We all speak with an accent. It might not feel like we do, but that’s because our own voices sound “normal” to us. But I know I have a Kiwi accent. When I worked in the UK, my accent wreaked havoc in the workplace.
To my British colleagues, “Fish and chips” sounded like “Fush and chups”.
“Hand me that pen” became “Hand me that pin”.
And don’t get me started on decks. An invitation to “have drinks on the deck” turned into “have drinks on the dick.” Not quite what I was suggesting.
You might not be consciously aware of your own accent, but you definitely notice when other people have an accent. You notice regional differences within your own country, and if you’re travelling internationally, you notice more than just accents: you notice speech patterns, too.
Naturally, you want to include conversations in your book, but how do you do that accurately and respectfully?
What can go wrong when writing accents
Accurately recreating the conversations you’ve had with the people you’ve met on your travels is super important, but you can easily run into problems.
- If your conversation partner’s English isn’t great, it’s easy to make them sound unintelligent.
- If they have a strong accent that you want to show to readers, it’s easy to make the conversation hard to read.
- If you work their language into the conversation, readers may be left scratching their heads or skipping passages they don’t understand.
Before we break down some approaches for how you can show accents and languages, let’s start with a question:
Do you want readers to focus on what your conversation partners are saying, or how they are saying it?
Knowing what you’re wanting readers to take away from the conversation will help you decide how to approach accents. Keep that in mind as we break down five different approaches to how you can show accents.
Approach 1: Use their language, idioms, and slang
If the people you spoke with mixed in words from their own language with their English, show us this.
Example
I went to the galley and found the captain eating.
“Don’t worry, mzee,” the captain said. “We will be docking soon.”
Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux, p. 250
This is a great way of showing how people really speak, and you can introduce new words and concepts to your readers.
How to work in translations
In many cases, you can trust your readers to figure out non-English words just from the context.
Example
I jumped up and ran to the villagers and extended a fistful of zaires. “Please, help us paddle out to the maswa! Please!”
They gave me a curious look and didn’t budge. “Please!” I shook the bills. “Naglingi kokende na maswa!”
Finally, the sturdiest man among them stood up and nodded assent.
Facing the Congo, by Jeffrey Tayler, p. 304
Here, Jeffrey mixes English with the local language. Even without knowing what maswa means, just from this short extract we know it’s something on the water.
When you do want to provide a translation, perhaps because the context isn’t enough for readers to figure it out on their own, you can work it into the narrative.
Example
Coughing, I explained that I had caught a cold in the desert.
‘Kafara,’ the novelist Issa said, a Sudanese expression of commiseration, the equivalent of ‘God bless you.’
Dark Star Safari, by Paul Theroux, p. 92
Bonus tip: check the spelling
Don’t rely on your spell-by-ear phonetic notes. Ask the person to spell the word. Getting the spelling right is part of being a respectful guest in someone else’s country.
Approach 2: Use established contractions and spellings
Use established contractions and non-standard spellings that reflect the way people speak. Common contractions are:
- gotta
- wanna
- I’d’ve
- yah
- yeah
- yep
- aye
- y’all
- outta
Example
“Where y’all heading there? South West Coast Path, I bet? Us too. Where y’all staying? This your first night? Us too.” An incredibly loud American voice filled the bus, from a tiny prim woman with curly brown hair and a various serious jacket with lots of really useful pockets.
The Salt Path, by Raynor Winn, p. 41
I can hear that accent, even before the description of the voice.
“She’s been back a week now. She’d gone same day you were las’ year. Knew you were coming’, told them all you were comin’, that she were bringin’ you back. It’s a sign, i’n’ it.”
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, p. 272
The contractions in this passage give us a great idea of how this person talks.
Approach 3: Say what their accent is and leave the rest to the reader
If you met an American on your travels, what accent did they have? Was it just American, or could you be more specific? Bostonian? Appalachian? LA drawl? Even if the reader doesn’t know exactly what that accent sounds like, naming it and pairing it with accurate word choice will be enough for most readers to hear the voice.
Example:
“Bugger, the car won’t start, again.”
A small, delicate woman with a strong northern accent sat down on the bench next to us.
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, p. 267.
“Oh, morning! Are we disturbing you?” The dog’s owner was a Liverpudlian. “We always come to this spot, great view. Every year, but the bloody stupid dog never remembers. What are you doing?”
