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Announcements Mar 28, 2026 at 6:59 AM

What language or dialect of it is easiest to spot that you're not a native, no matter how hard you've studied and practiced it?

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YourLifeSucksAss Mar 28, 2026 +172
Mandarin. Very hard to get the tones right because of all the pitch fluctuations.
172
fraxbo Mar 28, 2026 +41
To that end I’d say that Cantonese is even easier. More tones. Though that fact that it has fewer «soft» sounds and more «hard» sounds perhaps it is still more feasible to mask one’s foreignness.
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Outrageous-Level4731 Mar 28, 2026 +57
I mean, I speak Mandarin, but beyond my pronunciation there is one rather glaring clue that I'm not a native speaker
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yegor3219 Mar 28, 2026 +21
Not with the camera off.
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Boring_Challenge_601 Mar 28, 2026 +1
I speak Mandarin, but the second I laugh or curse my accent betrays me and it hits like someone ripped a piece of me away
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PulseShiftly Mar 28, 2026 +1
Mandarin is a rollercoaster. I gave it a shot and my friends said I was inventing a new language instead. It's like, "Sorry, was I supposed to sing that last sentence?"
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Similar-Knowledge127 Mar 28, 2026 +7
Seriously, one wrong tone and you’re saying something totally wild Mandarin is basically a musical workout for your mouth.
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Remote-Panic-5131 Mar 28, 2026 +1
You can study for 10 years, but the second you try to order street food, the Auntie running the stall will look at you like you're speaking an alien dialect from Mars. There is no 'middle ground'—you're either 100% right or 100% wrong.
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Responsible_Try_1151 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Mandarin is the only language where you can try to tell someone their **mother** (*mā*) is beautiful, but accidentally tell them their **horse** (*mǎ*) is a **scold** (*mà*). You haven't truly lived until you've seen the look of pure confusion on a local's face because you used a rising tone instead of a flat one while ordering soup. >
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faousa Mar 28, 2026 +46
Cypriot. Like Greek, but dirtier :)
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Upstairs_Eagle_4780 Mar 28, 2026 +23
Talk to me in Cypriot, baby.
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HeartMischief_ Mar 28, 2026 +88
Japanese gives people away fast because the rhythm and politeness levels are brutally hard to fake perfectly
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PropagandaPagoda Mar 28, 2026 +37
I think the rhythm is unusual compared to other languages but easy to master because there aren't that many variations or exceptions. The tone rising a half tone at the beginning of a sentence people pick go without noticing. Politeness levels are still absolutely impossible, and that inscrutability is also why I can't concisely explain the genius of Frieza speaking perfect teneigo.
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Material_Extension72 Mar 28, 2026 +18
Japanese is easy to pronounce for a Finn (basically just read it out in Finnish) but politeness is another story
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HypotheticalBess Mar 28, 2026 +5
Can you explain it non concisely? Sounds interesting
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Turbulent_Cat_2580 Mar 28, 2026 +1
I relate to this a lot because from my perspective the structure can feel surprisingly logical, but the politeness levels completely change how everything lands. I feel like that’s the part that makes it really interesting though, because the way a character speaks can instantly show personality or status without directly saying it. Moments like a villain using perfect polite speech just make the whole thing feel more intentional and honestly kind of brilliant to me.
1
GalaxyPowderedCat Mar 28, 2026 +10
This. It also comes down with the honor-based pronouns as well. There are many depending on your intention and many are not used to it unless you also speak with a similar system. (correct me if I am wrong but I read somewhere Hebrew uses the same.)
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Outrageous-Level4731 Mar 28, 2026 +8
I heard the opposite about Hebrew, that it values directness over politeness. Could be wrong, through!
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Boring_Challenge_601 Mar 28, 2026 +1
I’ve heard Hebrew is brutal with honesty and honestly I kind of love it — one blunt comment cut me like a slap then somehow felt like the most authentic hug I’d had in years
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mikhel Mar 28, 2026 +7
In terms of context/social behavior yes, but tonally it's really simple. I think Japanese people really struggle to learn other languages because of that as well
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opisska Mar 28, 2026 +20
Your mother tongue, whatever that is. You'll never be as conditioned to notice something even slightly off as you are in the language you grew up with.
