An honest question for British members

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: DISRAELI

Laaaandaaaan you shlaaaags!

Ha! Reminds me of Monkey Dust...


I also thought James Marsters (Spike in the "Buffy..." series) did an excellent Southern English accent.

a reply to: Skid Mark

Yes but pissed as in drunk rather than annoyed.

It was always a great mystery to me that British actors were pretty good at doing American accents but that American actors were poor at British ones. I could never understand why.

Then a work colleague revealed the answer to this conundrum; it was only about 5 years ago. This bloke revealed he had an Equity card and did part-time acting, also that he had tried to seek his fortune Stateside. He said all the film directors told him he needed to speak with a passable US accent or forget work. Why? Because US audiences don't 'get' British accents! He couldn't do a US accent so had to come back home.

Now American actors wanting work in Britain don't have this prerequisite that they have to reproduce a British accent in order to get work. So they don't bother trying to do a British accent. No need, right? That's why the successful Brits sound so convincingly American...they HAVE NO CHOICE if they want to become rich and famous.

We quite like our American accents here in Britain. For 60 odd years our TV sets have bombarded us with every conceivable regional US accent - even barely literate, straw-chewing hillbilly country hicks - and all without the need for subtitles. But subtitles are used by some US TV networks when transmitting British programmes.

Snooty much?

originally posted by: Skid Mark
Pants! I never heard that one before. I haven't seen Band of Brothers but wanted to. Now I'll look it up. Thanks.

Incidentally, "pants" in Britain means the undergarment.
That's where the negative connotation comes from.

a reply to: CJCrawley

That's funny. Yet, we Americans like Doctor Who, Monty Python, and Harry Potter. Plus others that are too numerous to name.

I agree I mean my favourite series as a boy was Starsky & Hutch followed by six million dollar man and then hart 2 hart, knight rider, hill st blues. All American tv shows.

originally posted by: DISRAELI

originally posted by: Skid Mark
Pants! I never heard that one before. I haven't seen Band of Brothers but wanted to. Now I'll look it up. Thanks.

Incidentally, "pants" in Britain means the undergarment.
That's where the negative conotation comes from.

So here in England we have underpants but call the things that go over them trousers?

Yet the americans have Pants on the outside but as I understand that they do not call them underpants??

a reply to: nonspecific
Similarly with "vest", which is the American for "waistcoat".
So an American can walk into a room in hs vest and pants and look perfectly respectable.
We can only do that in nightmares.

originally posted by: macpdm
I agree I mean my favourite series as a boy was Starsky & Hutch followed by six million dollar man and then hart 2 hart, knight rider, hill st blues. All American tv shows.

Some of my favorites, too.

a reply to: nonspecific

We call them underwear, tighty whities (ever though some aren't white), Undies, panties (for women), or briefs. There may be some that I missed. Most likely there are. Yeah, we're a bit weird lol.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: nonspecific
Similarly with "vest", which is the American for "waistcoat".
So an American can walk into a room in hs vest and pants and look perfectly respectable.
We can only do that in nightmares.

Or a very comfortable family enviroment.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: nonspecific
Similarly with "vest", which is the American for "waistcoat".
So an American can walk into a room in hs vest and pants and look perfectly respectable.
We can only do that in nightmares.

I've seen that.
Is it something you do only in nightmares because it's considered to be only half dressed?

If you want to understand the Scotish accent then good luck.

I once heard a Scotish friend of mine say(with translation to english)

I'll be just going away up there the now.

In a Scotish context and accent that makes sense but translated into english it's just wrong.

Thank you all for being so nice. Also, thanks for all of the added information. Some may call it off-topic but I actually learn a lot about other stuff from off topic posts.

a reply to: Skid Mark
"Vest" is the undergarment as well.
So being dressed only in "vest and pants" is not being dressed at all.

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: DISRAELI

Where I grew up in West London we don't pronounce our T's...
Unless it's at the beginning of a word...
Or after certain letters...

Am from the North, and also do not pronounce my T's, I think we just try to shorten our words.

I love an American accent though!

originally posted by: valiant

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: DISRAELI

Where I grew up in West London we don't pronounce our T's...
Unless it's at the beginning of a word...
Or after certain letters...

Am from the North, and also do not pronounce my T's, I think we just try to shorten our words.

I love an American accent though!

I'd love to hear you say "Betty's butter's better". I'm not making fun or anything. I think it would be interesting.

a reply to: valiant

You don't pronounce your t's but you replace it with a glottal stop. Britain is the land of the glottal stop.

Unlike Americans who simply leave out the t as though it doesn't exist, or else pronounce it as d.

originally posted by: Skid Mark

originally posted by: valiant

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs
a reply to: DISRAELI

Where I grew up in West London we don't pronounce our T's...
Unless it's at the beginning of a word...
Or after certain letters...

Am from the North, and also do not pronounce my T's, I think we just try to shorten our words.

I love an American accent though!

I'd love to hear you say "Betty's butter's better". I'm not making fun or anything. I think it would be interesting.

I am from the midlands and am laughing out loud on my own right now saying that sentance. I do not know how to convey it phonetically but will try and upload a youtube vid sooninsh to show how it's done.

I speak a lot better when talking to my 8 year old son as even though he has a different accent I am always aware that he may be dropping T's that he would not do.

a reply to: Skid Mark

But how could I forget my 2nd only to S & H show which was Magnum. Thinking about it John Hillerman gave a pretty decent British accent as Higgins.