‘Queen’s English’ Is Britain’s Most-Attractive Accent: Survey

Couples and tourists stroll along the South Bank in London, England, in this file photo. Received Pronunciation, or the 'Queen's English,' has been ranked the most attractive accent in a survey of British people by dating website eHarmony. (Mike Stezycki/Unsplash)

The “Queen’s English” is the most attractive accent to British people, according to a survey commissioned by the dating website eHarmony.

Also known as Received Pronunciation (RP), the accent is considered the standard form of spoken British English.

RP also came top for intelligence, sophistication, charm, and reliability.

The eHarmony survey had over 1,000 people listen to the same English sentence recited in 20 different accents then rank them according to 10 positive personality traits.

It found that accent influences who people select for a date.

One in five said they’d dated someone because of their accent, with more men finding the London accent attractive and more women being drawn to the Manchester accent.

Choosing A Date

eHarmony relationship expert Rachael Lloyd, however, cautioned against choosing someone to date based on their accent alone.

“It’s important to remember that while we might find someone more appealing due to the way they speak, we need to evaluate their core values and personality traits to work out if they are a suitable match,” she said in a statement.

Where a potential match is from and how they speak should be looked at with an open mind, she said, citing core values and compatibility as the most important things to consider in the quest for a happy relationship.

Celebrity Influence

Some accent choices were influenced by the popularity of celebrities, Lloyd said.

The friendliest accent, Geordie, spoken in and around Newcastle in North East England, was boosted by TV personalities Ant and Dec.

Lloyd said former James Bond star Sean Connery was “still doing wonders for the Edinburgh accent,” which came third for attractiveness.

The accents doing well in the survey were not all British.

Kiwi ranked second-most attractive, and Australian ranked fourth-most attractive ahead of German, Yorkshire and the Irish Republic.

American was voted the most interesting.

Domestic accents also did well.

Geordie hit the top spot for humour, and Liverpudlian was second funniest followed by Irish.

Irish was also found the most charming, and Yorkshire the most honest.

Cornish was among the five funniest of the 20 accents, yet it came bottom for attractiveness.

The traditionally romantic Spanish and French accents ranked next least attractive at positions 18 and 19, respectively.