Washington, England
The Washington Accent
Washington sits inside the Wearside and Durham dialect area, which covers Sunderland, Durham and the Durham coalfield, England. The nearest other area is Geordie, about 0km away.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Washington sound like
- “Mak” and “tak” for “make” and “take” — the classic Mackem–Geordie split.
- “Marra” for a workmate, shared with Cumbria across the Pennines.
- “Charver” for a lad, and “howay” shared with Tyneside.
- H is kept more often than in Teesside to the south.
These are the markers of the Wearside and Durham accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Washington has all of them — the full Wearside and Durham profile sets out where the region varies.
Dialect areas near Washington
Is your accent from Washington?
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 Wearside and Durham English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.