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Boring_Challenge_601 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Your mother tongue is like a sixth sense; when I hear even the tiniest slip in mine my heart clenches and I feel unexpectedly exposed and raw
1
Consistent-Sand-3618 Mar 28, 2026 +74
French. They hate everyone butchering it. I've done level 5 languages and never struggled as much as french, they always know
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katzenschrecke Mar 28, 2026 +52
I heard that people being dicks about this is mostly a Parisian thing and that folks everywhere else in the country are more tolerant of French language learners
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krowvonmuller Mar 28, 2026 +47
Yes this is very true. I was dating a French woman from Bordeaux for about a year. I was trying my best with French language as I also speak Spanish. The people in Bordeaux were super friendly and helpful with the language but the Parisians will instantly switch to English. Although once I was ordering food in Paris and the lady spoke back to me in French as I was attempting it and it made me feel like I didn’t do so bad!
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BladeOfWoah Mar 28, 2026 +31
If I ever get the chance to learn French and visit Paris, and Parisians switch to English on me rudely, I am going to swap to my native language that I know none of them will recognize, and pretend I don't know English. It will confuse them so much.
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krowvonmuller Mar 28, 2026 +15
That’s a solid idea. What’s your native language? They assume everyone knows English being they also know English lol. Parisians are literally some of the rudest people in the world out of the 23 countries I’ve been to.
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BladeOfWoah Mar 28, 2026 +30
I'm Māori, from New Zealand. Te Reo Māori is a Polynesian language similar to the Tahitian and Hawaiian languages. I am 90% sure that no Parisian that has never left the country will know this language or even heard of it, haha
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rnzz Mar 28, 2026 +7
I'm just picturing you walking into a cafe in Paris and going 'Bonjour, comment ça va!' And the waiter says 'Ah, good morning sir, what would you like today?' 'Oh, right. Kia ora! Mōrena! He kawhe mōwai, ténā koe, Hei heri atu.' 'Err.. ka pai!'
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krowvonmuller Mar 28, 2026 +2
Is that a tough language to learn? I’ve tried my hand with several languages. I know of Te Rao Māori but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it spoken.
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BladeOfWoah Mar 28, 2026 +8
It's always hard to say if a language is hard, because that will vary depending on what your first language is, how similar the second language is to it, and how much exposure you have to it. Like, for English speakers, German, French and Spanish are relatively easy compared to Mandarin, which has nothing in common with these European languages. Likewise, Mandarin speakers will struggle with these 4 languages too, although they may find English easier because English is EVERYWHERE and its hard not to immerse yourself in English media, and Japanese speakers will not struggle to learn Mandarin as much due to sharing a lot of linguistic history. Te Reo Māori likewise, has no similar grammatical structure to English or other European languages. There are a few sounds the language has that are rare (like /wh/ and /ng/) or not used in English ( /r/ similar to Japanese /r/). You probably are not likely to meet many fluent speakers outside of New Zealand either, considering it is a minority language that nearly went extinct (although it has gone through a revitalisation in the last 50 years), so it would be difficult to immerse yourself in it unless you actually lived here in New Zealand. Personally, I do think it is a hard language to use, not because it is difficult to speak (although it definitely is a step up compared to going from English to French) but simply because if you don't live in New Zealand, you are unlikely to have much reason to use it unless you really like NZ media or you have Māori family members. If you are interested in hearing what it sounds like, we do have a news channel (Māori+) that broadcasts everyday that only speaks in Te Reo Māori (with English subtitles), they[ have a website you can check out here.](https://www.teaonews.co.nz/) There are a lot of songs in Māori as well, including many traditional waiata, but also pop songs that have hit top of the charts in NZ too. [Here's a song "Aotearoa"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWhAoZZh8fc), by Stan Walker, released for Māori Language Week. If you want to hear a more classic song, there is also "[Poi E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq2K8ak47nM)", one of New Zealand's most iconic songs. edit: fixed a link.
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krowvonmuller Mar 28, 2026 +3
I appreciate the in depth response. I love language. If I could go back to college and focus on a different subject, it would have been linguistics. I originally studied German abroad when I was 18 right out of high school. I taught myself Spanish using Duolingo for 3 years, (back when it was free and without ads), which was surprisingly helpful when I lived in Columbia. And my Spanish grew a lot from there. I also taught myself Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda, prior to living there. I thought French would be somewhat easy, and it kind of was, until I met Parisians lol. Tonal languages are tough. Kinyarwanda is tonal but its tones are similar sounding to vowels in English. Thai and Hindi are the hardest languages I’ve tried to learn. But I’ve never tried Mandarin or Japanese. Edit: I also tried Dine, the language of the Navajo, being I live near Navajo land, but they don’t like white people speaking their language and are reluctant to teach you.
