place so it probably tends to be a bit uncontrolled! ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/29 "2011-10-31T20:07:11Z")
One thing I tried long ago was to turn the volume down on the radio until you can’t understand what they are saying but can still kindof hear them. Doing that, it seems English has much ‘hissing’. I can where the grandmother in the OP is coming from. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/30 "2011-10-31T20:59:55Z")
> [@EdwardLost](#): > > I’m an English speaker and that sounds like my perception of Portuguese: lots of shhh’s This is my perception too, when I hear people speak portuguese is sounds like a ton of “zhhh” like a lot of people pronounce the “j” in Beijing or the “j” in Dijon. ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/31 "2011-10-31T23:33:21Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > That said, here’s a video of Germans mocking American English which I don’t think I’ve posted here before: [Bullyparade - Giant Burger](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUorCzi04e4) It took me a minute to figure out that unlike the gibberish ones, this guy is actually speaking German, just with an American accent. I can pick out just enough to tell that he really is talking about giant burgers. “The biggest burger in the whole world!” “A giant portion of ribflesh in a bread roll with a cut in the middle!” 😉 Wish I could find a transcript for this. ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/32 "2011-10-31T23:56:00Z")
Er, I mean “beef”. He’s saying “rindfleisch”, not “ribfleisch”. German translation fail. 😜 ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/33 "2011-11-01T00:48:39Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > Phonetically, it’s not similar; the Spanish r is a tap while the English retroflex r is quite unusual among languages. That’s because it’s actually a vowel-coloring, rather than a consonant proper. But North American English does have an /ɾ/ tap (or flap), in the middle of words like _water_. > [@hibernicus](#): > > Spanish speakers have said to me that it’s difficult for them to pronounce my name “Dara” in English - two simple syllables but they find it hard to follow the “d” sound with an English-style “r”. Of course if they use a Spanish r it’s identical to the phrase “dar a”. Or they can just say it without r-coloring on the first syllable maybe? “Da ra” instead or “Dar a”? I guess it depends on how you yourself pronounce it. ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/34 "2011-11-01T09:40:35Z")
Whenever I listen to low-quality recording of English dialog I often notice that the "S"es are often blown out and sound very “hissy”. They end up being quite pronounced and distracting and I’m reminded of how often the sound occurs in our language. There are four of them in that last sentence and four in this one. I can see why many non-English speakers call it “the hissing language”. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/35 "2011-11-01T11:00:14Z")
> [@gwendee](#): > > When I was studying in Argentina my host family told me that to imitate English they added -tion to everything. When I was studying in Quebec my host family’s matriarch tried to fake her way through faux-English and simply added -ich/-ish to the end of everything. Comprend-ich-moi? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/36 "2011-11-01T17:28:09Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > That’s because it’s actually a vowel-coloring, rather than a consonant proper. But North American English does have an /ɾ/ tap (or flap), in the middle of words like _water_.Or they can just say it without r-coloring on the first syllable maybe? “Da ra” instead or “Dar a”? I guess it depends on how you yourself pronounce it. Shrug, someone speaking Spanish at normal speeds would pronounce _Dara_ and _dar a_ about the same, words get strung together. The only people who pronounce a pause between _dar_ and _a_ are actors in language tapes, foreigners and people who want to prove to the world that they are more kult’red than the rest of us normally-pronouncing bozos. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/37 "2011-11-01T23:40:45Z")
> [@Jeneva](#): > > It took me a minute to figure out that unlike the gibberish ones, this guy is actually speaking German, just with an American accent. I can pick out just enough to tell that he really is talking about giant burgers. “The biggest burger in the whole world!” “A giant portion of ribflesh in a bread roll with a cut in the middle!” 😉 Wish I could find a transcript for this. Of course, there’s also the movie “Astérix chez les Bretons” that’s full of characters speaking Anglicised French with English accents. [Example from Youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik8NgWnjIRo) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/38 "2011-11-02T07:35:56Z")
> [@Jeneva](#): > > It took me a minute to figure out that unlike the gibberish ones, this guy is actually speaking German, just with an American accent. I can pick out just enough to tell that he really is talking about giant burgers. “The biggest burger in the whole world!” “A giant portion of ribflesh in a bread roll with a cut in the middle!” 😉 Wish I could find a transcript for this. Yes, the guy in the foreground is speaking German. The guy in the background is speaking English-sounding nonsense interspersed with American terms that Germans are familiar with. (He says “Golden Toast”, for example, which is a German brand of American-style white bread.) And oh, it’s “_rindfleisch_” (“beef”), not “ribflesh”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/39 "2011-11-02T08:34:12Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > And oh, it’s “_rindfleisch_” (“beef”), not “ribflesh”. 🙂 Sorry—I responded to your first message before reading your second! :o ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052/40 "2011-11-02T09:01:28Z")
> [@Jeneva](#): > > Wish I could find a transcript for this. Here’s my best effort, including a translation. The sketch is cut off at the beginning so I couldn’t make out the first few words. Note that Rick Kavanian, the actor in the foreground, deliberately makes a lot of pronunciation and grammatical errors which I’ve preserved: > [@Bullyparade](#): > > Bob: _…Wild West Expert Lonely Wolf Jack. Howdy, Jack!_ > > Jack: _Howdy, Bob Barbecue King, ding-dong!_ > > Bob: _Alright, folks! Heute grillen wir für euch de großte Hamburger auf die ganze Welt._ (Today we grill for you the biggest hamburger in the whole world.) > > Jack: _Wide, wide west._ > > Bob: \*Dazu benötigen wir ein frisch gebackene Brötchen mit de Schnitt in de Middle. \* (For this we need a freshly baked bun with a cut in the middle.) > > Jack: _Golden Toast._ > > Bob: _Das wichtigste bei unsere giant Burger ist natürlich eine giant Portion frisches Rindfleisch!_ (The most important thing for our giant burger is of course a giant portion of fresh beef!) > > Jack: _Awright._ > > Cow: _Moo!_ > > Jack: _Cow-diddly-dow._ > > Bob: \*Jetzt fragen Sie sich natürlich zurecht, wie bekommt man unsere Power-portion Rindfleisch in da Brotchen mit de Schnitt in de Middle? Jack, zeigt‘s uns! \*(Of course, now you’re rightly asking yourself how we get our “power portion” of beef into the bun with the cut in the middle. Show us, Jack!) > > Jack: _Awright._ > > Bob: _Jetzt muss unsere Hamburger nur noch bei 220 Grad gegrillt werden._ (Now our hamburger just needs to be grilled at 220 degrees.) > > Jack: _Willy willy._ > > Bob: _Und wenn Sie zufällig ein Tiertrainer kennen, der unsere giant Burger auf diesen Grill braisieren könnte, rufen Sie uns bitte an!_ (And if you happen to know an animal trainer who can braise our giant burger on this grill, please call us!) > > Jack: _Ring-a-ling ding-dong._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-english-sound-like-to-foreigners/601052.md?page=3)