How to Do a Geordie Accent

The Geordie accent (properly called Tyneside English) is so closely associated with Newcastle upon Tyne that the remaining Tyneside area is often forgotten. Everyone from North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead, and Newcastle is considered a Geordie and speaks with a Geordie accent, although the term is sometimes also applied to Northumberland and County Durham.

Geordie’s speech patterns and sounds may seem foreign even to other English speakers, so let’s start with its key features. 

As Morse-Kopp notes, you must “build your instinct of what sounds you need to use and which sounds you should stay away from.” Corner agrees: “If you can hear the difference, you can learn to make the difference.”

“Er” to “ah”

Words ending with an “er” sound often seem to end with an “ah” sound. 

• “Brother” becomes “broth-ah”
• “Slaughter” becomes “slaught-ah” 

A to “e-uh” 

The way RP English pronounces the A in words such as “ate” and “lane” sometimes splits into two sounds as “e-uh.”

• “Lane” becomes “le-uhne” 
• “Ate” becomes “eu-ate” 

Shorter “ah”

Typical of Northern English accents, Geordie uses shorter, more emphatic “ah” sounds than southern accents. 

• “Bath” may be pronounced “barth” in RP English, but “baff” in Geordie 
• “Laugh” may be pronounced “larph” in RP English but “laff” in Geordie

“Ow” to “oo”

RP English’s “ow” sounds in words such as “crown” and “down” are turned into “oo” sounds. 

• “Crown” becomes “croon”
• “Down” becomes “doon” 

Famously, the centre of Newcastle is affectionately dubbed “toon” rather than “town.” 

“Ea” to “i”

The sound RP English uses for the “ea” in words such as “head” turns into more of an “i” or “ee” sound in Geordie. 

• “Head” becomes “heed” 
• “Bed” becomes “bid” 

“Ing” to “en”

The “ing” sound that ends words can be replaced with “en.” 

• “Talking” becomes “talk-en”
• “Singing” becomes “sing-en”

Glottal stops 

Raise your tongue toward the back of your mouth while speaking to stop airflow, and then release it. That’s a glottal stop. You produce it twice when pronouncing “uh-oh.” Geordie often replaces “t” sounds with a glottal stop. 

• “Notice” becomes “no-ice” 
• “Water” becomes “wa-er”

1. Master the rhythm.

Actors tackling a Geordie accent are winning only half the battle by concentrating on pronunciation. It’s an accent defined as much by rhythm as individual sounds. 

“Geordie has a musicality and lilt that makes it very distinctive,” Corner says. “One tip is to lean into the melody. It tends to rise at the end of phrases. Learning a short phrase (I call them “hooklines”) or monologue in the target accent and repeating it daily is a great way to train your muscle memory.”

2. Balance clarity with authenticity.

Geordie can be tough to understand for those who don’t speak it, so bear in mind a tightrope must be walked between authenticity and clarity. 

Helen Mirren faced that test while using a Geordie Newcastle accent for The Duke. “The accent is a challenge,” she told Metro. “Newcastle is not easy.… You’ve got to do it well enough that it’s believable. But you can’t go all the way because the audience have to really get what you’re saying.”

3. Don’t forget the dialect.

“For Geordie, it’s important to learn some of the dialect as well as the sounds of the accent,” Morse-Kopp says. “Become familiar with words like ‘canny’ (good), ‘bairn’ (child), and ‘divvent (don’t).” 

More common Geordie words and phrases include: 

• Aye (yes)
• Gan/Gannin (go/going) 
• Propa (very)
• Reet (right)
• Nowt (nothing)
• Areet, pet? (how are you?) 
• Giz a deek? (give me a look)
• Howay (ha-way) man (multiple meanings depending on context, but usually “hurry up” or “get off it”)
• Wey aye (why-eye) man (excitedly saying “yes, of course”)

4. Consider the character.

Geordie is changing as Tyneside becomes less isolated. “People are leaving,” dialect expert Joan Beal told the BBC. “Others are arriving and we’re mixing more and more. There’s a levelling – the more extreme features are being levelled out.”

That’s all to say: Actors must consider how period, class, and age impact an accent. A young professional and an older working-class man may both have a Newcastle Geordie accent, but they won’t sound identical. 

“Language is inherently linked to culture, and the way a person speaks can be a big part of their identity,” Morse-Kopp says. “It’s not just the sounds of an accent but also what words they use and the rhythm of their speech that are unique to a person’s background.”

5. Start by exaggerating.

As natural as your accent should become, starting big and then toning things down once you get the hang of it is typically a good way to explore its cadences. “We really work our mouths when we’re speaking,” actress Holly Matthews says of her Geordie accent. “When you’re doing this accent, you’re going to really overdo it at first.” 

“One of the most common mistakes is being too timid,” Corner says. “People hold back out of fear of getting it wrong, and that tension actually makes the accent sound forced. I always encourage students to go bold in rehearsal. ‘Strong and wrong’ is always being shouted out in my studios!” 

6. Keep tabs on good examples of a Geordie accent.

Listening to and imitating genuine Geordies will be a central part of learning how to vocalise the accent yourself. Some actors, such as accent queen Jodie Comer, use celebrities – she reportedly prepped her Geordie accent for “28 Years Later” (2025) by watching clips of Cheryl on The X Factor.

Morse-Kopp recommends using the International Dialects of English Archive. “It contains about 1,700 audio samples for native speakers of all sorts of accents, complete with detailed information about their background,” she says. 

“It’s about consistent practice, patience, listening closely, and giving yourself permission to sound silly in the beginning,” Corner says. “Record yourself, compare it with native speakers, and don’t be afraid to exaggerate at first. Confidence grows with practice!”