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DecadesLaterKid Mar 28, 2026 +1
Thank you for these links! I really enjoyed the Aotearoa video.
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katzenschrecke Mar 28, 2026 +3
It’s French
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krowvonmuller Mar 28, 2026 +4
Haha if it was native French from Quebec, yeah the Parisians would be like, um what???
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edparadox Mar 28, 2026 +2
Why would switching to English be rude?
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Biffy_x Mar 28, 2026 +2
Parisians have a reputation of switching to English if people don't speak *perfect* french to them. If a foreigner came up to and said something like "Sorry to bother you yet could you tell me what is the nearest bathroom?" despite their intent being perfectly intelligible they would switch to english and some people view that as insulting to those who have put in real effort to learn the language
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Zoenne Mar 28, 2026 +1
French person here, not from Paris. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I have to defend Parisians a bit (barf). Most of the time they switch to English it is NOT because you don't speak perfect French, but because they are just keen and proud to use their English. It is also often considered better service to conduct the interaction in the customer's language if possible, so that happens a lot in touristy places, where speed of service is valued. In other places outside Paris, people tend to take their time more.
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yajibei Mar 28, 2026 +3
I grew up near Paris, I'll try to defend that : Tourist, tourist everywhere!  2.5 million Parisian, 8 if you count the suburban area. 50 million tourists a year. If I've time or in more private settings (like at workplace/university or in a party/bar) I'll give it a go to speak in french with learners. I've lot of foreigners friends and I've lived in other countries too, so I know the cravings to practice the local language. But in the street or in the subway ? Nah I'm commuting, I'll go for the direct answer in a language I know you'll understand. Unless your french is without hesitation I'll answer in English. Yes I'll judge you in a split second and decide if you're likely to understand the answer in french or if you'll make me repeat it again and again. I think it's the same with waiters (even through it tend to change lately). If they are in a rush : you are only 1/50 000 000 of the people they will never see again. 
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krowvonmuller Mar 28, 2026 +1
Sure, but in America, with our insane influx of foreign immigrants who are trying to learn and understand English, we are expected to be patient and kind to those who don’t understand English, especially in restaurants and or events of public service. Of course a vast majority of Americans can’t switch over to another language, but as someone who has traveled the world, Parisians are easily the rudest people I’ve ever met.
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yajibei Mar 28, 2026 +1
From experience, the US tend to expect the same norms as themselves when in France whereas we don't have the same codes for politeness.   We tend to find tourist rude and too direct (famous red flags : not saying hello before engaging the conversation, or thanks/goodbye)  Also we don't live on tips, so it's not a necessity to be patient. In service you're paid to be efficient and try to get the service done asap to leave room for other clients. If you have time you're expected to be nice to the clients as it generally sells more.  From observation, when they have the time, the people in service industry will be kind and patient even playful like in other parts of France.  Sadly in Paris, they tend to have constant flux of clients.  I think if you go early in the morning you won't have the same reaction(or in a non touristy area). Final point : tourists and immigrants are not the same. One is here temporarily to consume and go and the other is making effort to integrate. You also won't meet them in the same places.
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krowvonmuller Mar 28, 2026 +1
Same could be said about foreign tourists say in San Francisco. Many foreign tourists don’t fully understand American culture and can come off as rude in the same way a Parisian might see a foreigner to be rude. Native San Franciscans aren’t as inherently rude as Parisians towards tourists. New Yorkers may be extremely rude though. That’s why I dislike both Paris and New York. Two horrible cities, mostly because of their locals. And from what I remember, you’re quite frankly allowed to sit at a cafe as long as you please in Paris, continuously smoking cigarettes, while not getting anything else after your last cup of coffee, whereas that is not an ordinary custom in America. Tips shouldn’t be a deciding factor on patience. Which you clearly have proven why Parisians can be outright rude, as they don’t feel patience is necessary when serving customers.
1
fraxbo Mar 28, 2026 +10
This has never been my experience, though I know the reputation, and think it must be based on something. I grew up in New York, but after my parents divorced when I was 10 my mother moved to Paris for five years. That meant that my brother and I spent three months a year in Paris. We used our very rudimentary French there to go out and run errands for my mom all the time without any problem or scolding or switching to English. Even now as an adult with low to mid B1 level French, when I visit I can conduct most of my business in French without anyone switching to English or getting (visibly) annoyed. This includes sort of detailed interactions at retailers and such. They obviously know I am not a fluent speaker or native speaker, but are always pleasant and understanding. Parisians have not lived up to this reputation for me.
