A selection of students from across the UK answered questions about what they thought of various accents across the country, and the results are in.

Our students told us that their favourite accents were Received Pronunciation (Queen’s English), Irish and Scottish, with Estuary English (Kent, Sussex etc) and the Birmingham (Brummy) accent coming in last.

Favourite UK accent

Liz’s English edges it

Hardest to understand

The Irish, Scots and Scousers have accents that are hard to understand, both in general and when drunk. However, the Irish and Scots are the sexiest, whilst the Scousers are the least sexy.

Liverpewl all the way

Hardest to understand when drunk

Apparently everything is harder to understand when drunk

Sexiest

Field trip to Dublin?

Students also find the Irish accent the funniest to hear when drunk, along with Brummy and Welsh accents. The funniest accents in general were Scouse, Welsh, West Country and Cockney.

Funniest

Who’s got a brand new combine harvester?

Funniest to hear whilst drunk

Apparently everything is funnier when you’re drunk, too

The most annoying accents were the Essex, Brummy and Geordie, with the last two being the least intelligent and Brummy the most depressing.

Cockney and Scousers were also seen as the least intelligent, whilst RP, Estuary English and West Country accents were the most intelligent.

Most annoying

P.C. Police, the yellow doesn’t represent fake-tan

Most intelligent

It won’t get you a job, though (although it may help)

Most depressing

Students tended to like the most dominant accent at their University, commenting that most people were from the home counties or it was easy to understand.

Do you like RP?

Yes, we like it rah-ther a lot