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, p.189
Approach 4: Accurately reflect their word choices
Think about how your own accent and idioms affect the way you speak and write. You’ll no doubt have words that are specific to your country or culture. Same goes for the people you met on your travels.
Look through your notes and pick out the words that your conversation partners used. If they said “gumboots”, write “gumboots” in their dialogue, don’t write wellies or Wellingtons or galoshes if that’s the word you would use.
Example
“Oh, pew! Hot today, isn’t it! Well, I’m the adjutant. … Anyway, welcome to Lisala! We have reserved suites for you! Where is your gear? At the beach? Ah! Après vous!”
Facing the Congo by Jeffrey Tayler, p. 263.
Bonus tip: broken English and “good English“
Be very careful with writing broken English. Unless it’s crucial to the context, avoid writing broken English. Someone not being able to speak English fluently does not indicate a lack of intelligence, but writing broken English often gives that impression. Chances are, you don’t know their language well either. To them, you speak in broken French or Japanese or Russian. Just let the narrative show the conversation.
And you rarely need to say that someone spoke good English, either. Here’s a great quote from Priscilla Janneh Mah Belloh on how someone saying “you speak good English” comes across:
…when someone says, “Your English is good,” I hear more than the words. I hear the dog whistle of bias: that English, and by extension, intelligence and sophistication, belong to white Westerners. That I am perpetually foreign, perpetually unexpected.
Priscilla Janneh Mah Belloh, Speaking Back: What I Hear When You Say “Your English Is Good”
The whole article is fantastic. Speaking Back: What I Hear When You Say “Your English Is Good”.
Bonus tip: phonetic spelling
Have you ever tried to read Trainspotting? Big parts of it are written in Scottish English, and it can take a bit to get your head around. For travel memoir, don’t go that far! But in small doses, phonetic spelling can be effective. Spell out just one or two key words phonetically and carry on as normal. Readers will get enough of an idea of how the person speaks without getting bogged down in lines of phonetic spelling.
Approach 5: Say what language they’re speaking but write in English
In A Training School for Elephants, Sophy Roberts has a translator, Rem. Sometimes she’ll acknowledge Rem’s place within the conversation, but often she’ll let conversations play out as if the whole conversation was in English, then add detail about the translations or Rem’s involvement where it’s relevant. Her focus is on what her conversation partners are saying, not the language they are speaking.
In Dark Star Safari, Paul Theroux knows enough of a few different languages to have conversations with the people he meets, though he does hire a translator on occasion. He integrates words and phrases from those languages into his dialogue, but he also writes in English and notes what language they were speaking.
Example
“So you’re American?” one of the men said to me in Arabic, because Ramadan had tipped him off.
“Peace be upon you.”
“And peace be upon you,” he replied.
“Bush is no good,” another man said: the Arabic was simple enough.
Dark Star Safari, by Paul Theroux, p. 78
Wrapping up
So, these are five ways you can approach accents in your writing. To summarise:
- Use their language, idioms, and slang
- Use established contractions and spellings
- Say what their accent is and leave the rest to the reader
- Accurately reflect their word choices
- Say what language they’re speaking but write in English
Your choice of approach will depend on what you want readers to take away from a particular conversation or scene. If you want readers to focus on what your conversation partners were saying, then you can mention their accent and leave the reader to “hear” it as they read, or you can note the language they spoke but write in English.
If you want readers to focus on how people were speaking, then use their language, idioms, and slang, use contractions, and accurately reflect their word choices.
You’ll use one approach in one place and another somewhere else. You might mix the approaches within one scene, too. Whatever approaches you use, acknowledge the time and effort your conversation partners have made by talking with you. You’ll be doing them, and your readers, a service.
Want more help with dialogue? Check out How to punctuate dialogue next.
References
A Training School For Elephants, by Sophy Roberts, Doubleday 2025
Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown, by Paul Theroux, Penguin Books 2003
Facing the Congo, by Jeffrey Tayler, Abacus 2001
Speaking Back: What I Hear When You Say “Your English Is Good”, by Priscilla Janneh Mah Belloh, Daily Observer 7 August, 2005
The Salt Path, by Raynor Winn, Penguin 2019
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