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delta_baryon Mar 28, 2026 +8
To be honest, wherever you go, the vast majority of French people are happy you're making an effort. It's just that every now and then someone will be rude to you for basically no reason. This is unrelated to your level of spoken French as far as I can tell. My French is pretty good and I lived there for a few years, but a lady in a bakery in Biarritz once looked at me like I'd taken a shit on the floor because I'd asked for a *pain au chocolat* instead of a *chocolatine*.
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MaimedJester Mar 28, 2026 +5
Paris is the New York City of assholes and proud of it.  Like never visit Paris, visit any other French city and you'll have a way better time.
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lumbardumpster Mar 28, 2026 +1
Visit Paris, it's amazing, but don't base your perception of France on it. (All of the French are dickheads, but just in a different way outside Paris.) Northern France is positively shitting delightful small cities where you will have a lovely time.
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tessharagai_ Mar 28, 2026 +5
I’ve visited the South of France and it is literally heaven on earth
5
lumbardumpster Mar 28, 2026 +2
Last time I was in Paris they were noticing less rude than before. It was really jarring. Then I went to a cafe and ordered a glass of red wine and a bottle of sparkling water and the waiter told me off for wanting them at the same time. (Not in the same glass, just on the same table). Felt a lot happier after than.
2
VilleKivinen Mar 28, 2026 +1
Even in Paris people were very nice when I tried my high school French. People everywhere appreciate the effort.
1
Consistent-Sand-3618 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Can't agree I did a road trip once and went in all the residential towns with no tourists. They don't even know English and yet they know you are English haha
1
KindVibe Mar 28, 2026 +1
The real issue is the French absolutely cannot resist correcting mistakes learners make. It’s well-meaning but can dishearten students.
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Shadows-of-an-Owl-05 Mar 28, 2026 +10
As a french, I will tell you that I am not bothered by someone speaking french at the best of their capacities (just 30 years we were known to be TERRIBLE  at english so we get it) compared to how annoyed I get by the way the English language integrated french words and butchering them! My personal nemesis? The word BAVAROIS (it's a dessert). I was watching British bake off and they kept confidently calling it BAVOIR. But bavoir means something else in french. It means baby napkin.
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Confident-Syrup-7543 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Framboise bavarois is the greatest name for any dessert ever. 
1
Upbeat-Name-6087 Mar 28, 2026 +7
My mum spent a few years in France as a child, she picked it up like kids do and was fluent back then. But it's been 50 years and so now she struggles with the vocabulary some, and her French is kind of preserved in amber from the 70s. I always reassure her that her french is still more than fine, and the way I know that is because when she uses it in France, even in Paris, they never switch to English to reply to her. 
7
EstaLisa Mar 28, 2026 +45
swiss german.
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delta_baryon Mar 28, 2026 +34
To be honest, I think part of that is that there's no particular way to study Swiss German as a foreign language for the majority of people. You've got to just learn standard German first, then go to Switzerland and try and pick it up by immersion.
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fussyfella Mar 28, 2026 +13
Absolutely this. I speak fluent German and am told I have a good accent (although still identifiably English). In Switzerland I can barely understand a word being said between locals. If I go into a shop and speak in standard German whoever is there just switches effortlessly. In business meetings at the company I used to work with, the local Swiss all spoke in standard German (when they were not using English) and did not switch to the local form even in coffee breaks amongst themselves. There really was no obviously way to pick up the local language easily.
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delta_baryon Mar 28, 2026 +1
Right, whereas if hypothetically, history had gone another direction and the Swiss had decided on some standardised Swiss German as their written, formal language, rather than the Standard German of Germany, that language probably wouldn't be any more difficult to learn. It's the lack of study opportunities that's the issue, I think.
