Whether the voice of Matthew McConaughey does it for you or you’re more of a Mark Wahlberg fan, it’s true to say that some accents are saucier than others. As for the sexiest accents in theUSA? America is uniquely diverse when it comes to dialects, with the country’s vast history of immigrants influencing how people talk from coast to coast.

We looked to our audience to find out which are the sexiest – and least sexy – accents in the USA for 2020. Last year, our annual poll of the sexiest American accents revealed that Southern accents were most popular, with Long Island coming in last.

This year? Consider yourself very lucky if your accent is among the Top 10…

50th. New Jersey

Poor New Jersey dropped down one place from 2019 to end up in the last spot this year, making it the least sexy accent in America. North Jerseyan? Think ‘cawfee’ and dropping the ‘Rs’. South Jerseyan? It’s more like the Philly accent, but not close enough to bring up Jersey’s overall sex appeal.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestNew Jersey slang here.

49th. Long Island

Well, there’s some slight consolation for people from ‘Lawnguyland’ this year, as they no longer have the least sexy accent! Sure, it’s still one of the least sexiest accents in the USA, but anything is better than last…

48th. Floridian

Not including the sexy twang of Miami, the Florida accent is a baffling mix of Midwest and Northeast with a hint of Southern. A sandwich is a ‘sangwich’ and the people have spoken – it’s nowhere near the top 10.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestFlorida slang here.

47th. Minnesotan

Throw in plenty of Minnesota “yahs” and “hons” to get that famousFargoaccent. Still one of the least sexiest accents in the USA for sure, but still better than 48th last year.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestMinnesota slang here.

46th. Pittsburgh

“Yinz going dahntahn?” The Western Pennsylvania English accent is often considered the ugliest in all of America, so Pittsburgh locals can feel lucky that they’ve escaped last place this time around.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestPittsburgh slang here.

45th. Alaskan

A massive migration of Minnesotans during the 1930s means that the Alaskan accent sounds all too similar to Minnesota folk.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestAlaskan slang here.

44th. Pennsylvania Dutch

While a typical US state might have max two or three dialects, Pennsylvania has five. The Pennsylvania Dutch dialect has been dying out, as non-Amish younger Pennsylvania Germans tend to speak modern General American English. “Yah, well.”

43rd. Appalachian

Also known as Smoky Mountain English or Southern Mountain English, words get joined together and ‘a’ gets added onto random words – think “I’m goin’ a-huntin'”. Potato becomes ‘tader’ and hollow becomes ‘holler’. Charming yes, but sexy it ain’t.

42nd. California Valley

The often-ridiculed San Fernando “Valley Girl” accent rose to fame in the 1980s, but is still spoken by many in South California today. Like, awesome?

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestCalifornia slang here.

41st. Southern Ohioan

In the southern end of Ohio, where a pin is actually a pen and tin means ten, the accent is almost southern, yet not. The Southern Ohio accent has moved up in sexiness terms.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestOhio slang here.

40th. Providence

Want to talk Rhode Island? The Boston-meets-Brooklyn accent is hard to mimic, but clearly distinct. Listen to any episode of Jersey Shore with Pauly D and you’ll understand instantly what it sounds like.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestRhode Island slang here.

39th. Tallahassee

You’re most likely to hear a Southern twang in Tallahassee, Florida, but the accent here is clearly different to others down south. Sure, they say ‘y’all’, but not quite right.

38th. “Hoi Toider”

High Tider, or Hoi Toider, is the accent spoken by a small amount of people on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It’s an unusual brogue that sounds a bit Australian, a bit Irish and also a bit British.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestNorth Carolina slang here.

37th. San Francisco

You might not hear it so often what with the multicultural mix of folk now living in SF, but the classic San Francisco accent is super fast with words running into each other. “Whereja-go?”

36th. Hudson Valley

Hudson Valley English still holds some traces of Dutch in the rural areas, with a touch of New York City’s short vowels. It’s basically New England English-meets-General American and New York State.

35th. Cincinnati

Slowly but surely dying out as younger Ohioans speak with a more general Midland accents, the classic Cincinnati accent has short ‘a’s, so class becomes cless. Nearby neighbours Cleveland juuust beat it this year!

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestCincinnati slang here.

34th. Cleveland

Clevelanders might say they don’t have an accent, but oh-boy they really do. The bad news is this accent isn’t considered so hot this year, dropping down from a respectable 23rd last year. They speak with hard, nasally a’s or and short o’s that sound more like an ‘a’.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestCleveland slang here.

