If you ask me, I think its a pretty convincing accent. When I first started watching the show I didn't even know he was british.

And for the jibe at our british attempts, I believe I have a pretty good accent, and from what I've seen on youtube, you brits aren't all that perfect with our accent either. No hard feelings though.

I agree with cocacola. I thought he was American when I first started watching the show. When I saw an interview with him I was extremely surprised that he was British.

I have to say, America has many different accents, but for the area that Hugh's character lives he does a almost flawless job at performing an American accent, I already knew he was British but I still admire him for having done the accent so well. I applaude you Hugh! And many Americans who didn't know he was British were amazed to find out he was. As for other British people trying to do it they mess it up usually but again I applaude you Hugh! You do and amazing and almost flawless job.

I apologise and didn't mean my comment to be a jibe, cocacola. As house_whatelse says, the US has many different accents, as does the UK.

There are several american actors whom I admire for their very believable british accents, among them Renee Zellwegger in the Bridget Jones movies, and also the Beatrix Potter one.

As I said, for me Hugh does a great job at his american accent, I just wanted to know if it was as convincing to you guys.

To get into dialects, would you say he has a New Jersey/Pennsylvania accent or is it more of a "generic american" accent?

well, I don't know!!!I'm not even american, english or australian !!lol

His American is great..I didn't know he was British at first either !

Hugh carries a generic american accent as most northern cities would have (all sourthern people tend to say that northerners talk fast and blend our words) Hugh would fit in any town in the northern US though. New Jersey and Pennsylvania for me tend to not have accents (the "northerner accent") being an original 13 northern colony. I could really go into dialects a lot Britfan since I'm at school I have to be brief let me know if you want a more detailed answer I can elaborate on it when I'm home.

With lots of you not knowing that he was british at first, perhaps you are also unaware that he made his name as a comedian?

He first came to the fore in Blackadder with Rowan Atkinson, having had his grounding in comedy in the famous Cambridge Footlights Revue then teaming up with his great friend Stephen Fry, appeared in the comedy drama tv series Jeeves and Wooster (playing Wooster to Fry's Jeeves). Their breakthrough really came with their comedy sketch series - A Bit of Fry and Laurie. Hugh then went on to make several films and became known to Hollywood.

Apologies if you already know this, but I thought I'd give a bit of background. :-)

Your response interests me, House_whatelse, as I lived in Seattle for 4 years in the early eighties and became interested in accents and dialects across the US. While I was there, I was asked if I was Canadian, Australian, New Yorker and a Southerner, but most guessed I was British!

Thanks for the background info Britfan, me being a Hugh Laurie fan I knew somewhat about the comedian and I've seen A Bit of Fry and Laurie but I didn't know for sure if his other Britian TV shows were also comedies or not. Anyway I have to go, will explain later the dialect better, have to go. See you guys.

Okay, sorry went away for the weekend. Anyway here is what I think. Some of the people in America are idiots and a lot are. I also think you have 6 regions of accents in the US. First you break the US in half the northern and the southern. The south has a twang and draws out the words pronouncing every single letter where the north blends the word together and talk fast compared to the south. Then you split the US into 3 pieces, the east, the midwest, and the west. The east doesn't pronoune their r's sometimes and doesn't slurrs them at times. The midwest kind of doesn't have a distinction and the west draws their words out as well. Now you also have your indiviual cities that have their own accent, for example New York, LA, and Chicago just to name a few. And then finally in region you have the city talkers and the country talkers. Each one different just cause of where they live. Now Hugh does a amazing job, he may sound more midwestern than eastern but these accents are so small no one notices cause like I said before America is full of idiots. With some smart people like me and of course others I fail to mention.

hahaha im from britain, so i reli have no clue whether it sounds good or not, but aparantly one of the writers said "thank god, thats what i want, i a real american man" when hugh was auditioning hahahaha so he managed to convince more than us !!!

house_whatelse, thing is that in central jersey (which is where Princeton is) People will speak with a general American accent (also reffered to as midwestern) or at least something VERY similar. Cuz I'm also from central jersey, and me and pretty much everyone I know from central jersey speaks that way. There may also be slight differences that may only be noticed if you're really overly observant, but other than that Hugh's got it down pat if you ask me.

Cocacola you are completely right, this is just over all. This is an overall statement. There are always those spots that are different. I didn't want to offend any eastern people if they thought it was different. Hugh does an amazing job and he does have a general one you are correct. And trust me I don't notice a difference in his because I am never overly observant.