1
xCLiCH3E Mar 28, 2026 +1
Someone would need to make it their life's work to study swiss german. They'd need a team of the 10 most talented linguists for allemanic dialects to have a chance to go unnoticed for more than one sentence in real life
1
TheRaido Mar 28, 2026 +3
If you think that is the best way to learn a foreign language your a bit of. If you think you can learn an accent or a dialect, you're absolutely wrong. I grew up in the Netherlands in the part where Low Saxon, not Dutch was the language for most of the communication. My parents talked Low Saxon 'Plat' at home with each other, basically all non-kids. We learned in Dutch at school, so we probably mixed it a lot and have an accent. My dad is from 'the next town over' so his Low Saxon is diffent from my moms. His brother moved three towns over and married a local, you can hear that. One of my aunts was from an other 'next town over' in an other direction. You can tell, very often by the pronounciation of a few words. So even the Low Saxon dialect speakers stick out, and we're talking towns in like a 10 kilometer radius. I don't think there is a way to learn this from books, only from living there. There are Dutch people moving into Low Saxon-speaking towns, who try to learn a Low Saxon dialect. They might get the accent right, but then vocabulary is 'iffy'. What happens quite often is that they take a Dutch word and pronounce it with al Low Saxon-accent. Sometimes that is the right word! Sometimes it isn't. Example: paard (horse) is peard, haard (hearth) is hoard, baard (beard) is board. They will look at you odd if you say 'poard'. Example: rijden (driving) is **not** rieden/riejn but jagen/jaagn. Aardappel (potato) is **not** oardappel but either earpel or tuffel. Bord (plate) is not board but teilder. Ui (onion) is not ui buit siepel.
3
delta_baryon Mar 28, 2026 +1
I think you don't necessarily need that level of specificity at first as a newcomer though. The English people learn from books is also not the same English I speak in my day-to-day life (although it's closer than some dialects, because I'm from the South-East of England). Even with more prestigious national languages like English or Dutch, you learn a kind of artificial standard first and pick up the local variation later. So I could see a world where someone learns a kind of textbook Low Saxon at first to help them ease into the local variety.
1
Upbeat-Name-6087 Mar 28, 2026 +13
Vietnamese is an interesting one. It has 6 tones, you can have perfect pronunciation but if you get the tone a bit wrong, you are not saying the word you think you are saying.  I don't know if it's because it's not a language spoken by that many non-native speakers,  but I found that most people will not be able to deduce from the context what you meant to say either.  On the other hand, once you learn how to pronounce the tone marks, consonants and vowels. You can read a whole book in Vietnamese out loud without understanding a word of it. Written Vietnamese is logical, spelled phonetically, and grammatically consistent. English can only dream.
13
lumbardumpster Mar 28, 2026 +9
The context aspect is super important here. You can get in a taxi with a suitcase and say gà (chicken) to a blank stare without there being any danger of the driver realising you mean ga (station). English speakers are so used to English being spoken appallingly we can get what is being said from a couple of syllables in a butchered sentence; but so few people speak Vietnamese non-nativley people just don't have the same practice at hearing it spoken incorrectly.
9
Upbeat-Name-6087 Mar 28, 2026 +5
I wonder about this as well. I am not entirely sure. In English, the way you stress a word can change what is meant, but not the meaning. (*We* didn't kill him. Vs We didn't *kill* him.) Something Vietnamese speakers struggle with in English.  So perhaps we cannot comprehend how using the wrong tone on a word can make a sentence so incomprehensible, because our language is not built like that. A badly pronounced English word might be hard to understand, but normally its not so off it comes out as a completely unrelated word. 
5
Idk-U-F_Off Mar 28, 2026 +13
I think Latin is a pretty safe bet for that
13
tecg Mar 28, 2026 +2
Careful, there may be a few Latin native speakers alive. (Crazy philologists parents.) 
2
TurkTurkeltonMD Mar 28, 2026 +10
Cajun. Hands down. I grew up with Cajun kids that weren't Cajun enough.
10
OrDuck31 Mar 28, 2026 +6
Turkish. You need to get vowel harmony right so many times per sentence and if you get one wrong, it directly sounds ugly to natives and gives away that its not your mother language. Thankfully turks are not elitists about their languages so nobody will make rude comments or anything, turks love when somebody tries to speak their language
6
3entendre Mar 28, 2026 +7
I think everyone can tell when a non native is speaking their language. Unless you're born in a place it's almost impossible to sound exactly like the natives. 
7
Devilnaht Mar 28, 2026 +28
Don’t know if it’s the easiest, but it’s quite easy in English. It usually takes less than a second to pick up on a non native speaker. Pronunciation is probably the single hardest part of learning English; our orthography only very loosely approximately matches pronunciation, we pull words and pronunciations from several other languages (particularly French, which is also famously bad for orthography), and it’s almost unavoidable to build up a lot of fossilised mistakes. We also have something like 24? vowel sounds. Not to mention things like no reliable rules for where the stress goes either within a word, or intra-sentence stress, which doesn’t exist in all languages (*I* went to the store vs I *went* to the store vs I went to the *store*. All slightly different meanings) Conversely, Spanish might be one of the easier ones to pass as being native in my experience. It’s got very reliable rules of pronunciation, only 6 vowel sounds, and extremely reliable orthography. But more than that, it’s such a widespread language with such a variety of native accents, vocab, and even grammar that a decent non-native accent can pass for a native accent from “somewhere else”. Indeed, that’s happened to me a decent number of times with my own Spanish.
