Exploring Accents: Newcastle vs. London | Learn English with Cambridge

Hello and good to see you guys again.

Now, Britain,

like most countries, has many different accents.

In today’s video,

what I’m going to do is explore and contrast

the features of two very different British accents.

Demonstrating the London accent is my friend Craig.

Thanks for coming, Craig.

Sweet, geez, no worries.

And representing Newcastle will be my friend John.

Thanks for coming, John.

It’s all right.

It’s not a bother.

I’d like you to listen to this phrase from Craig and John,

but pay particular attention to how they pronounce the letter A.

I’ve dropped my glasses in the bath.

I’ve dropped me glasses in the bath.

Did you hear the difference?

Craig uses the long A sound, the sound ah,

like in the word car.

Whereas John uses the short A sound,

the a, like in the word cat.

So, Craig would pronounce these laugh and grass,

while John would pronounce them laugh and grass.

For this feature,

as well, just be aware that yes, it’s common

in both Newcastle in London.

But again, it’s used across wide parts

of the north of England and the south of England.

I’m going to finish with two pronunciation features

that are pretty much only found in both London and Newcastle.

First, London.

Listen to Craig saying the following phrase,

but pay particular attention to his pronunciation

of the letter H. I held her by the hand.

Did you hear how he pronounced the letter H?

No, you didn’t,

because Craig doesn’t pronounce it.

People in London,

they don’t pronounce the letter H when it’s

at the beginning of a word.

I ain’t seen him near my house.

And now a pronunciation feature that is exclusive to Newcastle.

Listen to John saying the following phrase,

but pay particular attention

to his pronunciation of the letter U.

I went up the mountain on the bus.

Did you hear how he pronounced the letter U?

Very differently to most other English people,

because in Newcastle, they don’t have the sound uh,

like in the word cup.

Instead, they use the sound ooh,

like you hear in the word foot.

The sun’s out, let’s go to the pub.

So, there you go.

Some of the features of both the Newcastle

and London accents contrasted against each other.

Thanks for stopping by, peeps.

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