33rd. Milwaukee

If you want to know how to speak perfect Milwaukee-ese, pronounce ‘bag’ as ‘baig’, add an ‘aina’ on to the end of a question – like saying ‘ain’t it?’, which comes from the states Germanic influences. And don’t forget to say the city like ‘M’waukee’.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestWisconsin slang here.

32nd. Western

Generally spoken by locals in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming, the typical Western accent is distinguished by the cot-caught merger, where both vowel words sound the same. Hella sexy? Kinda. It comes in a little lower ranking than last year, but still proves surprisingly popular.

31st. New Orleans

Dropping down from 25th last year: New Orleans English, or “Yat” (this name comes from the phrase “Where are you at?” which is shortened in NOLA to “Where y’at?”), is not to be confused with Cajun, which our readers considered way sexier. Yats say ‘doze’ for those and drop the ‘r’s.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestNew Orleans slang here.

30th. Oklahoma

The Okie dialect is a blend of Midlands/Ozark and Deep South. Not sure if you have it? If you’ve ever used the expressions “might could” or “fixing to”, you’re from Oklahoma through and through.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestOklahoma slang here.

29th. Colorado

Coloradans don’t have a distinctive sound, but there’s definitely an accent here, despite what some people might say. It’s recently been influenced by the Californian vowel shift, yet still holds on to dropping the ‘t’s, so mountains becomes ‘moun’uns’.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestColorado slang here.

28th. Virginia Piedmont

This accent dropped on the sexy scale this year. Do the words “four dogs” become “fo-uh dah-awgs” when you speak? Do you say “ote” for “out” or “abote” for “about”? If yes, then we’re happy say you have an officially semi-sexy Virginian accent.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestVirginia slang here.

27th. Kansas

You can forget about the myth that says people from Kansas don’t have an accent. Kansas City is in the Midland speech area, while a new accent has emerged in the town of Liberal, where people now speak with a Latin American Spanish tone – even if they’re native English speakers.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestKansas slang here.

26th. Connecticut

In between New York City and Boston, the Connecticut accent has been influenced by both yet is much, much subtler. There’s a lot of ‘o’s that sound like ‘u’s, and the ‘t’ is often dropped completely in words.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestConnecticut slang here.

25th. Charleston

Typical of older Southern U.S. English, the Charleston accent is lyrical and low, but is likely dying out in younger generations. Old Charleston charmers will say “hoose” instead of house and “stey-it” for state.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestSouth Carolina slang here.

24th. Ozark

We’re going to say that everyone bingewatching Netflix during lockdown has a lot to account for the surge in votes for this accent.

Spoken in the Ozark Mountain region of northwestern Arkansas and southeastern Missouri, the vowels are shifted all over the place. Calm becomes ‘cam’ and share becomes ‘sheer’. And yes, Ferners (anyone not from the Ozarks) might have trouble understanding it.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestArkansas slang here.

23rd. General American

This standard American accent is what you’re most likely to hear on the radio or TV, where it’s near impossible to tell where the newscasters are from. It’s slightly boring, but nicely inoffensive to the ears. Listen to Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to hear a prime example.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestgeneral American slang here.

22nd. New Mexican

This lovely type of Spanglish has unique expressions that you won’t hear outside of New Mexico, such as ‘The Fe’ for Santa Fe and a liberal use of ‘Eeeeeeee’ in the middle of sentences.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestNew Mexican slang here.

21st. Atlanta

The Atlanta accent has done pretty well in our 2020 poll of the sexiest accents in the USA. A true Atlanta accent is musical, with dropped ‘r’s. Can’t quite picture it? Opportunity sounds like ‘opp-ah-tunity’ and whatever is spoken like ‘what-eh-vah’.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestAtlanta slang here.

20th. Baltimorese

Similar to Philly speak (but according to our survey for 2020, not as sexy), Baltimore residents will commonly pronounce mirror as “mere” and water as “wooder”. The key feature of the Baltimore accent is identified by a sound change called “fronting back vowels”, where words like goose sound more like “gewse”.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestBaltimore slang here.

19th. Tennesseean

If you call a window a ‘winder’ and your hometown your ‘stompin’ grounds’, congratulations! You have a sexy Tennessee accent. Words like goose become shorter, sounding more like ‘gus’. Our readers think this accent is even sexier this year, moving up one place in the rankings.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestTennessee slang here.

18th. Cajun

New Orleans’ Cajun English is most strongly influenced by Cajun French, and is experiencing a revival as younger people want to celebrate their heritage. A ‘th’ sounds like a ‘d’, and you’ll hear lots of slang French loanwords. “Allons” = “Let’s go!”