28
shinyrainbows Mar 28, 2026 +9
I agree. I'm a native English speaker who teaches English to native Spanish speakers who struggle in English even after 8+ years of study, and the low amount of vowel sounds and the strict consistency of the Spanish language makes it difficult for Spanish speakers to learn languages with more sounds and that aren't phonetic like English and French. However, I have been able to learn Spanish, and while there are some confusing things, I find pronunciation, reading, and writing to be very easy. You always know where the stress is, and what seems hard at the beginning becomes easy as you are immersed.
9
African_Farmer Mar 28, 2026 +3
Also the use of idioms and other nuances to the language. I feel like its very easy to spot a non-british English native speaker. When I moved countries but still worked in English, I had to change the way I spoke because people were too confused. I'd ask people in the office if they wanted a "cuppa" or to "stick the kettle on" and they had no clue what I was saying.
3
rainbow84uk Mar 28, 2026 +3
Yeah I agree. I can count on one hand the number of times I've thought someone was British from their accent and then found out they weren't. I feel like our class system makes us hyper aware of the nuances of other people's accents, and we're used to hearing our language spoken by non-native speakers too. Meanwhile when I speak Catalan, people are so unused to foreigners learning the language that they often assume I must be a native speaker from some far-flung region, even when I make mistakes and have a weird accent.
3
PosterAnt Mar 28, 2026 +5
Icelandic
5
JackMickus Mar 28, 2026 +8
The only people who can do a true Boston accent are the people who grow up speaking with it.
8
katzenschrecke Mar 28, 2026 +13
I went to a restaurant with a counter in Boston and an old man was there taking orders. He said to me “Ged” and I was like “huh?” “GED!” Still confused I looked at my Boston friend and he tells me “he’s saying go ahead”
13
FScrotFitzgerald Mar 28, 2026 +4
This is correct. I am decent with accents, to the point of coaching actors to do a lot of them, and I've been living in Boston for 6.5 years... but I've only just now begun attempting a Boston accent in front of my wife (who is from Connecticut but has been living in Boston for the best part of three decades). I don't think I'd dare try one on stage or on film.
4
persilja Mar 28, 2026 +6
Sentinelese. Because nobody that didn't grow up on North Sentinel Island knows pretty much anything about the language.
6
shinyrainbows Mar 28, 2026 +4
American here, I'm going to say AAVE (African American Vernacular English) which is an ethnolect meaning 99% of native speakers are Black Americans with about 25+ million native speakers including myself. I have had people try to mimic us, and I have to correct them because they sound off. It's not just what you say but also your facial expressions, timing, and shared looks that are highly cultural. If you aren't in or around the culture, you will miss those and immediately seem off. Heck, even if you are not from the ethnic group, you are already looked at with suspicion for trying to speak it haha.
4
-I-EAT-PEOPLE- Mar 28, 2026 +3
I have the same feeling with people that try to fake my accent/ regional dialect. When flatlanders (or people from away) as we call them try to speak like us it just makes us cringe because they never ever do it right. Now if you excuse me I need to judge the tourists that don't know the difference between 'yut, nah' and 'nah, yut'.
3
shinyrainbows Mar 28, 2026 +1
Haha! It's those micro differences that really show if you with us or not. Where are you from?
1
-I-EAT-PEOPLE- Mar 28, 2026 +1
I'm from northern New Hampshire, people usually call it the 'Maine accent', but it's really similar in a lot of places. That part of New Hampshire does have a lot of unique slang. It's dying out a little now because so many young people have left the area or intentionally don't speak like that to please all the transplants, which is really sad.
1
shinyrainbows Mar 28, 2026 +1
Awww, I noticed that has been happening in NY as well. I've never been to New Hampshire, but it seems like an interesting place.
1
-I-EAT-PEOPLE- Mar 28, 2026 +1
It's an amazing place! It's changed a lot since I was a kid, a lot more housing developments and vacation homes now, but it's still worth a trip. You can drive to the top of Mount Washington, and on a clear day, it's one of the best views in the entire world. If you are from New York, I highly recommend making time for it in the fall when the leaves change color. It's hard to think of a prettier place (I'm biased) if you are into that sort of thing.
