Torquay, England
The Torquay Accent
Torquay sits inside the West Country dialect area, which covers Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire, England. The nearest other area is Cornish, about 36km away.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Torquay sound like
- A strong, curled R after vowels — “farmer” keeps both of its Rs.
- S sounds can be voiced at the start of words in older speech: “Somerset” as “Zomerset”.
- “I be” and “thee/thy” survive in traditional rural speech.
- Long, drawn-out vowels and an unhurried rhythm.
These are the markers of the West Country accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Torquay has all of them — the full West Country profile sets out where the region varies.
Torquay against South Wales
Torquay is close enough to the South Wales area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | Torquay | South Wales |
|---|---|---|
| When you say “car” by itself, do you pronounce an R sound at the end? | the R at the end of “car” is pronounced | “car” ends in a vowel, with no R sound |
| Say “day” slowly, holding the vowel for a couple of seconds. Does the vowel move while you hold it, or stay in one place? | “day” ends on a slight “ee” — day-ee | “day” is one flat sound — deh |
| Say “go” slowly, holding the vowel for a couple of seconds. Does the vowel move while you hold it, or stay in one place? | “go” ends on a slight “oo” — go-oo | “go” is one flat sound — gaw |
Dialect areas near Torquay
Is your accent from Torquay?
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 West Country English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.