Sociolinguist Peter Trudgill suggested that dialects in England could be separated using the following sentence: “Very few cars made it up the long hill”, resulting in 16 different groups as shown. While contested as an accurate classification particularly noting the lack of consideration for the trap-bath split, the table below highlights just some of the differences in pronunciation by region. To hear some examples of “Very few cars..” see here.

The most notable vowel splits in England are the trap-bath split and the foot-strut split. As the name suggests, the “Trap-Bath” split indicates whether the vowel sounds in affected words such as “trap” and “bath” are pronounced similarly or distinctly. Generally, in the Northern regions, these are pronounced the same (with a short a). However, in the South some words may be pronounced with an /ɑː/ and others with /æ/. Similarly, the foot-strut split indicates whether the vowels /ʊ/ and /ʌ/ are differentiated.

Rhoticity describes how the consonant “r” is pronounced when it is after vowels that are not followed by other vowels. Most of England exhibits non-rhotic pronunciation; that is, the “r” sound is not pronounced when located before another consonant or at the end of a word. Additionally, in the East Midlands, the preceding vowel may be drawn out instead. Rhotic dialects are mainly found in the West Country but are disappearing today.

H- dropping, so that “harm” sounds the same as “arm”, is also widespread throughout much of England. However, this is not as common in the Northeast or East Anglia.

Various dialects throughout England replace consonants with a glottal stop. In the Northeast, t, d, and k are frequently replaced, while in East Anglia, p and k are the consonants most likely to be replaced. This feature is also quite common in working-class dialects such as Cockney.

Ng- coalescence describes whether the “g” in words such as “fang” and “sing” is pronounced or removed. It is most common throughout England for the nasal quality of “ng” to remain while the “g” is silent. However, the “g” may still be pronounced in some areas such as the West and East Midlands. Conversely, in both the Cockney and Yorkshire pronunciations the “g” is dropped but the nasal quality is not expressed (pronounced [n]).