1
DavyJonesCousinsDog Mar 28, 2026 +7
English. You get derailed from "commercial" conversation once and you're cooked.
7
Upstairs_Eagle_4780 Mar 28, 2026 +10
WTF language or dialect of it did you write that title in?
10
ms_directed Mar 28, 2026 +2
i think their issue is more the lack of punctuation than language, lol.
2
theneklawy Mar 28, 2026 -4
ya I’m confounded by how many people are answering with confidence, because I truly do not know what the question is.
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anonhide Mar 28, 2026 +10
Basically he's asking "what language or dialect is most difficult for non-native speakers to pass as natives in?" Idk if my rewording is any better lol
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theneklawy Mar 28, 2026 +3
haha no no, it definitely helped unlock it for me ty.
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JimJamTheNinJin Mar 28, 2026 +1
It's so similar, I dunno how people who understand English wouldn't get this post
1
fraxbo Mar 28, 2026 +2
They mean: «what language or dialect of [that language] is easiest…» Ex: language: Arabic, vs. dialect thereof: Moroccan It was clear enough for me that I didn’t trip on it at all. But now that it’s pointed out, I could see where confusion might arise.
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sans_210 Mar 28, 2026 +2
You're just dumb, the question is perfectly understandable
2
steampunkdev Mar 28, 2026
USian
0
ms_directed Mar 28, 2026 +5
i worked with a guy once who took Spanish all thru high school and then all thru college, completey fluent and even was a volunteer interpreter...but was passed over for a high level bilingual position because of his American accent (this was decades ago and i don't remember the full details) so I'm assuming an American accent even in perfect dialect of another language still comes thru to a native speaker. i always wondered how other languages sound to the native citizens like French to Russian, or Mandarin to Portuguese? 🤔 i would assume its the same sound as a someone speaking perfect American English but with a foreign accent.
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PM_me_ur_navel_girl Mar 28, 2026 +2
Scottish
2
I_Have_Hairy_Teeth Mar 28, 2026 +1
You mean you weren't fooled by Mel Gibson's awesome take on William Wallace?
1
InitHello Mar 28, 2026 +1
I've never heard a non-native speaker get my dialect of Norwegian so right that a trønder wouldn't notice. Hell, I've experienced other Norwegians who moved to Trøndelag as a child getting clocked within a sentence or two.
1
Bitter-Pomelo-3962 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Hiberno-English, the dialect of English spoken in Ireland. It's English, but with much sentence structure, grammar, etc. swiped directly from the Irish language. Its VERY easy for Irish people to spot because even long-time (foreign) residents of Ireland, who are themselves native English speakers, never quite get it right.
1
Utopia7_Survivor Mar 28, 2026 +3
Body language, you can fake the words, but you can’t fake the upbringing
3
Mysterious-Ad16 Mar 28, 2026 +3
Japanese or Mandarin for sure. You can memorize every Kanji and get the grammar perfect, but if your pitch accent or tones are off by a fraction, natives will know immediately. 
3
fraxbo Mar 28, 2026 +3
Is Japanese also tonal? For some reason I have always thought that it isn’t a tonal language like the various Chinese and south East Asian languages and dialects.
3
Curivia Mar 28, 2026 +3
It’s tonal to a degree, but much in the same way as English. Some examples, with capital letters indicating the stress/higher pitch. Japanese: Rain: Ame Candy: aME Bridge: haSHI Chopsticks: HAshi English: Where someone is: ADdress To call someone by name: adDRESS Legal document: CONtract To make something smaller: conTRACT This also changes based on dialect of course. I would 100% consider Mandarin / Catonese more tonal than Japanese.
3
fraxbo Mar 28, 2026 +2
Ok. So not tonal on the sense that we mean normally in linguistics. But in the sense that stress and pronunciation affect meaning in some specific cases. This was my impression from before.
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schmambuman Mar 28, 2026 +2
It's not the same as stress in English, it's a pitch instead. The vowel doesn't change like reCORD vs. REcord in English, it's more of a "each mora is either a high or low pitch"
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JimJamTheNinJin Mar 28, 2026 +2
Hmm I thought Okashi meant candy, isn't that strange
2
PermissionAsleep9326 Mar 28, 2026 +2
okashi is more snacks and sweets, ame is used for hard candy/boiled lollies
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JimJamTheNinJin Mar 28, 2026 +1
Thanks. I'm assuming this is where Amai, weak or naive comes from then?
