Would I ever make a good newsreader? ;)

Quite how the pronunciation of the word is anything to do with grammar, I've no idea. In any case, English isn't a phonetic langauge, hence words like "pterodactyl", "psychology", "doubt", et cetera ad nauseam, which have silent letters, and hence "ough" being pronounced in so many ways ("though", "through", "borough", "cough", "tough", "plough", and "ought" being examples).


Anyway, my point is that th-fronting is a feature of his accent, much like the different pronunciations of "bath" with different speakers in this country.

This is excellent. I really like his on-air presence.

I'm sorry I have to disagree. I meant grammer as in how "thanks" spelt.
It is wrong the same way some people say "free" instead of "three". It's me accent innit?
Yes English is not phonetic but it must be universally understood so if you're happy staying in one region fine, it'll be no good elsewhere.

I agree - I don't think the 'f' and 'th' argument can be won by saying it's just your accent. Plenty of people with accents can say that correctly...

I'm going to offer some criticism on this whole thread which I'll probably be slated for. Congratulations - you would make a decent newsreader, but that is the easy part of the job. What we're forgetting is that the people who read words off an autocue aren't just there because they are good at reading - they're also good journalists. And there are plenty of them...

So to answer the question 'Would I ever make a good newsreader?', the answer is no unless you're a decent journalist or very lucky. That's the road you need to be heading down - getting journalistic experience. If you just want to be a presenter, then yes go down community radio presenting but not if you want to be on a serious news programme.

Much better second time round. Again, as others have said - be careful with "f" and "th" (it's nothing to do with accents or dialects). You're not to shabby to look at either (sounds creepier than it should. )

Mark Austin made those exact comments a few years back. There is also a lecture on youtube made by Mark where talks about this. He had a moan at 'auto cuties' who only get employed for their looks. You need to have a journalistic background before you can do this. Good luck though! Work hard and stay focused and your dreams will come true!

“You’ve got big dreams. You want fame. Well fame costs and right here’s where you start paying…in sweat” (as they used to say on 'Kids from Fame').

Feel free to disagree with the consensus of experts in the field of lingustics as much as you like. However, making the baseless assertion that such a small feature of your accent will render you incomprehensible is foolish, not to mention the assertion that "grammer" somehow encompasses spelling and pronunciation, and the complete lack of understanding how a non-phonetic language doesn't have a single way to pronounce letters or letter combinations.



Unfortunately for you, it is a well-documented concept and is a feature of certain accents. "People with accents" is a bit redundant seeing as everyone has an accent, in any case.


Just because a certain feature deviates from RP doesn't mean it's "incorrect". My accent, for example, doesn't feature th-fronting, but doesn't exhibit the wait-weight merger that RP does. Would you say that distinction is therefore wrong?


It's an established (socio)linguistic concept. But of course, let's ignore the experts and listen to a completely uninformed layperson.


EDIT: A similar feature, th-stopping, leads to "three" being pronounced as "tree" - a feature of the Hiberno-English dialect.

I think you know I meant regional accents.

It is also a feature of many accents to drop consonants (twenny rather than twenty) and dialects to use double negatives. Would they be acceptable?

We're talking language in a newsreading context. Regardless of the many dialects and accents in the UK, there has to be a line somewhere. Where the line lies is of course subjective - I believe the line stops before 'th' and 'f'.

T-glottalisation is even more prevalent than th-fronting, and is spreading to the point where younger royals are doing it. The use of double negatives is nothing to do with pronunciation, and register usually cancels it out.

Thank you for your answers - I'm not sure if I can change my accent totally, but I'll work on the "thanks" not "fanks" business!

Also, yep, I don't necessarily want to just do presenting. I'd like to be a journalist but stuck on how to.

For almost 4 years, I've kept a blog going - thebristolbulletin.co.uk . Do take a look

I would concentrate on being natural first rather correcting supposed "problems" with your accent. The former would be much more of an impediment than the latter. Of course, there is the massive hurdle of being a journalist, but getting practice in with a professional blog is always going to be beneficial.

I believe the Huffington Post accepts a lot of submitted articles - that's something that might be worth looking into.