England has a wide range of regional accents. The two cities in the North West of England – Liverpool and Manchester, are 34 miles away from each other. Liverpool is on the West coast of England and Manchester is a short drive away. These two cities have many connections, the railway line between them was the first passenger railway line in the world. The Manchester Ship Canal also links them. These transport routes were developed during the Industrial Revolution when goods were transported between the two cities. I was brought up in a town halfway between these two cities. Both of these regional accents are very familiar to me.
The cities have a history of friendly rivalry between them. Both of these cities have two football teams Liverpool FC and Everton FC have their homes in the city of Liverpool. Whilst the city of Manchester has Manchester City FC and Manchester United. This week has been a very stressful one for football fans in these two cities. But this post is not about football, It’s about the English accents in this area of England.
The Liverpool Scouse Accent
Listen to this short video which is a Liverpool fan talking at the end of the match. To get the most value out of this exercise follow the instructions below.
Listen to the whole clip twice. Do NOT look at the transcript.
Now listen to the first ten seconds. Listen again, write down what words you can hear. Listen multiple times and write down the words you can hear.
Now move on to the next 10 seconds. Listen multiple times and write down the words you can hear.
If this is very difficult only work on the first 30 seconds.
When you have listened to as much as you can, listening multiple times and writing down the words you can hear, then you can look at the transcript. Listen again and read the transcript at the same time.
Let me know which parts were the most difficult. Did he pronounce any words in ways that surprised you?
pause the video and write down the words you can hear. It is difficult, there is background noise in the stadium.
Work on the first 30 seconds, Write down what words you can hear. Repeat the first 30 seconds 5 times and try and hear the words.
There you go, Liverpool have won by two goals to nil against Wolves in the final game of the Premier League season. It”s been an emotional rollercoaster of a ridefor Liverpool fans this season. It’s been an incredible season err and we will not forget it….errr Ultimately Manchester City go out and win by four goals to one today but this Liverpool side we’ve got something to be proud of, this Liverpool side don’t know when they are beaten, these Liverpool fans who are all stood around me here…we know that we’re on to something special here. We’ve got Jürgen Klopp in charge, we’re about to witness the team walking around doing their lap of honour and it’s something that I’m looking forward to… it’s something I want to show my appreciation for what they’ve done so far this season, this Liverpool side from the manager down to every single player in the side, everyone of them has done their bit this season. It’s been an incredible season. Ultimately we got ninety seven points and we didn’t win the league and Manchester City we should shake their hands and say You know what, I’ve watched this Liverpool side all season and I didn’t know there was a better side out there in the country and there apparently was. Manchester City get ninety eight points and win the Premier League it’s an incredible achievement by them. A hundred and ninety eight points in the last two seasons. But what this Liverpool side have done, this Liverpool side have given this fan base belief, this Liverpool side have given me belief and they’ve given everybody that I’m stood near belief. And we’re going to go on to madrid and we’re going to fight for something bigger. We’re going to fight for the European Cup and it’s going to be an incredible journey. As far as the game goes tonight we did what we needed to do we put a little bit of pressure on Manchester City. The atmosphere was incredible when we got started and when Brighton scored it went up a notch and when Manchester City scored it went down and I’m not sure it ever really recovered from that until the end when we knew that it was done, when we knew that all we were here to do was to cheer on our team for a victory today. And well as soon as that happened the atmosphere went back up to where it can be. This Liverpool side we can be proud of them. You can be proud of them if you’re watching from home, if you’re watching at Anfield you can be proud of what these lads have done this season. And it’s not the end, we’ve got a European Cup to go and fight for in Madrid against Tottenham Hotspur and I’ll tell you what…. I can’t fucking wait!
In Part Two of this post I will look at the Liverpool accent in more detail.
The Manchester Manc Accent
So whilst Liverpool fans had mixed emotions as they won their match but only came second in the Premier League, over in Manchester the fans were celebrating in typical English football fan ways. Some parts are impossible to hear and I can not hear the words either.
To get the most value out of this exercise follow the instructions below.
Listen to the whole clip twice. Do NOT look at the transcript.
Now listen to the first ten seconds. Listen again, write down what words you can hear. Listen multiple times and write down the words you can hear.
Now move on to the next 10 seconds. Listen multiple times and write down the words you can hear.
If this is very difficult only work on the first 30 seconds.
When you have listened to as much as you can, listening multiple times and writing down the words you can hear, then you can look at the transcript. Listen again and read the transcript at the same time.
Let me know which parts were the most difficult. Did they pronounce any words in ways that surprised you?
Pause the video and write down the words you can hear. It is difficult, there is a lot of background noise outside the stadium.
Work on the first 30 seconds, Write down what words you can hear. Repeat the first 30 seconds 5 times and try and hear the words.
City! City! City! City! City! …………
…No..No problem, we knew we were going to do it Definitely knew it, full confidence in the team, brilliant season, one more trophy to come..
…Yes, we are champions again…but very nervy coming to this last match, it could have gone either way…but city are the champions again….
…when the first goal went in but after that….champions took control………………
..Absolutely fantastic…….best feeling in the world….Championes …..especially when we went one nil down….
…brilliant….absolutely brilliant….
….Brilliant, twice on the trot….Scousers can’t beat us, they can’t touch us, we’re City… Never, City all the way in’it?
In Part Two of this post I will look at the features of the Manchester accent in more detail.
So let me know which accent you find the most difficult to understand. Let me know if any words sound different to how you expect them to sound.
Do you want more clips like this with transcripts?
Leave me a message in the comments.
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The guys wearing red and black t-shirts are the hardest to figure out.
can you tell me how many minutes and seconds into the video this is so I can have a look?
Hi Hellen,
The idea of this lesson is to get to know the Liverpool and Manchester accents or just to practice so that we “copy” the accent? I’m asking because you suggest some writing and repetition exercises? I’m not complaining, just asking for clarification, ok? 🙂
Yes, I’d like more activities like that with transcriptions. I’ll be even using this one with one of my student’s class who are huge football fans!
Thank you!
This is a listening exercise – a dictation – the point being to listen in detail to very short sections and to write out exactly what words you can hear. Listen multiple times before looking at the transcript.
Then you can look at the transcript and read and listen at the same time. Look at what you have written down and notice which words you did not hear. Now try to work out why you did not hear them. What types of words are they? Is it new vocabulary? Or are the words you can not hear the small grammatical words that you do know? Did they sound different to how you expected? Where they linked with connected speech to the other words in the sentence?
Try this with the first minute and let me know which words you did not hear.