1
FairyFeetLovers Mar 28, 2026 +1
I Think italian 🤌🏼
1
Leicham Mar 28, 2026 +1
West flemish, I know non-native speakers that have lived here 30-40 years and you can still tell
1
Key_Advertising1230 Mar 28, 2026 +1
I feel like Japanese is a big one for this. Even people who’ve studied for years can sound super natural in grammar and vocab, but natives often pick up on tiny things like pitch accent or rhythm almost instantly. It’s not even about mistakes—just subtle patterns that are really hard to internalize unless you grew up with it.
1
raven1121 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Thai - foreigners are never able to get the tones correct
1
WilmerTucker Mar 28, 2026 +1
Absolutely Mandarin. You can memorize 5000+ characters and nail HSK6 but the second you order food at a street stall the uncle just stares at you.
1
NotCrispTofu Mar 28, 2026 +1
cantonese
1
Megatanis Mar 28, 2026 +1
Probably most of them unless you haven't gone to a bilingual school since kindergarten. Maybe english is an exception because it's so widespread and there are so many accents.
1
-I-EAT-PEOPLE- Mar 28, 2026
A sneaky hard one is northern New England (think Maine and parts of New Hampshire and Vermont). I think most Americans pretty much only know the phrases 'ya can't get there from here' and maybe 'flatlander' but have no idea how to actually do the voice, but they would know it was wrong if they heard it. I lived in the White Mountains, which have their own accent and dialect that I've never seen attempted anywhere but real life, and that would also be pretty much impossible to fake. Pronounce Concord, Winnipesaukee, Boston, Coos, and Franconia for me, or order a coffee, or a bunch of other things, and I'll tell you to a near certainty if you were born within 100 miles of where I grew up. Even people from the coast of New Hampshire (so \~125 miles away) couldn't fake it convincingly. Please define jimmies, whippersnipper, a silver, grinder, kanky, yut, spigot, piss drinker, snell, u-ey, dooryard, dabber, and chewy for me without looking it up. I bet 99.99% of even Americans can't. Hell, even the new people from away often don't know what all of them mean.
0
Mowglyyy Mar 28, 2026
In Ireland the accent starts to change every 10km or so. There's a difference between the town I'm from and the village 15 mins drive away. It's not a huge difference obviously, but I can definitely tell if someone's not "from town".
0
Mr_Guavo Mar 28, 2026
New Zealand. They pronounce "e" like "i". I'm Canadian. I watch (\*edit: specifically New Zealand) women's rugby sevens, so I pick it up instantly, and I'm extremely proud of myself when I do.
0
neilabz Mar 28, 2026 -2
US English is the most recognised or identifiable language in the world probably followed by French. Identifiable even without understanding
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mmoonbelly Mar 28, 2026 +1
I’m English. Still can’t distinguish between Canadian and north US American accents though.
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neilabz Mar 28, 2026 +1
Your question about which language or dialect is easiest to spot if you’re not native- this is obviously US English via tv and film though! If you learn English as a foreign language speaker you can’t avoid so much US media. If you’re from England (I’m Scottish) think the easiest language for us to spot is French and easiest accent or dialect is Irish
1
mmoonbelly Mar 28, 2026 +1
In which case. Easiest to spot : Bavarian auf Deutsch, Marseille en français, en Schevenings’ op den Nederlanse dialkten.
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neilabz Mar 28, 2026 +1
But those are very specific subnational accents. You can quite easily identify US English vs British English, or Brazilian Portuguese vs Portuguese from Portugal, Spain vs Mexico etc
1
mmoonbelly Mar 28, 2026 +1
I’m not understanding your point. In the English speaking world as an English native speaker I struggle to distinguish English speaking Canadians (eg Jim Carey) from English speaking US citizens (eg Jason Segel). I have similar but lesser problems to correctly pick Kiwis over Aussies. I can place anyone in England to within about 30 miles of where they grew up (English ears are acutely tuned to accents/class distinctions. It’s why I live abroad) In my non-native languages (German, French, Dutch) the easiest accents/dialects to spot are : Bavarian (lilt accent, dialect words), Marseilles (vowel modulation to standard French) and Scheveningse (different use of g compared to The Hague 3kms away) I can hear African accented French, but couldn’t tell an Ivorian from a Senegalese accent.
1
mmoonbelly Mar 28, 2026 +1
Oh how to spot a different language completely? That’s just exposure. If you go to Belgium and hear their version of Dutch, you’ll understand it’s Flemish because it sounds like scouse to British ears.
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