17th. Midwestern

Still proving popular among the sexiest accents in the USA! The 12 states that make up the Midwest have some of their own unique accents, but generally speaking the Midwestern accent in say, Iowa and Nebraska, is subtle and sweet. The words Mary, marry, and merry all rhyme with each other.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestIowa slang here.

16th. Yooper

‘Yoopernese’ dropped slightly in the rankings this year; it’s the dialect you’ll hear in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The accent is heavily influenced by the area’s Scandinavian immigrants, so they say ‘yah’ instead of yeah, “d” for “th” (“dere” for there, “dat” for “that”) and ‘eh’ at the end of most sentences.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestMichigan slang here.

15th. St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri has some unique features of its own that make it different than the rest of the Midlands. Native speakers swap the ”ar” sound for “or” (as in “farty” for “forty” and “carn” for “corn”), so get ready to make the joke ‘I Farty-Far’ a lot.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestMissouri slang here.

14th. Chicano

The dialect of many Mexican Americans from Texas to California, Chicano is so much more than “just a Spanish accent.” Most common in East L.A, Chicano English uses Spanish words mixed into English sentences and the same sexy lilt.

13th. Hawaiian

Hawaiian is a Polynesian language, so its slow vowels and elongated words that together sound so relaxing you’ll never want to stop listening. America’s only official bilingual state, native speakers mix Pidgin and English, so the “r”s are generally dropped.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestHawaiian slang here.

12th. Mississippi

A classic ‘Deep South’ accent, when Mississippians say “e”, they make it sound more like “uhay”.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestMississippi slang here.

11th. Miami

A relatively new young accent, the Miami accent has the same sexy rhythm as Spanish with Cuban loanwords thrown in for good measure. The word “salmon” in Miami is pronounced with the L: “sall-mon.” Long may it last.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestMiami slang here.

10th. Kentucky

Kentucky accents vary all over the state, but it’s a southern beaut – y’all living here apparently have a smooth drawl and long vowels that sounds like a mix of Midwestern and Southern tones. This accent proved to be very popular this year, moving up from 26th in 2019!

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestKentucky slang here.

9th. Northwestern

The hard-to-pin-down Northwestern accent is found in Oregon and Washington has features of the Canadian/California Vowel Shift. The letter “e” in words like egg sounds more like ‘ay’, so don’t be confused if you hear someone ordering avo and “ayggs” for their breakfast.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestOregon slang here.

8th. Mainer

The Maine accent is surprisingly popular, ayuh! If you’re a real “Mainah”, you’ll drop your ‘r’s, go to “yoger” class instead of yoga and add in wicked to make every adjective extra powerful.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestMaine slang here.

7th. Philadelphia

One of the world’s most unique dialects is in the Delaware Valley – the infamous Philly talk. The words “fight” and “bike” sound more like “foit” and “boik,” while “very” becomes “vurry”. It’s a thick accent, but hey, if it’s good enough for Will Smith…

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestPhiladelphia slang here.

6th. Californian

The typical Californian accents sounds similar to General American, meaning to American ears it isn’t an accent at all. But we’re here to tell you that it is. Vowels are super long, so yep, dude really does become ‘duuuuuude’. But it sounds hella sexay.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestCalifornian slang here.

5th. Chicago

Where to begin? Some hate it, but turns out a LOT love it. Words like “but” and “cut” sound a bit more like “bought” and “caught”, and you’re not “looking at a picture”, you’re “lookin’ atta pitcher.”

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestChicago slang here.

4th. Alabama

Shooting up 13 spots in the ranks this year is the Alabama accent. It is strongly rhotic, with extra ‘r’s added to words that don’t need them – like “warsh” instead of wash. A slow drawl, plenty of “y’all’s and dropping the ‘ng’ at the end of words.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestAlabama slang here.

3rd. Bostonian

One of America’s most imitated and parodied accents, Boston almost comes out on top of the country’s sexiest accents. And yes, just like Mahhhhk Wahlberg, locals really do say “pahk yuh cahr in hahvuhd yahd”.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestBoston slang here.

2nd. New York

New York pipped Boston to 2nd place this year! The New York accent is probably one of the most recognisable dialects in all of America, thanks to many a famous movie. NYC speakers have loooong vowels and short ‘a’s. Fast and hypernasal, yet quite charming at times.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestNew York slang here.

1st. Texan

Who can resist a slow, Texan drawl? Not us, and not our community, clearly, as this is the second year in a row that Texan came out on top! The typical Texan accent is a “Southern accent with a twist”, with strong ‘r’s and plenty of ‘Howdy’s’. America’s sexiest accent? We’d have to agree.

Want to speak like a local? Check out the bestTexan slang here.

Bob Delmont

About Bob Delmont