Does English sound nice to you? Is it nice to speak?

I write a lot of poetry in English, and I often pay attention to the way words sound. I think English can sound quite beautiful if you're careful about the words you use. But it can also sound very harsh. That's the upside to a language that is constantly hungry for new loanwords: the same idea can be reworded in a variety of ways with very different sounds.

When you listen to a foreign language, you can't understand what it's saying, so instead, you focus on how it sounds. This is why you notice the sound of English much less, since whenever you hear it, you're listening for the meaning of the words. Before I learned French, I also thought it sounded beautiful. Now it barely notice it.

I love English, I wish I can speak like a native one day.

By the way, I don't personally think english sounds that good in songs

I do like hearing it, spoken and sung. That said, I've heard English language opera, and I don't think that works at all.

Depends. There's a shit ton of accents in British English. Some sound better, more soft, and some sound quite harsh. I find the Yorkshire accent quite pleasant, while some people do not. Matter of taste, I think. I do think that British accents sound a bit nicer to me than American ones. A lot more unique. When it comes to songs, I love the Irish accent.

I think it sounds boring compared to some other languages, but that’s because I’ve spoken it my entire life. I think well-written English literature sounds really nice though

I’m completely bilingual English/French and english is ugly as hell.

I feel that english does not have the depth in culture like other languages thus it can sound simple. However the fact it's simple is a double edged sword, though it's simple and boring it is spoken by so many and in some countries speaking English equals class so psychologically it's a superior language. Apart from this, there are so many good singers whom I really like and some classics such as Corinne. This kind of vibe and feeling is not available in my language so i listen to variety of songs depending on my mood where english songs do have a place.

It just sounds normal to us

I have realized that English sounds (and works) just like music to me.

I'm Japanese and yes, english sounds so satisfying compared to Japanese

Every language has its own aesthetics, and (like all aesthetics) the differences are very subjective. French is often described as beautiful and German is often described as harsh, but to me (and I love both languages) they actually sound very similar; the differences are more in the spelling than the actual sounds. A great deal depends (as others have noticed) on associations. One my grammar school teachers felt that “cellar door” was the most beautiful word/phrase in the English language that she had ever heard. Of course the meaning is quotidian at best. One of the things I love about English is its Velcro-like tendency to appropriate wide-ranging vocabulary from other languages, which gives it an enormous range of sound and meaning.

Watch "A Fish Called Wanda" when John Cleese goes through a bunch of languages. Most native English speakers think French is the sexy language. Most native French speakers think English is the language of business. 

For me, some words are really nice, maybe because they sound nice. Or have good connotations. Like soliloquy.. I think English is pretty nice and there are a lot of nice sounds. Maybe flow and rhythm wise it’s less smooth than something like French or Spanish. It’s really subjective and could be biased, since English probably seems mundane when you’ve been speaking it your whole life, compared to an exotic new language.

[For your enjoyment. ](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u8KYh87fWVc)

Romance languages sound way cooler IMO, but I prefer the sound of English over more aggressive sounding languages like German and Russian

Depends. I have friends in Southern US, their English is beautiful. (Character matters, yes) I feel like some English sounds are so hard for my ear. I'm Japanese and some people say they love how Japanese sounds, but there are lots of dialects in Japan.

Yes, event with accents!

Depends on the dialect! I really like the British dialect from England. It sounds polite and distinguished. I don't know which specifically (definitely not the Harry Kane Tottenham dialect though haha)

I'm a native speaker so like you, I don't think much of it, but I do get the impression that lots of non-natives do like the sound of English. I interact with Japanese people the most; English is seen as a very 'cool' language.

As a native speaker, I've wondered that too. I love the richness and flexibility of English - as a writer, English is an amazing tool. I can't "hear" the music of English, but I've asked many Serbs, and they consistently tell me that they think English is an extremely beautiful language. They also generally prefer an American accent to British, which surprises me - like most Americans, I'm a sucker for British or Australian accents. On the flip side, I find Serbian very beautiful, but native speakers don't hear it. I think it's hard to step back from a native language far enough to get a sense of the music of the language.

I think novelty is always what makes things more beautiful to us as humans. Once you get used to it, it loses something without us realising. (Or maybe that's my adhd brain speaking) Whenever i hear a new word or something in a new dialect it's always more interesting, until it becomes part of my regular reportoir. (I've been learning English since I was like 9 years old. So i don't remember a time where I didn't constantly hear it) But I remember hearing Norwegian for the first time (mid 20s). I honestly had to laugh quite a bit because of the way it sounded to my ears. Then I started learning it and now it just sounds normal

not really honestly, imo it doesn’t “flow” very well, but i like some accents more than others. i think the r sound in particular doesn’t sound very nice.

