Question about accents

I was in just this position. Born in the US and moved to Europe at age 4. Bounced around until about age 22. I lived in the UK when I was around 6 years old and picked up the grammar and some of the pronunciation (but not the accent unless I want to use it) since I always lived in a community of other US English speakers. Frankly, it played merry hell when I came back to the US for a bit and found myself being constantly corrected for my unusual grammar spoken with an American accent.

I spent the longest time in (about 12 years total) Germany and definitely do NOT speak with a German accent.

The truth is that your character would probably speak English with an American accent, but if they spoke the language wherever they lived they would likely pick up some of the speech patterns. I still display a few of them absent-mindedly even 40 years after moving back to the States. This can be very subtle and difficult to write. Most Americans might not “get it” and would simply see it as poor English grammar.

/r/writing Thread