South Shields, England
The South Shields Accent
South Shields sits inside the Geordie dialect area, which covers Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and Tyneside, England. The nearest other area is Wearside and Durham, about 4km away.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in South Shields sound like
- Distinctive “goat” vowel — “home” closer to “hyem” in broad speech.
- Glottal reinforcement of T, P and K between vowels.
- “Us” for “me”, and “youse” for a group.
- A rising, musical intonation at the end of statements.
These are the markers of the Geordie accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in South Shields has all of them — the full Geordie profile sets out where the region varies.
South Shields against Teesside
South Shields is close enough to the Teesside area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | South Shields | Teesside |
|---|---|---|
| In relaxed speech, do you pronounce the H at the start of “house”? | the H in “house” is pronounced | “house” sounds like “ouse”, without the H |
Dialect areas near South Shields
Is your accent from South Shields?
There is no way to answer that from a description. The test asks 29 questions about the words you use and how you say them, scores your answers against the Geordie / Tyneside English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.