I’m German and I appreciate the simplicity and pragmatic nature of the English language. Germanic roots make it easier for me to learn new languages in general (English, French and Spanish in school/university) and I always loved how interconnected everything is … but I think you can’t really judge its sound, considering how many “types” of English there are, for instance British, American, Canadian, Australian, Irish.. with many different dialects on top of it. Like people from the Southern states vs Wales vs the Yiddish influence on how Jews speak (also pretty similar to German btw) or how most African-Americans speak and so on. Oh and as a teen, I listened to music from the spice girls, Britney, JLo, Destiny’s child, 50 cent etc and I never thought much about what they are actually saying. It was more like a melody with a text that I memorized and obv I liked the sound of it. But I also like when Americans speak German. It’s not about it sounding beautiful (sounds pretty weird actually) — it’s about the effort. And people keep saying how rough German sounds which is not at all how I perceive it. It does sound rough when a foreigner speaks in German but with natives it’s like a soft melody to me, whereas Russian sounds extremely hard to me, regardless of who speaks it.. just adding this to say how it’s all subjective :)

I am Italian and like how English sounds. In songs, even though it's not always easy to understand, the sound is even better because of the length of the syllables (short) compared to Romance languages. This makes it more enjoyable to me but also sometimes hard to understand because short syllables often mean they are pronounced quickly and somehow different compared to how they would be pronounced in normal speech. In general I prefer northeast American accent but also RP English is very nice (Thinking about David Attenborough, for example). I also like Irish accent a lot. What I like less is accents from Scotland, North of England (Leeds) os southern American. Of course it's just a matter of preferences, no offence to them.

My pet peeve is when native English speakers disparage the language...go read some Shakespeare and tell me English is ugly!!! Maya Angelou once said she would read the King James Bible just to immerse herself in the beauty of the English language :)

I love that English has (like many other languages too) such a huge variety of dialects and accent, all with their own language histories and literatures. Plus, I also speak French and German so I appreciate its Germanic roots and later French influences. I know it's common to complain about the absurdity of English's lack of consistency of written words and their sounds, but that makes English unique, and great.

American English, not always, but sometimes it is annoying and sounds vulgar to me, especially when it uses a lot of very open vowels, if it is spoken nasally or without pausing between words as often happens in radio programs where they seem to be terrified of leaving a second of silence between sentences. Furthermore, many people often insert a lot of useless stammering or phrases of no value into their language just to buy time while the brain formulates the sentence... all so as not to leave that half second of silence...

Native speaker. I do love English, more for its suppleness and richness than for the sound. Shakespeare and Dickens are my favorites.

american English yes British definitely not

The more foreign languages I learn, the weirder English sounds to me. Compared to many other languages, we just have far too many vowel sounds and the spelling is so inconsistent when you’ve learned more phonetically-spelt languages. But, at the end of the day, it’s a language that’s made up of Latinate and Germanic words among others, it’s an odd combination.

Can you help me to learn American or British accent?

Sound nice? Not really, sounds default to me. Of course some people speak with more eloquence than others.

I absolutely love how English sounds and I love speaking English too. That's why in high school I used to speak English by myself which helped me to be in the same grade with my friend who took courses while I did not. Though right now I'm grappled with programming, my job and other stuff about life that led my english to go blunt. I'm still in love with English as the first time I heard when I was 4th grade. When I'm done with tackling with other sfuff I'll get back to english and take a professional course to learn more about this language. And from there I might learn Russian, Japanese or even Spanish. I like knowing different languages and being able to communicate with people around the world.

Absolutely! Some people like their own, like degrading it, I don't! It sounds elegant and proper, and it's able to incorporate foreign loan words/ phrases as well, too.

English can be a beautiful language when spoken with eloquence, as evidenced by the works of Shakespeare. However, in my view, it is not the most suitable language for music. While there are undoubtedly many excellent songs in English, the language itself lacks the melodic quality found in Spanish. As a result, I find myself enjoying Spanish music more overall. I also sympathize with those who are monolingual in English, as they may be limited in their ability to appreciate the lyrical richness of songs in other languages.

I love English. I’m always so glad it’s my native tongue. I like the way it sounds. And I like how it can change and evolve and steal from other languages when it feels it’s lacking something.

https://youtu.be/wJ7E93bzCcs?si=z2D9pk92VZqcRkOd That's literally how it sounds to me when I don't understand or didn't open subtitles

I am a Pacific Northwest English dialect native speaker, and when I lived in Japan, my Japanese coworkers said it sounded like I was singing my words when I spoke English. However, they were also huge fans of [Oregon Kara Ai](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818925/), and knew I was from Oregon, so that may have colored their perception.

As a native speaker I don’t hear English the way I hear other languages. My brain immediately takes what I hear and paints an image in my mind and that’s where my focus goes. The only thing about speaking in English that I actively hear is the sound of the voice speaking. With other languages, including the other language I speak at a B2 level, I hear the words, my brain processes it as words first then as images and so I get to experience the sound of the words more wholly. Sometimes I try to follow that same path with English but it’s hard to get off that autopilot.

I love English and love how it sounds.

No.. not much difference. I can understand songs in Dutch, English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Korean. But they all sound beautiful to me. It's more whether or not I can identity with the lyrics. By the way, I am absolutely not fluent in *all* these languages, but when I have read the lyrics, I can remember what it means.

Man, you need to listen Bossa Nova, you gonna love it. It is from Brazil 🇧🇷

How it sounds to you depends mostly on your exposure and experiences. Here's an example: Many years ago, a man told me he felt "barf" was a beautiful word that rolled off the tongue, like silk on your skin. He, of course, was Persian, and in his native language, "barf" means snow, and so this sound was associated with soft white fluffy precipitation...